January 2004

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California Opens Arms to GOP 1/29/2004 12:10 PM In the 2000 presidential election, President Bush got clobbered by Al Gore in California, 53 percent to 42 percent. And although the Golden State is perceived to be chock full of mostly registered Democrats, a recent poll shows that Bush's performance approval rating in that state is now at 52 percent. That means for this year's presidential election, California may be a key state for the GOP - the first time since 1988. Democrats and Republicans surveyed said Bush is favored for three reasons: Saddam Hussein is in custody, there's more money in their pockets after Bush-imposed tax cuts and actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is in the governor's seat in Sacramento. Read the article Wall Street Bankers, Reelection Backers 1/22/2004 12:23 PM One unseasonably cool evening in late October, a group of Wall Street bankers waited aboard a ferry in New York Harbor for the short trip to Ellis Island and a thank-you event for major backers of President Bush's reelection campaign. The Bush administration had given the bankers almost everything they ever dreamed of: a reduction in dividend and capital-gains taxes, a phase-out of the estate tax, an overall reduction in income taxes. So they waited patiently, eager do whatever they could to ensure the president's reelection. "Wall Street runs on a good economy and the president has given us that," said Mallory Factor, a merchant banker who was among those on the boat. "Then you look at the alternatives on the other side. Either one of those things is enough to make you support the president." Read the article Laura Bush Increases Campaign Involvement 1/22/2004 9:44 AM With Campaign 2004 in full swing, first lady Laura Bush is ready to apply "a grain of salt" to persistent Democratic criticism of her husband. "I know this is our last campaign, whatever happens, and I think there will be a sense of nostalgia with that," Mrs. Bush said in an interview Thursday on CBS's "The Early Show." President Bush's wife noted that the Democratic Party is heavily involved in a delegate-selection process to choose the candidate who will oppose Bush in November. Asked if she gets upset when opponents harshly criticize her husband, Mrs. Bush replied, "Sure." "It's just a fact of life in American politics, and I know that," she said. "But also, I think you become a little bit inured to it, but maybe you never do. You know it's just a fact of life and you can take it with a grain of salt." Read the article Bush Strategists Hedge Bets, Prepare Plans for Dean Loss 1/19/2004 9:29 PM President Bush's political strategists, who have been "war-gaming" against Howard Dean for weeks, have begun to prepare for the growing possibility that Mr. Dean might not win the Democratic nomination. Although Bush officials still regard the former Vermont governor as the likely nominee, the race has become tight in Iowa and New Hampshire. That has led them to spend more time on contingency plans for the emergence of an alternative to Mr. Dean. Read the article Janklow Resignation Ends Long Political Career 1/19/2004 9:24 PM Whether they loved him or hated him - and few seemed neutral - South Dakotans will notice when Rep. Bill Janklow leaves the political stage he has dominated for nearly three decades. Janklow's resignation from Congress takes effect Tuesday, six weeks after the former four-term Republican governor was convicted of manslaughter, speeding and running a stop sign in an Aug. 16 accident that killed a motorcyclist. Read the article Frist, Giuliani at GOP Caucuses in Iowa 1/19/2004 9:19 PM Some high-profile Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani fanned out across Iowa Monday to attend the party's own caucuses and begin the process of nominating President Bush for a second term. Bush's re-election campaign sent party leaders to several locations to motivate attendees of the caucuses, which were expected to generate little drama. As expected, Bush has no opposition in the state. Read the article Dick Cheney: The Strong, Silent Type 1/18/2004 7:23 PM As a rule, Dick Cheney doesn't like to talk unless he has to. He sits for long stretches of conversation, holding his fingertips together at his lips, peering over his glasses. When he does speak, it is in a brisk cadence and often in partial sentences, as if to conserve every word. "I start out by nature to be a private person," he says. "Where I grew up, out West. You learn not to toot your own horn. I remember at an orientation for congressional fellows. There was a quote. Attributed to Sam Rayburn. 'You never get in trouble for something you don't say.' " The vice president is hunched on a couch during a short flight from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma to Seattle. He is having an expansive moment. You can tell because he's opening his whole mouth to talk, not just mumbling out the right side. And he is doing a most un-Cheneylike thing: talking with his hands. "In my experience, those who have had the most impact are people who keep their own counsel," Cheney says. "They don't spend time worrying about taking credit." In his case, he says, "it's not so much a strategic decision as much as it's what I'm comfortable with." Read the article Blunt Declares Campaign for Governor 1/14/2004 12:21 PM Secretary of State Matt Blunt announced his campaign for governor today in a high school gymnasium in this southeast Missouri town, where his family has won political office for many years. Blunt, 33, said he would bring a new direction for Missouri state government and said more money for schools would be the top priority of his administration if he were elected. "The current administration in Jefferson City looks at problems in terms of politics," Blunt said. "We will chart a new course, finding ways to create cooperation and progress and seeking solutions that benefit all." Read the article Georgia Democratic Senator Miller to Back Bush 1/14/2004 12:14 PM Senator Zell Miller is bringing along some of his Georgia Democratic friends to an Atlanta fund-raiser Thursday evening featuring President Bush. The appearance aims to show voters that the president's support in the state is not limited to Republicans only. In fact, nine other Georgia Democrats, including former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell, who served under Carter, are planning to announce their support for the president. Georgia