Priebus: Republican ground game sophisticated
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus says the state party #39;s ground game will help re-elect Gov. Scott Walker. Subscribe to WISN on YouTube for more: http://bit.ly/1emE5YX ...
By: WISN 12 News
See the rest here:
Priebus: Republican ground game sophisticated - Video
WASHINGTON The battle over which party controls the Senate and whats left of President Obamas agenda is riding on a few toss-up races as Republicans were positioning to take over.
GOP candidates have been gaining ground in Georgia, Colorado, Kentucky and Iowa, battlegrounds closing in on the six-seat gain the party would need to call the shots in the chamber for the first time since 2006.
In a sign of optimism, the Republican National Committee was the only one of the political committees in DC to schedule a party at the swank W hotel near the White House.
Asked about Election Night party plans at the White House, Press Secretary Josh Earnest replied, Not that I know of.
Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report is bullish on the GOP.
I sense Republican momentum in Colorado and Iowa, she said. If Republicans win both of those, its very hard to see how they dont win the Senate Majority.
Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin gave the opposition a gift in his home state of Iowa with a bone-headed remark about Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst.
I dont care if shes as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers, but if she votes like [conservative Rep.] Michele Bachmann, shes wrong for the state of Iowa, Harkin said.
Ernst, a former combat vet, said she was very offended by the comment.
But her opponent, Bruce Braley, who hopes to succeed Harkin, got good news when a new Quinnipiac University poll had the race tied taking some of the sting out of a weekend Des Moines Register survey that showed him in deep trouble and down 7 points.
View post:
Key Senate races lean Republican in bid for control
On the eve of an election that could end his 33-year career in Congress, GOP Sen. Pat Roberts stood Monday in a tight Republican Party office, the head shots of GOP heroes staring at him, and offered up what could only be called an incumbents lament.
On the campaign trail, senators are punching bags. Voters have lost faith in their government. His opponent doesnt even understand the institution he wants to join. In short: Its rough out here.
Its been a tough year for any incumbent, Roberts said, looking up at walls filled with portraits of George H.W. Bush, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bob Dole.
That the Kansas conservative was the one delivering the monologue was a bit of a twist. This year, its largely Democratic incumbents bracing for a bruising election day on Tuesday thanks to a tough lineup of red state races, President Obamas deflated approval rating and months of unsettling news from home and abroad.
But perhaps because of his anomaly status Roberts feels the pressure all the more. Deep in a ruby red state, with conservative credentials and decades of service, even Roberts is on the ropes. Even he was having to explain his role in a divided government. Even he has had to distance himself from Obamas agenda, he said.
I think the president, quite frankly, has moved so far left and has made people so frustrated and upset that if youve even been within the city limits of Washington --the federal limits of Washington -- youve got a real challenge on your hands to explain to people that youve been opposed to the Obama agenda all along, Roberts said. People are so frustrated and angry that theyve lost faith in their government.
Roberts trouble comes from more than just proximity to the city limits of Washington. It has also been a result of how infrequently hes been in the city limits of his hometown of Dodge City. The senator has taken heat for allegedly taking up residence in northern Virginia and spending too little time in his home state. He didnt help his cause when, to defend himself, he explained: Every time I get an opponent I mean, a chance I come home to Kansas.
Roberts has had other trouble including a tea party-aligned primary challenge and a Democrat who withdrew at last minute, leaving him in a one-on-one faceoff with wealthy businessman and independent Greg Orman.
Orman has played coy about his partisan sympathies and has not said whom he would support for Senate majority leader. He suggested his allegiances may change from issue to issue, a notion that really riled Roberts, a dedicated party loyalist, on Monday.
Its Jim Jeffords on steroids, he said, referencing the Vermont Republican-turned-independent whose party switching gave Democrats control of the Senate.
See more here:
Kansas Republican voices an incumbent's lament
WASHINGTON An upstate New York Republican is slated Tuesday to shatter the congressional record of former Brooklyn Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
Elise Stefanik, 30, is favored to win in New Yorks upstate 21st District and break history as the youngest female to win a seat in the House. Holtzman was sworn in at age 31 in 1973 at a time when women werent even allowed in the congressional gym.
Im just sorry its a not a Democrat, Holtzman told The Post. But hats off to her. We need more young women in Congress.
Holtzman, who co-founded the first womens caucus, never expected her record to last more than 40 years and would check with Congress every election to see if any young woman had finally surpassed it.
Stefanik, a Harvard graduate and a former aide to President George W. Bush, was not the person she had in mind.
I think more important than gender, its what people stand for, said Holtzman, a lawyer in Manhattan.
Stefanik has touted her youth and fresh ideas on the campaign trail in the race against 50-year-old Democrat Aaron Woolf, a documentary film maker who owns a Brooklyn organic eatery. Shes feels honored to have added an additional crack in the glass ceiling.
She commended Holtzmans achievement and pledged to encourage more young women to run. I hope my record is broken faster than hers, Stefanik told The Post.
Women represent just 18.5 percent of the seats in Congress and this Election Day isnt expected to do much to ease the gender gap. But several female candidates arepoised to make history.
In Utah, Mia Love is strongly favored to become the first African American Republican woman elected to Congress.
Read this article:
Meet the Republican who may become the youngest ever woman in Congress
Ed Gillespie, Republican Candidate for Senate, On VA #39;s Economy #1
Do you support a federal raise to the minimum wage?
By: Virginia Wins
Visit link:
Ed Gillespie, Republican Candidate for Senate, On VA's Economy #1 - Video