By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Mar 11, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET
If you haven’t yet subscribed to The Recovering Politician‘s KY Political Brief (click here RIGHT NOW to do so — It’s delivered daily to your inbox FOR FREE!), here’s what you missed over the past few days about the potential epic 2014 U.S. Senate battle between Ashley Judd and Mitch McConnell, as well as the potential 2016 presidential bid of Rand Paul:
ASHLEY JUDD : Actress, Activist Planning To Declare Candidacy, Sources Say – Howard Fineman – “Judd told one close ally that she plans to announce her run for the Democratic nomination for the 2014 race “around Derby” — meaning in early May when the Kentucky Derby brings national attention to Louisville and the Bluegrass State. … “I know she knows she has to declare soon,” said one source, a highly placed elected official who declined to be identified because he was discussing private plans. …”She could always change her mind,” he added. “I changed my mind twice before I finally declared. But as of now it is a done deal.” She has discussed her plans, sources say, with former Gov. Wendell H. Ford, the 88-year-old dean of Kentucky Democrats, among others.” [HuffPo]
—How Ashley Judd Can Win – BuzzFeed – “If Ashley Judd wants to get serious about running for U.S. Senate, she’ll have to do in Kentucky what her predecessors — and she has many — did before her to get out of Hollywood and into politics. Clint Eastwood and Sonny Bono; Arnold Schwarzenegger and Fred Thompson; Al Franken and, of course, Ronald Reagan all faced the same suggestions that they were just lightweights playing their latest roles. But they all won, according to the people who ran their long-shot races, by following roughly the same formula: starting early, staying local, and preventing their celebrity from weighing “like a huge tire around the neck” on the campaign trail.” [BuzzFeed]
—Ashley Judd Will Have to Launch Charm Offensive to Overcome Liberal Past [US News & World Report]
—What Ashley Judd could learn from Al Franken [National Journal]
2014 DERBY — Are Clinton and Ford holding out for Grimes as the Democrats’ 2014 Senate candidate? [CN|2 Politics]
—Possible McConnell challenger denies any role in trading scandal at former firm [The Hill]
RAND PAUL op-ed: My filibuster was just the beginning – The Washington Post – “If I had planned to speak for 13 hours when I took the Senate floor Wednesday, I would’ve worn more comfortable shoes. I started my filibuster with the words, “I rise today to begin to filibuster John Brennan’s nomination for the CIA. I will speak until I can no longer speak” — and I meant it.
‘I wanted to sound an alarm bell from coast to coast. I wanted everybody to know that our Constitution is precious and that no American should be killed by a drone without first being charged with a crime. As Americans, we have fought long and hard for the Bill of Rights. The idea that no person shall be held without due process, and that no person shall be held for a capital offense without being indicted, is a founding American principle and a basic right. …
‘At about 6:30 p.m., something extraordinary happened. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who has been recovering from a stroke, came to the floor to give me something. I was not allowed to drink anything but water or eat anything but the candy left in our Senate desks. But he brought me an apple and a thermos full of tea — the same sustenance Jimmy Stewart brought to the Senate floor in the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” That was a moment I will never forget.” [The Washington Post]
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Mar 8, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET
Today marks the 25th anniversary of this Jewish pischer’s baptism into politics.
I’d been working for then Tennessee Senator Al Gore’s underdog bid for President for months, but March 8, 1988, “Super Tuesday,” was considered the potential game changer, two decades before “game changer” became a political cliché.
Since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide, Democrats had been wandering in the Electoral College desert, only winning one Presidential election in 1976, in the aftermath of the GOP Watergate meltdown. Our problems had been identified by LBJ himself when he prophesized that Democrats “have lost the South for a generation,” upon his courageous signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many blamed a leftward lurch by the party during the final years of Vietnam and the emergence of its George McGovernite wing, unfairly stereotyped as a bunch of hippies favoring “acid, amnesty and abortion.”
I had signed up for the 39-year-old Gore’s campaign because of his thoughtful and progressive views on arms control and the environment. But I also believed that as a more moderate Southerner, he could help the Democratic Party end its losing streak and take back control of the White House.
Behind the scenes, party moderates and pragmatists had been working on a plan to facilitate the election of a more electable nominee. At the core was the creation of “Super Tuesday” — a day with 21 primaries taking place, including all of the Southern states. The theory was that a Democratic nominee who could win the Southern primaries could win the nation in the fall.
