The Edge: Why Rand Paul Is Smart to Court Black Voters
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Why Rand Paul Is Smart to Court Black Voters
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is doing what no other prominent Republican has done in almost two decades: speak at Howard University. He’s the first highly visible Republican official to make an address there since Colin Powell in 1994, school officials say, and he’ll be speaking to a skeptical audience.
Yet there are signs it could pay off. While most of the focus has been on the GOP’s efforts to win over Hispanics, they’d be just as well-served to trim Obama’s 87-point margin over Mitt Romney among African-Americans. If Romney won a mere 20 percent of the black vote, he’d probably have carried Virginia, Florida, and Ohio. Perhaps that was impossible with President Obama on the ballot. But it’s a worthy target moving forward.
Blacks tend to be more socially conservative than most Democrats, particularly on gay marriage. They’re also more supportive of school choice than Democratic Party leaders. Tim Scott of South Carolina, one of two African-Americans in the Senate, is a Republican.
Republicans clearly have a long way to go to win over black voters. But they’d be negligent not to try.
Josh Kraushaar
jkraushaar@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
McCONNELL ASKED FBI TO INVESTIGATE CAMPAIGN OFFICE TAPING. Following Mother Jones’s publication this morning of a recording from a campaign meeting in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and staffers poke fun at actress Ashley Judd, McConnell’s campaign is decrying “Nixonian tactics” in allegedly bugging its headquarters, and has asked the FBI to investigate. The Washington Post reports that “the contents seem like standard opposition research,” including discussion of Judd’s liberal stances, religious beliefs, and mental health. Judd, in a statement, called the recording “yet another example of the politics of personal destruction that embody Mitch McConnell and are pervasive in Washington, D.C.” Read more
DOE NOMINEE TOUTS GAS, BACKS OFF CARBON TAX. Ernest Moniz, Obama’s nominee for secretary of Energy, said at his confirmation hearing today that he plans to encourage domestic natural-gas production to reduce the pace of global warming, calling the recent boom in American gas and oil a “revolution,” the Associated Press reports. Moniz also backed away from a 2008 letter in which he endorsed carbon pricing, according to The Hill. He is expected to win easy confirmation. Read more
CMS NOMINEE VOWS BUSINESSLIKE APPROACH. At her confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee today, Marilyn Tavenner, Obama’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said she would lead the sprawling bureaucracy like a business, Reuters reports. "We have an $820 billion dollar business to run that a large amount of this country has a stake in," she said. Tavenner was introduced by Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who has worked with her in Virginia. Cantor’s glowing praise is likely to limit any Republican opposition to her nomination. Read more
BURWELL GOES BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Obama's nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today. In her opening statement to the panel, Burwell struck a conciliatory tone. Citing her experience in the Clinton White House, she said she has learned the value of bipartisan compromise. "There is no question that the road ahead will be difficult. The challenges we face are sobering. But I am confident we can come together on a comprehensive plan," she said, according to prepared testimony.
GUN-BILL FILIBUSTER BEGINS TO FIZZLE. The plan by some Republicans to filibuster gun-control legislation was losing steam today, as more than half a dozen GOP lawmakers abandoned their colleagues’ effort to block consideration of the bill, National Journal’s Shane Goldmacher reports. Some Republicans suggested their willingness to vote down the filibuster was tied to the right to attempt to amend the gun-control legislation on the floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would file cloture today to force a vote later this week and proceed with the bill over the objections of a dozen GOP senators. Read more
"I want to proceed to this bill. I want to debate it. I am not afraid of this bill." —Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
NRA OUTMANEUVERS OBAMA’S ARMY. Although the first votes on gun-control legislation have yet to be cast, by some measures the National Rifle Association has already won, writes National Journal’s Beth Reinhard. Obama’s ambitious plans to ban assault weapons and limit magazine capacities are off the table, while the NRA suggested it could support the most likely outcome—expanded background checks—as recently as 1999. The NRA claims that the president’s efforts have triggered a fundraising surge and boosted its membership from 4 million to nearly 5 million. Lawmakers who seemed open to legislation after the December school shooting in Connecticut are still on the fence, while Republicans are threatening a filibuster. Read more
