Republican on State Department Policies: Benghazi Can Happen Again
Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., slammed the State Department during the House Select Committee on Benghazi #39;s inaugural hearing Wednesday for failing to change its structure on approving temporary...
By: Roll Call
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Republican on State Department Policies: Benghazi Can Happen Again - Video
Republican Candidate for County Executive Talks About Bipartisan Support
Republican candidate for Montgomery County Executive Jim Shalleck talks about bipartisan voting as a key in the race.
By: myMCMedia
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Republican Candidate for County Executive Talks About Bipartisan Support - Video
Either Thomas Foley or John McKinney, Republican candidates for governor competing in the Aug. 12 party primary, would enter the fall campaign against incumbent Democrat Dannel P. Malloy with a strong chance of victory. Republican primary voters could endanger their candidate's prospects in November if they saddle him with state Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, R-Stafford, as his running mate for lieutenant governor.
Bacchiochi has been a disaster of the sort that has the Malloy team delighting in the prospect of using her to take down the Republican ticket. Bacchiochi gave them the tools to do it. During a local radio appearance the day before May's party nominating convention, she declared herself the victim of a racist whisper campaign because she is married to a black man. Later that day, she told WFSB's Susan Raff that the culprit was rival David Walker's campaign. He is McKinney's running mate. Walker's campaign seems to have faltered after a promising start.
Under pressure to provide some evidence, Bacchiochi crumbled. She'd made up the heinous story. More than two months later, Bacchiochi's ugly gambit retains the power to disgust. Last month, one of Bacchiochi's campaign consultants accused another rival, Heather Bond Somers, of "white privilege." She was dismissed from the campaign. But the two incidents reveal the atmosphere that Bacchiochi creates in her campaign.
On Monday, I revealed on my blog, Daily Ructions, that Bacchiochi failed to report in a mandatory annual state ethics disclosure $27,000 in payments she received in 2012 from Christopher Shays' U.S. Senate campaign. Bacchiochi was forced to fix the embarrassing mistake. This is how elections are lost.
Bacchiochi is especially dangerous for Foley, who has been a loud critic of the cozy way he sees business done in state government especially the legislature. He won't be able to make excuses for the more than $100,000 Bacchiochi received from a group supporting the legalization of medical marijuana while she was one of the issue's loudest supporters in the state legislature.
Somers, the former mayor of Groton, offers the best alternative to Bacchiochi, which Republican leaders seem to realize and they are offering assistance. While Foley has not endorsed a candidate, some of his prominent supporters have been moving to Somers in the hope of averting a Bacchiochi nightmare.
Somers has plenty of qualifications beyond not being Bacchiochi. She started a small biotech company with two partners in 1996. I've talked to a lot of candidates and I don't recall any, before I sat down with Somers last week, who can speak with easy authority on polymers, organic pigments and transforming plastic into foam to vacuum wounds. She is something not many candidates are in what's become a homogenized business: interesting.
Before the biotech business took off, Somers worked as a waitress at a Stonington restaurant. She's been on the Groton town council for more than a decade. That's provided her with experience in a town that faces complicated issues. She's familiar with the benefits and challenges of leading a town that hosts a submarine base. That unique knowledge will prove helpful in the next round of base closure competition.
Somers is from eastern Connecticut, where Republicans sense a chance for a significant breakthrough this year. Groton is in the southern part of that region; Willimantic, where Somers started her business, is in the northern area of it. She offers what both McKinney and Foley will need to win.
There are no statewide Democratic primaries, but there is an important one in the Hartford area. Longtime state Sen. Eric Coleman, D-Bloomfield, is in a battle with Hartford city council leader Shawn Wooden for the nomination in a district that includes parts of Bloomfield, Hartford and Windsor. Lagging behind the two main contenders is Windsor Democrat Lenworth Walker.
