House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is warning Democrats that if House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) “has his way” on his lawsuit against and impeachment of the president, “we might as well kiss all hope goodbye for the remainder of President Obama’s term.”
Democratic strategist Paul Begala declared that the possibility of impeachment “is no laughing matter.”
Vice President Biden said that if Democrats can’t prove Obama has grassroots support right now, “Republicans win.”
{mosads}But there’s a solution: give money.
The hyperbolic and, at times, desperate pleas — quite literally, Begala’s email declares in the subject line, “I’m pleading” — aren’t really an effort to tip off the grassroots to the GOP’s latest tactic to undermine Obama. They’re a very successful fundraising drive, and one that’s turned the GOP impeachment push into an asset for Democrats, rather than a liability for the president.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) said Tuesday that the impeachment push has “misfired” on Republicans.
“Look, I understand their strategy is intended to gin up their base, but it’s having the unintended consequence of moving our base in a midterm election and also moving persuadable voters, swing voters to us in a midterm election,” Israel said.
Republicans are accusing Democrats of hyping impeachment beyond the reality of the threat to raise money.
“It is a White House, DCCC fundraising scheme,” said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (Ore.) on Tuesday. “It’s very clear impeachment is not on the table. … No one in leadership is talking about the ‘I word.’ “
But though Walden may have a point: it’s working. Israel said that on Monday alone, the committee raised $1 million online over a 24-hour period — much of that from the Begala and Pelosi emails.
SENATE SHOWDOWN
OBAMA: A new Fox News survey reveals even voters would shy away from President Obama on the campaign trail. The poll found 57 percent of voters polled would not want Obama’s help on the trail if they were running for office in the midterm elections, a 7-point increase from the 2010 midterm numbers.
IMMIGRATION: The Service Employees International Union launched ads slamming four Republicans for “blocking” immigration reform. The ads target Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), running for Senate in his state, and Reps. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.), all vulnerable Republicans in districts where immigration reform is a significant issue.
IA-SEN (OPEN): Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) is hitting his Republican challenger, Joni Ernst, with a series of ads that aim to depict her as “too extreme for Iowa.” Braley released the first of these ads Tuesday, slamming Ernst for not supporting a national minimum wage or raising the statewide minimum wage.
NC-SEN (HAGAN): Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) touted her willingness to work across party lines and her National Journal ranking as the “most moderate senator” in a new ad. Hagan tells viewers in the spot that she’s “all for” any idea that helps middle-class families and says she is proud of the moderate ranking. “Not too far left, not too far right, just like North Carolina,” she says.
AK-SEN (BEGICH): Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) has a new ad out featuring a lifelong Republican pilot saying he’ll vote for the senator this fall, and comparing him to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “We’re fortunate to have two senators who understand our business and understand how to support it. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich vote as much as 80 percent of the time together. I don’t think we ought to break up that team,” the pilot says in the ad.
Murkowski has been a bit frustrated about Begich using her on the campaign trail — the ad may further irritate her.
WV-SEN (OPEN): As she tries to distance herself from President Obama and his energy policy, Democratic candidate Natalie Tennant was silent Tuesday on whether she backs the president. In response to a photo being circulated by her opponent, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), of Tennant campaigning for Obama in 2008, Tennant told “Fox and Friends” that she is “not sure” she would still campaign for him, adding that she is “disappointed” and “hurt with the way he is reacting to West Virginia.”
NH-SEN (SHAHEEN): Republican Scott Brown released a new radio ad Tuesday in which he declares it’s time to “get serious about securing the border” and blames President Obama and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) for the crisis at the border. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that a new outside group hoping to combat the influence of big-money groups on elections is backing former New Hampshire state Sen. Jim Rubens over Brown in the primary.
ME-SEN (COLLINS): Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) released a new ad Tuesday touting her bipartisanship, her “common sense” politics and her work for local Mainers. The positive spot focuses on Collins’s work to help save a working relationship between Maine breweries and farmers from being ended by congressional legislation. “Sen. Collins is a champion for local farmers, for business and the environment,” says a local brewery founder at the close of the ad.
MS-SEN (MCDANIEL): Chris McDaniel’s campaign manager, state Sen. Melanie Sojourner, has been fined $500 by the secretary of State for failing to file a campaign finance report due at the end of January, and may have her salary as a state senator discontinued until she files the report, the Clarion-Ledger reports. McDaniel still has yet to concede to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) in his contentious primary fight, more than a month after Cochran finished the runoff with a 2-point lead.
AR-SEN (PRYOR): An internal poll from Sen. Mark Pryor’s (D-Ark.) campaign has the senator ahead of his Republican challenger by 6 percentage points. The Pryor survey finds him leading Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) by 45 to 39 percent, but it stands in contrast to an internal poll from Cotton’s campaign in mid-June that found Cotton leading Pryor by 47 to 40 percent.
BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE
DCCC: Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) said Tuesday that Democrats were benefitting from the Republican lawsuit and impeachment push against the president. He said the tactic has had the “unintended consequence of moving our base” and swing voters in the midterm elections, and it serves as a strong fundraising tool.
NRCC: National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (Ore.) plans to seek another term after the midterms, he told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. Walden also responded to Democratic claims that Republicans were seeking to impeach President Obama, denouncing it as a “White House, DCCC fundraising scheme.”
MI-3 (AMASH), MI-11 (BENTIVOLIO): Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Rep. Kerry Bentivolio’s (R-Mich.) primary challenger, Dave Trott, both picked up the endorsement of the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday as they head into their primaries next week.
MA-6 (TIERNEY): Republican Richard Tisei is up with a new ad in which he touts his independence during his time in the state legislature, declaring that when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, “I voted with him 50 percent of the time, and I voted against him 50 percent of the time.” Tisei is one of a number of state lawmakers facing scrutiny over allegedly using their state campaign funds for federal races.
2016 WATCH
PERRY: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) seems to be benefitting from the border crisis, at least as far as his 2016 polling numbers go. A Fox News poll released Monday evening finds Perry nearing the front of the pack of potential 2016 GOP contenders, tying with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for 12 percent of the registered Republican vote. This is a 7-point increase for Perry from Fox’s last poll in April.
PAUL: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), widely seen as a likely 2016 presidential contender, is releasing a new book early next year, around the time he’s said he’ll decide whether to launch a bid for the White House.
CLINTON: Hillary Clinton said in an interview Monday that she “regrets” declaring that she and her husband were “dead broke” when they left the White House in 2001. “It was inartful. It was accurate. But, we are so successful and we are so blessed by the success we’ve had. And my husband has worked incredibly hard,” she said.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
—Democratic House candidate Rev. Jarrett Maupin (Ariz.) on his recent endorsement by a Phoenix strip club