2014 Governors

Several months ago, based on several far from minor out-of-the-gate mistakes, I characterized the candidacy of the Democratic Party's challenger to incumbent Republican Governor John Kasich as "the wreck that is Edward FitzGerald." In the past week, FitzGerald has utterly imploded. The latest revelation Tuesday afternoon, namely that he had "no license to drive at all from 2002 to 2008,"…

On Monday morning, broadcast networks ABC and NBC and cable news outlet CNN continued their blackout of the investigation into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and his shuttering of his own anti-corruption commission. Since the story broke on July 23 in The New York Times, neither one of these three news operations have covered the story. CBS This Morning, which previously reported on the…

Over the past week, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) has been embroiled in a political scandal following his decision to cancel his own Moreland Commission, created to expose political corruption in the state capitol. On July 23, the New York Times reported “that the governor’s office deeply compromised the panel’s work, objecting whenever the commission focused on groups with ties to Mr. Cuomo or…

It seems that Democratic National Committee chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz has herself programmed to automatically criticize any Republican governor in the U.S. for refusing to implement a state Obamacare exchange. Wasserman Schultz made that contention on Tuesday about Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval. She did so on Nevada's "Ralston Reports," a TV program hosted by Jon Ralston, whose…

On his MSNBC show The Daily Rundown, Chuck Todd interviewed Stephanie Schriock of Emily’s List, a narrowly tailored PAC for female pro-abortion Democrats. Todd began with a typical tutorial on how Democrats are substantially ahead of Republicans in the polls among women in some midterm elections. But after asking if the Hobby Lobby decision was energizing her supporters and opening a "gender…

Yesterday Accokeek, Md.-based firearms manufacturer Beretta USA announced that it would shut down its plant in Maryland and move all manufacturing operations to Gallatin, Tennessee. Beretta cited the state's hostile anti-gun politics as a reason for the move, although the Italian company will keep its white-collar executive jobs in the Old Line State. This is a gubernatorial election year in…

Politico reporters are badly burning themselves on Twitter these days. Last night (as yours truly noted this afternoon), the web site's Roger Simon, apparently upset that Rick Perry is doing his job, tweeted that the Texas governor is "sending 1,000 National Guard troops to border to shoot small children." Yet 12 hours later, Glenn Thrush, another longtime Politico veteran, tweeted a plea for…

Texas State Senator and MSNBC heroine Wendy Davis is not doing that hot in the fundraising race as she pursues her shot for governor of the Lone Star state, the Daily Beast reported today. "As if things weren’t going badly enough for Wendy Davis, the Texas gubernatorial candidate got caught inflating her campaign’s finances this week by counting a Willie Nelson concert as a contribution,"…

In what appears to be an act of leftist self-defense, an unbylined story at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, describes certain Colorado Democratic politicians' crticisms of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over recent "off-base remarks about two of its cities," but noted no reactions from Republicans — who are genuinely outraged, as opposed to arguably trying to…

It seems as though MSNBC is back on its anti-voter ID drumbeat as a legal challenge to North Carolina’s new voting laws goes before a judge this week.  On Monday, July 7, MSNBC host Alex Wagner expressed her outrage over the new law on her Now w/ Alex Wagner program. The MSNBC host played up how some liberal opponents consider North Carolina’s voter id laws to be “the new Jim Crow.” [See…

What a difference 12 months can make! Just ask Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator who was cheered on by the “mainstream media” for conducting a “passionate” filibuster against a bill to restrict abortions in the Lone Star State. While the law eventually passed, the obscure official was instantly catapulted into the national spotlight and encouraged to run for governor in the 2014 election…

So it turns out that Gov. Scott Walker was not a target of a criminal investigation nor is there any evidence that the Wisconsin Republican "engaged in a criminal scheme." Indeed, there "is not such a finding" in recently unsealed documents, Randall Crocker, an attorney representing special prosecutor Francis Schmitz noted on Thursday, according to reporting by the Washington Post's Matea Gold…

Pre-spinning what could be a "blow-out" loss by liberal Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, Politico on Monday accentuated the positives. A headline on the home page touted, "How Wendy Davis Wins By Losing." According to writers Anna Palmer and Katie Glueck, there is nothing but upside: "But even if Davis suffers a big loss, she could still score a win for her political career — setting…

The fact that “no criminal charges” have been filed against Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin on illegal fundraising did not stop MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and guest Amy Walter, former political director of ABC News and national editor of The Cook Political Report, from writing his political obituary on the June 20 edition of The Daily Rundown With Chuck Todd. “Regardless of where this…