Two More Months To Enjoy Scott Brown's Hilarious Campaign

Two More Months To Enjoy Scott Brown's Hilarious Campaign

Republicans have their candidate in the New Hampshire senate race. But he'll be the first to tell you, he's not from New Hampshire.

Beyond that obvious shortcoming, Scott Brown comes with plenty of non-carpet baggage as well. As he enters a new stage in his disastrous attempt to become a New Hampshirite and then become a New Hampshire senator, here are the top 10 lowlights from his haphazard campaign thus far:

1. He said, "I'm not going to create one job" as Senator of New Hampshire -- although he seemed more interested in job creation in Massachusetts. [VIDEO]
2. In an attempt to close a massive deficit among female voters, Brown awkwardly dished out "hero awards" to female supporters, at least one of whom was confused, embarrassed, and not even sure who she would vote for.
3. He woke up to this lovely headline about sitting on the board at Kadant: "Brown’s $270K income from Mass. company exporting jobs overseas belies campaign promises"
4. In his attempt to pander to the right during primary season, Brown made a fool of himself by denying that man-made climate change was scientifically proven -- in direct contradiction with his position from 2012.
5. He got clobbered for helping to tank Jeanne Shaheen's bipartisan energy bill -- which was supported by Kelly Ayotte -- just to try to strip her of an accomplishment to run on.
6. He abruptly resigned from an advisory role at obscure Florida-based company froom which he had received $1.3 million in stock after questions began to swirl over the business's practices and his involvement.

Everything you need to know about today's oral arguments in Walker's John Doe Lawsuit

Today, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals will release oral arguments in a lawsuit stemming from a John Doe investigation into Walker’s 2012 recall campaign. The probe began in February 2012, when evidence surfaced of illegal campaign coordination between Walker’s recall campaign and outside groups. Like before, Walker will dismiss the evidence against him as partisan. But the facts don’t lie. The investigation into Walker was launched by a bipartisan group of prosecutors, and the lead prosecutor is a self described supported of the governor. In addition, the probe was approved by Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board – the majority of which had been appointed or re-appointed by Walker himself. Already this case has raised the specter of pay to play politics, with documents showing enormous secret  donations from mining interests for whom Walker signed favorable legislation. What else will come to light in this case? American Bridge will be watching.

The GOP Has a "New" Front-runner for 2016

After two straight landslide defeats in presidential election, the Republican Party found itself in desperate need of a fresh face with new ideas and broader appeal moving toward 2016. Simply put, they need a top tier candidate. But as political forecaster Larry Sabato summed up last week:

It’s lonely at the top of the Republican field — like, “top of Mt. Everest” lonely. In our latest shuffle of the 2016 Crystal Ball presidential outlook, we’ve decided that the Republican first tier is…empty. Our Republican friends might object, but deep down, we think they would be hard-pressed to argue for any single name to head this long list."

All the theoretical GOP front-runners are tainted. Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Rick Perry are mired in scandal. Rand Paul's political backflips have been dizzying, leading even conservative pundits to raise the question: "Is he jettisoning his worldview to revive a presidential campaign?"

ICYMI: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel- Investigation into Scott Walker "must continue"

Last week, former Virginia Governor Republican Bob McDonnell became the first Virginia governor to be convicted of a felony, with a federal grand jury finding him guilty of 11 counts of corruption. Across the country, another GOP Governor, Scott Walker, faces questions stemming from an investigation into his own potentially felonious behavior, as highlighted by recent editorials in his hometown newspapers. Indeed, the most recent documents released in the John Doe investigation into Walker illustrate his alleged centrality to a criminal scheme to illegally coordinate campaign spending with an outside group, Wisconsin Club for Growth. The New York Times editorial board last week pointed to a $700,000 contribution from a large mining company to Wisconsin Club for Growth, timed closely with Walker signing pro-mining legislation into law, as evidence that the Governor and his aides "brazenly violated state campaign finance regulations":

Newly released documents show that the mine operator, Gogebic Taconite, secretly gave $700,000 to a political group that was helping the governor win a 2012 recall election. Mr. Walker had urged big corporations to give unlimited amounts, without fear of public disclosure, and many companies that wanted favors from the state happily obliged. Once the recall failed, the favors began to flow, even at the expense of the state’s natural resources.

But perhaps even more damning for Walker are a pair of editorials from two of the local Wisconsin publications that have been tracking the investigation most doggedly, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the La Crosse Tribune. Both editorial boards not only offer strong rebukes for the Governor's scheme to raise money in support of his campaign during the 2012 recall election, but emphasize the importance of the John Doe investigation itself.

