Eliot Cutler News Roundup

Campaign finance leftovers from 2010 who gave to everybody?
Some campaign contributors  spread their money around in last year’s Elections. Nearly 100 political action committees, corporations and individuals gave at least 50 checks of the maximum-amount to various state office Candidates in Florida for the 2010 election, including 33 contributors who cut more than 100 such checks, according to an Orlando Sentinel review of Campaign Contributions. Almost all of the frequent givers spread the money to both Rep...

New year, new rules
Major reforms to the way Illinois politicians raise campaign cash and new state workers collect Pension benefits take effect with the new year, both sets of changes inspired by the departure of disgraced ex- Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The state's first limits on political contributions were a direct response to Blagojevich's arrest, Impeachment and indictment on blockbuster government Corruption charges centered on Shakedown allegations. And the gridlock over slowing runaway state Employee Pension c...

ODonnell: Spending accusations are thug tactics
Stumble This! Failed U.S. Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell said Thursday that accusations she misspent campaign funds are politically motivated and stoked by disgruntled former campaign workers. The Delaware Republican appeared on several network morning shows to defend herself a day after The Associated Press reported federal authorities have launched a Criminal Probe to determine whether she broke the law by using campaign money to pay personal expenses. O'Donnell, the Tea Party favorite ...

Jessica Levinson: Recalling Schwarzenegger's Tenure as Governor
Like it or not, the Governator will not "be back." We've had a long run with him, seven years. The Economy is now, undeniably, in the tank. Questions continue to linger as to whether California is governable. Answers are many, but real solutions too often seem few and far between. So behind all the rhetorical noise, it is worth asking, how did the Governator do and what does his tenure mean for the future of California? To answer those questions, let's take a look at a few key issues: Budget...

'A big f------ deal': The top 10 political quotes of 2010
Vice President Joe Biden’s use of Profanity, a New York congressman’s admission of groping and a denial of witchcraft were among the top 10 political quotes of 2010. The Healthcare Reform debate is featured in several others, ranging from a Texas lawmaker’s outburst of “baby killer” to President Obama’s admission that he and his party took a “shellacking” in the Midterm Elections. Democrats were jubilant after they narrowly passed the Healthcare Bill in Ma

New year, new rules on campaign cash, pension benefits
Major reforms to the way Illinois politicians raise campaign cash and new state workers collect Pension benefits take effect with the new year, both sets of changes inspired by the departure of disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The state's first limits on political contributions were a direct response to Blagojevich's arrest, Impeachment and indictment on blockbuster government Corruption charges centered on Shakedown allegations. And the gridlock over slowing runaway State Employee Pension c...

Under the U.S. Supreme Court: The incredible shrinking McCain-Feingold act
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- If the Republican National Committee has its way, the already battered McCain-Feingold law will be stripped of one of its last remaining bastions, reducing the once powerful engine restraining the unbridled use of political contributions to a squeaky nub. If you see political expenditures as a form of Speech, this would be a good thing. If you see huge expenditures of money as a corrupting influence in American politics, then it would not be. The 2002 Bipartisan Campa...

AlaskaDispatch.com: Joe Miller Gives Alaskans The Gift Of A New Year
Alaska's Joe Miller has given up his legal fight to wrest a U.S. Senate seat away from Incumbent Lisa Murkowski, but promised local supporters and national TV audiences on Friday that he will continue the battle for conservative political values. Confident and personable, Miller told reporters and dozens of supporters at a Press Conference in Anchorage that he did not regret the last few weeks of court wrangling over the way the election was conducted. "I've been criticized for seeking to appl...

Passionate spirit
WARWICK -- On a warm November day Stephanie Chafee wears only a gray T-shirt above her riding pants and boots as she strides across the stable grounds like a school kid rushing to get home. The next First Lady of Rhode Island had spent the last hour politely enduring a sit-down interview at the Chafees’ Potowomut house overlooking Greenwich Bay. (She sat shoeless on the floor.) Now with the reins of formality loosened -- even her husband’s campaign spokesman h...

Priebus: Spendthrift or Spigot?
Off the record, other Candidates’ supporters are insinuating that Reince Priebus, the current front runner to replace Michael Steele as chair of the GOP, is a prodigal son. They point to his 2004 run for Wisconsin’s state Senate as evidence. According to a July 2008 campaign-finance report, Priebus’s campaign was $23,765.29 in Debt — almost four years after the race. “How could he get the party out of debt, if he couldn’t even get his campaign?” his detr...

2010 Elections and Pro-Life Women: A Correction for Modern Feminism
On November 2, that imbalance dramatically shifted toward the pro-life side of the scale, and it is just the beginning. More than sheer numbers are involved, but the numbers alone are compelling. They underscore first and foremost that, as good as this election cycle was for fiscal Conservatives, it was every bit as triumphant for female Candidates who embrace the right to life. Consider the profile of the U.S. Congress. In the session of Congress that just ended, there were 93 women, 17 of them...

Party Time!
Bob Casey Vulnerable in ’12? Lancaster, Pa.—Seventeen months before the 2012 Republican U.S. Senate primary in Pennsylvania and nearly two years before the next General Election, GOPers in the state are already discussing who their Candidate will be against freshman Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. The talk of a spirited 2012 challenge to Casey has been fueled by a just-completed Quinnipiac University Poll showing only 39% of state voters approve of his performance, while 29% don&rsquo...;

Joe Miller bows out in Alaska
Alaska GOP Senate Candidate Joe Miller announced Friday that he will not push forward with a Legal Challenge to Sen. Lisa Murkowski 's Reelection win, bringing an end to the last unresolved Senate race in the country. "The time has come to accept the practical realities of the current legal circumstances," Miller said at a news conference, announcing that he will end the effort. Murkowski (R) was certified as the winner of the race Thursday, after the state Supreme Court ruled against Miller's l...

