Democratic D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said at a press conference he had withdrawn the passed changes to D.C.’s criminal code. President Joe Biden said last week he would not veto a congressional resolution axing the updates, after the House passed a measure last month that would overturn the changes and the Senate is expected to clear that legislation this week. The measure only requires a simple Senate majority to pass, and a number of Democratic senators have indicated they would vote for it.
“It’s clear that Congress is intending to override that legislation,” Mendelson told reporters.
Whether he can do so is up for debate, however. Asked if the city council had withdrawn a bill before, Mendelson said “I have not found precedent” for doing so but argued there was no provision in the law against him pulling it back either.
“There’s no prohibition on what I’m doing,” he said.
It was not yet immediately clear if the D.C. Council could call back the legislation, which many in Congress have characterized as a “soft on crime” approach. Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had vetoed the bill, saying it would not make the city safer, but the council overrode that veto.
“The messaging got out of our control, and that the messaging got picked up by Republicans who wanted to make a campaign out of it for next year against Democrats,” Mendelson said.
The House on Feb. 9 voted 250-173 to overturn the move by D.C.’s government to revise its criminal code, with 31 House Democrats joining Republicans. A Senate vote is expected this week.
“If the Republicans want to proceed with a vote, it will be a hollow vote because it really isn’t there before them,” Mendelson argued.
Mendelson said the congressional action would not affect how D.C. approaches city issues.
“I don’t plan on doing a gut check. Let’s be clear, I don’t plan on installing a hotline to Republican leadership in the House in the Senate and calling them every week and asking for permission to move forward,” Mendelson said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“I do believe this race is going to be probably one of the most expensive Senate races ever,” said Ann Ravel, who chaired both the Federal Elections Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission, and “each Super PAC is going to want to assure that their candidate is the one who has enough money.”
Candidates and political operatives have spent months preparing for a Senate race under the presumption Feinstein’s retirement was imminent. That has intensified the competition for top political staffers.
“Schiff was very aggressive,” said an opposition researcher who asked to remain anonymous because they may be working in the race. “He’s trying to lock up all the talent.”
Among those running the pro-Schiff committee are partners at Bearstar Strategies, a blue-chip California consulting firm whose roster has included Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Alex Padilla — and, in 2018, Porter. The Orange County Democrat and the firm parted ways after the 2020 cycle, when Porter endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — her political mentor — over then-Bearstar client Kamala Harris.
“They are going to be very familiar with all her vulnerabilities, and that’s usually the job of a super PAC, is to negatively define an opponent,” said Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican political consultant.
It is exorbitantly expensive to run a statewide race in California, where candidates must introduce themselves to millions of voters across several media markets. Independent expenditure committees can bolster those efforts by pulling in big-dollar donations
That could be especially critical for Lee as the East Bay Democrat races to make up a cash-on-hand deficit relative to Schiff and Porter, who are both prolific fundraisers with millions in the bank compared to the $54,000 Lee reported at the end of 2022.
“That is clearly the advantage they have,” said Nathan Barankin, who is overseeing the committee. “She has a long list of non-financial advantages they can never overcome, but for her purposes there’s a unique benefit to having a Super PAC.”
The consultants running Lee’s committee hint at where that money may come from. Several of them have worked for progressive prosecutor candidates in California, who benefit from a network of deep-pocketed criminal justice reform supporters. Barankin was chief of staff to Harris, whom Lee supported in the 2020 presidential race.
“I do think there is substantial overlap between many of the people who have been longtime supporters of the vice president over a number of years with those who will be supportive of Barbara Lee, not just in California but around the country,” Barankin said.
While Porter, like Warren, has focused on the corrupting influence of money in politics, she does not intend to decline outside support as Warren sought to do. Warren was caught in a bind in 2020 when she initially pledged to reject PAC support but ultimately received it. The Massachusetts senator argued it would make little sense to operate at a disadvantage to other Democrats who benefited from ubiquitous outside spending.
“You can’t control outside money, which was the thing with Elizabeth Warren,” said Karin Johanson, who helped run a pro-Warren Super PAC in 2020, but “I don’t think anyone’s going to spend money on Katie Porter that Katie Porter doesn’t agree with.”