As the returns came in 25 years ago today, I excitedly sat in the campaign war room — a 20 year old surrounded by a veteran group of 20- and 30- somethings. (My great friend from that campaign — and No Labels co-founder, Nancy Jacobson — calls me to this day the “campaign mascot.”)
I was in charge of keeping track of the vote tallies on the war room chalkboard. (Yes, this is before whiteboards and erasable markers, kids.) Things looked very promising when Al Gore steamrolled through the Upper South: his home state of Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and best of all, my old Kentucky home. (Side note: The Kentucky state director for the campaign is to this day, my best frenemy, George Phillips (read about him here). This is the only time in history George has ever celebrated a Kentucky victory — he is, natch, a Dukie.)
But, we were losing everywhere else: Jesse Jackson took the Deep South, while Mike Dukakis took the big prizes, Texas and Florida, where liberal voters dominated the primary electorate. While Gore stayed in the race a few more weeks, he was after “Super Tuesday” dead man walking. Dukakis ultimately won the nomination, but as many of us feared, was branded too liberal, and lost in the fall to the first George Bush. But not for a lack of me trying:
Well, we heard from Gore later, when he joined a fellow Southerner on the 1992 Democratic presidential ticket that finally turned the party’s fortunes around.
So while March 8, 1988 ended up on a sour note, it was a day that changed our country for the better.
And it began my love affair with politics, which continues to this day, albeit from outside any war rooms.
The RP and Kentucky Democratic consultant Dale Emmons debate the potential Ashley Judd U.S. Senate candidacy, as well as discuss other political news of the day:
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Feb 28, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET
Fascinating piece in this week’s The New Republic about how the brilliant Netflix series “House of Cards” reflects the misogynistic treatment of women journalists in Washington. I can attest that the phenomenon Marin Cogan reports is equally true in Frankfort (and perhaps other capitals), and applies to women staffers as well:
In popular fictions of Washington, everyone is a prostitute in one way or another; when it comes to female journalists, though, the comparison is often tediously literal. “I can play the whore,” Barnes later tells her very own congressman, House Majority Whip Francis Underwood. It’s not that sex never happens between political reporters and their sources, as David Petraeus’s affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, recently reminded us. It’s not even that women (and men) don’t sometimes flirt in the process ofnews gathering. It’s just that the notion of sexy young reporters turning tricks for tips is not how news is usually made in the nation’s capital. For every Judith Miller, the ex–New York Times reporter who would sometimes quote her live-in lover, former Representative and Defense Secretary Les Aspin, there are dozens of female journalists for whom the power of appropriations is not an aphrodisiac. We have not “all done it,” as Skorsky claims. And yet, the reporter-seductress stereotype persists, in part because some men in Washington refuse to relinquish it.
As a political reporter for GQ, I’ve been jokingly asked whether I ever posed for the magazine and loudly called a porn star by a senior think-tank fellow at his institute’s annual gala. In my prior job as a Hill reporter, one of my best source relationships with a member of Congress ended after I remarked that I looked like a witch who might hop on a broom in my new press-badge photo and he replied that I looked like I was “going to hop on something.” One journalist remembers a group of lobbyists insisting that she was not a full-time reporter at a major publication but a college coed. Another tried wearingscarves and turtlenecks to keep a married K Street type from staring at her chest for their entire meeting. The last time she saw him, his wedding ring was conspicuously absent; his eyes, however, were still fixed on the same spot. Almost everyone has received the late-night e-mail—“You’re incredible” or “Are you done with me yet?”—that she is not entirely sure how to handle. They’re what another lady political writer refers to as “drunk fumbles” or “the result of lonely and insecure people trying to make themselves feel loved and/or important.”
