The Note
W A S H I N G T O N August 25—
, 2003 -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):
—9:30 am: Senator John Kerry holds a meet and greet with Texas veterans, San Antonio—10:00 am: Governor Howard Dean holds an economic tall hall forum, Spokane, Wash.—10:30 am: Senator Kerry addresses the VFW convention, San Antonio—11:30 am: Congressman Dick Gephardt addresses the Communication Workers of America, Chicago—12:15 pm: Congressman Dennis Kucinich addresses the Communication Workers of America, Chicago—12:30 pm: Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun holds a voter registration event for the Service Employees International Union at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami—1:30 pm: Reverend Al Sharpton holds a press conference to speak out against the recall and Proposition 54 after a meeting with Mayor Willie Brown, San Francisco—2:30 pm: Peter Ueberroth holds a media availability at the Sacramento Bee's offices, Sacramento—4:00 pm: Ambassador Braun holds a voter registration event with Mayor Roscoe Warren and the Miami-Dade NAACP, Homestead, Fla.—4:30 pm: Senator Kerry addresses the Communication Workers of America, Chicago—5:00 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman attends happy hour with young professionals, Hartford, Conn.—5:15 pm: Senator Kerry holds a meet and greet with veterans at Navy Pier, Chicago—6:30 pm: Governor Dean attends a fundraiser with supporters, Austin—7:00 pm: Senator John Edwards holds a town hall meeting, Charleston, S.C.—8:30 pm: Governor Dean attends a rally with supporters, San Antonio
NEWS SUMMARY
Governor Davis has no public events scheduled for today. ABC News' Apton reports he has private meetings today to discuss pending legislation. On Tuesday, Davis will go to the California Labor Federation's special convention in Manhattan Beach and then head to San Francisco for an invitation-only town hall meeting with readers of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has no public events scheduled for today.
Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante has no public events announced for today.
Peter Ueberroth holds a press availability at the Sacramento Bee's offices in Sacramento today at 2:30 pm ET.
State Senator Tom McClintock has no public events announced for today.
Arianna Huffington has no public events announced for today.
President Bush is at the ranch today with no public events scheduled. On Tuesday, the president will be in St. Louis to address the 85th Annual American Legion National Convention. He will also attend a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Senator Kerry holds a meet and greet with veterans this morning before addressing the VFW convention at the Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio. He will go to Chicago later in the day to address the Communication Workers of America's convention and hold another meet and greet with veterans afterwards at Navy Pier. Kerry will attend a veterans event at the Iowa Vietnam War Memorial in Des Moines on Tuesday. He will unveil his economic plan at the University of New Hampshire in Durham on Thursday. On Saturday, Kerry will ride in the Harley Davidson 100th Anniversary Parade in Milwaukee.
Governor Dean continues his Sleepless Summer Tour today. Dean will host an economic town hall forum at the West Central Community Center in Spokane, Washington. He will then head to Austin for a fundraiser and then on to San Antonio for a rally with supporters. The tour wraps up tomorrow in Chicago and New York City. He has no public events scheduled until he's in New Hampshire on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday.
Senator Edwards' Real Solutions Express is in New Hampshire again this morning. He'll stop by the Corner View restaurant in Concord this morning before flying south to Charleston, South Carolina, for a town hall meeting. Edwards makes stops in Columbia and Greenville, South Carolina, tomorrow.
Congressman Gephardt will address the Communication Workers of America's convention in Chicago today.
Senator Lieberman will go to a happy hour tonight with young professionals at the Arch Street Tavern in Hartford, Connecticut. He will address the Communication Workers of America's convention in Chicago on Tuesday and also attend a reception for donors at a private home in Glencoe, Illinois. On Wednesday, Lieberman will meet with local activists and tour a textile plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Ambassador Braun will campaign in Miami today and hold a voter registration event for workers and members of the Service Employees International Union at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Later in the day, she will coordinate voter registration with the Miami-Dade NAACP in a south side neighborhood.
Congressman Kucinich will address the Communication Workers of America's convention in Chicago today. He goes to Pittsburgh tomorrow for the United Electrical Workers Union convention. On Thursday, he will attend the Wisconsin Corn Roast hosted by Congressman Ron Kind at the La Crosse County Fairground. He'll be in Cleveland for the Labor Day parade on Saturday and in Iowa on Sunday for Labor Day picnics.
Reverend Sharpton will hold a press conference this morning outside of City Hall in San Francisco after a meeting with Mayor Willie Brown. Sharpton will speak out against the recall and Proposition 54. He'll be in Los Angeles on Tuesday, in Miami on Wednesday, keynote a meeting of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project in Houston on Thursday, and campaign in South Carolina for the weekend.