Porter already navigated a barrage of outside spending in fiercely contested House races that saw groups spend well over $10 million for or against her, illustrating how that kind of cash has become indispensable in tough contests. That network could activate again on Porter’s behalf, although donors who helped her flip and defend a frontline House seat against Republicans will not necessarily support her against fellow Democrats. Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) endorsement of Schiff could give him access to her formidable fundraising network.
The challenge for Democrats in resolutely blue California is how to stand out to voters without alienating them by assailing other Democrats. That’s where Super PACs could be instrumental.
“It’s unlikely the candidate campaigns are going to go negative, but it’s possible the IE’s will feel freer to do things that more specifically contrast candidates,” said Ludovic Blain, who runs the progressive California Donor Table.
None of that will alter the balance of power in a narrowly divided Senate. But funders are keenly interested in shaping who represents America’s most populous state — particularly given the possibility that Feinstein’s successor, like Feinstein, serves for decades.
“Dianne Feinstein’s presence as the senator from California for 30 years was significant in the Senate,” Ravel said, “and so who gets elected to that position is something that a lot of outside interests throughout the country are going to be concerned about.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“We have gone through periods of time since I’ve been in the Senate where members have been [gone] for lengthy periods of time for good reasons, health reasons. I wouldn’t wish that kind of pressure on anybody. Let him get well, let his family feel he’s getting the best care. Those are the highest priorities,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “I wish that his critics would show a little bit of humanity.”
Fetterman’s win in November gave his party the cushion it needs for him to take time to recover, both from his depression and from last year’s stroke that preceded it, without disrupting Senate business. It’s a far cry from last year’s 50-50 Senate, where one extended absence could have derailed things.
With Fetterman out, Democrats still have a 50-49 majority that allows unilateral confirmation of nominees — without a vice presidential tie-breaker. The chamber has no immediate plans to consider legislation that would require 60 votes to break a filibuster.
Fetterman’s absence does mean Democrats can’t afford absences on tough confirmation votes that all Republicans oppose, and that the GOP can more easily approve rollbacks of Biden administration regulations if it has full attendance. But right now, his treatment’s only expected to cause a weeks-long delay that wouldn’t hobble nominees who lack GOP support.
And the bipartisan history of senators taking extended leaves for recovery is clearly helping generate goodwill in the chamber, despite off-Hill criticism from some conservatives.
GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said in an interview that he “hates what’s going on” with Fetterman and described the progressive as a “good” friend despite the difference in their ideologies.
“He’s still got to work and he’s still got to get to votes. But I hope he gets back sooner than later,” said Tuberville, who has not spoken recently to Fetterman. “I’d rather have him here than not.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that Fetterman is “trying to take care of his health. And I find no fault with that.”
Several senators, including Durbin and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), said they’d sent Fetterman notes since he checked into the hospital earlier this month. Most senators indicated they had not spoken directly with Fetterman, according to more than a dozen interviews on Monday — suggesting a broad hands-off approach.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who also suffered from a stroke last year, said his staff had reached out to Fetterman’s team in case it needed assistance.
“Everyone is being very accommodating and wants what is best for John’s health. We are getting zero pressure for him to come back before the timeline we’ve laid out for John’s recovery,” said Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff.
Fetterman just won a six-year term in a seat that’s a cornerstone of Democrats’ majority, meaning there’s no push within the party for him to step down and trigger a special election. And for Fetterman, being in the Senate fulfills one of his life goals: He’s run twice to join the upper chamber, including a 2016 campaign that fell far short in the Democratic primary.
Last year, however, Fetterman romped in the primary and defeated Republican Mehmet Oz by 5 percentage points — even as his health challenges dominated the general-election campaign after his May stroke. Some Republicans argued then that he wasn’t fit for office due to his post-stroke condition and debate performance.
“I think he’s gone through some challenges, and that the stroke had some impacts on his hearing, I think it’s going to come back,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). “But I absolutely could see how you can get down in the dumps over that.”
