The elections are over and now it’s time for Congress to start governing. At least that’s the plan for the lame-duck session, designed to take up issues the House and Senate failed to get to prior to October, when lawmakers left town to campaign. But aside from working on a spending bill and votes on …
We’re here. It’s time for the 2014 midterm elections. And so, we have a show for the ages. We start off with Republican Vin Weber and Democrat Anna Greenberg laying out what’s at stake on November 4th, and what it might mean for the final two years of the Obama presidency. And then we go …
If you’re a partisan — a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat or Republican — you’re probably a nervous wreck these days. With just over two weeks to go and with all the twists and turns and surprises, the battle for the Senate is nothing short of nail-biting-to-the-bone, if not heart-stopping. If you’re a political junkie — like we …
We lead this week’s show with debates — one between candidates running for governor of California, a contest that has been significant in the past but is less so this year; and one between candidates running for the Senate from Kansas, which is never close or significant but one which may very well determine which …
Both parties are expecting some amount of turnover in November, especially in Senate races, but also in contests for governor and the House. But it’s hard to recall a season in which so few incumbents got knocked off in the primaries. Not counting Louisiana, which holds its “jungle” primary on election day, there are seven …
There’s a four-letter word in the headlines lately: Iraq. The withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 was done with the expectation that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would unite his country and ease ethnic tensions. Instead, Maliki, a Shiite, did what he could to ostracize minority Sunnis… perhaps in response to what Saddam Hussein did to Shiites during his ruthless decades …
With 8 states holding primaries on Tuesday, June 3, the Political Junkie focuses on California, where Jerry Brown is the odds-on favorite to win a fourth, non-consecutive term for governor. KQED politics editor John Myers outlines the long path of Brown, who was first elected governor in 1974. He’s seen his share of ups and downs in his decades in politics, but …
So how do you run your campaign in 2014 if you’re a Democrat and your president’s job approval numbers are not so good? That’s the question host Ken Rudin put to Democratic pollster and strategist Anna Greenberg in the latest installment of the Political Junkie. Greenberg acknowledges the weak numbers, the disappointing foreign policy and the history of the party …
With the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act — and with the revived reputation of President Lyndon Johnson — comparisons between LBJ and Barack Obama are being made. Johnson, who left office in 1969 with the cloud of Vietnam hanging over him, is remembered as a master tactician who, with huge Democratic majorities in Congress, pushed a …
Edwin Edwards probably put it best. “The only way I can lose this election,” he famously once said, “is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.” That, in a nutshell, describes the tolerance for scandal in Louisiana. Or at least the understanding of it. Edwards, a former congressman …