(CNN) - Nevada Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian says he taped his meeting with Sharron Angle "for my own protection."
The recording of the meeting is at the center of a new controversy for Republican Senate nominee in Nevada who is in a heated contest with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Ashjian is a third party candidate trailing in the polls.
FULL POST
(CNN) – As President Obama is poised to name consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren to a new role, progressive groups are issuing a warning: they want her to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and nothing less.
"It's still completely on the table that she'd be given a permanent appointment, and if the Wall Street types in the White House tried to stab her in the back and give someone else that role, there'd be hell to pay with progressives," says Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "That would be a really stupid move right as the president gears up his own re-election."
Green's group helped organize a campaign pressuring the White House to nominate Warren for the top job at the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency she initially proposed. Warren is beloved by progressive groups who see her as a fierce advocate for "regular Americans" and a worthy opponent for Wall Street.
After a string of disappointments with the White House, a number of progressive groups – who believe they were crucial to the President's election – have taken up Warren's cause with determination.
What the White House is doing today falls short of the progressives wish. In her new role at Treasury, Warren will be empowered to design and set up the new agency – not run it. A White House official says the administration expects Warren's role at Treasury to last for months not years.
Washington (CNN) - Is President Obama delaying an inevitable confrontation with his progressive base over Elizabeth Warren?
Progressive activists welcomed news that the president is creating a role for Warren that will allow her to set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency from inside the Treasury Department. A number of groups, including Moveon.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee organized campaigns pressuring the White House to name the outspoken consumer advocate director of the new agency. Once news broke that the president was naming her to this new role, they released statements praising Warren's appointment provided - as the PCCC statement says - she is "given full power to run the new consumer protection bureau".
And there's the problem.
(CNN) - In Delaware's Senate race, the upset on the Republican side of the ticket has been a boon for the Democrat. A campaign aide tells CNN Democratic Senate nominee Chris Coons raised $40-50,000 online in the two to three hours after word broke that the Tea Party-backed Republican Christine O'Donnell would be his challenger.
The campaign also expects plenty of help from the White House. According to the aide, Vice President Biden called Coons last night and they expect the Vice President, whose seat Coons is trying to win, to campaign for him just as he did during the primary. Aides say President Obama also has an open invitation.
Coons is the county executive for Delaware's largest population center, New Castle county; until O'Donnell became the Repubilcan nominee, he was considered a longshot.
(CNN) – Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express, is vowing an aggressive independent expenditure campaign in support of Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell and says of national Republicans' chilly distance: "She can win without them."
Speaking to CNN after O'Donnell's stunning upset victory, Kremer also predicted a wave of support from activists across the country: "We're behind her 100 percent and through technology people across the country are engaging in elections. I guarantee when people across the country hear comments from the national Republicans it will help with her fundraising."
Editor's note: Look for regular Trail Running field updates from CNN's anchors, correspondents and producers spread out across the country covering politics on the campaign trail. As always, the CNN Political Ticker is your source for up-to-the-minute political news– now even more so.
What does it take to decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate? Maybe fewer than 55,000 Delaware votes.
That's what worries top Republican party officials. Here's the logic. Party big wigs in Delaware and nationwide believe that Tea Party Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell cannot win a general election in November. They're convinced that if she gets the Republican nomination today, Democrats will hold the Delaware Senate seat in November. And top Democrats and Republicans agree this seat could keep the US Senate in Democratic hands.
As for the numbers: there are 182,796 registered Republicans in Delaware. In a hotly contested primary in 2008 the state saw a high 28% turnout. This race has garnered a lot of media attention so even if the turnout is 30% that's 54,838 voters. My producer points out: that's about the number of people who attend a college football game. So following that logic, a stadium size group of voters today could potentially determine who controls the US Senate in November.
Dover, Delaware (CNN) - The Christine O'Donnell campaign is blasting the Delaware Republican party for launching a robocall attacking her on Election Day. O'Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran tells CNN the robocall "is yet another desperate, blatantly false claim and act by a big spending, liberal, career politician and his ruling class elite."
By "career politician" he's referring to O'Donnell's Republican opponent - nine term Republican Congressman and former Delaware Governor Mike Castle.
In the robocall - calling likely Republican voters - a woman identifying herself as Kristin Murray, campaign manager for O'Donnell's 2008 the Senate bid, accuses O'Donnell of "living on campaign donations" and alleges O'Donnell "just wanted to make a buck," and "is no conservative."
(CNN) - The Delaware Republican party has launched a new robocall the same day voters head to the polls - attacking one of their own.
It features a woman identifying herself as former campaign manager for Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's and saying, "O'Donnell is no conservative" rather she "just wanted to make a buck."
In the call, a woman introduces herself as Kristin Murray, saying she managed O'Donnell's 2008 Senate bid and alleges: "I found out she was living on campaign donations – using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt. She wasn't concerned about conservative causes. O'Donnell just wanted to make a buck."
Editor's note: Look for regular Trail Running field updates from CNN's anchors, correspondents and producers spread out across the country covering politics on the campaign trail. As always, the CNN Political Ticker is your source for up-to-the-minute political news– now even more so.
10:40 a.m. - Delaware Republican Senate candidate Mike Castle thinks a vote today for his opponent Christine O'Donnell is a vote for a Democrat in November – and the outcome of this Delaware primary could keep the Senate in Democratic hands. He took polite swipes at former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express. He says he believes this campaign is a test case for the internal squabble about the future of the Republican party.
(CNN) - Guess who's getting slimed now in the increasingly nasty Senate race in Delaware: Republican stalwarts Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes.
The charge: both men, editors of the conservative magazine the Weekly Standard, are trying to undermine Delaware Republican Senate candidate and tea party darling Christine O'Donnell, or so her campaign manager says.
"Call Bill Kristol and ask him why he's crossing swords with Governor Palin's endorsement. And Google Fred Barnes and see about him taking money from Republican leadership," a frustrated O'Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran told CNN.
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Recent Comments