Since taking office, Fetterman has often required a screen with transcription to conduct conversations. Until his recent health setback, he was voting on the Senate floor and also attended and asked questions at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. His speech was halting and labored as he sometimes mixed up words during the hearing, a remnant of his auditory processing problems following the stroke. Once a famously accessible politician, Fetterman also doesn’t engage with reporters in the halls of the Capitol.
Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the top Republican on the Agriculture Committee, said that the panel has “made every effort to accommodate him and will continue to do so.”
“He was working hard to try and keep up and get things done,” said Boozman, who had major heart surgery in 2014. “It just seemed like a difficult situation.”
Despite pro-Fetterman sentiment in their ranks, some in the GOP still see thorny political dynamics behind his decision to keep running after suffering a stroke.
“What I would worry about is whether there were people basically taking advantage of him and encouraging him to run for the Senate when he wasn’t physically able to do it, but he wasn’t well. I don’t know the whole story, but it looks to me like that could have been one part of the explanation,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Earlier this month, Fetterman spent several nights in the hospital for what his office described as lightheadedness. Testing during that episode showed no evidence of any new stroke or seizure, his office said later. Then later in the month, before last week’s recess, Fetterman checked himself into the hospital for depression.
Luján, who suffered a stroke last year and offered Fetterman repeated encouragement during the campaign, said that Fetterman’s public acknowledgement of his mental health is a significant step: “How many other folks have maybe done the same thing and not shared about admitting themselves? For John, he shared with the American people, ‘if you’re not feeling well, go in.’”
“Mental health issues continue to carry stigma in this country,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “He helped change how Americans look at that issue. But it hasn’t changed everyone’s mind. So he gets the extra hard look over his illness when other senators get a pass for theirs.”
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Brown, Manchin and Tester all survived their party’s difficult 2018 cycle after then-President Donald Trump pushed their states further rightward. Before that, they won reelection in 2012 while sharing the ballot with then-President Barack Obama. Now, the trio of Democrats is staring down their toughest political challenge yet: pulling a Susan Collins.
The moderate GOP Mainer successfully persuaded her state’s voters to split their tickets in a presidential year; Collins won reelection by 8 points in 2020 even as Biden defeated Trump by 9 points in her state. For Democrats to hang onto their 51-seat majority, they need Collins-style performances from at least two of their three red-state incumbents in an era of declining split-ticket voters.
While Brown and Tester are all in, Manchin hasn’t decided whether to run again, and Biden hasn’t made it official yet either. That makes Tester’s reelection decision all the more critical to the party — he’s probably the only Montana Democrat with a shot. At the moment, Democrats’ hopes of holding the Senate largely ride on Tester and Brown defying their states’ political leanings.
A decade ago, ticket-splitting was a far more common political phenomenon: Democrats won Senate races everywhere from Missouri to Indiana to North Dakota in 2012, even as Obama lost those states. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the party’s campaign chair, acknowledged that in the current environment “it’s a little bit harder to differentiate yourself” but if anyone can do it, it’s his incumbents.
“Just look at how these folks got elected. Jon Tester ran well above the presidential race. Manchin has done that,” Peters said in an interview. “The candidates who are running have already demonstrated that they have a unique plan, a very individualized brand. And that brand will prevail in the end.”
Peters’ GOP counterpart on 2024 campaigns, Montana Sen. Steve Daines, predicted voters would see something simpler from red-state Democrats running alongside Biden: “They run scared. And they run away.” In 2020, Daines trounced a strong Democratic nominee, Steve Bullock, even as the former governor significantly overperformed Biden in Montana.
Among the three red-state Democrats, Manchin is most akin to Collins in terms of keeping their distance from their parties’ presidential nominees. Manchin didn’t support Obama in 2012, nearly pulled his backing from Hillary Clinton in 2016, and though he supported Biden in 2020 he seems unlikely to be vocal either way in 2024.
“In West Virginia, you know, it doesn’t make a difference,” Manchin said. “Joe Biden’s going to get beat so bad no matter what in my state. It’s just me. I’m not going to be campaigning for or against anybody else.”
