Correct The Record Friday October 31, 2014 Morning Roundup
Correct The Record Friday October 31, 2014 Morning Roundup:
Headlines:
Politico: “Hillary Clinton network to meet for strategy session”
“The event, on Nov. 21, has been billed a strategy session at the Sheraton Times Square in New York City to discuss the next steps as the group and Clinton’s extended network wait for her to say definitively whether she is running for president in 2016."
...
[Among attendees] "There will also be Media Matters founder and Clinton ally David Brock, who launched the pro-Clinton group Correct the Record..."
Newsweek: “Midterms: The Clintons to the Rescue”
“Though Democrats are expected to have a rough year, the Clintons’ work in the midterms cements their place as both rock stars among Democratic voters and as loyal team players for the party—a particularly useful launching point to gain brownie points for a presidential campaign.”
BuzzFeed: “Hillary Clinton And Iowa: No Problem Here”
“It didn’t look like Clinton had an ‘Iowa problem’ here on Wednesday. And state Democrats don’t seem think there is one, either.”
National Journal: “Where Hillary Clinton Is Most in Her Element”
“As one of the most famous politicians in the country, it's difficult to not become isolated from mainstream American life… It would be so easy for Hillary Clinton to simply sink into the jacuzzi of liberal intellectualism… But no matter how uncomfortable Clinton may be with the gladhanding, the eating at diners in Iowa and pretending to care about local unions, she's not going to settle for an easy retirement.”
Reuters: “Crucial Iowa Senate race tied; Romney, Clinton lead for 2016: Reuters/Ipsos poll”
“On the Democratic side, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains the prohibitive favorite, garnering 60 percent of support from Democrats and independents, compared to 17 percent for her closest potential challenger, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.”
Houston Chronicle blog: Texas Politics: “Clinton endorses Davis: ‘She never backs down’”
“Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is officially throwing her support behind Democrat Wendy Davis, applauding her for running a ‘tough, strong campaign’ for governor.”
Associated Press: “Hillary Clinton praises possible primary rivals”
“Hillary Clinton praised O'Malley's tenure, saying he had joined with Brown to create "more good-paying jobs and fewer layoffs," while signing laws to raise the minimum wage and legalize same-sex marriage.”
Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton fires up Democrats at U-Md. rally for Anthony Brown”
“Backed by a high school marching band and Democratic politicians, Hillary Rodham Clinton urged hundreds of potential voters at the University of Maryland on Thursday to cast their ballots for Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.”
Politico: “Dreamers heckle Hillary Clinton in Maryland”
“Hillary Clinton was heckled repeatedly during a rally Thursday in potential 2016 rival Martin O’Malley’s home state of Maryland, when more than a dozen pro-immigrant activists staggered their protests so they lasted throughout most of her speech.”
CNN: “Deportation foes interrupt Hillary Clinton”
"Hillary Clinton was just starting to get into her stump speech on Thursday when immigration protesters began shouting at a rally in Maryland."
The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “First presidential debate set for Republicans”
“The Reagan Library in California has announced it will host candidates contending for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in September of next year.”
Wall Street Journal editorial board: “Hillary Rodham Warren”
“The Wall Streeters who think Mr. Obama is an aberration and that electing Hillary Clinton will return the country to the 1990s should think again.”
Washington Post opinion: Harold Meyerson: “Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street problem”
“Wall Street bankers have their place, but it’s not at Treasury.”
Articles:
Politico: “Hillary Clinton network to meet for strategy session”
By Maggie Haberman
October 30, 2014, 9:41 p.m. EDT
The pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Ready for Hillary is planning a National Finance Council meeting featuring speakers like National Urban League president Marc Morial, former Obama 2012 pollster John Anzalone and longtime Bill Clinton adviser James Carville, according to a save-the-date notice.
The event, on Nov. 21, has been billed a strategy session at the Sheraton Times Square in New York City to discuss the next steps as the group and Clinton’s extended network wait for her to say definitively whether she is running for president in 2016.
But the speakers and attendees represent a cross-section of the party and of Clintonland, including people involved in other outside efforts to prepare for a potential candidacy. And the event itself comes after two years of Ready for Hillary, the low-dollar super PAC backing Clinton, signing up more than 2.5 million supporters and harnessing energy behind her potential candidacy — helping to freeze the Democratic field in the process.
Among those speaking at the day-long affair are Morial, Carville and Anzalone, who worked closely with President Barack Obama’s lead pollster, Joel Benenson, in 2012; and Stephanie Schriock, the president of EMILY’s List who has been mentioned as a potential campaign manager for Clinton. There are two others whose names have been mentioned in the campaign manager race: Ace Smith, a veteran California political operative who worked for Clinton in 2008; and Guy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who will both be speaking.
