The Republican National Committee (RNC) launched a second phase of its TV ads Wednesday, targeting President Obama in four key swing states.
The ads go after Obama and his management of the economy, offering a preview of the messaging Republicans will be using against the president in 2012.
This spot uses Obama's words during 2008's campaign, in which he talks about the need for change, and contrasts them with his economic record. The ad is airing in Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — four states Obama won in 2008, and four states in which Republicans hope to mount an offensive in 2012.
"President Obama won in 2008 by winning nine states President Bush carried in 2004. These states will undoubtedly be battlegrounds again in 2012 and Obama’s surrogates have also talked about widening the 2012 electoral map and playing in other states he failed to carry in 2008, like Arizona and Georgia," RNC political director Rick Wiley wrote in a memo. "This seems a curious strategy given the trouble he has closer to home."
The ad is the second in a series of new, weekly ads the RNC intends to release this month. They have limited television ad buys.
A leading Democrat offered the most blunt assessment to date of the GOP divide in debt-ceiling talks, citing an "internal war" between House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), bluntly pinned the debt-ceiling morass on a power struggle between Boehner and his No. 2, Cantor.
"I have to assume that isn't really about Democrats versus Republicans or the House versus the Senate; this is about John Boehner versus Eric Cantor," Israel said on liberal talker Bill Press's radio show. "This is about an internal war in the Republican caucus."
Israel, who's not at the table at negotiations at the White House, said it was his impression that Cantor is leading "a bunch of children who are running away from [Boehner] and maybe even trying to grab the Speaker's gavel from him."
Outwardly, Boehner and Cantor have projected a strong degree of unity, with their aides insisting that there's no daylight between the two when it comes to standing against tax hikes as part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling.
But a variety of newsorganizations on Tuesday publishedvariations of the same story: that Cantor has seized the mantle of opposing any revenue-raising provisions, perhaps having the effect of scuttling a "grand bargain" Boehner had sought with President Obama.
Of course, Israel's charge has clear political overtones. As chairman of the DCCC, he's charged with helping Democrats win back the House in next fall's elections. He's said he thinks control of the House is in play in 2012, and said the divisions in the GOP leadership were fueling a sense of "buyer's remorse" by voters who'd helped elect the Republican majority last fall.
The National Republican Congressional Committee outraised the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in May. While the DCCC ended the month with less debt, the NRCC has double the amount of cash on hand.
On Monday, the NRCC said it brought in $4.6 million in May and ended with $10.6 million cash on hand. The NRCC finished May with $7 million in debt. The month’s numbers brought the NRCC's overall fundraising numbers for the year to $26.8 million.
Meanwhile, the DCCC said on Monday that it raised $3.8 million in May and had $5.34 million cash on hand. The May numbers bring the DCCC's total funds raised for the year to $27.45 million, with $6.6 million in debt.
The May numbers are something of a shift from this year's first-quarter fundraising figures. In the first quarter of 2011, the DCCC reported raising $19.6 million while cutting down its debt to $8 million. Meanwhile, the NRCC raised $18.1 million with a debt of about $8 million. The NRCC reported having roughly double the cash on hand that the DCCC did for the first quarter. The NRCC reported $9 million cash on hand, while the DCCC had $4.6 million.
Democrats on Monday put their own spin on GOP Rep. Aaron Schock's (Ill.) ab photo, calling it a distraction from the debate over Medicare.
Schock showed off his abs on the cover of the latest Men's Health magazine, where he was billed as the "fittest member of Congress."
But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) circulated its own version of the cover to reporters in an email titled "Schock: Who Needs Medicare When You’ve Got Abs Like These?"
"As Americans continue to sour on the Republicans’ extreme, partisan plan to end Medicare, Representative Aaron Schock (IL-18) employed an unusual tactic to distract from his vote. Schock took to the cover of Men’s Health where he exposed everything, but his drastic plans to end Medicare," reads the email.
Democrats are going to great lengths to pressure Republicans on the Medicare reform proposal contained in Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget.
Republicans have billed Ryan's plan to transform the program into a "premium support" model as a way to drive down costs and keep the program solvent. But Democrats have argued the overhaul would essentially privatize the popular entitlement program, removing a key social safety net for seniors.
Some of Schock's Republican colleagues on Monday took a lighthearted approach to the photos, goading the Illinois lawmaker to share a bacon cheeseburger with them.
The National Republican Congressional Committee and Schock's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) was officially elected Wednesday as the new chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
Wasserman Schultz, known as a partisan warrior and a fixture on the cable news circuit, replaces Tim Kaine, who is running for the seat of retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.).
DNC members gave Wasserman Schultz a standing ovation as she entered the meeting room, chanting, "Debbie, Debbie." She was elected by acclamation.
Immediately after her election, President Obama joined the gathering by phone to congratulate Wasserman Schultz on assuming the leadership of the committee.
The incoming chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will stop taking money from political action committees for her personal campaign account, her spokesman said Thursday.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman tapped by President Obama to next lead the DNC, swore off PAC money in order to be consistent with DNC rules against PAC contributions.
The Sunlight Foundation first reported that Wasserman Schultz's last fundraiser from which she'll accept PAC money was Monday, coinciding with the end of this month.
It's not clear what the shift means for Wasserman Schultz's own PAC, the "Democrats Win Seats" (after her initials, "DWS") PAC, which itself relies largely on contributions from other PACs in order to help Democratic campaigns. The DWS PAC took in more than $66,000 in donations last month alone, according to its Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing, most of which came from PACs.
The DNC issued a rule barring donations from PACs shortly after Obama won the presidential nomination in 2008, a move praised by watchdogs as a step toward transparency and diminishing lobbyist influence.
The pivot by Wasserman Schultz also underscores the dual functions she'll serve for the next year and a half or so, both as a congresswoman who'll have to fight and win her own reelection battle (though she represents a relatively safe district), while serving in a higher-profile capacity as leader of the DNC.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) might sponsor a series of officially sanctioned debates for the party's 2012 presidential candidates, Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday.
Preibus acknowledged that the RNC remains in the process of contemplating sponsoring a series of official debates, which earlier reports had indicated the party was considering.
"The RNC is seeking to either sponsor, sanction, or put a Republican stamp on a limited number of debates," Priebus said at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.
Priebus said he could envision a series of monthly debates, beginning in the summer, for candidates who have entered the presidential race. These official forums wouldn't limit candidates from participating in any other debates.
The newly installed RNC chairman likened the party's plans to the officially sanctioned debates the Democratic National Committee (DNC) approved during the 2008 cycle.
"There isn't really anything more than that," he said.
But Priebus didn't address concerns about the debates and their format, namely whether the moderators would be selected by GOP officials or whether media outlets would have to pay for access to the debates.
Priebus did express concern that too many debates could erupt, as he said had happened in the 2008 campaign, leading to fatigue among voters by the time the early 2012 primaries arrive. The RNC-sanctioned debates, he said, would allow for a more organized pace to public candidate opportunities.
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