The Edge: The Christie and Booker Bro-Mance
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The Christie and Booker Bro-Mance
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker hail from different parties, but they've been allies when it matters most. Booker passed up a gubernatorial campaign against the popular Republican governor, allowing him to face a much easier reelection bid. Returning the favor, Christie hastily scheduled a special election for October that makes it difficult for any Republican to compete (or even qualify for the ballot) and makes Booker the heavy favorite to become the state's next senator.
While Booker faces two Democratic lawmakers in the primary—Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt—the compressed timeframe strongly favors the candidate with the larger profile. That's Booker, by far. He leads his lesser-known opponents by more than 40 points in the latest round of polling. Add the fact that it's extremely expensive to air campaign advertisements—that's why county party officials hold outsized influence in New Jersey—and it's going to be very hard for any challengers to play catch-up.
What once looked like a fascinating race is now shaping up to be a sleeper. If Booker doesn't succeed the late Frank Lautenberg in the Senate, it would qualify as a huge upset.
Josh Kraushaar
jkraushaar@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
SENATE TO TAKE UP IMMIGRATION-REFORM BILL TUESDAY. This week marks the start of an intraparty battle among Senate Republicans over the comprehensive immigration-reform bill introduced by the "Gang of Eight," The New York Times reports. Debate on the legislation is scheduled to begin Tuesday. While Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Crossroads GPS have voiced support for the measure, Senate conservatives are committed to derailing the effort. The full Senate is expected to hold a final vote on the bill before departing for the Fourth of July recess. White House officials are maneuvering behind the scenes in support of the reform bill, and President Obama is scheduled to deliver an address on the subject Tuesday. Read more
The measured tone of the Ayotte and Crossroads GPS endorsements signal the difficulty of passing the Senate measure, The Washington Post reports. Read more
NSA LEAKER SNOWDEN COULD FACE EXTRADITION FROM HONG KONG. Edward Snowden, the former CIA technical assistant and current Booz Allen Hamilton employee who revealed himself as the source of leaked documents on U.S. intelligence programs, could face extradition from Hong Kong, The New York Times reports. Snowden reportedly checked out of a Hong Kong hotel on Monday afternoon, and it was unclear whether he remained in the territory. In an interview with The Guardian, Snowden said that he had traveled to Hong Kong because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent," but legal experts maintain that Hong Kong generally has agreed to extradite suspects for whom the United States issues a warrant. Read more
Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland's Parliament, said that she is willing to help Snowden get asylum in the country if he chooses to apply, Forbes reports. Read more
CLINTON APPROVAL NUMBERS DROP IN GALLUP SURVEY. A recent Gallup poll finds that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has seen her approval rating drop to the lowest level since 2009, The Washington Post reports. The decline owes largely to the erosion of support for Clinton among independents, as her ratings among Republicans and Democrats have remained consistent. The Gallup survey mirrors the results of ABC News/Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg News, and Quinnipiac polls. The lower ratings may be attributable to the controversy over the Sept. 2012 Benghazi attacks, as well as Clinton's departure from her nonpartisan Cabinet post. Despite her slide, Clinton matches or outpaces recent predecessors Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice and "remains among the most popular secretaries of State in recent history," the Post notes. Read more
Clinton sent her first tweet this morning—the account was registered in April—thanking the creators of the Texts from Hillary meme. Read more
OBAMA TAPS FURMAN TO CHAIR COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS. President Obama nominated Jason Furman, principal deputy director of the National Economic Council, to head the Council of Economic Advisers on Monday, The Washington Post reports. Furman, who has held his post since Obama took office, has played a leading role in key elements of the president's domestic agenda, from the 2009 economic stimulus to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Read more
SENATE, HOUSE SET FOR BATTLE ON CUTS TO FOOD-STAMP PROGRAMS IN FARM BILL. The Senate is expected to vote today to approve the farm bill, setting the stage for a clash with the House over cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Senate measure would reduce the cost of the food-stamp programs, which ran to $75.7 billion in 2011, by $4 billion, while a House proposal would cut $20 billion in funding. The House measure is scheduled to hit the floor on June 17, but its fate is less certain than that of the Senate plan, which earned a 75-24 margin of support on a procedural vote last week. Read more
National Journal's Jerry Hagstrom writes that strong leadership from both the Senate and the House will be needed to complete a conference report and send a bill to President Obama before the current extension of the farm bill expires Sept. 30. Read more
COMEY COULD FACE SENATE QUESTIONS ABOUT DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, President Obama's expected nominee to lead the FBI, could face congressional scrutiny over government surveillance, The Wall Street Journal reports. Comey, who famously clashed in 2004 with then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card over the reauthorization of a domestic-surveillance program, could be asked to offer details in the wake of recent revelations about an NSA surveillance initiative. Read more