Where does the time go? Maybe it's stuck in that traffic in Fort Lee…

Friends, it was just one year ago this week when some mysterious traffic problems popped up in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Was it a "traffic study?" (Hint: no) Was it a pathetic attempt by the administration of a vindictive governor to exact revenge on his political enemies? (Hint: ding ding ding!) Since the story first broke, Christie's approval ratings have plummeted, he's lost voters' trust (in New Jersey and beyond), and the integrity of his conduct in office has fallen into question. Through thick and thin, American Bridge has been by his side, issuing open records requests to get to the heart of the real story, highlighting the ethical shortcomings of Christie's administration, and having a bit of fun along the way. So here's to the good times over the past year since Christie took out his political anguish on his own constituents, and so many more to come. Join us on a trip down memory lane, before Governor Christie closes it out of political retribution:

BridgegateTapes.com

Cory Gardner and Thom Tillis: Insulting Women's Intelligence

"At a GOP forum last month, candidates also said they thought states had the right to ban contraceptives. Tillis, who skipped the event, later said he agreed." [News & Observer, 1/31/14]

"When pressed specifically to rebut Brown’s assertion that S.B. 143 would have resulted in longer sentences for abortion providers than rapists and whether that is something Gardner still supports, Siciliano did not respond further." [KDVR, 9/3/14]

Thom Tillis believes that states have the right to ban contraceptives. Cory Gardner sponsored a bill that would have resulted in longer sentences for doctors who provide care for rape victims than to for the rapists themselves. Those are facts. And that is only the tip of the iceberg for each Senate candidate's record on women's issues. Now, both candidates are suddenly supporting over-the-counter birth control and claiming they are the better choice for women than their opponents. It's desperate election-year pandering. It's insulting. And it's fooling nobody. No two senate candidates have been more strongly committed in their careers to taking away women's access to health care and ability to make their own decisions.

Governor Christie goes to Mexico to not talk about immigration

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie brags to anyone who will listen about how he's a straight talker, brandishing his brashness credentials by shouting down constituents who disagree with him at town hall meetings. But this year, as Christie travels to key 2016 states like New Hampshire and Iowa, he has so far avoided giving straight answers to the questions asked of a prospective presidential candidate, or really any answers at all. His trip to Mexico this week seemed like yet another example of the Governor positioning himself for a possible presidential run, leading the New York Times and others to wonder whether this would finally be the time that Christie meaningfully addressed foreign policy. To take a page out of the Governor's straight-talking book, we'll sum it up for you in a single word: NOPE. In a keynote speech to the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, Christie went out of his way to avoid addressing immigration or the crisis currently taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border. Christie contorted himself to skirt even using the word "immigration" once in the speech, lest he bring up an issue that continues to tank his party's support among the growing U.S. Latino population. Christie's only reference to the thousands of miles of border between our countries was in the context of the flow of commerce, rather than that of people. Indeed, Christie's sleeper foreign policy credentials stayed in hiding, with the Governor delivering your basic GOP stateside stump speech with a small South of the Border twist. In his discussion of our "very special relationship" with Mexico, Christie devoted several minutes to domestic U.S. energy policy, including the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline -- no section of which would come close to crossing into Mexico. The United States' manufacturing jobs, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy projects and higher education institutions all earned shout-outs in the speech over immigration issues like the situation at our border with Mexico. Governor Christie may think he can get away with neglecting to mention immigration issues and/or substantively discuss foreign policy issues during his New Jersey trade mission to Mexico, but if he runs for President, voters will demand the full enchilada.

First of all, where is Scott Brown *really* from?

At tonight's New Hampshire Senate Republican primary debate, when asked why he's running for Senate in NH this time around, former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown said he's running in the Granite State because "first of all I live here in New Hampshire, it's kind of hard to run when you're not in that state... I have long and strong ties" to New Hampshire. Here at American Bridge, that caught our attention, and same for our friends at Granite State Progress, who promptly released this audio from a 2010 radio interview in which the very same Scott Brown clarifies "first of all, I'm not from New Hampshire." So which is it, Scott?

BREAKING VIDEO: Scott Brown: "I'm not going to create one job. It's not my job to create jobs."

Here is Scott Brown's job creation plan in his own words:

"Here's the thing, people say, what are you going to do to create jobs, I am not going to create one job, it is not my job to create jobs. It's yours."

Inspiring.

Video: Rick Perry and Rick Scott Try To Out-Koch Each Other

The past two weeks have seen Rick Perry skip the formal reading of his felony charges to do an event with the Kochs' AFP in New Hampshire, then explain that he was being indicted for bribery (he's not, shouldn't have skipped that arraignment), then return to Dallas for AFP's "Defending the American Dream Summit."

At the end of this Tour-de-Koch, the gaffe-prone governor sat down with Ed Morrissey of the conservative blog Hot Air, and further revealed the extent to which Republicans revere the Kochs and court their political support -- they even brag about it, apparently.