Tragedy in Arizona, Goodlatte Says No Pathway, and a Wendy Davis Reality Check

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WHAT'S NEWS

  • 19 firefighters, including 18 from an elite forest fire-fighting team based in Prescott, died Sunday after a blaze near Yarnell, AZ, changed directions suddenly. AZ Gov. Jan Brewer: "This is as dark a day as I can remember" (Arizona Republic).

  • House Judiciary Cmte chairman Bob Goodlatte said Sunday "that any attempt at comprehensive immigration legislation cannot offer a 'special pathway to citizenship' for those in the United States illegally (AP).

  • TX GOV: "Wendy Davis is never going to see a better moment for a statewide run for office, even though the odds of a Democrat winning statewide in Texas could not be worse" (Texas Tribune).

  • VA GOV: AG Ken Cuccinelli "and one of his senior assistants are fighting an attempt to issue them subpoenas to testify" in the executive chef/Star Scientific case (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

  • AR 04: Lt. Gov. Mark Darr (R)says he's 75% sure he'll run for the House if Rep. Tom Cotton (R) runs against Sen. Mark Pryor (D), as expected. Meanwhile, KS Gov. Sam Brownback keynoted a fundraiser for the AR GOP (TalkBusiness.)

  • WY SEN: One Nation PAC, a CA-based conservative group, is collecting signatures for a petition to convince Liz Cheney to run in 2014. Cheney spokeswoman Kara Ahern: "Liz doesn't know the group and did not sanction the petition" (Casper Star-Tribune).

  • OH Gov. John Kasich vetoed language in a GOP-passed budget that would have blocked him from expanding Medicaid, but he "did not touch any of the anti-abortion language" when he signed the $62B, 2-year budget last night. The budget cuts $1.4M in federal funding to Planned Parenthood and makes other changes to state abortion law (Columbus Dispatch).

  • SC, TN, ME SEN: Senate Conservative Fund head Matt Hoskins promised to back challengers to Sens. Lindsey Graham, Lamar Alexander and Susan Collins next year after their votes for immigration reform. Graham: "As to my politics, I am doing great among Hispanics in South Carolina. The bad news is that there are not very many who vote in the Republican primary" (Roll Call).

  • WV SEN: The National Republican Liberty Caucus endorsed ex-Delegate Pat McGeehan (R) over Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (Huntington News).

  • "Gun maker Beretta USA will not expand its operations into West Virginia, despite lobbying from state officials, because they say Sen. Joe Manchin's push to expand background checks makes the state less stable for their business (West Virginia Gazette).

NUMBER BRUNCHING

  • 71% of DC-area adults rate the Metro system as excellent or good, according to a new Washington Post poll. 80% rate Metro's comfort excellent or good.

OUR CALL

Hotline editors weigh in on the stories that drive the day


• The Senate Conservatives Fund wants credible challengers against GOP senators who backed immigration reform. But this cycle is notable for the lack of serious challengers to members like Alexander, Graham, Collins, Pat Roberts, Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn. So far, none face a real rival, despite conservative angst at some of their past positions. We hasten to add: At least not yet.

• Gov. John Kasich is in strong reelection position, but is he really the GOP's "blueprint for success"? Much of his agenda has been rejected by the GOP Legislature, and his failed push for Medicaid expansion has the Tea Party threatening to split. His much-touted JobsOhio program is under fire from the state's auditor, also a GOPer, for its failure to disclose financial records. Kasich may win another term, but a divided state party and largely ignored agenda aren't exactly the starting points for national-level success.

• While AG Doug Gansler waits to announce his MD GOV bid until the fall, LG Anthony Brown is lining up support from the state's most influential Democrats. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is scheduled to endorse Brown Monday, joining Gov. Martin O'Malley and Rep. Elijah Cummings as high-profile backers of the lieutenant governor. But money matters, and Gansler's got a lot more than Brown.

• New campaign finance reports will be trickling out over the next two weeks before the July 15 disclosure deadline, and a few items west of the Mississippi are worth looking out for. How fast a start did Rep. Colleen Hanabusa get off to in HI, and did Sen. Brian Schatz continue his fast fundraising pace? Did Steve Daines's contributions tick up as he became subject to MT SEN rumors? Will Rick Perry's 2014 announcement be preempted by his fundraising numbers, which aren't expected to be high? And just how much did his new nemesis Wendy Davis haul in after her filibuster?

HAIR OF THE DOG

FRESH BREWED BUZZ

  • Soon, the number of Latinos in CA will equal the number of non-Hispanic whites, according to state demographers. 15 years ago, "non-Hispanic whites outnumbered Latinos in California by roughly 5 million" (Sacramento Bee).

  • "I’ll be honest here. In the past two years, we’ve done a pretty lousy job of connecting in the Latino community. We’ve missed out on opportunities to build better relationships. But that’s going to change." -- RNC chairman Reince Priebus, addressing the annual NALEO convention (Chicago Tribune).

  • The new NSA facility in UT houses Cray XC30 super-computers capable of running "1M Intel Xenon core processors simultaneously, enabling speeds of up to 100 petaflops. One petaflop is about one thousand trillion calculations per second" (Salt Lake Tribune, via Denver Post).

  • "I really want people to judge me by my deeds, not my words" -- Ex-FL Gov./ex-GOPer Charlie Crist (D) (Florida Times-Union).

  • Watch out, Mitch McConnell: Retiree Gurley Martin "will pick up his filing papers" for KY SEN on Nov. 6 "and return them on Nov. 27 -- his 90th birthday" (CN2's Pure Politics).

  • A settlement has been reached in a case that alleged Rep. Michele Bachmann's WH'12 campaign "stole and misused" an email distribution list for IA home-schoolers. The terms of the settlement weren't disclosed (Des Moines Reigster).

  • "Comparing it to Snowden, I'd say the offense is worse" -- Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), on SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas voting with the majority to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

  • "I said, Democrats, look, you guys love regulations so much? Why don't we pass a regulation that says your pitcher can only pitch for two innings? ... So far they're for dog-eat-dog capitalism when it gets out on the baseball field" -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), joking to an SC GOP crowd about the Congressional Baseball game, which Dems won 22-0 (The Hill).

  • "I said, if Mr. Putin goes to the Miss Universe Pageant, I have no doubt that he will become my new best friend. I say things like that. I have fun with it" -- Donald Trump, in an 18-minute interview with the Des Moines Register.

  • Send this to your favorite follicly challenged co-worker: "Man suspected in Colorado Rogaine thefts arrested" (AP).

SWIZZLE CHALLENGE

  • Ex-FL Gov. Claude Kirk (R then D) switched political parties, then ran on a platform of legalized gambling.

  • The winner is ex-Rep. Tom Davis, and here's his Swizzle Challenge: "Lisa Murkowski won her reelection as a Write-in Candidate in 2010. Who was the last House Member to win their election as a write in?" The 4th correct e-mailer gets to submit the next question.

NJ'S EARLY BIRD SPECIALS

SHOT...

"Republican strategists and presidential hopefuls, in ways subtle and overt, are eager to focus a spotlight on Mrs. Clinton’s age." (New York Times)

...CHASER

"We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks,' and they brought us whole binders full of women." -- Mitt Romney, in the second WH'12 presidential debate.

Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief

Steven Shepard, Executive Editor