Memo From President Brad Woodhouse: Race to the Right in Georgia

The top two extreme Republicans running for Senate in Georgia have advanced to the next round of this knock down, drag out, race to the right primary fight. With two more months of campaigning until the runoff, David Perdue and Jack Kingston will undoubtedly continue to pander to the Tea Party base. Whether opposing raising the minimum wage/extending unemployment benefits, or supporting cuts to Medicare/attempting to voucherize the program, extreme conservatives Perdue and Kingston have more in common than not. Not to mention the time Kingston suggested low-income children perform manual labor in exchange for subsidized school lunches, and Perdue's track record as an out-of-touch elitist. Is this the face of a Republican Party that has learned its rebrand lessons from 2012?

Rick Scott: Good for Special Interests, Bad for Florida

Last week, Rick Scott hastily approved Florida Power & Light (FPL)'s bid to build two new nuclear plants in South Florida. That means massive new transmission towers and power lines, which, as described by CBS Miami, "are not at all typical. Most of the 88 miles of poles would rise the equivalent of ten to fifteen stories high with the girth of a big oak tree. Needless to say, many residents from the affected area were outraged, claiming that in addition to the aesthetic nightmare, this will damage property values and the environment. But per usual, Rick Scott was more concerned with special interests than his constituents. The Miami Herald reported that FPL has given "nearly $3 million to the campaigns of the governor, the Cabinet and the Republican Party of Florida." Scott has taken a beating in the local press. See for yourself in American Bridge's new video above.

Downgraded: Christie's Record on the Economy

New Jersey's economy has hit a major traffic jam under Christie's leadership, and this afternoon the scandal-tainted governor will attempt to save face in the face of this year's $800M budget shortfall. One major credit rating agency after the next has downgraded New Jersey's debt, with Moody's becoming the latest just last week. Add to that a state unemployment rate well above the national average and a record of private job growth that ranks near the bottom in the country since he took office, and Garden State taxpayers aren't just stuck with Christie's self-exoneration bills--they're stuck with his sluggish economy too. Watch American Bridge's new video above and see how bad things have gotten in New Jersey under Christie.

Founder David Brock Talks With POLITICO

In the most recent Open Mike with Mike Allen of POLITICO, he chats with American Bridge founder David Brock.

Mike Allen: “The Clinton camp is pushing back hard against Karl Rove's statement the other day.” David Brock: “If you're asking does it backfire, the answer to that is yes. I think Rove was so grotesque in the overstepping that it ended up being a big mistake, even though I understand what he was trying to do. This was really part of a pattern on Karl Rove's part. We've seen it before — sleazy, personal attacks for partisan reasons.” Allen: “Of the 2016 Republican candidates, does that look like a target-rich environment or are these guys kind of boring? Brock: “We've been tracking all the potentials. Chris Christie can be fun to track. As we know, he can be incredibly colorful. Rand Paul can also be an interesting kind of person to track. I don't find him to be plain vanilla or boring. This is a pretty massive intelligence-gathering operation we have going here.”

You watch the full Open Mike video over at POLITICO here.

Scott Brown’s Rough Week

Scott Brown has had a rough week. The former Massachusetts senator-turned-Fox News commentator-turned-New Hampshire senate hopeful has had a rocky introduction to the Granite State. As he said, "Do I have the best credentials? Probably not. 'Cause, you know, whatever." Well things got even worse this week when it came to light that Brown had been lobbying Republican senators to kill Jeanne Shaheen's bipartisan energy bill--which would have created jobs and protected the environment--to deprive his opponent of the accomplishment. Classy. Even Sen. Ayotte voted for the bill, despite Brown's personal appeal, because in her words, "I just did what I thought was best based on my state." And the week didn't get any better for Scott Brown. But don't take our word for it, just check out the headlines:

Kelly Ayotte Says She Ignored Scott Brown's Wishes For The Good Of New Hampshire

Ryan Grim, Huffington Post

Teamsters say Scott Brown lied to their face

James Pindell, WMUR

Midterm campaigning gets in the way of energy policy

Stephanie Condon, CBS News

Bridgegate FOIA Released

American Bridge today is releasing the full results from a Bridgegate FOIA for the schedules of Bill Baroni, former Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The 1,000+ pages of documents returned by the Port Authority include Baroni's schedules - including meetings with senior advisors to Governor Christie, and expense account records and tickets related to Baroni's travel from last year. The full FOIA results are available here: https://ab21.wpengine.com/app/uploads/Baroni-FOIA.pdf

Playing politics, getting burned

As the latest step in his efforts to politicize the embassy attack in Benghazi, Lindsay Graham this morning called for a Senate select committee on the matter. But what's the real story here? Graham was recently revealed to have participated in the flawed and discredited 60 Minutes report, including relaying information from his conversation with a former FBI official as the story began to unravel. Graham touted the story on both television and social media and used it as an impetus to drive his own partisan agenda to block federal appointments and nominations and create this partisan select committee. When will Lindsey Graham come forward and provide a full, public accounting of his participation in this flawed report?

New TV Ad, War Room to Fight Back Against the Koch Agenda

Meet the real Koch brothers, secretive billionaires willing to spend millions to drive their self-serving agenda at the expense of working families. That's the message in American Bridge's new TV ad "If they win" being released today (our first of the cycle!). The ad, released by the American Bridge 21st Century Foundation with a national cable buy, is part of a new war room Bridge is launching today to fight back against the promise by the Kochs' Americans for Prosperity to spend $125 million to buy this year's mid-term elections. The Real Koch Facts project includes dedicated staff who will focus on a daily communications, research and rapid response effort to tell voters just how dangerous the Kochs' self-serving agenda is for working families.

See Rick Scott Run

Rick Scott is running for reelection, but he's better at running from questions. Time and time again reporters have asked Scott where he stands on key issues, only to have Scott duck and run. Maybe that's because he knows his positions are detrimental to middle-class families in the Sunshine State. His failure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has left over 700,000 Floridians without health care. Just thinking about raising the minimum wage so working families can make ends meet causes him to "cringe." For Rick Scott, maybe running is better than telling the truth.

Marco Rubio, Climate Scientist

Sen. Marco Rubio made headlines this weekend with an eyebrow-raising rebuke of science. Here's what the 2016 presidential hopeful told ABC's Jonathan Karl:

"I don't agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including scientists, that somehow there are actions we can take today that would actually have an impact on what's happening in our climate. Our climate is always changing. And what they have chosen to do is take a handful of decades of research and say that this is now evidence of a longer-term trend that's directly and almost solely attributable to manmade activity, I do not agree with that."

It's unclear when Sen. Rubio became a connoisseur of climate science with the authority to chide the 97% of climate scientists who agree that humans are contributing to climate change. Perhaps it has something to do with his courting of the far right and their deep-pocketed, Koch-funded outside groups like Americans for Prosperity, which promises to spend $125 million this year to buoy candidates that embrace their extreme agenda. AFP's president, Tim Phillips, hasn't parsed words in bragging about their role in pushing Republican candidates to deny climate science:

"We’ve made great headway. What it means for candidates on the Republican side is, if you … buy into green energy or you play footsie on this issue, you do so at your political peril. The vast majority of people who are involved in the [Republican] nominating process—the conventions and the primaries—are suspect of the science. And that’s our influence. Groups like Americans for Prosperity have done it."

So there you have it. Marco Rubio was born and raised in Miami, a city that is severely threatened by rising sea levels associated with climate change. He has an opportunity as a Senator to take action on climate change, stand up for his constituents, and help protect his home state. But he'd rather protect his political aspirations, spewing the mythical rhetoric that the Koch brothers and their allies have made mainstream in today's GOP. At least we know where his priorities lie.