These are the stories you don’t hear, in part because they don’t occupy the fantasies of the mostly male scriptwriters of Washington dramas and in part because women reporters are reluctant to signal to any source—past, present, or future—that they might not be discreet or trustworthy. Such stories tend to fall on the spectrum somewhere between amusing and appalling. Sometimes they reach the level of stalking: One colleague had a high-profile member of Congress go out of his way to track down her cell-phone number, call and text repeatedly to tell her she was beautiful, offer to take her parents on a tour of the Capitol, and even invite her to go boating back home in his district…
Studies suggest that men are more likely than women to interpret friendly interest as sexual attraction, and this is a constant hazard for women in the profession. The problem, in part, is that the rituals of cultivating sources—initiating contact, inviting them out for coffee or a drink, showing intenseinterest in their every word—can often mimic the rituals of courtship, creating opportunities for interested parties on either side of the reporter-source relationship to blur the line between the professional and personal. A source may invite you to meet at the bar around the corner from your apartment. If you agree, he might offer to pay for the drinks and walk you home. One Washington climate reporter remembers an environmentalist stroking her leg at one such outing and noting, disapprovingly, that she hadn’t shaved.
“I always remind young female reporters to be wary about falling victim to the ‘source-date,’ ” says Shira Toeplitz, politics editor at Roll Call. “You’re on a second glass of something, and it occurs to you, he may be misinterpreting this as a date. I advise them to drop an obvious clue along the lines of, ‘I’m going to expense this.’ ”
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Feb 28, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET
If you haven’t yet subscribed to The Recovering Politician‘s KY Political Brief (click here RIGHT NOW to do so), here’s what you missed over the past few days about the potential epic 2014 U.S. Senate battle between Ashley Judd and Mitch McConnell:
2014 SENATE DERBY — Most Kentucky state Democratic Senators lukewarm on Ashley Judd candidacy – KY Public Radio’s Rae Hodge – “Taken as a whole, Democratic state senators were unenthusiastic about the idea of a Judd candidacy. But not all. Walter Blevins (Morehead), Kathy Stein (Lexington) and Gerald Neal (Louisville) expressed direct support for a Judd candidacy. Three declined to answer: Louisville’s Perry Clark and Denise Harper-Angel, and Frankfort’s Julian Carroll, a former governor. The rest were lukewarm—and many expressed enthusiasm for Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state and another rumored candidate. Regardless, a single thought emerged from each response: Democrats must unify behind one candidate, if they want to replace McConnell.” [WFPL]
—ICYMI: Jonathan Miller discusses possible Judd Senate bid on HuffPost Live [TheRP]
—Judd’s decision on run at office may be close – CNHI’s Ronnie Ellis – “Actress and activist Ashley Judd may be getting closer to a decision on whether to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Larry Clark, the Democratic Speaker Pro Tem of the state House, told CNHI News Wednesday Judd called him and they talked about the race. Later, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said Judd had called his cell, but he hadn’t spoken with her so far.” [CNHI]
TWITTER TURNABOUT — Progress Kentucky apologizes to Mitch McConnell’s wife over ‘Chinese’ Twitter messages – WFPL’s Phillip Bailey – “The group’s Tweets accused former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan, of moving American jobs to China and that her “Chinese (money)” was buying state elections. Critics slammed the comments as racially offensive, and a national backlash against the group was ignited. Progress Kentucky executive director Shawn Reilly says they remain dedicated to educating voters about McConnell’s record, but their messages “included an inappropriate comment on the ethnicity” of the former labor secretary.” [WFPL]
—Group under fire for McConnell tweets also faces FEC questions [POLITICO]
WILL JUDD RUN? — Ky. voters react as Judd’s liberal positions are detailed – WHAS-TV’s Joe Arnold – “As Judd inches closer to a decision, her outspoken nature is yielding decades of pointed and controversial comments which Kentucky Democratic strategists concede are a gold mine for the campaign of potential opponent, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R).” [WHAS]
—Daily Caller: Ashley Judd’s biggest problem: Her history of bizarre comments [Daily Caller]
—Mother Jones: Ashley Judd is not the next Todd Akin [Mother Jones]
AL MAYO: McConnell Could Seize the Day, writing for KY Political Brief – “With the sequestration cuts looming, and a deadlock already in place between Senate Democrats and House Republicans, McConnell is in the perfect position to help effect an agreement via compromise.” [KPB column]
If politics is just like show business, Ashley Judd’s possible run for senate could be a success. What does it take to make the transition and will we take her seriously?
