Category: Congress

NY-9: Boots on the Ground

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CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Changing planes here on my way to Tampa for the debate, but enough of a layover that I had time to had time to check my e-mail, and found a report on what the Conservative Action Fund is doing in the run-up to Tuesday’s special election in Anthony Weiner’s former congressional district. Here are some photos:

CAF district field manager Bill Murphy talks to an NY-9 voter.

Murphy and another CAF activist streetside in NY-9.

My friend Ali Akbar is a consultant working with CAF on the NY-9 campaign and e-mails these comments:

“Conservative Action Fund has the largest outside force inside of Weiner’s old district. . . . Our team is running into tons of disaffected Democratic voters and they’re not just complaining about Weprin — it’s Obama and jobs too. . . .Conservative Action Fund beat the DCCC and the NRCC into the district. We are proud to be making a difference and forcing Democrats to spend hundreds of thousands, maybe a million dollars or more, to keep this very blue seat in the heart of New York city.”

Click here to support CAF’s effort in NY-9.

PREVIOUSLY:

VIDEO: Ladd Ehlinger Strikes NY-9 With Surfing Rabbi and Dancing Weiners

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GO RED 9/13!

UPDATE: A new Sienna College poll shows Turner leading by 6 points, with a 38-point advantage among independents. Ace of Spades points out that Weprin’s vote for gay marriage might be hurting him among Orthodox Jews in the district.

UPDATE II: The latest poll — the second in the past week to show Turner leading — inspires these headlines:

Poll: Republicans On Verge Of Shocking NYC Upset
— Hotline On Call

Poll shocker: GOP up for Anthony Weiner seat
— Politico

PREVIOUSLY:

NY-9: Democrats Panic as Bob Turner Surges in Anthony Weiner’s District

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Three weeks ago, I told you about Republican Bob Turner’s “unexpectedly” strong campaign in New York’s 9th District in the Sept. 13 special election to fill Anthony Weiner’s seat:

The district’s Cook Partisan Voting Index rating is only D+5 — not nearly as prohibitively partisan as Jerry Nadler’s 8th District (D+22), for example. And remember how fired up we got for Sean Bielat’s challenge to Barney Frank? The Cook PVI rating for Frank’s MA-4 district is D+14. So if a bunch of bloggers and Tea Party types could put the fear into Barney — and we had him sweating, didn’t we? — we might actually be able to beat this Democrat second-teamer Dave Weprin.

Sept. 13 is Tuesday, and apparently the Turner campaign has inspired genuine fear in the Democrats:

Democrats are showing the clearest sign yet of concern ahead of next Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 9th District — the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is going up on air with an expensive television buy in the campaign’s closing days.
According to buy information obtained by Hotline On Call, the DCCC has made a $483,500 TV ad buy in the district, starting tomorrow through Monday. The broadcast TV buy will not air on September 11, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Democratic super PAC House Majority PAC has also bought advertising time in the district as well.

There’s good reason for the Democrats to panic: A poll conducted last week showed Turner leading 44%-40% with 12% undecided. The jitters have caused Democrats to make numerous blunders in NY-9, including a TV ad that had to be re-edited because “an image of a plane flying over the Manhattan skyline — meant to be a corporate jet to represent Republican Bob Turner’s support for corporate tax loopholes . . . evoked anger in some corners for the echoes it brought up just days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.” Some Democrats are blaming the Weprin campaign staff. But the Democratic candidate hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory, either:

Weprin endured ribbing in New York City tabloids after he pulled out of a recent debate and explained that he was doing so because of Hurricane Irene – which, at the time, had already passed. A few days later, he was criticized after he told the New York Daily News that the nation’s deficit was $4 trillion, even though it is actually $14 trillion.
Then there is Weprin’s effort to manage his connection to President Barack Obama. At a press conference last month, Weprin declined to answer whether he would endorse Obama, only to release a statement the next day clarifying that he would. Then, he hedged in his support for the president in a newspaper interview last week, saying: “I will probably not refuse to endorse him because I think I will be more effective by supporting him but at the same time, being very strongly against him on some of his policies.”