No quiet retirement for Delahunt
WASHINGTON — After four decades in public office, Representative William Delahunt is ready to take a spin in the private sphere. The last-minute juggling of holiday, home, and House obligations is over, and the retiring Democrat said he’s in the Job Market in the Boston area for work as a consultant, seeking to leverage the expertise in international relations he developed in his 14 years in Congress. A private gig, however, does not necessarily mean former constituents and colleagu...

Contracts Draw Fire Over Ties to Christie
Source: Wall Street Journal Contracts Draw Fire Over Ties to Christie By LISA FLEISHER New Jersey Democrats demanded Thursday the state cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts to companies that donated to a pro-Gov. Chris Christie Advocacy Group. The group, called Reform Jersey Now, said Wednesday it raised about $624,000 to push several of Mr. Christie's top priorities through advertising, direct mail and recorded calls. ........................................................

Schwarzenegger looks back on his seven years in Sacramento
Reporting from Sacramento — State Government was failing at every level. There was an electricity crisis, a water crisis, a Prison crisis. Car taxes had tripled. State contracts were tainted by Corruption. Financial Ruin loomed. In the state's historic recall election, voters turned to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a movie star whose brand was blowing stuff up, flexing muscles and delivering goofy one-liners. Save Up to 90%: Sign up for our free daily e-mail to get in on exclusive deals around...

Georgia Democrat Base Falling Apart Like Dollar Store Underwear
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution Georgia Democrats enter the upcoming 2011 session of the General Assembly reeling from a series of defections and facing an uphill climb toward relevance. The once-dominant party holds 85 of 236 seats in the House and Senate, Democrats’ lowest ebb since Reconstruction. And the number has been slipping. Since the November election when the party lost control of all statewide offices, nine Democratic legislators have become Republicans, including Athens Re...

GA: Ballot Access Case May Go to Supreme Court
The Lawsuit challenging Georgia's ballot access law requiring a five percent petition for non-statewide independent and political body Candidates, brought by Faye Coffield, an Independent Candidate for Georgia's 4th Congressional District in 2008, has been appealed to the Supreme Court of the US. A Petition for Writ of Certiorari was filed in the case, Faye Coffield v. Brian Kemp, on November 02, 2010. The question presented by the petition is, "Whether the Eleventh Circuit erred in declining to...

CBSs Crawford Dismisses Christine ODonnells Response to Accusations
Dignified Newsweek? They Print 'F--k John McCain,' Scalia a 'C--ksucker' Clap Off! CBS, NBC, NPR Skip Over Intelligence Chief Clapper's Ignorance on ABC of London Terror Arrests 17 Years and Counting: ABC's Dr. Tim Johnson Continues Spinning for Dems on Health Care On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, as CBS correspondent Jan Crawford filed a report on the allegations that former Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell misused campaign money...

The Highs and Lows of 2010
Year two of the Obama Administration began with the president riding high, at least among his supporters, for having managed to somehow ram a Healthcare Bill through Congress as 2009 drew to a close. The president signed the landmark bill into law on March 23, but that was hardly the end of the issue. Indeed, passage of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” seemed to be merely the end of the beginning. Multiple states filed suit to challenge provisions of the Act , with th...

Christine O'Donnell dismisses campaign funds investigation
Christine O'Donnell, the United States Senate Candidate who declared "I'm not a witch", has described a federal investigation into alleged misuse of campaign funds as "thug" tactics by her opponents....

Christine O'Donnell Is Being Persecuted by the FBI Because Just Because
So, you may have heard that there's maybe a federal investigation underway to determine if Senate Candidate hilarious performance artist Christine O'Donnell misused campaign for personal use such as rent, broomsticks, eyes of newt, etc. Obviously, this is merely a case of the FBI and the Vice President's office persecuting Christine O'Donnell for reasons that make obvious sense. Obviously! "There's been no impermissible use of campaign funds whatsoever," O�...

ODonnell on defense in campaign funds probe
A possible federal Criminal Probe, charges of “thug politic tactics” and a foreboding feeling of more wicked tricks to come. No, it’s not a tease for a new novel filled with political intrigue — it’s the next chapter in the Christine O’Donnell story. The Tea Party politician from Delaware who famously declared: “I’m not a witch” now declares she’s not a crook. “There’s been no impermissible use of campaign funds whatsoever,&...

Christine ODonnell claims liberal conspiracy behind criminal probe (Video)
Christine O’Donnell has lashed out against much of the liberal world following news that of a Criminal Investigation into her Fundraising activities.  In an interview on Fox News O’Donnell implicates Vice President Joe Biden and liberal philanthropist George Soros in a plot to undermine her political credibility using the FBI Probe.  Citing an anonymous source, O’Donnell claims that she was told that the Democrats would use everything at their disposal to try and brin...

Miller Concedes Loss to Murkowski
(AP) Republican Joe Miller is ending his fight over Alaska's U.S. Senate seat, conceding the race to his bitter rival, Incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Miller's decision, announced Friday at a news conference in Anchorage, comes one day after the state certified Murkowski as the winner. This ends what started as a promising campaign for Miller, a Tea Party favorite who upset Murkowski in the GOP primary, in his first bid for statewide public office. He was widely seen as the favorite for winnin...