The Coal’d Shoulder: Obama Abandons Democrats on the Ballot

News Links

Jun 6, 2014 0 426



Good morning folks,
Has President Obama already written off the Senate? Evidence suggests that five months prior to Election Day, the President is trying to unilaterally push through executive liberal initiatives in preparation for a Republican takeover of the Senate.
As National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar reports, “On energy issues, the president is actively making it harder for his party to win…. doing everything possible to make things difficult for his party’s most vulnerable senators. …the administration’s decisions to impose new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal-fired plants and indefinitely delay a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline could help burnish his long-term environmental legacy, but at the expense of losing complete control of Congress.” Even more bluntly, he writes correctly points out that “It’s no coincidence that Obama delayed implementing these regulations until after his own reelection.” Ouch.
The only plausible explanation is that President Obama and his political team have already written off Democrats from pro-energy states like Alaska, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, and Colorado. Further, Kraushaar notes, “there are five additional competitive Senate races where billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, who pledged to spend $100 million in legislative races, is avoiding entirely—Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, and North Carolina—an acknowledgment of the political headwinds with this year’s map.” So much for “expanding the map in a real way.”
Democrats on the ballot are already stumbling:

  • In Louisiana, Mary Landrieu is questioning the limits of her own Energy Chairmanship: The Hill reports, “Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s highly touted chairmanship on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee may not allow her to dive into the administration’s new climate rule as much as she’d like. Landrieu, who is facing a tough reelection battle this year, has run multiple ads boasting her powers as the new chairwoman on Senate Energy, and what it means for her pro-fossil fuels state of Louisiana. And while Landrieu slammed the administration for its new proposal calling for 30 percent cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s fleet of fossil-fuel power plants by 2030, she admitted the standards are out of her jurisdiction.”
  • In Kentucky, Alison Lundergan Grimes must be cursing the person who sold her a bill of goods to run in 2014. Grimes’ was so panicked to run away from President Obama, whom she twice endorsed, that she ran newspaper ads trying to distance herself. The problem? As Politico reported, “a European male model pretending to be a coal miner appears prominently in a newspaper advertisement released by Kentucky Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes.” Meanwhile, despite attempts to distance herself from Obama and Reid, Grimes was forced to embrace their “War on Coal” at a big dollar Washington Fundraiser this week. Eeeek.








  • In West Virginia, Natalie Tennant has bungled her own position on coal so brutally that it’s all but ground her campaign to a halt. As reported by the Washington Examiner, “Natalie Tennant… has apparently reversed course on her support for President Obama’s coal policies.” After vehemently defending and supporting President Obama’s plans on energy in coal in 2008, 2012, and 2013, Tennant now wants to reverse her own disastrous history on one of the most critical issues to her state. Unfortunately for Tennant, voters aren’t fooled so easily. Additionally, just like Grimes, Tennant is forced to beg for dollars from foot soldiers in Obama’s War on Coal, further exposing her deep hypocrisy on the issue.

