Politics

Dan Maffei, the Democrat who nearly unseated Jim Walsh two years ago, is on the air in the 25th District.

Yesterday, Bill Kristol asked ‘Where’s Murphy?’ Today, Marc Ambinder answers: Not with John McCain.

Newsday’s Spin Cycle is having a heck of a time finding out where Hillary Clinton stands on FISA legislation.

FiveThirtyEight notes gains by Barack Obama among moderates.

The Democrats’ House and Senate prospects seem to be inversely proportional to the public’s opinion of the two chambers they already control.

A funny, succinct and brilliant assessment of Chris Matthews from Alex Pareene.

That thing that Tom Golisano announced today? Yeah…it’s not actually a PAC after all.

City Room notes a handful of interim appointments by Governor Paterson.

New campaign ads: McCain touts patriotism, Obama tackles energy.

I just spoke with Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, about Tom Golisano’s decision to seed a PAC with $5 million of his own money – and his lawyer’s assertion that Golisano can spend whatever he wants in state legislative races this fall as long as he doesn’t coordinate directly with any of the candidates.

“This is kind of one of those things that slips through the cracks,” Lerner said. “It’s the kind of thing that you’d think wouldn’t be allowed, but that actually he probably can do because these are independent expenditures.”

She added: “It’s exactly the kind of thing that gives people pause about our campaign finance system.  read more »

On the heels of Lanny Davis’ announcement last month, Howard Wolfson’s move today brings to two the number of top Hillary Clinton allies who have signed on with Fox News since the end of the primary season. And lest we forget that Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s campaign chairman, also offered praise of Fox that the channel recycled into a promo.

None of this would have been imaginable a year or two ago, back when Fox still treated the Clintons as the face of the enemy. So what happened?  read more »

The Clinton campaign and Clinton supporters obviously believed that traditional “liberal” media outlets like CNN and MSNBC had it in for them and were openly promoting Barack Obama, while Fox – especially as the primary season wore on – was far

I just spoke with Tom Golisano's lawyer, Henry Berger, who told me that Golisano, through the new political action committee that he formally launched today, "can spend whatever he wants" in this fall's legislative races.

Speaking by phone from his Manhattan office, Berger said Golisano's committee won't breach any state spending limits because it won't be donating directly to any candidates. Instead, the PAC will only be making "independent expenditures" to support or oppose candidates of Golisano's choosing. This way, Berger said, the PAC's activities are protected by Golisano's right to free speech.

"Golisano can spend as much money as he wishes as long as it's not coordinated" with any campaign, said Berger, who was in the news earlier this year when he helped David Paterson address some campaign finance-related questions that were raised when he became Governor.  read more »

Rochester billionaire and three-time gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano waved a $5 million check in front of reporters in Albany this morning and said he was forming a political action committee – “Responsible New York” – that he promised would help liberate lawmakers from the grip of party leaders.

Golisano has yet to endorse any legislative candidates, but his PAC will work on behalf of those who share his vision of reform. So far, he said, he has met with three Democrats running for the state Senate against incumbent Republicans. When asked about the G.O.P.’s slim control of that chamber, Golisano, who is still a registered Republican, said, “It has not been successful,” and he later wondered aloud why anybone would register with a political party.  read more »

Michael McMahon will have no problem making the ballot in the 13th C.D. while Republican signatures for the late Frank Powers could be vulnerable to a challenge.

Guy Molinari talks to a liberal blog about the state of the 13th C.D. race: “Based on the candidates that have surfaced so far, yes, we’re going to lose the seat."

Prom pictures featuring Eliot Spitzer.

And speaking of the former Governor, his call girl may soon have her own cable reality show – an idea that doesn’t seem to be going over well with EOnline’s commenters.

Yesterday, Barack Obama lost one of his better V.P. options when Jim Webb backed out of the running, apparently deciding that the rigorous vetting process and the intense scrutiny of a national campaign weren’t for him.