Divided government will test Manchin’s sway. He’s championing an energy permitting overhaul that fell short last year and pushing the Biden administration on rolling out the energy, tax and health care bill he helped write last year. But each of the party’s three red-state senators has a prominent perch to generate more accomplishments before they’d face voters: Brown chairs the Banking Committee, Manchin chairs the Energy Committee and Tester chairs the Veterans Affairs Committee.
Meanwhile, Republicans will look to limit the three senators’ successes and drive a wedge between Biden and Senate Democrats. The chamber’s Republicans are plotting disapproval votes on federal regulations regarding sustainable investments, trucking emissions, water regulations and Pentagon environmental performance.
Biden will certainly veto those GOP efforts if they prevail, but their political intention is clear: Squeeze Democrats. Simultaneously, those votes offer an opportunity for Senate Democrats to separate themselves from the president.
“There are obviously [Democratic incumbents] who are paying attention to politics back home,” said Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.).
As challenging as 2024’s map is for Senate Democrats, it’s not as rough as 2018, when they had to defend 10 seats Trump had just won. Biden’s presidential win shored up Democrats’ brand in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, and if they can win those states at the presidential level again, it’s good news for their Senate hopefuls.
That puts a more intense focus on Ohio, West Virginia and Montana as the states that will decide the majority. And Republicans are looking at the basic math: In 2020, Trump won West Virginia by 39 points, Montana by 16 points and Ohio by 8 points.
The rest of next year’s battleground Senate races are in states Biden won, albeit in some cases quite narrowly: Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Democrats in those states are far more likely to run with Biden than as a check on him — though the Copper State could see a three-way race if independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema seeks a second term.
Summing up her reelection theme in an interview, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) cited Biden’s recent State of the Union: “Between the House, the Senate and this president, there has been exceptional accomplishment. But we haven’t finished the job.”
Even in Ohio, Brown said he’d “assume” he’ll campaign with Biden even if the president is unlikely to consider his state a must-win.
“I run my own race, and my own brand. So, I’m not going to run from Biden,” Brown said. “He’s also delivered more than any president in recent history.”
Even Manchin sounds much like Brown or Baldwin when discussing what Democrats accomplished during the previous Congress. But because Biden is unpopular in West Virginia, it’s up to him to convince voters what they got out of it.
“There’s more coming for the state of West Virginia because of what we’ve done. Now, they’re not going to give that credit to a Democratic president,” Manchin said.
Manchin endorsed Collins in 2020, when the Mainer did not support Trump and largely ran on her lengthy record. Her reelection race initially flared with liberal outrage over her vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and culminated in one of the most expensive Senate races in the country.
Through it all, Collins trailed in the polls as then-Minority Leader Chuck Schumer mounted an aggressive bid to flip her seat. Yet in the end, Democrats fell short trying to nationalize the race in a state with few transient voters.
Offering some advice from that experience to Manchin, Brown and Tester — all of them similarly well-known back home, just like her — Collins put it this way: “People know me personally. And when Chuck Schumer was running vicious ads, people just didn’t believe it.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Fetterman’s aides said he will likely return from inpatient care in a few weeks.
“In Senate time, which is a bit like geologic time, John’s time away will be the blink of an eye,” said Fetterman’s chief of staff, Adam Jentleson.
The comments come amid a new round of questions around Fetterman’s future in the chamber he now serves. The dismissal of such chatter underscores the progress being made around perceptions and understanding of mental health.
Fetterman is among the first sitting senators to have disclosed his struggles with depression. And in the aftermath, his staff, a wide range of political observers, and mental health advocates applauded the idea that his case could help reduce stigmas around the disease.
During the 2022 midterms, Fetterman suffered from a stroke days before the May primary. He continues to experience auditory processing issues. Fetterman’s Republican opponent, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, made his health and transparency around it issues in the campaign. Fetterman went on to win the race by nearly five percentage points.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
In an interview with POLITICO, Daniels punched back.