We don’t mean to single out these three Democrats. Kay Hagan, Mark Begich, Mark Udall, and Mark Warner all have had similar problems and stumbles over the Obama initiatives. This latest debacle stands to reinforce a very simple disconnect that Democrats on the ballot in 2014 face: They’ve supported President Obama an astounding 94% of the time, despite the fact that just 36% of their constituents approve of his polices. It isn’t sustainable.
Seize the day- enjoy the weekend,
Brad Dayspring
@BDayspring
Brook Hougesen
@Brook_H
2014 BATTLEGROUND SONAR
(MISSISSIPPI) Wikipedia Edits Appear To Tie Chris McDaniel Campaign To Break-In Conspirator
One of the alleged conspirators in the case surrounding the break-in and photographing of incumbent Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran’s bedridden wife in her nursing home appears to have coordinated with a member of Cochran-challenger Chris McDaniel’s staff to airbrush his Wikipedia page in early April. Keith Plunkett, who serves as the policy director for McDaniel’s campaign, was caught making extensive edits to McDaniel’s Wikipedia page, drawing a rebuke from administrators of the online encyclopedia. Less than 20 minutes after Wikipedia administrators told Plunkett not to edit McDaniel’s page or share his Wikipedia account, another account was created that also edited McDaniel’s page. The second account appeared to belong to Richard Sager, who was later arrested in connection with the nursing home case. Sager was arrested and charged with felony tampering with evidence last month.
(ARKANSAS) Pryor in 2011: Raise the Retirement Age
Senator Mark Pryor is making entitlements an issue in the Arkansas Senate race. Both Pryor and his Democratic allies are hitting Republican nominee and House member Tom Cotton over his support for a budget proposal that would have, starting in 2022, gradually raised the retirement age for receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits. Pryor spokesman Erik Dorey said last month that “Congressman Cotton will need to answer for why he recklessly voted to undermine Arkansas seniors’ hard-earned retirement and make them wait for Medicare and Social Security until they’re 70.”
(MICHIGAN) Michigan Dem Announces Support for CO2 Regs that Will Kill Jobs
Michigan Democratic Rep. Gary Peters is embracing proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations that could potentially drive up energy costs and cut up to 225,000 jobs every year. “The setting of achievable and affordable carbon reduction goals is an essential and important first step in the process,” Peters said in a statement on his congressional website. “As this process moves forward, I am committed to finding practical, affordable, common-sense ways to reduce carbon emissions, promote renewable energy, and strengthen Michigan’s economy.”
(NORTH CAROLINA) Showdown in Tar Heel country
“Twenty-four times” is Thom Tillis’s answer, delivered with a faint flicker of a Cheshire Cat smile. The question was: How many times, that his campaign knows of, has Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) said on camera that under Obamacare, if you like your health insurance, you can keep it? Tillis will be sharing some of her video promises with voters as he seeks to become part of a Republican Senate majority in January.
(COLORADO) EDITORIAL: Obamacare’s October surprises
Coloradans can expect bad news Friday. Depending on where they live, their health insurance premiums are going up. Obamacare regulations require insurance companies to report their rates to the government according to a set schedule. It’s part of the process set up to enable the Department of Health and Human Services to decide which prices are acceptable and which are not. There has been sticker shock already in some states.
(LOUISIANA) Republican Bill Cassidy runs against Obamacare in his lab coat and scrubs
Rep. Bill Cassidy really doesn’t like Obamacare. Also, he’s a doctor. That, in short, is the message of the first TV ad of the Republican’s campaign for U.S. Senate in Louisiana. The congressman dons a white lab coat and scrubs for a 30-second commercial in which he lays out his opposition to the law from the perspective of a physician. “Most in Congress who voted for Obamacare never read the bill,” Cassidy says. “It affects your job, your pocketbook, your life. And they didn’t read it. I read the bill. It was clear there would be canceled plans, expensive premiums, no guarantee you could keep your doctor. I voted no.”
(ALASKA) New Dan Sullivan for U.S. Senate: “Returning the Favor”
(GEORGIA) Reporting Casts Doubt on One of Michelle Nunn’s Favorite Stories
Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn is hosting a fundraiser this evening at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta, Ga. Nunn has long claimed that Manuel’s is the where she and her friends “started” Hands on Atlanta, the volunteer organization where she served as executive director. She often tells the story of how the group was inspired while “sitting around a table at Manuel’s” and “literally passed around empty beer mugs and asked people to pitch in what they could.”
(IOWA) Des Moines Register: Chick’ slam draws criticism
Democrat Bruce Braley has created a stir for comparing his GOP rival to a chick. Braley, a U.S. Senate candidate, released a negative ad on Wednesday, the day after Republican Joni Ernst won the five-way race for her party’s nomination.


