Today at a press conference following her meeting at the AFL-CIO, Hillary Clinton once again dodged on what she believes the national minimum wage should be. [Read more…]
Category: AR PAC
July 30, 2015 by
This morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton took the “unusual” step of intervening on behalf of UBS, one of the world’s largest banks, to help it avoid scrutiny from the IRS.
In 2009, Clinton brokered a deal between the IRS, who was suing UBS AG to get the identities of Americans with secret offshore accounts, and the bank that allowed UBS to turn over less than 10% of the U.S. accounts.
In the years during and after Clinton’s assistance, UBS donations to the Clinton Foundation grew from less than $60,000 before 2009 to $600,000. Clinton’s personal financial disclosures also revealed UBS was Bill Clinton’s top source for speech income between 2001 and 2014, at $1.52 million.
Categories: AR PAC
July 30, 2015 by
Yesterday, a second political handicapper moved the Kentucky gubernatorial race towards Republicans, and started questioning Conway’s strength as a candidate. All of the coverage has started sounding a bit familiar:
- A sitting Democrat Attorney General running to succeed a Democrat Governor?
- A candidate the conventional wisdom says is strong, but is starting to trail in polls?
- A candidate who had already lost a high-profile, nationally-watched race for U.S. Senate just a few years ago?
- A candidate who wanted Obama to campaign with them for that Senate seat?
- A candidate who, last time, had a major flub while on the campaign trail?
- A candidate who is more than a little shaky on taxes?
- A liberal who has been backed by national Democrats?
Call us crazy but it sounds like Jack Conway might just be Kentucky’s Martha Coakley.
Categories: AR PAC
July 30, 2015 by
The Courier-Journal has reported that Rev. Kevin Cosby, an African American on the University of Louisville’s Board of Trustees, was replaced by Governor Beshear in June, and was succeeded by Paul Diaz, a Cuban American. The move resulted in the first U of L trustee board without an African American since 1970, stirring controversy in the Louisville community.
But that’s not all the Courier-Journal uncovered. Cosby is the only member of the 17-member board who had not donated to the Attorney General campaign of Andy Beshear, Governor Beshear’s son:
“When Gov. Steve Beshear replaced the Rev. Kevin Cosby on the University of Louisville’s Board of Trustees last month, he did more than remove his only African-American appointment on the board.
He also removed his only appointee who has not been a strong and steady contributor to Beshear’s political causes.
An analysis by The Courier-Journal shows that all of the 17 Beshear appointees on the board, or their spouses, gave to the current campaign of Andy Beshear, the governor’s son, for attorney general. All gave to Steve Beshear’s 2011 campaign for governor. All have given — many in huge amounts — to the Kentucky Democratic Party since Beshear has been governor.”
According to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, Cosby’s replacement, Paul Diaz has contributed $500 to Andy Beshear’s campaign and $4,000 to Governor Beshear from 2007-2011.
Ethics concerns had already been raised about Andy Beshear’s clients and fundraising by Democrat watchdog groups. After one of Andy Beshear’s law firm clients received millions in tax breaks from the state, Richard Beliles of Common Cause Kentucky, a liberal watchdog group, said, “it does not look good for the governor’s son to be involved in deals like this with state tax money at stake.” Beliles also raised concern about the amount of money Andy Beshear’s campaign raises from special interests, saying, “It’s hard to see how Andrew Beshear can take ‘such an egregious amount of money from special interests and then turn around and serve as the people’s lawyer.’”
Now with his father playing politics with university officials, this doesn’t bode well for Andy Beshear, who has tried distancing himself from his father, declaring on the campaign trail that he is his “own man,” and that this race is “about Andy Beshear.”
Andy Beshear hasn’t done himself any favors. Instead of being transparent and releasing a list of clients he has represented before his father’s administration, he has kept his client list closely guarded.
This raises major concerns about who Andy Beshear will represent and be indebted to as Attorney General.
Categories: AR PAC
July 30, 2015 by
Emily Cain, the failed 2014 Democratic candidate for Maine’s 2nd Congressional district, was hoping her district wouldn’t follow the nationwide trend of hosting a contested Democratic primary. Her worst fear has come true today, though, as Bangor City Councilor Joe Baldacci announced his run for the 2nd district seat.
Baldacci, whose campaign website looks like it could use some high-resolution pictures, could prove to be a huge obstacle to Cain as she seeks the Democratic nomination. Baldacci, the brother of a former Maine governor, could use his family’s name and connections to leverage Democratic resources against Cain. Cain has proven to be a lackluster fundraiser and is already tainted from her disastrous 2014 campaign.
With Democrats already struggling to unify around an effective message to reverse their historic drubbing last November, the last thing they need or want are more costly primaries in must-win congressional districts.
Categories: AR PAC
July 30, 2015 by
Senator Russ Feingold, member of the United States Senate for the 103rd, 104th, 105th, 106th, 107th, 108th, 109th, 110th, and 111th United States Congresses, would prefer voters not refer to him as “Senator” for fear that his association with the Senate and Washington, DC could give the impression he’s too much of a DC insider [Read more…]
Categories: AR PAC
July 29, 2015 by
Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe is returning $25,000 in potentially illegal donations to a political action committee (PAC) he runs, according to the AP. [Read more…]
Categories: AR PAC
July 29, 2015 by
Yesterday, Hillary Clinton spoke with the New Hampshire Union Leader on a wide range of topics. When asked what her top two accomplishments were as Secretary of State, Clinton said, “putting together the coalition that imposed sanctions on Iran” and “continuing with a persistent effort to actually enforce those sanctions.” [Read more…]
Categories: Exclude
July 29, 2015 by
Earlier this year, Democrats cleared the field for Jack Conway’s gubernatorial run, but now they might be regretting that move.
The anti-coal, pro-Obama Conway was thought to have “had the upper hand” but new polls show Republican Matt Bevin up on Conway. Then, Sabato’s Crystal Ball moved the race to “Leans Republican.” Now, The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report is moving the race further away from Conway and starting to talk about what Conway’s loss will mean to Democrats in the state:
Losing the gubernatorial race still wouldn’t compare to the heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats losing in the semifinal of the Final Four basketball tournament in April, but it would be a stinging defeat. The only other time since World War II Democrats lost the governorship was in 2003, when outgoing Democratic Gov. Paul Patton left office in scandal.
If it happens again, Democrats are likely to blame Conway for being a weak candidate instead of drawing a broader conclusion about the president’s or the party’s standing. Conway’s detractors say he’s not as moderate as Beshear and that he sounds like he’s from East Louisville.
Looks like Conway’s constant flip-flops, liberal positions, and false rhetoric are starting to catch up with him.
Categories: AR PAC
July 29, 2015 by
After two elections that have resulted in historic losses, Congressional Democrats are searching for a new message … again. Messaging discipline, the myriad messages broadcasted, and a disconnect between its progressive and establishment liberal wings have hurt the Democrat Party’s opportunity to unify behind simple policy prescriptions to sell to voters.
The Democrats solution is to release a new messaging pitch designed to reverse the devastating electoral losses in recent years, and they will use the August recess to “road-test” a message, but hilariously this won’t be the message unveiled in 2016. What is known is that progressive policies will be abandoned because polls have found that moderate voters don’t favor candidates who focus on those issues.
Rep. Steve Israel may have put it best when he explained how Democrats couldn’t sell voters a fork because they would create a “42-point plan” on forks that discusses whether “everyone gets a fork,” “what the fork is made of” and if “there are spoons, too.”
Categories: AR PAC