Bruce Rauner: The Everyman With The $100,000 Extra Parking Spot

Guys, Bruce Rauner is just like me and you. His campaign bio boasts, "He still drives a 20-year-old camper van,…

Rick Scott: Master Of Wrongdoing, Cop Prop Edition (VIDEO)

Hey, Rick Scott is embroiled in scandal--it must be a day that ends in 'Y'. What now, you ask? At a campaign event this week, Rick Scott used on-duty officers as political props, having them stand behind him as he spoke about tackling crime. The officers have made it clear that they were under the impression that they were needed to provide security, and were unaware that this was a campaign event. Now, a former Broward County police officer has filed an official election complaint, as it's illegal to "‘directly or indirectly coerce’ any [public] employee to engage in political activity, and employees are prohibited from doing so while working.”

Wisconsin Press Hammers Scott Walker Over Reports His Agency Rewarded Outsourcers

Scott Walker is making headlines across Wisconsin following a breaking news report by Madison's WKOW yesterday that the economic development agency Walker created and chairs has given tax breaks to companies that ship Wisconsin jobs overseas. The Associated Press has detailed the allegations against Walker's Wisconsin Economic Development Corp (WEDC), and local CBS, ABC, and NBC affiliates from Madison to Green Bay to LaCrosse are pounding Walker as a result. Scott Walker took the helm as governor promising that his plan to privatize economic development in Wisconsin would have new jobs flowing like wine. But the reality has been quite the opposite. Wisconsin job growth has been lagging far behind other states in the Midwest, and now Wisconsinites are learning that their tax money is going to companies that ship jobs overseas. WEDC's response that it will continue to reward companies that ship Wisconsin jobs overseas is insulting to the people stuck suffering under Walker's lagging economy. The next shoe to drop? WKOW has just reported that the companies that outsourced jobs donated primarily to Walker's campaign. Check out the coverage after the jump, and stay tuned for more updates from American Bridge on this growing scandal.

Todd Akin: The GOP Can't Find a Way to 'Shut That Whole Thing Down'

According to POLITICO, none other than disgraced Missouri Republican Todd Akin is attempting a comeback, complete with a book due out next week: "Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom." POLITICO summarizes portions of the book, notably including Akin's attempt to recant his 2012 apology for the now-infamous remarks he made about rape and abortion. The POLITICO story -- and much the resulting buzz -- points out that Akin's resurgence is unlikely to receive a warm welcome from the GOP establishment. After noting that the book's introduction was penned by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, POLITICO comments that "few other conservatives are likely to cheer Akin’s return to the national stage," after his offensive and incendiary comments during the last campaign cycle. This is perhaps true, and Akin's comments about 'legitimate rape' were legitimately awful. But in reality, dozens of other Republicans have demonstrated their Akin-esque views on rape, pregnancy and women's health issues, including Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Marco Rubio, among many others. So perhaps there is some logic -- albeit twisted -- to Akin's suggestion that he was singled out by the establishment GOP and treated unfairly, given that his colleagues up and down the ticket hold similar stances on women's health. See for yourself just how many other members of the Republican party have earned a spot on the Todd Akin Wall of Shame at ItsNotJustAkin.com.

Rand Paul Anoints Himself Civil Rights Champion Of The World

Rand Paul's bending over backwards ahead of 2016 to try to appear as though he can expand the GOP's ever-shrinking base. He has even anointed himself something of a civil rights champion, saying yesterday that nobody in Congress is "doing more for minority rights" than he is. Unfortunately for Rand, facts still matter. And he has a long record that contradicts that preposterous claim.

Background:

Civil Rights Act

Paul Opposed The Part Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 That Banned Discrimination In Privately-Owned Businesses. According to Mother Jones, “In 2010, during an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal flagged by ThinkProgress, Paul made it very clear that he opposed a key part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination on the basis of race in ‘places of public accommodation,’ such as privately owned businesses that are open to the public.” [Mother Jones, 4/10/14]

All Aboard The Rick Scott Scandal Train

Rick Scott's campaign has been plagued by an embarrassing number of scandals and constant reminders that he answers to special interests before Floridians. And it just keeps getting worse. This weekend, news of yet another special interest-driven scandal within the Scott administration broke, this one involving his current chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth, an adviser on the Scott transition team at the time, played an instrumental role in Scott's decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed rail. Then, he accepted a job at Parallel Infrastructure, and turned around and lobbied Scott to move forward on a rail project with Parallel's sister company, All Aboard Florida, breaking Scott's self-imposed one-year lobbying ban for his transition team. Scott embraced the All Aboard Florida plan, which received millions in Florida taxpayer dollars, and Hollingsworth later rejoined the Scott administration as his chief of staff. It's a disturbing development but not a surprising one. Scott has already come under fire for approving plans from Florida Power & Light, a major campaign donor, to build obtrusive new nuclear plants. He flip-flopped on state funding for rowing facilities after receiving donations from developers. His Department of Economic Opportunity is taking heat for allegations that they fraudulently referred 19,000 Floridians to collection agencies and retaliated against the whistleblower for exposing the cover-up. And his staff has been marred by one scandal after the next. Rick Scott has a lot of questions to answer. But then again, answering questions isn't really his thing.

Chris Christie Suddenly Silent

Chris Christie is hardly known as the quiet type, his loudmouth persona is well documented. Yet all that has gone…

Supremely Inconsistent

Chris Christie fashions himself a bold leader, but when it comes to politically difficult issues, he's hardly a profile in…

Please Rick Scott, Tell Us More About "Transparency" (VIDEO)

Rick Scott's hypocrisy gets more comical by the day. Yesterday, he released a new ad targeting Charlie Crist's wife, calling on her to release her taxes because he, quote, "believes transparency matters." In fact, transparency matters so much to Rick Scott that when a whistleblower, who had worked at the Department of Economic Opportunity for 30 years, tried to expose systemic fraud that improperly inflicted economic hardship on 19,000 Floridians, this is how Scott's administration responded: They fired her. She filed a lawsuit and won her case as the jury ruled that the Governor's administration had fired her in retaliation for trying to uncover the DEO's wrongdoing.

Rubio to Speechify About His Non-Existent Support for Working Families

This afternoon, Senator Rubio is scheduled to give a speech in D.C. designed to burnish his middle class credentials: "Finding…