Said a state rep. in Georgia of an appearance by Hillary Clinton: "I know she’s running for president now, because toward the end, she was asked about the Osama bin Laden raid. She took 25 minutes to answer," Tom Taylor said. "Without turning the knife too deeply, she put it to [Vice President Joe] Biden."
MASSACHUSETTS:The Boston Globe: “State Senator Katherine M. Clark bested six Democratic rivals Tuesday, winning her party’s nomination in the race to succeed Edward J. Markey in the US House of Representatives and setting her on course to likely become the state’s newest member of Congress. Clark, a Melrose lawyer captured 31.6 percent of the vote. Middlesex County Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian and state Representative Carl M. Sciortino trailed with 22 percent and 16.1 percent, respectively. As the Democratic nominee in a liberal district north and west of Boston — one that voted by more than 30 percentage points for President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney last November — Clark is now the strong favorite going into the December general election. She will face Frank J. Addivinola Jr., the Republican nominee, who won the Republican primary Tuesday night.”
The Boston Globe: “City Councilor John R. Connolly criticized State Representative Martin J. Walsh’s acceptance of outside spending on his campaign and questioned his strong union ties in a sharp-elbowed exchange in an otherwise low-key Boston mayoral debate tonight.”
NEW YORK: In a mayoral debate last night, Bill “de Blasio, despite leading by more than 40 points in the polls, launched at least as many attacks as he absorbed,” the New York Daily News writes. “He repeatedly tried to pin Lhota to Republicans from New York to Washington — including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and even a faction of the Tea Party on Staten Island.” More: “Lhota bristled at the portrayal. ‘Bill, there you go again. You start talking about me like some kind of national Republican,’ Lhota said. ‘Don’t lump me in with people I am in constant disagreement with. . . . It’s unbecoming.’”
Ouch for the national GOP. No one in the Northeast wants to be associated with it.
NEW JERSEY: The special election for the Senate takes place today. Polls close at 8:00 pm ET. The Star-Ledger: “In a last-minute effort to whip up votes for today’s U.S. Senate election, Democrat Cory Booker and Republican Steve Lonegan on Tuesday dashed across the northern half of the state to push their campaign themes — and hammer each other. Booker, the mayor of Newark, and Lonegan, a conservative activist and former mayor of Bogota, Tuesday held 14 events between them as they campaigned in urban, suburban and rural towns.”
Joe Lhota wasn’t alone in distancing himself from national Republicans. Chris Christie has been doing the same thing in New Jersey, and he squared off in a debate last night with Democrat Barbara Buono for governor. The Star-Ledger: “Squaring off in a spirited debate Tuesday night, Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic challenger Barbara Buono took aim at each other on all the issues that showcase their many differences, including gun control, gay marriage and global warming.”
Christie said this about gay marriage. Would he REALLY say this? "If my children came to me and said they were gay I would grab them and hug them and tell them I love them. I would also tell them that your dad believes that marriage is between one man and one woman."
The Philadelphia Inquirer: “In a campaign debate that touched on gay marriage, presidential aspirations, and even Wawa, Republican Gov. Christie again cast himself as a bipartisan leader supported by state Democrats, while Democratic State Sen. Barbara Buono argued that she would be an independent governor who bucked party bosses. Buono appeared feistier and more confident than in the first debate as she sought to frame herself as an independent woman not beholden to Christie's political allies, whom she described as ‘bosses’ straight out of the HBO drama about 1920s New Jersey corruption, Boardwalk Empire.”
The Asbury Park Press: “It wasn't until Buono focused on Christie's economic policy that the governor, for the first time in two debates, was knocked off stride. Buono sharply criticized Christie's provision of $2.1 billion in tax credits to corporations, calling it the wrong way to jumpstart the state's economy and reasoning that that the state should redirect some of the credits to small businesses. She lodged the same criticism at last week's meeting but Christie was caught off guard this time.”