GUN-CONTROL GROUPS MARK NEWTOWN ANNIVERSARY WITH LOBBYING EFFORTS. Gun-control advocates—including some relatives of children killed in the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary—will travel to Washington this week to lobby lawmakers on the six-month anniversary of the attack. White House aides said that President Obama is not scheduled to hold any gun-related events this week or to issue additional executive orders on the issue, but likely will acknowledge the milestone. A number of groups will stage an event in front of the Capitol on Thursday, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns Director Mark Glaze said that his group will launch a summer bus tour from Newtown, Conn., on Friday. Read more
S&P GIVES GOVERNMENT STABLE CREDIT OUTLOOK. Standard & Poors changed the federal government's credit outlook to "stable" Monday, Reuters reports. It had previously been "negative." The agency said that Congress's ability to circumvent a fiscal crisis at the end of 2012 and the belief that the coming debt-ceiling debate won't cause "a sudden unplanned contraction in current spending, which could be disruptive," were a couple of reasons behind the change. They said there was less than a 33 percent chance that they would downgrade the country's rating. S&P is the only rating agency to strip the U.S. of its AAA status. Read more
TOMORROW
SENATE TO TAKE PROCEDURAL VOTES ON IMMIGRATION REFORM. The Senate will vote on a motion to proceed to S 744, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill, and as Roll Call reports, Tuesday's votes are expected to go smoothly, with the real back-and-forth expected in the coming weeks of debate. Read more
ARMY SECRETARY TO SPEAK ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT. Army Secretary John McHugh will speak at the Army Annual Sexual Harassment/Assault Prevention Summit at 2 p.m. at Joint Base Andrews. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., took to Face the Nation on Sunday to speak out against sexual assaults in the military, saying that victims currently have a "fear of retaliation" if they report sexual abuse. Read more
QUOTABLE
"Congressman Markey is going to have his army of people and they are all from Washington. His army is the army of D.C. But my army is the people of Massachusetts."
– Massachusetts GOP candidate Gabriel Gomez, in an interview with the Boston Herald.
BEDTIME READING
SANDY HOOK PARENTS ENTER INTO 'LONELY QUIET.' "After the gunfire, the funerals, the NRA protests, and the congressional debates, they were finally coming into the lonely quiet," The Washington Post's Eli Saslow reports on one Newtown, Conn., family. "They were coming to the truth of what Newtown would become." It has been nearly six months since 7-year-old Daniel Barden was shot to death in Sandy Hook Elementary, one of 26 altogether, and in the aftermath the Barden family had advocated for stricter gun regulations, met with President Obama in the Oval Office, and traveled to Delaware to advocate for new gun-control measures. But this is a story about getting through each and every terrible day following the loss of a child. Read more
PLAY OF THE DAY
OBAMA FINDS YOUR CORRESPONDENCE VERY BORING. With Saturday Night Live on a summer hiatus, Friday is a slow evening for late-night comedy. However, on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the show brought out its version of "Barack Obama" to give a small speech about the program, eventually coming to the point that text messages, phone calls, and e-mails indicate that Americans are very boring. Meanwhile, The Tonight Show's Jay Leno spent most of his monologue highlighting the recent controversies surrounding the Obama administration. Leno made reference to the IRS spending scandal by bringing up the famed dancing video and mentioned the popularity of the agency by saying "we'd all chip in" for an expensive "going-away party" for the agency. Read more
PROFILE AT A GLANCE: JASON FURMAN
Why he is in the news: President Obama has nominated him to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.
Current job: Assistant to the president for economic policy and principal deputy director of the National Economic Council (White House)
Education: M.A. in government and Ph.D. in economics, Harvard University; M.Sc. in economics, London School of Economics.
Career highlights
Played a major role in crafting the 2009 stimulus, 2010 payroll-tax cut, and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. (The Washington Post)
An architect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Has served as visiting scholar at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, a visiting lecturer at Yale and Columbia, and a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Served as economic-policy director on the Obama campaign in 2008
Worked on the presidential campaigns of Secretary of State John Kerry and Gen. Wesley Clark
Served as a junior economic staffer in the Clinton White House
Of interest
Has promoted tax reform and stimulus within the White House
Currently a presidential appointee, but new role will require Senate confirmation
Has edited several books on economic policy, including Who Has the Cure? and Path to Prosperity
THE QUIRK
GIANT CICADA BLOCKS A VICTORY FOR TEDDY AT PRESIDENTS RACE. During the presidents race at Sunday's Nationals game, Teddy Roosevelt looked like the clear front-runner to win until victory was snatched from his grasp by a giant cicada. The human-sized "bug" came out of the stands, tackled him, and then proceeded to body slam the 26th president. George Washington ended up winning the race, but as a local NBC affiliate asks, the real question is, "Where did a cicada find a pair of Chucks?" Read more
