Orrin Hatch and the fear that every super PAC-era incumbent must live with http://t.co/vkMXPRuT
Bio: Steve Kornacki is the news editor for Salon. He’s previously written about politics for The New York Observer and Roll Call, and his work has also appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and on The Daily Beast.
New Jersey congressman Steve Rothman placed a bet last week by going public with his belief that Bill Clinton wouldn’t be wading into his Democratic congressional primary.
The veteran lawmaker’s comments to Roll Call were either an expression of supreme confidence by a man who believed he’d received a private assurance from the former president, or a desperate effort to stave off what was rumored to be coming. Whatever his motive, Rothman’s words blew up in his face on Friday morning, when Clinton threw his support behind Rep. Bill Pascrell, who is battling Rothman in one of the most intense member-on-member congressional primaries in the country. More
Posted on May 7th, 2012 8:57am
The surprise outcome of a Democratic congressional primary in western Pennsylvania last night could serve as a source of hope for one of the region’s most endangered House members.
New Jersey’s Bill Pascrell, a punchy 75-year-old Democrat who has represented the Paterson area in the House since 1996, is waging an uphill battle against fellow Democrat Steve Rothman. More
Posted on April 25th, 2012 8:34am
It’s no wonder that Newt Gingrich’s weekend visit to Staten Island, where he attended a forum organized by local Tea Party leaders, was preceded by hostile public comments from two prominent New York Republicans.
Guy Molinari, the former Staten Island congressman and borough president, called Gingrich “evil,” while Long Island Rep. Peter King described him as an undisciplined egotist who would drive away independent voters as the G.O.P.’s presidential nominee. More
Posted on December 5th, 2011 9:47am
Whenever the national commentariat works itself into a lather over a supposedly egregious example of partisan gridlock, you can count on Michael Bloomberg to weigh in with a formulaic, attention-grabbing scolding of both parties’ leadership.
So it was that the independent-registered, rhetorically centrist mayor bemoaned the collapse of the deficit-reduction committee early last week as “a damning indictment of Washington’s inability to govern” and singled out President Obama for failing to “bring people together and to provide leadership in difficult situations.”
That his assessment didn’t exactly line up with reality is beside the point; Bloomberg was doing what he does best in these situations: posing as the only adult in American politics and encouraging the media to speculate about the possibility of a self-funded, independent presidential bid. More
Posted on November 28th, 2011 9:25am
From the Department of Things That are About 5 Years Too Late comes news that there will be no prosecution of Bob Menendez. The announcement, conveyed by the feds in a letter to Menendez’s lawyer and reported over the weekend by the Star-Ledger, officially puts an end to what was Chris Christie’s funniest-smelling action as U.S. attorney for New Jersey. More
Posted on October 24th, 2011 12:36pm
The strongest argument for Chris Christie to pass on a presidential campaign has to do with the gig he has now. Few if any governors in America enjoy their jobs like Christie does, and it took nearly a decade of careful planning and positioning for him to get it. As a Republican in a deeply blue state, he could lose it very, very easily. More
Posted on October 3rd, 2011 12:18pm
It’s starting to feel like there's a new Hamlet on the Hudson, but this time he’s on the New Jersey side of the river.
It was exactly 20 years ago that Mario Cuomo teased his fans and tormented his party’s actual candidates with his epic, months-long agonizing over whether to answer pleas to jump into the presidential race. And now Chris Christie seems intent on doing something similar to his party. More
Posted on September 27th, 2011 12:18am
Officially, Barack Obama is in town to attend the U.N. General Assembly meeting, and to raise a couple million bucks while he’s at it. Of course, his trip also comes just days after some of the city’s voters used a special election to send a Republican to Congress, a result that the national G.O.P. is still gloating over. More
Posted on September 20th, 2011 1:54pm
Charlie Rangel let himself get used by Fox News late last week, and he seemed to realize it about halfway through his appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” when he snapped at guest-host Laura Ingraham: “Bill O'Reilly told me he had a secret weapon. I didn't know it was just a pretty girl that he would bring in.” More
Posted on August 22nd, 2011 9:18am
For once, Chris Christie has produced a viral video hit that doesn’t owe its popularity to conservatives.
If you’ve paid any attention to New Jersey politics in the past week, you’ve probably seen the clip of the Republican governor issuing a rousing defense of a Muslim-American lawyer he appointed to a judgeship, a matter that some commentators on the far right had been complaining about last month. (The YouTube video uploaded from the official “GovChristie” account had been viewed more than 160,000 times as of this writing.) More
Posted on August 8th, 2011 7:06am
richardmskinner: @SteveKornacki a Kansas caucus would seem to be a Santorum fantasy come true.
peterfeld: @SteveKornacki true but expectation was they wouldn't obstruct the party coming together-and they had little motive to with MSD on a roll.
freedlander: @SteveKornacki I think the nom is now Arlen Specter's to lose
howardmegdal: @SteveKornacki Feingold is the clear ideological counterpart, though. Here's who it won't be: Jon Corzine.
NiallStanage: @SteveKornacki Oh. I assumed you were talking about Feingold too.
jeffersonmorley: @SteveKornacki A final thoughts for the blog SK?
riceid: @SteveKornacki But in seriousness, can't beat Clay for longevity in effective power: was the chief war hawk in 1812, made compromise of 1850riceid: @SteveKornacki Not to get all Gingrichian on you, but Henry Clay was Speaker in 1812, sought Whig nomination in 1848.
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