At the Washington Post Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane report that “Democrats, in a stark shift in messaging, to make big tax-break pitch for middle class” — a plan which “calls for a massive transfer of wealth from the super-rich and Wall Street traders to the heart of the middle class.”
Give it up for Sean Penn, who just raised $6 million for Haitian relief at an event honoring President Clinton — in one night.
“Are Independents Just Democrats and Republicans by Another Name?” by Ali Elkin and Sasha Issenberg at Bloomberg Politics affirms that “A record number of independents in a country that is as ideologically riven as ever is a paradox that’s not really a paradox. Most of the new independents are liable to be indistinguishable from Democrats or Republicans by belief–they just wouldn’t want to call themselves that.”
Look who’s talking.
Aaron Chatterji’s NYT op-ed “Don’t Look to States for New Ideas” notes that “…State politics have become much more partisan. After the 2014 elections, 60 percent of the states are completely controlled by a single party. The power of state policy innovations is that they traditionally had bipartisan fingerprints, allowing an enterprising national politician from either party to lay claim to them. In the new world of single-party states, very little bipartisan legislation will emerge.”
$721 Million — the amount the energy industry spent on the 2014 midterm elections, reports Bill DiBenedetto at TriplePundit.
At Campaign for America’s Future Richard Eskow’s “Populism Rises – And The ‘Center’ Strikes Back” provides an update on the internal Democratic Party struggle between the liberal and conservative flanks and the debate about what constitutes “real populism.”
At last some highly favorable opinion traction for Obamacare, reports Juan Williams at The Hill.
Under the sub-category “Folksy Panderin,” The Daily Beast’s Olivia Nuzzi posts on the latest weirdness from Republican presidential wanna-be Mike Huckabee, who may be experiencing some anatomical anxieties.