has been experiencing a gradual shift from Democrat-dominated to Republican-led politics over the last 35 years. In 2002, Georgia elected a GOP governor for the first time in more than a century. Read the article Democrats, GOP Both See a Bias in Election News 1/13/2004 8:26 PM Bias is catching: Voters from both political parties now think that the news media takes a partisan tilt in its election coverage, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Sunday. "Perceptions of partisan bias seen as growing - especially by Democrats," the survey stated. Among those Democrats, 29 percent think the coverage favors Republicans, up from 19 percent in 2000. And among Republicans, 42 percent think the coverage is biased toward Democrats, up from 37 percent in 2000. Such concern is growing among all voters. Back in 1987, 62 percent of viewers thought that election coverage was free of favoritism. Now, only 38 percent would agree. Read the article Tony Feather Emerges From the GOP Trenches 1/13/2004 8:18 PM The rise of Tony Feather from congressional intern to successful lobbyist is a story of loyalty, of good deeds rewarded -- and of Republicans taking care of their own. After nearly three decades of working for GOP candidates in Missouri and surrounding Midwest states, Feather is emerging as a Washington power broker, thanks to some friends named Karl Rove, Joe M. Allbaugh, Ken Mehlman, Donald L. Evans and Jack Oliver, his colleagues from President Bush's 2000 campaign, for which he served as political director. Read the article New Texas Map Could Affect National Politics 1/8/2004 2:33 PM A federal appeals panel has approved the redistricting map drawn by Texas Republicans, and unless the Supreme Court takes up an appeal, the new borders could impact not just the state delegation in Congress but electoral politics on a national scale. The redrawing of the map, encouraged by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, angered Democrats in the state Legislature so much that on two occasions, lawmakers fled the state in attempts to halt it. Read the article Bush Heads to Tennessee, Florida to Raise Cash 1/8/2004 2:27 PM With $99 million in the bank, President Bush is on an aggressive search for more money for his re-election campaign. Returning to the fund-raising trail Thursday, Bush was heading to Knoxville, Tenn., and Palm Beach, Fla., to further build up his record bankroll. He has another half-dozen fund raisers scheduled around the country through the rest of the month. Read the article Black GOP tries to Step Past Color 1/8/2004 2:25 PM Many black Republicans running for Congress are turning away from the identity politics of race and ethnicity and, in the process, seeking to reshape the way politicians and voters think about skin color and ideology. In 2004, 10 black Republicans are running for the House and Senate; these candidates come from Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Rhode Island. Unlike many black Democrats, whose political roots go back to the civil rights battles of the 1950s and %u201960s, these Republicans draw a distinction between politics and race, arguing that their worldview has little to do with what they look like. Read the article Blunt to Announce his Candidacy for Missouri Governor 1/5/2004 5:39 PM Republican Secretary of State Matt Blunt plans to make official next week what has been assumed for months -- that he is running for governor. Blunt, 33, has been the presumptive Republican candidate for governor for nearly a year, building a campaign team and fund-raising under the generic banner of "Matt Blunt, Effective Leadership 2004," without officially declaring his candidacy. Last month, Blunt hosted a fund-raiser in Kansas City attended by Vice President Dick Cheney. At the start of the new year, former state GOP executive director John Hancock joined Blunt's campaign payroll as a consultant. Read the article Texas Congressman Hall Switches to GOP 1/5/2004 5:38 PM Democratic Rep. Ralph Hall, the longest serving member of the Texas congressional delegation, told CNN Friday evening he has switched parties and will file to run for a 13th term as a Republican. "I consulted some constituents and most agreed with me," Hall told CNN's Michael McManus in a phone interview Friday night. "I have voted with the Republicans most of the time. The country is at war. When the country is at war you need to support the president. Some of my fellow congressman have not been doing that," Hall added. Read the article Thune to Challenge Daschle 1/5/2004 1:42 PM Former Rep. John Thune, R-S.D., intends to run against Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle this fall, GOP sources said Monday, giving Republicans the type of high-profile challenger they covet against one of President Bush's most persistent critics in Congress. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Thune intended to disclose his plans at a party dinner in Sioux Falls, S.D. "He'll be announcing his intentions, which are to run," said one official. Thune is expected to delay a formal announcement of his candidacy for a brief period, although he intends to begin raising campaign funds immediately, officials said. Read the article With no Primary Challenger, Bush can Court Mainstream 1/5/2004 10:50 AM The absence of Republican primary challengers is allowing President Bush to campaign for centrist swing voters with a freedom that he lacked in 2000, when he ran to the right of rival Sen. John McCain. "We haven't been forced to make a choice between activating our base and appealing to mainstream voters," said Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt. By seizing the center of the political spectrum with initiatives such as government-subsidized prescription drugs for Medicare recipients, Mr. Bush also is taking advantage of the Democrats' lurch to the left in their protracted primary battle. Read the article Ex-HUD Chief Filing for Florida Senate Seat 1/5/2004 10:48 AM Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez began his run for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate on Monday, saying he is not banking on his presidential connections to win the primary. Washington-based attorney Ken Connor, a longtime friend of Martinez's, filed papers with the secretary of the Senate and had a copy delivered to the Federal Election Commission. It allows Martinez to begin raising money for the campaign to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Bob Graham. Read the article