There is also Jonathan Mantz and Buffy Wicks, respectively the financial adviser and executive director for Priorities USA, the high-dollar super PAC backing Clinton.
Much of 2013 was characterized by fighting between people associated with Priorities USA and Ready for Hillary, and the involvement of Mantz and Wicks in this year’s Finance Council meeting signals a new level of cooperation as Clinton supporters prepare for a likely transition to the existence of a campaign.
There will also be Media Matters founder and Clinton ally David Brock, who launched the pro-Clinton group Correct the Record; Salon.com writer Joan Walsh; Peter O’Keefe, an ally of Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia governor; Karen Finney, a former Hillary Clinton aide and current political strategist; and Ready for Hillary advisers Adam Parkhomenko, Tracy Sefl and Craig Smith.
Mitch Stewart, a former Obama hand who has been working with the group, will also be one of the speakers.
There will be a dinner the night before for co-chairs who have given or raised $25,000, the level that Ready for Hillary capped donations at last year as part of an agreement with Priorities USA about which group was working in which lane.
Newsweek: “Midterms: The Clintons to the Rescue”
By Pema Levy
October 30, 2014, 4:43 p.m. EDT
President Barack Obama may be toxic on the campaign trail these midterms, with some candidates even refusing to say if they voted for him. But another president—and his wife—are in hot demand.
Former President Bill Clinton is on the road for Democrats, headlining fund-raisers and joining candidates on the trail.
And former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has also been out campaigning big-time in the month leading up to the election. As she contemplates a presidential run in two years, a frenetic schedule zigzagging the country has brought her to nearly every close Senate race as the two parties battle for control of the upper chamber.
Together, the Clintons will have traveled over 50,000 miles to 25 states and stumped for more than 30 candidates, according to an analysis by ABC News.
Though Democrats are expected to have a rough year, the Clintons’ work in the midterms cements their place as both rock stars among Democratic voters and as loyal team players for the party—a particularly useful launching point to gain brownie points for a presidential campaign.
“President Clinton and Secretary Clinton have been particularly effective,” Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Thursday at a Politico event, adding that no other surrogate is as good as Hillary Clinton at motivating voters to turn out.
While Obama suffers from dismal approval ratings in the low 40s, particularly in some of the battleground states that will decide who runs the Senate, the Clintons are much more welcome as party champions. Back in July, Gallup found that Hillary Clinton was the most well-known and best-liked among the potential 2016 candidates of either party, with 55 percent of respondents from across the political spectrum viewing her favorably.
Despite their charisma and celebrity, the Clintons still have their work cut out for them if they are to make a difference to next week’s midterm results. Polls show Republicans leading in most of the tight Senate races, and FiveThirtyEight.com on Thursday said the GOP’s chance of taking control of the Senate has risen to 67 percent. Democrats are working hard to win key gubernatorial races in states like Florida and Wisconsin, while retaking the House of Representatives remains way out of reach.
In the lead-up to an expected Hillary presidential campaign, the former first lady’s work on the stump serves multiple purposes. Think of it as a dress rehearsal, a chance for her to hone her message and get back into the swing of campaigning. On the road, she has focused on issues that will likely become pillars of her presidential campaign: economic security, equal pay for women and access to pre-kindergarten education and affordable child care, to name a few.
In one story she has shared a few times in recent weeks, Clinton talks about feeling “the squeeze” of balancing being a mother and having a job. She recalls one morning when, as a young lawyer due in court at 9 a.m., she struggled to find someone to look after her 2-year-old daughter, who woke up sick that morning. She found help that morning, Clinton says, but too many women don’t have any. The story appeals to women voters and also makes Clinton, who has now spent decades in public life, a relatable figure.
Just as important, her hard work on behalf of Democrats—even Democrats who are struggling in the polls—will create a reservoir of good will from national and state party leaders. If Clinton runs for president, she will need the strong backing of the party and will want to avoid a divisive primary race like the one she lost to Obama last time around. It would be much harder for a Democrat to challenge Clinton in a Democratic primary after she has brought in money and votes all over the country for her fellow Democrats
With control of the Senate on the line, the Clintons have focused hard on supporting Democratic Senate candidates, but they haven’t limited their work to just helping those running for the upper chamber. The former secretary of state and the former president have also headlined fund-raisers in New York and California, campaigned in gubernatorial races from Florida to Rhode Island, and even dabbled in House races from Iowa to New York.
In the weekend before the election, Hillary will headline an event for embattled incumbent Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana senator, in New Orleans; Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is challenging Senator Mitch McConnell in Kentucky; and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, according to CNN.
Bill Clinton, whose eloquent defense of Obama’s record during the 2012 campaign led Obama to call him the “secretary of explaining stuff,” has tried to cut through the Republican messaging this cycle. In his home state of Arkansas, for example, he tried to counter Republican attempts to make the Senate race there a referendum on the unpopular president.