Reid cited his own father’s suicide in an emotional appeal for gun-control legislation on the Senate floor today. (Huffington Post)
OBAMA NOMINATES TWO REPUBLICANS TO LABOR BOARD. Obama moved to fill three positions on the National Labor Relations Board, renominating Democratic board Chairman Mark Pearce and tapping Republicans Harry I. Johnson III and Philip A. Miscimarra, the AP reports. The NLRB has essentially been in limbo since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in January “invalidated” Obama’s January 2012 recess appointments of Democrats Sharon Block and Richard Griffin. The president nominated Block and Griffin to full terms in February of this year, and the administration “hopes that Senate Republicans will favor the five-member package nomination.” Read more
CNN’S CROSSFIRE REVIVAL MIGHT BE THE WORST IDEA EVER. Back to the future is a cliché, but how else can you describe CNN’s decision to revive Crossfire? National Journal’s Jill Lawrence has been trying to decide whether this is the worst idea ever, or merely meh. Since the program was canceled in January 2005, we’ve been Crossfired indirectly, with different sides shouting across the political chasm from different networks. What are Fox News and MSNBC if not the institutional equivalents of Pat Buchanan, Mary Matalin, John Sununu, and Tucker Carlson on the right, and Michael Kinsley, Bill Press, Geraldine Ferraro, and Paul Begala on the left? Read more
TOMORROW
OBAMA’S BUDGET TO BE RELEASED. Obama is expected to release his much-anticipated budget to Congress on Wednesday, “aimed at stimulating the middle class and introducing reforms aimed to cut deficits,” as Voice of America puts it, but which has gotten bad reviews from liberals for its proposed cuts to entitlement programs. Read more
IMPORTANT HEARING FOR NOMINEE TO FEDERAL COURT. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday will hold the confirmation hearing for Sri Srinivasan, Obama’s nominee for United States Circuit Judge for the D.C. Circuit. Obama’s last nominee for the D.C. Circuit, Caitlin Halligan, withdrew after Senate Republicans twice filibustered her nomination. Four of the court’s 11 seats are vacant. The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin predicts that if Srinivasan is confirmed “he’ll be on the Supreme Court before President Obama’s term ends.” Read more
QUOTABLE
“I assume most of you have played the game Whac-A-Mole? This is the Whac-A-Mole period of the campaign ... when anybody sticks their head up, do them out.” —Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., discussing Ashley Judd in a secretly taped meeting. (Mother Jones)
BEDTIME READING
SHE CREATED A NEW SOCIETY, BUT COULDN’T LIVE IN IT. Shulamith Firestone “was the epicenter of the radical-feminist movement,” writes Susan Faludi in the current issue of The New Yorker. But when Firestone died last year she was destitute, living on public assistance and battling schizophrenia. While the entire cadre of Firestone’s “sisters” at “the radical edge of a movement that profoundly changed American society,” did not end as bereft as Firestone, many built a world in which they were unable to thrive. Faludi explores how the radical feminists reshaped society, starting in the late 1960s, and how Firestone—the most radical and audacious of them all—drove the women’s-liberation movement forward. Read more
PLAY OF THE DAY
OBAMA’S BUDGET AND BIDEN’S SALARY. Obama’s comments about California Attorney General Kamala Harris remained a topic of conversation for late-night hosts. Jon Stewart peppered the president with jokes. Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show’s Jay Leno both went the retro route and brought Bill Clinton into the conversation. Stewart also used the upcoming release of Obama’s budget to go retro, using a sight-gag comparison from the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Watch it here
TODAY’S PHOTO GALLERY
IT’S SPRING–FINALLY. After a long cool stretch, it’s finally spring in Washington. Get in the mood for the season with some stunning photos taken around the world, including the Easter Bunny being pulled over for not wearing a helmet in California, cherry blossoms nearly enveloping a woman in Japan, and a stroll through a tulip garden in India. See it here
THE QUIRK
BILL CLINTON JOINS TWITTER—SORT OF. Former President Clinton is now on Twitter, thanks to comedian Stephen Colbert. At the taping of an episode of the Comedy Central’s Colbert Report at the Clinton Global Initiative, which aired on Monday, Colbert told Clinton that he had taken the liberty of making him a Twitter account. The more traditional rendering of Clinton’s name have already been taken, but Colbert was able to snag @PrezBillyJeff. Clinton’s first, and so far only, tweet, which he dictated to Colbert: “Just spent amazing time with Colbert! Is he sane? He is cool!” See the video here.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the number of African-Americans serving in the Senate. Tim Scott is one of two African-American senators serving. Massachusetts Sen. Mo Cowan, a Democrat was appointed to temporarily fill the seat of John Kerry, who resigned to serve as Secretary of State. The special election to fill the seat for the full term is taking place on June 25.