In a district with a significant Jewish population, Weprin is suffering because of perceptions that the Obama administration hasn’t been sufficiently pro-Israel — a point Donald Trump makes in his robo-call for Turner:

All in all, it’s a perfect storm that might flip NY-9 to Republicans, and you can help. Remember yesterday, I told you about Conservative Action Fund’s effort for Mark Amodei in Nevada’s 2nd District? Well, CAF is also supporting Bob Turner and your contribution — $25, $50, $100 — could make a big difference.

BOB TURNER for U.S. CONGRESS
He’s Scaring Liberals to Death!


NV-2 New Ad: ‘We Were Promised Recovery, We’ve Been Given Misery’

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The special election in Nevada’s 2nd District is Tuesday, and in his final TV ad, Republican Mark Amodei targets the SCOAMF’s economic bungling:

Amodei, a former state senator and Nevada GOP chairman, has sought to link Marshall to President Barack Obama.
“We were promised recovery. We’ve been given misery,” Amodei says in his ad, as pictures of Obama, Vice President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid fill the screen. “Let’s get Washington’s attention.”

NV-2 — which covers basically the entire state, minus the Las Vegas area — is a reliably Republican district and this special election is to fill the seat vacated by GOP Rep. Dean Heller, who was appointed to replace John Ensign in the Senate. Early voting has been under way for two weeks, and Republicans are encouraged. But unions are dumping money into Democrat state treasurer Kate Marshall’s campaign:

Heading into the final stretch of the race, Marshall, the current state treasurer, has out-raised Amodei and also had more cash left in her war chest as of Aug. 24, the last date covered by the pre-election campaign finance reports filed on Thursday.
But outside groups have also dumped more than $800,000 into the race, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. The National Republican Congressional Committee alone has spent about $600,000 and the conservative super PAC American Crossroads has spent about $195,000.
Polls indicate the race is tight. One recent poll from Daily Kos/Public Policy Polling, Amodei, a former state senator, earned 43 percent of the vote to Marshall’s 42 percent.

One of the outside groups helping offset the Democrat’s money advantage in NV-2 is the Conservative Action Fund, which is also supporting Bob Turner in Tuesday’s NY-9 special election. This is a time when your contributions — $25, $50, $100 — can make a big difference.

MARK AMODEI for U.S. CONGRESS
Make Sure Harry Reid’s Congressman Is a Republican

‘Unexpectedly’: Voters in NY-9 District Realize President Obama Is a ‘Moron’

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By now you’ve noticed how bad economic news in the Obama age is always “unexpected” according to liberal reporters. Now the failure of Obamanomics seems to be intruding into the political sphere:

Of all the places to hear fulminations against President Obama, one of the least expected is the corner of 71st Avenue and Queens Boulevard, in the heart of a Congressional district that propelled Democrats like Geraldine A. Ferraro, Charles E. Schumer and Anthony D. Weiner to Washington.
But it was there that Dale Weiss, a 64-year-old Democrat, approached the Republican running for Congress in a special election and, without provocation, blasted the president for failing to tame runaway federal spending. “We need to cut Medicaid,” she declared, “but he won’t do that.” She shook her head in disgust. “He is a moron.”
After nodding approvingly for a time, the Republican candidate, Bob Turner, signaled for an assistant to cut off Ms. Weiss. Frustration with Mr. Obama is so widespread, he explained later, that he tries to limit such rants to about 30 seconds, or else they will consume most of his day.
“It’s endemic in the district,” Mr. Turner said. “You can’t stop them once they get started.”
The Sept. 13 election was expected to be a sleepy sideshow — a mere formality that would put David I. Weprin, a Democratic state assemblyman and heir to a Queens political dynasty, into a Congressional seat that became vacant this summer when Mr. Weiner quit over an online sex scandal.
Instead, the race has become something far more unsettling to Democrats: a referendum on the president and his party that is highlighting the surprisingly raw emotions of the electorate.
National Democrats, alarmed by a poll that showed the contest far closer than anticipated, are privately fretting that even a close outcome in a working-class swath of Brooklyn and Queens may foreshadow broader troubles for the party in 2012.
The Siena College poll, conducted early this month, showed Mr. Weprin with an advantage of 6 percentage points, within the margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 points.
Suddenly Mr. Weprin’s aides have ramped up fund-raising, enlisting big-name figures like Senator Joseph I. Lieberman to headline events. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has dispatched operatives to advise the candidate. And the campaign, aided by big city unions, is drawing up an extensive field operation to turn out the vote.

