Helping Landrieu, DSCC goes after Cassidy on Medicare
Washington (CNN) – The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is stepping up their attack on Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy by airing an ad that hits the Senate hopeful for his position on Medicare.
The ad – titled "Record" – uses Cassidy's time as a House Republican to portray him as someone more concerned with giving "tax breaks to millionaires and the wealthiest," while advocating for raising the eligibility age for Medicare and cutting funding for health care.
Questions raised about Mary Landrieu's residency
Washington (CNN) - Republicans seized on a news report Tuesday that raised questions about whether one of the Democrats’ most vulnerable senators up for re-election actually resides in the state she represents.
The Washington Post said Sen. Mary Landrieu doesn’t own her own house in Louisiana. The paper said she listed her home address on a recent campaign filing with the Federal Election Commission as being her house on Capitol Hill in Washington, which the Post said is valued at $2.5 million. But the paper said when she was qualifying for the ballot in Louisiana she listed the house where she was raised in New Orleans, where her parents still live.
Sen. Mary Landrieu to reimburse Senate for charter flight
(CNN) - Sen. Mary Landrieu will reimburse the Senate more than $5,700 for a charter flight she paid for with taxpayer money after CNN questioned the expense.
The Louisiana Democrat chartered a private plane last September to travel from New Orleans to Shreveport, where she attended an official event. She then traveled on to Dallas, where she attended a fundraiser.
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Inside Politics Speed Read: Red state Democrats rethinking Obama?
Red state Democrats rethinking Obama? – For months, the political conventional wisdom has been that endangered Senate Democrats seeking re-election in red states would steer clear of President Obama and distance themselves from Obamacare.
Fueling this narrative were three instances of Democratic senators declining (or citing scheduling conflicts) to appear with President Obama when he visited their states. And in the case of Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, she recently touted her ability to stand up to the president on oil and gas issues.
But there are three pieces of evidence this week that confound that strategy.
New numbers in Senate battles in key southern states
(CNN) - New polls in four southern states that could determine whether the Democrats keep control of the Senate in this November's midterm elections indicate close contests.
And according to the New York Times Upshot/Kaiser Family Foundation surveys, released Wednesday, President Barack Obama's approval ratings are in the low 30's in two of those states and hovering at or just above the 40% mark in the other two states. Republicans are trying to frame the midterm contests as a referendum on the President and on his federal health care law, better known as Obamacare.
Landrieu touts fight for oil and gas jobs in new ad
(CNN) - Pushing back after months of negative television commercials from pro-Republican outside groups, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is taking to the airwaves Tuesday with a new ad that touts her efforts on behalf of the oil and gas industry, which employs 300,000 people in the state.
The one-minute long spot shows Louisiana residents at home, at a restaurant, and at work, watching news clips of the three-term senator.
Koch Brothers target another Democratic senator
Washington (CNN) - Americans for Prosperity is adding Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado to their list of Democratic senators facing tough re-elections this year that the conservative group is targeting.
The group, backed by the deep pockets of the billionaire industrialist brothers, David and Charles Koch, says it's going to spend just under $1 million starting Monday to run a TV commercial that criticizes Udall for his support of the health care law.
First on CNN: Republicans hit Landrieu over climate change talk-a-thon
(CNN) – Nearly 30 senators staged an overnight debate on the Senate floor Monday night through Tuesday morning, trying to bring attention to what they say is a dire need to combat climate change with legislative action.
But Sen. Mary Landrieu, the new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was noticeably absent from the demonstration. The vulnerable Democrat faces re-election this fall in Louisiana, a state with large swaths of conservative voters.
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Democratic senator will not attend Obama's North Carolina speech
Washington (CNN) – Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, who finds herself in a tough race for re-election this year, will not attend a speech President Barack Obama is delivering in her home state on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Hagan confirmed to CNN on Monday that because the "Senate is in session on Wednesday," the Democratic senator will not attend Obama's event on the economy in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Landrieu under attack for filibuster vote
(CNN) - A conservative group says it's spending six figures over the next two weeks to run a TV commercial in Louisiana that criticizes Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu over her support of Presidential Barack Obama's judicial nominees.
"Mary Landrieu voted for every one of Obama's liberal activist judges," the narrator says in the 30-second spot by the Judicial Crisis Network.
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