Senator Graham has no public events scheduled for today or tomorrow. He will hold a meet and greet on Wednesday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Two bombshells this weekend in the California recall:
--Businessman Bill Simon's decision on Saturday to drop out of the race
--A Los Angeles Times poll shows Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante leading Arnold Schwarzenegger in the recall, and a large number of Californians against the measure.
Today:
--Looking ahead, the California Labor Federation holds a special convention tomorrow to decide what they will do about the recall — stick with Davis or endorse Bustamante.
--Arianna Huffington goes on the air this week with 30- and 60-second spots in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Jose, according to a campaign release.
The rest of the political world, in other news:
1. The Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein has a hard look at President Bush-as-decision maker. "As president, Bush has been far less flexible than he was as governor of Texas. At times in Washington, when faced with incontrovertible evidence he was barreling into a dead end, he's been willing to shift direction; Bush displayed that instinct in dropping his initial resistance to a Department of Homeland Security. More often, he's dug in his heels even when circumstances seemingly demand a change. He's continued to push through massive tax cuts initially designed as a response to government surpluses even after the surpluses melted into record deficits. He's displayed an equally stubborn streak in continuing to nominate aggressively ideological judges he knows are virtually certain to provoke filibusters from Senate Democrats. Far more than in Texas, Bush in Washington equates resolve with rigidity. From that overall pattern, the easiest course for Bush in Iraq would be to stay the course, or to make only cosmetic changes. This has been his initial instinct." LINK
2. The Post 's Fred Hiatt on Dean, and trade: "He speaks rapidly, as advertised, sometimes answering before a question is complete, seeming not to weigh his words with overly political caution — his trademark distinction from the programmed Washington politicians running against him. Yet at times he speaks openly of the political calculations. Some positions seem aimed at the partisan primary audience, others to shore up his general-election credentials." " … He allows that former treasury secretary Robert Rubin told him: 'I can't sell you on Wall Street if this is your position' on trade. But the former governor apparently can live with that. "I said, 'Bob, tell me what your solution is.' He said, 'I'll have to get back to you.' I haven't heard from him.'" LINK; In the Dean campaign's estimate, the sleepless summer tour's Seattle stop last night drew more than 8,000 (perhaps more than 10,000) — a Dean/2004 Vote record.LINK
3. The AP reported on Sunday that Bob Graham's "stalled" presidential run is "unnerving" Florida Democratic leaders, who are "worried that a losing campaign for the White House could tip his Senate seat to the Republicans in 2004." LINK
4. Senator Edwards will stress his rural roots in a new round of Iowa ads, per the AP's Glover. LINK; In Keene, New Hampshire, Edwards's visit drew the requisite "he'll fight for the people" coverage. LINK
Edwards advisers told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that the senator would likely announce he was dropping out of the Senate race in North Carolina some time between now and his Sept. 16 announcement. Edwards, however, would not discuss the timing or plan in yesterday's This Week on-the-road visit with him.
5. Six of the nine Democrats running for president will make a pitch for union support during appearances before the Communications Workers of America in Chicago. Gephardt, Kerry and Kucinich will address the convention Monday. Lieberman, Dean and Braun will speak on Tuesday. LINK
Please also read:
--The Wall Street Journal on the Carlyle Group's David Rubenstein, one of the most powerful men in Washington.
--The Des Moines Register 's Roos on the life and political aspirations of Dick Gephardt. LINK; and LINK
--Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore's op-ed on the Ten Commandments in the Wall Street Journal .
We at The Note love a good softball game. Courtesy of James Pindell at politicsnh.com:
"In the seventh inning Seth Williams, Kerry Manchester field organizer, smacked an inside the park home-run into center field giving Kerry's staff the go ahead run to defeat Dean's 14-13.
Kerry's team was the home team so they had the last bat.
The six inning game was pushed into an extra inning because of a slow and steady comeback from Kerry.
Team Dean scored 11 of their 13 runs in the first two innings.
It was the second time that day that Kerry's team played extra innings. Earlier they defeated team Lieberman 19-16. That game went nine innings.
Team Dean advanced to the finals with by defeating the Gephardt staff 14-3."
California recall, Arnold:
Not only is the recall itself not a done deal, according to the Los Angeles Times poll on Saturday, but Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante leads Arnold Schwarzenegger by a healthy margin. LINK
The Times remained cautious, however.