“David perfected the art of losing elections in Indiana,” Daniels said of his one-time Reagan administration colleague and a former Indiana congressman who lost the 2000 gubernatorial election to Democrat Frank O’Bannon by a double-digit margin as well as a 2012 congressional primary to Susan Brooks in the 5th Congressional District. “Now he makes money helping other people lose elections. I always thought well of David, but he’s gone in a different direction. I’m not the one to psychoanalyze that.”
A Club for Growth PAC spokesperson said of Daniels in a statement: “We expect he’ll be making these and other criticisms of conservatives on a more regular basis live on CNN from his retirement. David has had a strong record at Club for Growth PAC winning more than 70% of races, including supporting mostly conservative underdogs.
Prior to Daniels deciding not to run, national and state Republican operatives had expressed fear that his entrance into the race would have resulted in an intra-party civil war between the more moderate and Trump-aligned factions. The Club for Growth wasn’t the only one attacking Daniels. Allies to former President Donald Trump also attacked him as a RINO.
Daniels disputed that the race would’ve been hotly contested— “maybe ugly,” he said, but “not close.” He declined to criticize Banks for not disavowing the attacks on him from Trump world and the Club for Growth.
“That was for him to decide,” Daniels said. “Once again, it wasn’t a factor. We had all the advantages. And frankly, I’m told they knew that. We were allies in the past, and I’ll always think of him that way.”
Banks has said that he respects Daniels, and “learned a lot from him” during his time as a state senator, which overlapped with the former governor’s tenure. Banks quickly consolidated his support as Daniels stepped aside, with NRSC Chairman Steve Daines (R-Mont.) calling Banks one of the cycle’s “top recruits this cycle” and saying he had the “utmost respect” for Daniels’ career.
While Banks faces no challenger at the moment, Daniels allies are shopping for one. Daniels’ friend and adviser Mark Lubbers said retired Rep. Trey Hollingsworth — who could self-fund — “has the intellectual capacity to be a Reagan Republican and if he committed to that path they would eagerly support him.”
Hollingsworth did not respond to a request for comment. Banks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Daniels declined to discuss whether he would back a presidential candidate in 2024.
“I hope a lot of flowers bloom, and there are lots of choices for the nation,” he said.
He said he was unlikely to enter the political fray again. “I just haven’t decided whether to take up a partisan role again.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hochul, who had continued to push for LaSalle’s confirmation despite opposition, warnings and a committee rejection on Jan. 18, said she will now make a new nomination for Senate consideration from a list provided by the state’s Commission on Judicial Nomination.
“I remain committed to selecting a qualified candidate to lead the court and deliver justice,” she said in a statement. “That is what New Yorkers deserve.”
The governor painted Wednesday’s vote — though not in her favor — as “an important victory from the constitution,” but added that it was “not a vote on the merits of Justice LaSalle, who is an overwhelmingly qualified and talented jurist.”
Stewart-Cousins and her Senate counterparts expressed exasperation with the four weeks of waiting for Hochul to accept their determination after the 19-member Judiciary Committee rejected LaSalle in January. The outcome was the same, they said during floor debate on Wednesday, and both branches of government lost time and energy during weeks typically spent negotiating the $227 billion budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts April 1.
“All this did, frankly, was underscore the value of the committee process and illustrate why it makes sense,” Stewart-Cousins said.
Hochul continued to push for LaSalle’s confirmation following the Judiciary Committee’s rejection, saying that the state constitution required consideration from the full 63-member body. She threatened legal action, though never laid out any specific details.
Senate Republicans ultimately did it for her with a lawsuit in Suffolk County last week to try and force a full floor vote. So Stewart-Cousins ordered the full Senate vote on Wednesday. She maintained that the committee vetting process was the appropriate channel for the nomination, but a lawsuit would only prolong the vacancy at the top of the Court of Appeals following Janet DiFiore’s resignation last summer.
The Senate is eager to vet a new candidate, she told reporters, but her conference is looking for a “visionary leader” and has now shown that it will be rigorous in its scrutiny.