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Feb 26, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET
If you haven’t yet subscribed to The Recovering Politician‘s KY Political Brief (click here RIGHT NOW to do so), here’s what you missed over the past few days about the potential epic 2014 U.S. Senate battle between Ashley Judd and Mitch McConnell:
2014 SENATE DERBY
—Will Ashley Judd challenge Mitch McConnell for Senate? Kentucky Democrats think so – ABC News – “She hasn’t announced yet, but her biggest supporter in Kentucky, Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth, told ABC News, “I would be surprised if she doesn’t run at this point.” … One thing that’s guaranteed is it will be a brutal race — a 30-year veteran of Washington against a Hollywood star active in liberal Democratic politics from a legendary family. … Yarmuth says Judd is ready and has even done opposition research on herself to see areas McConnell will try to “exploit.”” [ABC News]
—THE R.P.I. — Handicapping the 2014 U.S. Senate race — Quick glance: #1 Mitch McConnell … #2 Ashley Judd … #3 Alison Lundergan Grimes … #4b Steve Beshear … Unranked: Larry Forgy [Full RPI]
—NEW THIS MORNING: Liberal PAC launches new ad hitting McConnell on guns – The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal PAC that recently ran a television ad attacking Sen. Mitch McConnell on gun control, is launching a new ad featuring a Kentucky gun owner and hunter beginning this morning. The group spending at least $25,000 to run its second ad in the Lexington, Louisville, Bowling Green and Paducah markets and online in Kentucky. The PCCC says it will soon have spent $100,000 on its campaign against McConnell and said the ad is timed to precede Wednesday’s Senate “Hearing on the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013.” [See the ad]
—IN GOOD HUMOR : Ashley Judd, Mitch McConnell and how to tell a Tea Party candidate from a Democrat [Insider Louisville]
—Mitch McConnell vs. Ashley Judd: The Most Epic Election Battle Of 2014 – PolicyMic – “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has an unprecedented re-election battle on the horizon. Despite his power in Congress, at home, he is incredibly vulnerable. … Enter Ashley Judd. Raised as a Kentuckian, her experience and active participation in Bluegrass politics have led Democrats around the country to rally around her as-yet unconfirmed election bid. There are several reasons why liberals find her candidacy compelling.” [PolicyMic]
—Ashley Judd starts March with two public events – in Washington [C-J]
—NY Magazine: Don’t Run for Senate, Ashley Judd! It’s a Trap! – In ‘Daily Intelligencer’ post: “… while a Mitch McConnell concession speech after losing to Ashley Judd is possibly the most gratifying political event I could possibly imagine, it is also impossible. … Democrats are going to lose the Senate race pretty much regardless. But Ashley Judd would raise a ton of money across the country and spend it bolstering turnout across the state, which would help other Democrats, most of whom would be distancing themselves from Judd like she was George Clooney.” [NY Mag]
It looks like the potential field for the 2014 U.S. Senate race might be a bit more crowded than previously expected.
Today’s news is the possible entry of Matt Bevin in the GOP primary. Check out this excerpt of the today’s issue of The Recovering Politician‘s KY Political Brief.
And be sure to sign up for the FREE email with all of Kentucky’s latest political developments delivered first thing every weekday morning to your inbox:
MCCONNELL 2014 — Rand Paul reticent about potential Tea Party challenger to McConnell – WFPL’s Phillip Bailey – “Speaking in downtown Louisville on Wednesday, Paul says he has been following news reports about the race but hasn’t had a chance to speak with Bevin directly. “I haven’t had any real discussions with him or others about it other than to say I’ve heard the same rumors,” says Paul. “I’ve met him before and I’m pretty sure he’s a supporter of mine.” … Paul told reporters he is backing McConnell’s re-election bid, but when asked why Tea Party activists in Louisville and across the state haven’t followed suit, Kentucky’s junior senator was stumped. “You know, I don’t know if I have an answer really,” he says.” [WFPL]
—Challenger must battle for Tea Party support to face off with McConnell [The Hill]
WILL JUDD RUN? — Ashley Judd meets with DSCC – POLITICO – “Actress Ashley Judd privately met with officials at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington earlier this week, as she continues to weigh whether to mount a Senate run against Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, according to two sources familiar with the session. According to one person familiar with the matter, Tuesday’s meeting marked Judd’s first formal one with officials at the DSCC, which coordinates strategy, recruits and fundraises on behalf of Senate Democratic candidates. DSCC officials refused to comment, saying they would not discuss candidate recruitment.” [POLITICO]