(NEW HAMPSHIRE) Brown touts energy policy in Windham
U.S. Senate hopeful Scott Brown tried to pump up enthusiasm for his energy policy yesterday. The Republican took to the stump at the gas pumps at the Waterhouse Country Store. Brown, launching his “Making Energy Affordable Tour” at the Mammoth Road store, said he would help rein in soaring prices at the pump and put the country on the right track. “It’s obviously affecting everyone,” he said. But first, Brown has to win the GOP nomination this fall. Although he’s widely considered the Republican front-runner, he has to beat former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith, former state Sen. Jim Rubens and conservative Karen Testerman. If he’s successful in the primary, he would face Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in the general election.
(VIRGINIA) Gillespie discusses agenda, says he plans to unite GOP
Two days before the state GOP convention in Roanoke where he hopes to be nominated for U.S. Senate, Ed Gillespie on Thursday unveiled his political and economic agenda designed to unite moderate Republicans and the more conservative tea party wing. Touting his record as a corporate consultant, congressional aide and presidential adviser, Gillespie told reporters in a press call that his experience will help him be “an effective senator on Day One.”
(SOUTH DAKOTA) S.D. Republicans choose Rounds for U.S. Senate
Mike Rounds cruised through a chaotic Republican U.S. Senate primary Tuesday setting up a potentially even wilder general election campaign. But Rounds, a former two-term governor who had 56 percent of the vote in a five-way primary with 90 percent of precincts reporting, will be trying to steer an uneventful path to November.
(MONTANA) Daines up 23 in Vox Populi poll
Montana Republican Senate candidate Steve Daines leads appointed Sen. John Walsh by 23 points, 56-33, in a poll conducted for Rob Portman by the GOP firm Vox Populi. The robopoll of 806 “active voters,” which means they voted in either 2010 or 2012, was conducted May 21-22 by the new GOP firm. “We cannot allow the rising tide that is buoying Republicans to make us complacent,” the NRSC vice chairman emailed donors to PortPac late this afternoon, attaching the results. “I have worked hard over the last few months to support Steve’s campaign, and I will continue to do so right up until November.”
(WEST VIRGINIA) Democrat Natalie Tennant’s curious coal evolution
Natalie Tennant, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in West Virginia, has apparently reversed course on her support for President Obama’s coal policies. Tennant campaigned with Obama in October 2008, while she was running for her current job as secretary of state of West Virginia and he was running for president. This was nine months after then-candidate Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that his plans to introduce a cap-and-trade system in America would “bankrupt” new coal plants. Now, that video wasn’t uncovered until two weeks after Tennant stumped for Obama (although the audio was available the entire time), so let’s give Tennant the benefit of the doubt that she didn’t know.
(OREGON) Could Oregon Go Purple?
But like its northern neighbor, Washington state, Oregon is not so blue as it is purple. Wehby’s education as a pediatric neurosurgeon and home address squarely in the Democratic stronghold of Multnomah County could bridge the communication gap between the mostly rural and Republican eastern half of the state and the very blue Portland metro area and coastal counties…With the president’s approval rating in Oregon at only 46 percent, and the failure of the state’s Obamacare rollout, a Republican woman from blue territory trusted with performing surgery on children’s brains is a strong candidate.
(MINNESOTA) New McFadden video: I’m with Mike
(KENTUCKY) Alison Lundergan Grimes’ coal miner? A European model
Accompanying that message is a large picture of a man in a hard hat with a sooty face holding out a piece of coal toward the camera. It was taken by Ukrainian photographer Victor Gladkov and is for sale on the photo website Shutterstock. Also available there are pictures of the same model dressed as a doctor, engineer, soldier, student, carpenter and painter. He is also shown making an obscene gesture toward the camera in one image. The press release accompanying the ad said it was “the first paid investment” of a six-figure campaign targeting coal country. The release said the ad would run in newspapers in Eastern and Western Kentucky, the regions most affected by the Obama administration’s new rules.
POLLING BRIEF
Vox Populi - May 21-22

  • Steve Daines leads appointed Sen. John Walsh by 23 points, 56%-33%.
  • Walsh’s approval rating is 44 percent in the Vox Populi poll, but President Barack Obama’s approval rating is 35 percent and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s is 31 percent.
  • Only 16 percent said they would call Obamacare a success, and only 23 percent said they or someone they know well has been helped by the law.

ON THE TWITTERS
@ProfHagle - Diff take #iasen RT @jimgeraghty: The “Chick” ad is stupid because it assumes viewers will believe Democrat Bruce Braley will cut spending.
@jennifereduffy - This campaign just gets weirder by the day. “@BDayspring @ForecasterEnten: This is not good for McDaniel… http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynsk…”
@Morning_Joe- KY Sen. candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes’ pro-coal ad features European model #morningjoe
@TIMEPolitics: Bruce Braley misses with sexist ad likening Joni Ernst to a chick | http://ti.me/1mXJEl9 (via @JNSmall)
@KAndersonDC - VIDEO: MSNBC Panel Mocks And Laughs At Grimes’ Coal Ad With European Model http://youtu.be/kwrTeCxpUSs #kysen
@jameshohmann - Tea Party Express email that says “We just got off the phone with the McDaniel campaign and they need our help!” raises Qs abt coordination.

http://www.theminorityreportblog.com...on-the-ballot/