Cotton Poised to Announce Pryor Challenge; Davis Hints at TX GOV Run; Grahams to Sell Post

National Journal

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WHAT'S NEWS

  • "The U.S. military evacuated non-essential" U.S. gov't personnel from Yemen on Tuesday "due to the high threat of attack by al-Qaida that has triggered temporary shutdowns of 19 American diplomatic posts across the Middle East and Africa." The State Dept. also "said U.S. citizens in Yemen should leave immediately because of an 'extremely high' security threat level" (AP).

  • Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is "scheduled to address supporters at a campaign event in his hometown of Dardanelle" on Tuesday and is "expected to announce that he'll challenge" Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) (AP). Pryor "is going on the air with a two-day ad buy" starting Tuesday, putting "about $45,260 in the Little Rock, Fort Smith and Jonesboro markets" (Politico).

  • At an event Monday at the Nat'l Press Club, TX state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) said she would run either for TX GOV or her current state Senate seat (Buzzfeed). Davis has met with the DGA "in recent weeks" (Politico).

  • Polls are open in Detroit until 8 p.m. Tuesday in the city's 14-candidate mayoral primary. Wayne Co. Sheriff Benny Napoleon seems "likely to cruise to one of the top spots" in the Nov. general, but ex-Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan's write-in bid has created uncertainty in the race (Detroit Free Press).

  • The four Dems running in next week's NJ SEN Special primary "largely avoided confrontation during their first debate Monday evening" (Bergen Record).

  • Nine GOPers and two Dems have qualified to run in the AL-01 Special, with primaries slated for 9/24 (Mobile Press-Register).

  • VA GOV candidate/AG Ken Cuccinelli (R) "urged" Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) "on Monday to call a special General Assembly session to repair 'severe holes' in the state's ethics laws," but a McDonnell spokesperson said the proper time for an ethics debate would be next year, during the legislature's next session (Washington Post).

  • The NYC mayoral campaign of Comp. John Liu (D) "suffered a crushing blow Monday when the city's Campaign Finance Board," which "cited 'evidence of substantial non-compliance' with city campaign finance law ... denied him millions of dollars in taxpayer money for the race" (New York Daily News).

  • When Rep. Peter King (R-NY) asked NH state Sen. Jeb Bradley (R)on Monday "whether he would run" for NH SEN, "Bradley responded, 'All the rumors are true.' He added, 'The reaction I'm getting is very positive.'" But Bradley "later retreated, saying he had yet to make a final decision" (AP).

  • MT state Supt. of Public Instruction Denise Juneau (D) announced Monday she won't run for MT SEN or MT-AL (Roll Call).

  • Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) "will make a formal announcement" on whether he'll seek reelection "in another day or two" (Tulsa World).

  • WY SEN candidate Liz Cheney (R) "improperly received a state resident fishing license based on an application" that listed Cheney "as a 10-year resident" of WY. Cheney "said she answered all of the questions truthfully" and didn't claim to have lived in the state for 10 years (Casper Star-Tribune).

  • EMILY's List announced its first round of House endorsements on Tuesday, backing Dem challengers Staci Appel (IA-03), Erin Bilbray (NV-03), Ann Callis (IL-13), Gwen Graham (FL-02), Eloise Reyes (CA-31) and Martha Robertson (NY-23) (release).

  • Ex-Bush Admin. official Elise Stefanik (R), "who ran debate preparations" for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) during WH '12, "will announce her bid to challenge" Rep. Bill Owens (D) in NY-21 on Tuesday (New York Times).

  • In MN-08, the NRCC "plans to spend about" $24K on a new TV ad targeting Rep. Rick Nolan (D) (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

  • When ex-WH CoS Bill Daley (D) launched his new IL GOV website on Monday, "he included a photo that could trump that of any other candidate in the race," a photo "taken in the Situation Room the day Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces" (Chicago Sun-Times).