Read the rest — thanks to Bert the Samoan Lawyer for the tip.

Unlike Barack Obama, I hate to encourage false hope and impossible dreams, but NY-9 may be a heckuva lot more winnable for Republicans than even the freaked-out Democrats fear.

The district’s Cook Partisan Voting Index rating is only D+5 — not nearly as prohibitively partisan as Jerry Nadler’s 8th District (D+22), for example. And remember how fired up we got for Sean Bielat’s challenge to Barney Frank? The Cook PVI rating for Frank’s MA-4 district is D+14. So if a bunch of bloggers and Tea Party types could put the fear into Barney — and we had him sweating, didn’t we? — we might actually be able to beat this Democrat second-teamer Dave Weprin.

But we’ve got to get cracking, folks: Sept. 13 is just three weeks from Tuesday, so go give Bob Turner $20 or $50 or $100 now and then help spread the word via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail to all your friends: A Republican could win this NY-9 special election, so please give now!

UPDATE: Just today Bob Turner was endorsed by the NY Sun.

BOB TURNER FOR CONGRESS
He Never Tweeted Pictures of His Junk to a Porn Star

House Passes Debt Deal 269-161

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The latest news:

The House on Monday approved bipartisan legislation to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and reduce long-term budget deficits, endorsing the agreement President Obama struck with Republican leaders. . . .
The bill now heads for a Tuesday vote in the Senate . . .
The vote was 269-161, as Republicans largely carried the measure over the opposition of a majority of the Democratic Caucus. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) backed the bill, as did Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), but neither leader made a public effort to win Democratic support. . . .

We will have the roll call momentarily.

UPDATE: While awaiting the roll call, we will note the Lonely Conservative’s observation that this is “the largest debt ceiling increase in the history of the United States.”

Yeah, what a triumph for those Tea Party “terrorists,” huh? “We got nothing,” as Norah says — but who is this “we”?

UPDATE II: Fredo denies using the “T-word”:

Vice President Joe Biden tells CBS News that published reports that he compared Tea Party-linked lawmakers to “terrorists” during a closed-door meeting Monday are “absolutely not true.”
“I did not use the terrorism word,” Biden told CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley.

If Joe Biden says it, buddy, you can take that to the bank!

UPDATE III: Wait — this is the roll call? This? “To make a technical amendment to the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002”? The roll call on this gargantuan monstrosity is recorded as a vote on “a technical amendment”?

Please tell me I’ve got the wrong roll call, because this seems like some kind of sick joke.

UPDATE IV: Informed friends tell me that this is indeed the roll call, the measure having been brought to a vote in the House as a “technical amendment” to a Senate bill, in order to expedite passage once the Senate votes on it.

So . . . 66 Republicans voted “no” and 95 Democrats voted “aye,” which makes it the Great Bipartisan Screw-Over of 2011.

Remember that we are prepared to meet all your “bipartisan compromise” lubrication needs.

UPDATE V: The New York Times:

On the Senate floor on Monday, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said: “People on the right are upset. People on the left are upset. People in the middle are upset.”
But he called it a “remarkable agreement which will protect the long-term health of our economy.”

And let’s call out a few names of the radical Tea Party extremists who voted for it in the House: James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) . . .

Yep, just like Joe Biden said: “Terrorists”!

UPDATE VI: Ed Driscoll on Obama and the “terrorist” vote.

