Greg Giroux
The Democratic Governors Association in a fundraising e-mail Tuesday highlighted Florida, Alaska, Georgia and Minnesota as 2010 takeover opportunities. "We know we can take back the governor's mansion in every one of these states. But these are historically Republican seats, and in this crucial election, we won't win them without a fight," DGA National Political Director Ray Glendening wrote in the fundraising pitch.
Few members of Michigan’s progressive community can say definitively that they have gone to fisticuffs in defense of a candidate. Though many may have nurtured the desire (and perhaps let a Twitter update suffer their wrath instead), Ray Plowden may be the only one yet to have thrown punches for Jack Kennedy.
“The first fight I got into at school was with a guy in the same grade, and he was for Nixon and I was for Kennedy,” Plowden remembers. “We argued about it on the playground; he pushed me or I pushed him, I don’t know who it was, but we started tussling over Nixon and Kennedy.”
Sam Roberts
The longstanding gap between blacks and whites in voter participation evaporated in the presidential election last year, according to an analysis released Thursday. Black, Hispanic and Asian voters made up nearly a quarter of the electorate, setting a record.
The study attributed the findings to several factors beyond the obvious one: Barack Obama’s candidacy. For instance, the number of eligible Hispanic voters has soared by more than 21 percent since 2004, a reflection of population gains and growing numbers of Hispanics who are citizens. Their share of eligible voters increased to 9.5 percent, from 8.2 percent four years earlier. In 2008, for the first time, the share of white non-Hispanic eligible voters fell below 75 percent.
Ben Smith
An environmental group is increasing the pressure to pass a sweeping environmental measure by taking out ads in the home districts of Republicans who oppose the bill. The League of Conservation Voters will advertise in the Michigan district of Republican Rep. Mike Rogers starting Friday, officials at the group said. It will be the second in a series of ads accusing members who oppose the legislation of lacking faith in America. The previous ad attacked Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).
Steven Greenhouse
Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who plans to introduce a bill on Tuesday that would make it easier to form unions, said in an interview, “We have enough votes to pass the bill in the Senate.” The bill, known as the Employee Free Choice Act, would make it far easier for Americans to form unions by giving workers the right to unionize as soon as a majority of employees in a workplace sign cards saying they want a union.
Jeremy P Jacobs
Coming off its campaign in support of the president's economic stimulus package last month, Americans United for Change announced "the biggest grassroots campaign in history" dedicated to working to pass President Barack Obama's budget.
On a conference call Friday, representatives of AFSCME, SEIU, USAction, Americans United for Change, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Women's Law Center, Environment America and ACORN praised Obama's $3.55 trillion budget and pledged an all out effort to get it through Congress by Easter recess.
You can now find America Votes - and many of our coalition partners - on Facebook. Become a fan today to check out past America Votes photographs, keep up on America Votes coalition news, receive Facebook updates and connect with other fans of the America Votes coalition. Greg SargentThe Plumline
President Obama’s allies on the left — AFSCME and the labor-backed Americans United for Change — will launch a TV ad today praising Obama’s stimulus package only hours after the President signs it today.
The ad will utilize footage from today’s signing ceremonyto promote the bill and hail its benefits, according to Americans United for Change chief Brad Woodhouse. Obama is set to sign the bill this afternoon in Denver.
CQ Politics
The Republicans’ disastrous 2008 national Senate campaign isn’t quite over, as there is no decision yet in the Minnesota cliffhanger race between GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic entertainer Al Franken.
But GOP officials will have little time to tend their wounds before gearing up for the 2010 elections, as they seek to reverse some of the damage from a 2006 campaign that saw them lose six seats and their Senate majority, and the elections this year in which they lost at least seven more seats, pending the outcome in that Minnesota race.
Republicans’ hopes for a significant comeback in 2010 will depend heavily on whether the dissatisfaction with President George W. Bush , and the Republicans in general, shifts to the new administration of Democrat Barack Obama and the Democrats who now dominate both chambers of Congress.
CQ PoliticsAs the Democrats prepare to defend their newly robust Senate majority in the 2010 elections, it would be an understatement to say that New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez has a tough act to follow as the new chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).
Charles E. Schumer , who is up for a third term in New York in the upcoming elections, headed the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm during a 2006 campaign that produced a six-seat gain and a narrow majority for the party, and a 2008 campaign that expanded the party’s edge by a whopping gain of at least seven seats, with the cliffhanger Minnesota contest between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic entertainer Al Franken still undecided.