The political play highlighted for the first time the Senate supermajority’s willingness to wield its power over Hochul, who is in her first year of a four-year term after she succeeded Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he resigned in 2021. It could signal an even rockier road ahead for the governor as she searches for her stride in legislative relations.
Hochul and Stewart-Cousins had a “cordial conversation” preceding the vote, Stewart-Cousins said, though they did not discuss what the governor “learned or didn’t learn” from the experience.
“We both believe what we believe, but we also both understand the importance of being able to tackle the issue at hand, which again, is the budget, and we know that it is important that we work together, and we are committed to doing that,” she said.
No Democrats have emerged happy from the monthslong ordeal, but Senate Republicans are taking some credit for getting the process moving. The question that emerged had been whether the full Senate was required to vote on LaSalle or could the issue end with the vote in the Judiciary Committee, as Democrats contended.
“But for Senate Republicans and but for Senator (Anthony) Palumbo’s lawsuit, this doesn’t happen today. Governor Hochul didn’t do anything to make it happen,” Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt told reporters following the vote. Ortt maintained that a full floor vote was necessary for members of his conference to have a say in the nomination that they wouldn’t otherwise get from the Judiciary Committee, where Democrats control the outcome.
“We brought a lawsuit … and I’m glad we did, because today was a victory for democracy, for the Constitution, and for the rule of law,” he said.
The lawsuit — though based on the specific circumstances surrounding getting the LaSalle nomination to a floor vote — will continue, he said. The first court date in Suffolk County is set for Friday.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Most of Congress’ intraparty feuds are fleeting, especially when margins of control are as close as they are in the House and Senate these days. Any standoff that lasts longer than a few days risks ceding power to the other party.
But Scott and McConnell’s split is going the distance.
Over the past year, Scott has managed to dislodge Cruz as the biggest thorn in McConnell’s side, no small feat. The Florida senator’s performance as chair of the Senate GOP campaign arm and Scott’s own competing legislative agenda, which McConnell felt compelled to disavow — has sparked a nearly yearlong row between the two GOP senators.
And it’s more than a mere personality conflict for Republicans. Scott’s challenge of McConnell for leader has factionalized the GOP in a manner not seen since Cruz set the table to run for president a decade ago by taking on McConnell every chance he had. McConnell may have easily dispatched Scott — the final tally was 37-10 — but the fact that McConnell now knows 10 Republican senators were ready to oust him has made his job more complicated.
“Petty retribution can be a dangerous pattern in this place, particularly with a small body,” Cruz said in an interview, referring to the removal of Scott from the Commerce panel. “There’s an old proverb: when you look for revenge, you better dig two graves.”
McConnell denies removing Scott and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) from the Commerce Committee over their opposition to him as leader, but he is still slamming the Floridian’s personal policy portfolio nearly a year after its release. In public remarks last week, McConnell lashed Scott for a proposal that he sees as fuel for Democratic campaigns next year: “Unfortunately, that was the Scott plan. That’s not a Republican plan.”
It’s fair to say the animosity goes both ways.
“Who does really well with what we’ve been doing, just spending money like it’s going out of style? The elites do, people who make money off of the government do. Wall Street makes money,” Scott said this week. “Who doesn’t like my plan? Those people.”
While standing behind his plan, Scott also raised eyebrows last week when he introduced a new bill preventing cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
And that’s not the end of the diss track.
McConnell warned last week that Scott’s own agenda would become a “challenge” when the former Florida governor stands for reelection. Scott won narrowly in 2018, ousting former Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), though the state has moved to the right in the last four years.
“He’s gonna win. He’s won three statewide races already,” said fellow Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. “I don’t think he’s going to have a problem winning reelection.“
Then Rubio acknowledged what’s abundantly clear: “Obviously, there’s some friction there“ between McConnell and Scott.
Indeed, the GOP senators’ ongoing back-and-forth is creating plenty of intrigue — particularly given how taciturn McConnell usually is. As Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) put it: “He’s a pretty patient guy, but occasionally even Mitch McConnell has a right to stand up for himself. That’s what I think he’s doing.”
Others see things differently.