Around the same time, one of John McCain’s most intriguing options might also have removed herself – but not intentionally. That would be Carly Fiorina, whose nonchalant mentions of Viagra and birth control at a breakfast with reporters yesterday are reverberating in the blogosphere today, seemingly confirming the conventional wisdom that the ousted Hewlett Packard C.E.O. would simply be too risky an addition to the G.O.P.’s national ticket.  read more »

Maybe there’s another reason Barack Obama decided to deliver his convention acceptance speech in a football stadium. As Howard Mortman points out this morning, Obama’s August 28 address will coincide with the start of the college football season, with at least four nationally televised games on the docket.

Sure, most of the games scheduled are of regional interest at best, involving middling Division I-A schools and even I-AA teams, and the kickoff times for most of the televised games are early enough to allow viewers to flip over to Obama’ speech (which will probably start around (10:00 P.M.) without missing any of gridiron action.  read more »

Dates and details of the Barack Obama World Tour are seeping out.

The New York Times has a quick look at a few of the players in John McCain’s campaign, plus Karl Rove...

…while the New York Sun considers the potential complications of the prospective return of Michael Murphy to McCain-land.

Howard Wolfson is afraid of flying – so how did he get to Liverpool for his vacation? Also, he’s joining Fox News.

Skepticism about John McCain’s promise to balance the budget in 2013.

Carly Fiorina isn’t about to pull a Jim Webb.

Richard Cohen points out that Jimmy Carter was right after all.  read more »

Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg

Dates and details of the Barack Obama World Tour are seeping out.

The New York Times has a quick look at a few of the players in John McCain’s campaign, plus Karl Rove...

…while the New York Sun considers the potential complications of the prospective return of Michael Murphy to McCain-land.

Howard Wolfson is afraid of flying – so how did he get to Liverpool for his vacation? Also, he’s joining Fox News.

Skepticism about John McCain’s promise to balance the budget in 2013.

Carly Fiorina isn’t about to pull a Jim Webb.

Richard Cohen points out that Jimmy Carter was right after all.

   read more »

Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg

George W. Bush met with Dmitry Medvedev, the new Russian President, but apparently neglected to look into his soul.

John McCain and Barack Obama promoted their economic plans and both agreed that the other’s program would be disastrous for the country.

This should provide Obama with a talking point to defend his plan for a phased withdrawal from Iraq – although it might also reinforce McCain’s “the surge has worked” mantra.  read more »

This post has it right: No one saw this one coming. Senator Jim Webb, the former Republican and Reagan era Navy Secretary who has been touted as the perfect tough guy complement to Barack Obama, unexpectedly and very publicly withdrew his name from V.P. consideration today.

The most immediate beneficiary of this could be Tim Kaine, the first-term Governor of Virginia, which has emerged as perhaps the preeminent swing state of this cycle. Republicans have carried it in every election since 1964, but the Old Dominion's demographic evolution strongly favors the Democrats. Polls this year have shown Obama even with -- or even slightly ahead of -- John McCain.  read more »

The New York Times has posted a fairly comprehensive guide to the Veepstakes. They may have put this on their site a while back, but today is the first time I saw it, and I think part of their assessment of Sam Nunn is worth discussing:

Mr. Nunn was known for the most part as a conservative Democrat, and he led a high-profile fight against Bill Clinton’s effort to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military. Mr. Obama would certainly encounter some heat from his supporters if he turned to Mr.  read more »

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I’m noticing a pattern here: Some outfit conducts a poll, throws Bob Barr’s name into the mix, and reports back that the former Georgia Congressman and current Libertarian presidential nominee is scoring somewhere in the mid-single digits. Then, a bunch of news outlets run the same basic story about how Barr is poised to play the spoiler this year. Here are three such stories just from the past few days. Believe me, there are – and will be – plenty of others.

Maybe we need some perspective here.

Yes, it is theoretically possible that this election will come down to a handful of votes in one state, in which case the support that Barr receives – or that any other third party candidate receives, for that matter – could theoretically swing the election.  read more »

We've been focusing mostly on the national scene so far today, but there are some happenings here in New York:

Elizabeth Benjamin notes that Tom Golisano is launching a PAC.

Phillip Anderson at The Albany Project thinks Dean Skelos is wasting the Republicans’ money by going after Craig Johnson.

Forget Obama – what’s Hillary going to do this fall for Democrats in her home state?

City Room looks a little closer at the lack of business experience in the 2009 mayoral race.