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Lt. Governor Pick Could Make Or Break Republican Ticket
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' views of the Democratic and Republican parties are now similar, mainly because of their more positive ratings of the GOP. Since bottoming out at 28% last fall during the government shutdown, Americans' opinions of the Republican Party have grown more positive and are nearly back to pre-shutdown levels. Over the same time period, ratings of the Democratic Party have generally held steady.
Americans view both parties negatively overall, with a 40% favorable and 57% unfavorable rating for the Republican Party, and a 42% favorable and 54% unfavorable rating for the Democratic Party. This net-negativity toward both major political parties has generally been the case since 2010, apart from President Barack Obama's re-election year in 2012, when on several occasions Americans had slightly more positive than negative views of the Democrats.
There are encouraging and discouraging signs for both parties in the latest poll, conducted Sept. 4-7, just two months before the important midterm elections.
Americans have typically rated the Democratic Party more positively than the Republican Party since the question was first asked in 1992, so the current parity between the two is a positive sign for the GOP and a negative one for the Democratic Party. Indeed, current opinions of the Democratic Party are among the worst Gallup has measured in the past 20 years. The only time Gallup measured a lower favorable rating for the Democrats was 41% in late March 2010, just after Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.
At the same time, Democrats can take some solace in the fact that Americans are not rating the GOP any more positively than they rate the Democratic Party, even at a time when Americans believe the Republican Party is better than the Democratic Party both at keeping the U.S. prosperous and at keeping the U.S. secure from international threats.
The situation is similar to what occurred in 2010. Even as Republicans were making large gains in federal and state offices nationwide, Americans did not view the GOP any more positively than the Democratic Party. As such, the Republicans may have merely benefitted from public frustration with Obama and the Democrats in 2010, rather than having been truly embraced by Americans. Thus, if Republicans do well on Election Day this year it does not necessarily equate to a voter mandate for the party and its policies.
All Partisan Groups More Positive toward GOP
The gains, or perhaps recovery, in the GOP's image over the past year are evident among Democrats, independents, and Republicans. Notably, Republicans' favorable views of their own party are still not back to pre-shutdown levels.
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Democratic, Republican Party Favorable Ratings Now Similar
President Barack Obama addresses soldiers at U.S. Central Command (CentCom) at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., Wednesday. Obama says U.S. forces in Iraq "do not and will not" have a combat mission as part of the effort against Islamic State militants.
WASHINGTON The Republican-controlled House voted grudgingly Wednesday to give the administration authority to train and arm Syrian rebels as President Barack Obama emphasized anew that American forces "do not and will not have a combat mission" in the struggle against Islamic State militants in either Iraq or Syria.
The 273-156 vote crossed party lines to an unusual degree in a Congress marked by near-ceaseless partisanship. Top Republican and Democratic leaders backed Obama's plan seven weeks before midterm elections, while dozens of rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties opposed it.
The provision was added to spending legislation that will ensure the federal government operates normally after the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. Final approval is expected in the Senate on Thursday.
Even supporters of the military plan found little to trumpet. "This is the best of a long list of bad options," said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.
One Republican supporter noted the measure includes strict limits on Obama's authority. "Members on both sides of the aisle are very concerned that too much of Congress' warmaking power has gone to the president," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma.
Obama's remarks and similar comments Wednesday by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California seemed designed to reassure liberal lawmakers that the new military mission would be limited.
In a statement following the vote, Obama said the House "took an important step forward as our nation unites to confront the threat posed" by the Islamic State group, showing bipartisan support for a "critical component" of his strategy against the extremists.
Only a day earlier, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, drew widespread attention when he told Congress he might recommend the use of U.S. ground combat forces if Obama's current strategy fails to stop the militants.
Across the political aisle from the president and Pelosi, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California swung behind the plan. Yet many other Republicans expressed concerns that it would be insufficient to defeat militants who have overrun parts of Syria and Iraq and beheaded two American journalists.
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Republican-controlled House grudgingly approves arms for Syrian rebels