“The leader’s role is to support incumbent senators. He certainly did it up in Alaska,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who supported Scott in the leadership fight. “Certainly don’t denigrate them, don’t say anything negative about them. Financial support is one thing, but just verbal support is his responsibility. So, beyond disappointing.”
Scott’s seat is a key cog in the Senate GOP’s plans to win back the majority, and McConnell’s political network is behind him there. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Scott’s successor at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is behind Scott. So is the chief McConnell-aligned super PAC — even after it publicly sparred with Scott just a few months ago over campaign strategy.
“Senator Scott has never lost an election in the state of Florida, and 2024 will be no different,” said Torunn Sinclair, a spokesperson for the Senate Leadership Fund.
The imbroglio goes back to McConnell’s decision not to release an agenda ahead of November’s midterms, and Scott’s subsequent move to put out his own while running the NRSC. McConnell smarted over the plan, as well as Biden’s concerted attacks linking it to the rest of the party, though on Tuesday he declined to utter Scott’s name.
“This continues to come up. The president was talking about it in the State of the Union. He’s taken it out to various states. So let me say one more time. There is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security. Period,” McConnell said.
In addition to policy disputes, the clash stems in part from the two Republicans’ divergent views of modern politics. Scott views the attention he gets from Democrats as valuable increased name recognition, and he’s raised money off of the loss of his committee assignment. He said in an interview that it’s “great” to see Biden distribute his proposal: “I put out a plan, Biden puts it out. What else could you ask for?”
But McConnell sees things very differently, according to allies. He’s studiously avoided releasing any agenda that can be easily pilloried, instead trying to run as a check on Democrats — a strategy that’s had mixed results in his 16 years as Senate GOP leader.
With the party gearing up for another bid to take back the White House and Senate, that means some Republicans are cringing every time Biden brings up Scott.
“It’s a problem when you have the president of the United States in his State of the Union saying that Republicans want to get rid of Social Security,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Because of Scott, she added, Biden “has a kernel to hold onto. And I think that frustrates McConnell.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Few people believed Feinstein would seek another term. Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have both launched campaigns for Senate — although Schiff said his was conditional on Feinstein not running again — and Rep. Barbara Lee is preparing to launch her own.
Despite the widespread presumption that Feinstein would not seek reelection, her announcement on Tuesday nonetheless relieved California Democrats hoping to replace her from the awkward predicament of openly seeking a seat that wasn’t officially open.
Porter tweeted quick praise of the senator she’s hoping to succeed, crediting Feinstein for having “created a path for women in politics that I am proud to follow.” Schiff lauded her as “one of the finest legislators we’ve ever known.”
California’s primary system allows the top two vote-getters to advance to the general election regardless of party. Given the state’s overwhelmingly blue electorate, it’s quite possible that next November Californians will choose between two Democrats as they select their next senator. That was the case during Feinstein’s 2018 victory over Democrat Kevin de León and now-Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2016 victory over former Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez.
And whoever does win that race could hold the seat for decades, as Feinstein did.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Feinstein’s retirement at the Democratic caucus’ weekly lunch on Tuesday, where she received a standing ovation, according to party senators. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) also gave an introduction before Feinstein spoke.
Padilla “explained that his first job in public service was working for Dianne Feinstein,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recalled after the lunch. “Then he called on Dianne herself, who talked about her husband’s death and how hard that was and that she’s ready to step away from public life.”
While Democratic senators praised Feinstein’s long career, they were more reluctant to discuss who in the increasingly crowded field might replace her.
“Right now, we should just celebrate the amazing career of Sen. Feinstein, who has served her country with distinction and honor,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chair of the caucus’ campaign arm. “There will be plenty of time talk about the election in the future.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said he hoped “the voters of California will reflect on her record and her contributions, and that that will help inform the race in terms of what kind of leaders California’s voters want.”
Asked about the impact of Feinstein’s retirement on the race to succeed her, Warren — who has endorsed Porter — said she couldn’t speak to California politics. But she described her fellow progressive as “family.”
“When [Porter] said she would be in the Senate race, I said, like we always do with family: ‘I’ll be all the way with you,’” Warren said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