"But the contest remains unsettled, and polling is a particular challenge in this environment, given the special nature of the election and the way the campaign has been collapsed into a relatively brief, two-month time frame. California has never before witnessed a gubernatorial recall election. Voter turnout will be critical to the outcome, yet it is difficult to predict who will cast ballots. The figures in the Times poll assume a disproportionately high Republican turnout. The poll suggested a great deal of fluidity: Although views on the recall effort itself were quite fixed, 46% of likely voters said they could change their minds about whom to support between now and Oct. 7."
The poll of 1,351 registered voters was conducted between August 16 and 21. The margin of error for likely voters (801) was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus points out that Republicans are splitting their vote, that many voters don't think Schwarzenegger knows enough, and that voters do not believe he will be able to "clean house." LINK
Schwarzenegger spokesman Sean Walsh downplayed the poll to ABC News' Nick Schifrin.
"Clearly, the Times poll is not consistent with any other poll that we have seen," Walsh said.
"We haven't crowed when public polls show us ahead, and we haven't complained when any polls have shown us not ahead," he continued.
Walsh also sized up the pollsters: "The analogy is that pollsters are like kids at a birthday party: they have a blindfold on them, they're turned around 10 times, they're trying to pin the tail on the donkey … The tail's hitting all over the wall right now."
The Schwarzenegger camp also told Schifrin that they expect to pick up some voters who would have supported Simon.
And in light of Simon's exit, the pressure is on the remaining Republicans to get out of the race.
The San Jose Mercury News' Mary Anne Ostrom reports Rep. David Drier's urging the remaining Republican candidates to drop out. LINK
The AP's Fouhy reports that McClintock and Ueberroth have no plans to make way for Schwarzenegger. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Daryl Kelley on McClintock, who says he's not going anywhere.LINK
The New York Post 's Deborah Orin reports that America's Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, will campaign for Arnold Schwarzenegger. LINK
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times' Brownstein looked at national conservative groups — and Rush Limbaugh — taking a second look Schwarzenegger's candidacy after doubting its conservative credentials.LINK
This weekend, the Los Angeles Times' Marla Dickerson produced a must-read discussing how California's economy (as opposed to its budget) isn't so bad and how the rhetoric from Schwarzenegger and many other candidates about the terrible statewide job situation can somewhat, although not entirely, misleading. (If some of this article sounds similar to Krugman's Friday column, you're right.) LINK
The San Jose Mercury News' Nissenbaum turns in his version of Arnold History, 101. LINK
California recall, the Democrats:
Los Angeles Times' Peter Nicholas, Mark Z. Barabak and Richard Fausset on Governor Davis' appearance yesterday on CNN's Late Edition, where he stopped short of endorsing Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. LINK
The San Francisco Chronicle's Robert Salladay reports on the Los Angeles Times' poll and the notion that Democrats are starting to get motivated to oppose the recall and support Bustamante. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' George Skelton calls Bustamante's story the American Dream. LINK
The AP's Werner writes, "California's politically powerful Indian tribes are poised to play a key role in the campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, and they have much to gain from the outcome." LINK
The San Jose Mercury News' Barry Witt on the true wildcard of the recall election: turnout.LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Matea Gold looks at the candidates' differing views on social issues.LINK
California recall, the Governor:
The San Jose Mercury News' Barry Witt on the different kind of campaign (read: not negative) Gray Davis needs to run. LINK
The San Francisco Chronicle's Matier and Ross report on the growing list of judicial wannabes who are lining up for possible midnight appointments if Davis is recalled. LINK
California recall, the rest of the field:
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times' Sue Fox and Mark Z. Barabak Noted that while Simon's announcement changed the face of the recall race, it wasn't immediately clear who would benefit the most. LINK
The San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci gets inside the mind of GOP pollster Frank Luntz to focus on focus groups. LINK
The San Francisco Chronicle's Salladay profiles Arianna Huffington and points out that her "current problem is that she hasn't stopped talking or writing about politics for more than a decade, which means there is a huge body of work that can be compared to her political platform." LINK
The San Francisco Chronicle's Charlie Goodyear reports on Reverend Al Sharpton's visit to Oakland on Sunday, where he called Schwarzenegger "Pete Wilson with muscles" during a sermon. LINK
The Washington Post 's talented Hank Stuever spent some time with Gary Coleman on Sunday. LINK
The San Jose Mercury News' Patrick May on Jay Leno's offer to host all 135 gubernatorial candidates on the ballot — in the audience. LINK
We particularly liked the "stick it up his monologue" paraphrase.