Mediaboss Marketing

Published: Monday, May 5, 2014, 1:58 p.m.

The four candidates are campaign organizer Justin McMahon, perennial candidate Dick McManus, Edmonds City Councilman Strom Peterson and retired Navy aviator Scott Whelpley.

Candidates file for ballot position May 12-16.

During that week, on May 15, the District Democratic organization will be host to a candidate forum for candidates who have filed for the position.

On May 21, District Democrats plan to endorse one or more of the candidates at a regular business meeting.

McManus said Friday that he is unsure about being able to raise the money for the filing fee

No Republican has registered an intent to run for the position.

The top two vote-getters in the August primary, regardless of party, advance to the November general-election ballot. With no Republican candidates, two Democrats would meet in November.

Whelpley starts the campaign with a financial advantage, having reported raising $18,595 and spending $6,728. Peterson has reported raising $4,183 and spending $1,000. McManus reports raising $105 and spending $19 McMahon has reported no fundraising or spending.

The District Democrats already have endorsed incumbent State Sen. Marko Liias and incumbent State Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self. Republican Daniel Mathews has announced a campaign against Liias. Republican Jeffrey Thorp has withdrawn as a candidate against Ortiz-Self, leaving her with no declared opponent.

Read the rest here:
Democrats review candidates for 21st District

WASHINGTON - The No. 2 House Democrat harshly criticized House Speaker John Boehner's decision to move forward with a select committee to investigate the deadly Benghazi terror attack, and said Democrats haven't decided if they'll participate.

"We think this is a political, not a substantive effort," Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters on Monday about the new panel to probe the armed assault in September 2012 that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Hoyer said he would urge all fellow Democrats to vote against the bill creating the panel that's expected to be on the floor as early as this week.

The GOP-led House is expected to approve it, but it's possible Democrats could boycott the investigation.

Boehner said South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, would chair the committee. But Democrats have not received any details on its structure, funding or powers.

House Democratic leaders want more information before deciding how they would respond.

"If they (Republicans) want to have a substantive effort, it ought to be an equally balanced committee so this is not an exercise in partisanship. But we'll see whether that's the case," Hoyer said.

Benghazi has become a political flashpoint in Washington and a rallying cry for Republican critics of President Barack Obama's conduct of foreign policy.

Republicans have focused on the U.S. security posture before the attack in eastern Libya, the official response during the assault, and the Obama administration's slow-to-evolve explanation of what occurred once it was over.

The issue boiled over in 2013, but had been simmering this year until new documents surfaced last week that prompted renewed GOP claims the administration politicized its public explanation of events in the days after the attack.

The rest is here:
Democrats unclear on Benghazi panel boycott

Senator Blunt Calls On Democrats To Support Job Creating Energy Policy 4/29/14
On Tuesday, April 29, 2014, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) spoke on the Senate floor to call on President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Senate to stop playing politics with American...

By: SenatorBlunt

Link:
Senator Blunt Calls On Democrats To Support Job Creating Energy Policy 4/29/14 - Video

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): Democrats Support Fracking
Schumer: "Overall, the Democrats throughout the country have supported fracking. The President has, most of us have, and it #39;s worked quite well." (MSNBC #39;s "Morning Joe," May 5, 2014)

By: EnergyInDepth

Read the original post:
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): Democrats Support Fracking - Video

Democrats and Republicans have starkly different visions for how to fight poverty in the U.S.

Casting a shadow over Democrats' prospects of retaining the Senate this fall, a USA Today/Pew Research Center poll released Monday shows the strongest support for Republican candidates six months out of a midterm than has been seen in decades.

Forty-seven percent of the 1,501 registered voters surveyed across the country in late April said they're leaning toward supporting the Republican candidate over the Democrat in their district this November, compared with 43 percent who said the opposite.

It's a striking margin considering the same poll taken in 2010 and 1994 - years that ushered strong conservative waves into the Capitol - showed Democrats either edging or in a dead heat with Republicans. It's also a notable shift: As recently as January, Americans reported being more inclined to vote Democrat in the fall.

House Republicans already hold a 233-seat majority, including most swing seats, but the changing tide could help the GOP gain the six seats needed to acquire control of the Senate. One problem Democrats continually face is turning out large numbers of supporters in midterm elections despite their success in the past two presidential elections.

President Obama warned about the enthusiasm gap last month at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser in Miami: "The challenge is that our politics in Washington have become so toxic that people just lose faith and finally they just say: 'You know what? I'm not interested, I'm not going to bother, I'm not going to vote,'" he said.

"In midterms we get clobbered," he went on, "either because we don't think it's important or we've become so discouraged about what's happening in Washington that we think it's not worth our while."

Though early, the poll also suggests a potential blue-to-red paint job at the White House in 2016.

Downbeat by the economy and glitches with the Affordable Care Act, Americans by more than a 2-1 ratio say they're unhappy with the direction of the country. Sixty-five percent say they'd like Mr. Obama's successor to pursue different policies and programs than the current administration.

2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Read the original:
New poll suggests bad news for Democrats in midterms