UPDATE VII: Rounding up the “calm, rational rhetoric,” Jimmie Bise Jr. reminds us of the Missouri Democrat who said Republicans had allowed “a small number of extremists to take the House of Representatives and the economy of the world as hostages.”

That was Rep. William Clay — who voted for the final bill!

McConnell Says ‘Very Close’ to Deal on Debt-Ceiling Agreement With Obama UPDATE: Reid’s Bill Fails Senate Vote

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UPDATE 1:25 p.m. ET: The Senate just held a cloture vote on Harry Reid’s bill which, as expected, failed to get the 60 votes necessary to end debate and proceed. The vote was 50 “aye” and 49 “no.” So much for Reid’s bill being the “only game in town,” huh?

UPDATE 2:15 p.m. ET: Here’s the roll-call vote. Scott Brown of Massachusetts was the only Republican to vote “aye,” while Democrats Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Ben Nelson (Nebraska) both voted “no,” as did socialist independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Reid voted against his own bill on the cloture motion; this is a parliamentary maneuver, since voting “no” permits Reid to bring his bill up for a vote later.

Linked at Legal Insurrection — thanks!

PREVIOUSLY (11:45 a.m. ET): The outlines of the Neither Fish Nor Fowl Bipartisan Sellout Compromise Act of 2011 are coming into focus, and the Senate Republican leader is cautious:

McConnell said he is “very very close to being able . . . to recommend to my members that this is something that they ought to support.”
“You’ll see that this is a process that could get him (President Obama) past the election. We’re working on the combinations that will get us there,” McConnell said. “I’m particularly appreciative that we’re now back talking to the only person in America who can sign something into law and that’s the president of the United States.”

Getting Senate approval for a compromise plan will likely be much easier than getting such a deal through the House, as I explain at The American Spectator:

How many Republican votes can House Speaker John Boehner deliver for a compromise that abandons principles that were seen as essential to conservatives, when he could just barely get 218 votes for his own bill Friday? And if Boehner can’t deliver a majority for the compromise deal, can Nancy Pelosi produce any Democrat votes at all, considering that zero Democrats voted for Boehner’s bill?

If this deal does go through, the biggest loser will be Harry Reid, as Professor William Jacobson says: “We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House which apparently are closing in on an agreement, but one thing is clear, Harry Reid has become a sideshow.”

There’s always more room under Obama’s bus, isn’t there?

UPDATE: Linked by Da Tech Guy — thanks! — and the latest word is that there will be a procedural “test vote” in the Senate at 1 p.m. ET.

UPDATE: OK, here are details on the “test vote,” which is a cloture motion on Harry Reid’s bill:

Talks intensified ahead of a test vote in the Senate on the Democrats’ debt-ceiling plan. That vote is expected to fail, putting the onus on negotiators to come up with yet another alternative. . . .
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has postponed a vote on his deficit-reduction package until 1 p.m. ET. That vote is still scheduled to take place, but 43 Senate Republicans have already vowed to oppose it, putting more pressure on negotiators to come up with an alternative.

Right now, I’m watching C-SPAN2, where Barbara Boxer is blathering on with her usual partisan crap.

UPDATE III: Boxer’s crap has now ended, and John McCain is now debating Dick Durbin. It’s like Freddie Krueger vs. Jason, Alien vs. Predator.

UPDATE IV: Amid the accusations of “betrayal!” and “sellout!” from conservatives angry at GOP concessions, let’s pause to look at what liberals are saying. Nate Silver of the New York Times:

The debt deals as reported really seem like more a capitulation by the White House than a compromise.

What the Left wanted — nay, demanded — were tax-increases on “The Rich” and “Corporate America.” Obama gave speech after speech demonizing “millionaires and billionaires.” But when push came to shove, he folded like a cheap suit.

If conservatives were in a mood to declare victory, we could easily do so on such grounds. Yet it seems to be Night of the Long Knives time, and there is a lot of grassroots anger toward the Republican Establishment.

Linked by Don Surber — thanks!