Category: Article

September 16, 2014

If the race for the Senate is as close as predictions show now, a couple of independent senators could be the kingmakers who determine which party controls the chamber. For a Daily Beast piece Tuesday, I talked to Sam Wang, a Princeton neuroscientist who wrote two books on the brain and whose recent work focuses on autism. Mr. Wang runs the Princeton Election Consortium and has devised a computer program that predicts Democrats have a 70% chance of holding on to control of the Senate.
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September 16, 2014

The media frenzy over Hillary Clinton’s trip to Iowa Sunday for a Democratic fundraiser no doubt leaves many Americans scratching their heads. We haven’t held this year’s election, which voters seem decidedly unexcited about, and yet political reporters can’t stop talking about the 2016 presidential race and the will-she-or-won’t-she question surrounding a Clinton bid. Let’s face it: She’s running. Her wink, wink, nudge, nudge references at Sen. Tom Harkin’s steak fry made that pretty clear.
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September 15, 2014

A new Pew Research Center poll shows that more Republicans than Democrats support President Barack Obama’s plan for a military campaign against Islamic State militants. Some 64% of Republicans and 60% of Democrats say they approve the president’s action. But they have different concerns about the strategy – 66% of Republicans fear the U.S. won’t go far enough to stop Islamic militants and 54% of Democrats say they are concerned the U.S. will get too involved. Only 47% of Independents favor U.S. military action in Iraq and Syria, increasing air strikes and providing military support to the Syrian opposition. Young people under the age of 30 are the least supportive of any age group with only 43% of young adults favoring military action.
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September 10, 2014

The Gallup poll published Monday found that 14% of Americans approve of what has been the least productive Congress in history. That rating is among the lowest Gallup has measured before a midterm election since 1974. Two-thirds of those who disapprove of Congress said it makes them more likely to vote in the midterms. Gallup also reported that those who are paying closest attention to national politics are the most negative about Congress. That could mean some surprises for incumbents even though only four have been defeated in primaries this year.
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September 9, 2014

The last primaries of 2014 are being held Tuesday–and independent voters could decide some major contests in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Independent or unaffiliated voters are the largest group in New England: In Massachusetts, 53% of voters are registered independents; in Rhode Island, 51% are; and in New Hampshire 43% of voters are independents–about the national average. In Rhode Island, almost 60% of the voters enrolling this year chose not to register with a party, the Providence Journal reported. Those figures should alarm Republicans and Democrats.
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September 5, 2014

There have been several dramatic reversals in the Kansas Senate race this week affecting Democrats’ hopes for defeating Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts. Democratic candidate Chad Taylor announced Wednesday he was withdrawing from the race without giving any reason. But Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, determined Thursday that Mr. Taylor’s name would remain on the November ballot as the Democratic candidate.
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September 4, 2014

In a victory for voting rights, a federal judge in Ohio overturned Republican plans to cut back on the state’s early, evening and weekend voting and eliminate same-day registration and voting. The Ohio League of Women Voters, the state NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union filed the legal challenge to the cutbacks adopted by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. The U.S. Justice Department also intervened in the case, arguing that reducing early voting disproportionately affects African Americans, who use early voting more than white voters.
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August 21, 2014

Florida Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis heard arguments Wednesday about whether to throw out the Florida Legislature’s redrawn congressional map, which critics say unfairly advantages Republicans, hurts minority voters and is unconstitutional. Under order by Judge Lewis, the legislature met in special session in early August and issued a revised congressional map on Aug. 11. But a coalition led by Common Cause and the Florida League of Women Voters says the new redistricting plan contains only minimal changes and still violates the state constitution.
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August 18, 2014

Former Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, who died Monday at age 80, was in many ways ahead of his time. Mr. Jeffords, a Republican who shook up the Senate in 2001 by becoming an independent and caucusing with the Democrats, represented Vermont in the House for 14 years before being elected to the Senate in 1988. He was re-elected twice more as a Republican before giving Democrats control of the Senate for three years. Republicans considered him a turncoat and claimed his conversion was in exchange for receiving the chairmanship of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
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August 13, 2014

While so many are watching Martha’s Vineyard–where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are expected to “hug it out” Wednesday night to put to rest any question of a rift over Iraq–discussions of that conflict and America’s role in the world aren’t going away. The mess that Iraq has become and doubts about why the U.S. launched the incredibly costly and unnecessary war have left deep scars on the American public and U.S. foreign policy.
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