  • On Monday, RNC Chair Reince Priebus "sent stinging letters to NBC and CNN concerning their recently announced decisions to produce films" on ex-Sec/State Hillary Clinton (D), threatening to "formally bar" the RNC "from partnering with the networks" on any WH '16 debates if they continued production on the films (Breitbart.com).

OUR CALL

Hotline editors weigh in on the stories that drive the day

• WMATA matters. The Silver line, connecting I-66 and Dulles, is a contrast in the VA GOV race, while MD Gov. Martin O'Malley and the man he wants to succeed him, LG Anthony Brown, are touting their work on the MontCo/PG Co. Purple line. Now if only someone would fix the damn escalators.

• Expect to see a lot of headlines like this one while Congress is at home over the next month, as members try to keep their personal numbers from getting dragged into the abyss where Congress's overall approval rating lives.

HAIR OF THE DOG

FRESH BREWED BUZZ

  • "The Washington Post Co. agreed Monday to sell its flagship newspaper" to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, "ending the Graham family's stewardship of one of America's leading news organizations after four generations." Bezos will pay $250M "in cash" for the Washington Post, the Express newspaper, the Gazette Newspapers and Southern Maryland Newspapers, the Fairfax County Times and the Spanish-language newspaper El Tiempo Latino (Washington Post).

  • "It was clear to me that he wanted to buy the newspaper for the right reasons ... that he understood what newspapers do and why this newspaper in particular is important and that he would be willing to stand up for it" -- Don Graham, on Bezos (New York Times).

  • "I don't feel like it's the end and that I have to summarize my legacy in terms of this news" -- Washington Post publisher Katherine Weymouth, who is staying on through the Bezos transition (New Yorker).

  • "This is probably the most caring thing that Don could have done: he really cares about the paper and wants it to be in the best possible hands, and Jeff Bezos is a really great guy" -- Longtime Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn (Politico).

  • "If Don Graham says this was the right thing to do, I trust him" -- Post humor columnist Gene Weingarten (AP).

  • Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) said he "advised" House Speaker John Boehner to argue that the '10 health care law's "10% tax on tanning bed services is racist against white people because darker-skinned people don't need to tan." Yoho: "I had an Indian doctor in our office the other day, very dark skin, with two non-dark skin people, and I asked this to him, I said, 'Have you ever been to a tanning booth?' and he goes, 'No, no need.' So therefore it's a racist tax and I thought I might need to get to a sun tanning booth so I can come out and say I've been disenfranchised because I got taxed because of the color of my skin" (ThinkProgress.org).

  • "House GOPer Ted Yoho goes birther" (Salon).

  • "She is tough, she is determined, she is prepared. She is also accommodating. But once she gets to a place, she is a bulldozer you can't move" -- House Approps Chair Harold Rogers (R-KY), on Senate Approps Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) (New York Times).

  • "[T]hey might have 'No Sydney' signs up by that point. I might have to wear some terrible Amanda Bynes wig to get in" -- Anthony Weiner virtual mistress Sydney Leathers, who is contemplating crashing one of the NYC mayoral debates (New York Daily News).

SWIZZLE CHALLENGE

  • George Steinbrenner was suspended by MLB for two years for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon.

  • The winner is Carten Cordell, and here's his Swizzle Challenge: "What former politician served as a police commissioner, assistant secretary of the Navy, army colonel, governor of New York and vice president in the span of four years?" The 6th correct e-mailer gets to submit the next question.

NJ'S EARLY BIRD SPECIALS

SHOT...

"I had to go on a [trip] to the middle east and I was the one Democrat. I said 'Cantor why am I here?' and he said 'Well the rules are we needed a Democrat and we didn't get a yes until we got to W'" -- Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), on a barely-bipartisan codel (Buzzfeed).

...CHASER

"Write-ins give Welch GOP nomination" (Barre Montpelier Times Argus, 9/18/08).

Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief

Steven Shepard, Executive Editor