“They want you to make this a protest vote,” he said earlier this month, campaigning for Democratic Senator Mark Pryor. “They’re saying, 'You may like these guys—but, hey, you know what you’ve got to do, you’ve got to vote against the president. After all, it’s your last shot.' It’s a pretty good scam, isn’t it?”
Added the former president, “Give me a six-year job for a two-year protest, that’s Mark Pryor’s opponent’s message.”
In the final days of the campaign, he is parachuting into North Carolina, where Democratic Senator Kay Hagan’s lead has slipped and Republican challenger Thom Tillis is gaining ground. On Friday, Bill Clinton will headline an early-voting event in Raleigh less than a week after his wife campaigned with Hagan in Charlotte—a signal that in tough races, the Clintons are a key part of the Democrats’ turnout strategy.
BuzzFeed: “Hillary Clinton And Iowa: No Problem Here”
By Ruby Cramer
October 30, 2014, 2:24 p.m. EDT
[Subtitle:] The knock was Hillary wouldn’t visit Iowa, the state she never clicked in. She’s been twice this fall, she looks at ease in the state — and despite the theories, Iowa Democrats are onboard.
DAVENPORT, Iowa — She recalled campaign visits to the Teamsters hall, and remembered “barbeque and blues festivities” at the River Music Experience. She stressed what a “great personal pleasure” it was to be back in Cedar Rapids, and how impressed she’s always been “by the history and beauty” of Davenport. And she told a crowd at the first of two rallies in Iowa on Wednesday afternoon just how hard it’d been to watch severe flooding here scourge the cities and towns she’d spent months getting to know during her presidential campaign six years ago.
Hillary Clinton paused on the solemn note at a Cedar Rapids labor hall.
“I watched with such distress,” she said. “When you’ve been somewhere and you envision the places you’ve visited, it’s heartbreaking to watch the destruction.”
It didn’t look like Clinton had an “Iowa problem” here on Wednesday. And state Democrats don’t seem think there is one, either.
The former presidential candidate knows the place pretty well for someone who, as local Democrats have said in the past, could never quite gel the way she needed to with the state that historically gets to go first in the nominating process. Since that crippling third-place finish in the caucuses behind Barack Obama and John Edwards, then both senators, Clinton’s missteps in Iowa have been retraced again and again.
There was a perception that Clinton couldn’t connect in 2008. She worked rope lines more than she talked one-on-one with voters. Her events were tightly controlled. She didn’t take questions. And hanging over her campaign was an unhelpful internal memo, leaked to the press months before caucus night, advising she forgo Iowa altogether.
In the past year, the theory has persisted: State Democrats are wary or disinterested about the prospect of another go-round with Clinton; they want to weigh their options, find a challenger, or at least see her work harder for it than in 2008.
But Clinton has returned twice to the state in as many months this fall — first for Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual Steak Fry fundraiser, and again on Wednesday to headline twin rallies for Rep. Bruce Braley, the Democrat in a toss-up race for U.S. Senate.
State leaders said in interviews this week that Clinton has easily reestablished a connection here and fostered fresh goodwill, particularly in her efforts to help Braley. And at her events on Wednesday, Clinton showed she could play to the crowds, making references to local political establishments in her speeches, calling out individual Braley volunteers by name to thank them, making time for an unannounced stop at a restaurant in Iowa City, and joking about that special kind of devotion to presidential politics for which the early-voting state is known.
Her problems here were always overstated, said Teresa Vilmain, the 2008 campaign’s state director. “Anyone who focuses on that story line is having a slow news day,” Vilmain said. “Iowans are still excited to see her and hear from her.”
A poll this month found 76% of likely Democratic caucus goers view Clinton favorably.
Janet Petersen, an Iowa state senator who supported Obama in the primary, said Clinton has “built up a lot of goodwill” by campaigning for Braley. She discounted the idea that Clinton has any outsize hurdles to overcome in the state.
“It’s always interesting to see what the national media is covering with the caucuses. It’s generally not what we’re seeing on the ground,” Peterson said.
Clinton’s first event of the day was a Cedar Rapids rally with Braley — who is close to tied in polls with his Republican opponent, state Sen. Joni Ernst — at the local 405 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The brown and beige-colored union hall where Clinton spoke to a crowd of about 400, as estimated by the Braley campaign, is also headquarters to the Hawkeye Labor Council, a coalition of 45 unions in seven counties. Clinton made a point to mention that. (Ahead of 2008, the president of that council, Justin Shields, co-chaired her state campaign.)
“I know we’ve got some teamsters here today,” Clinton said looking out at the audience.
After the rally, Clinton rolled out of the union hall parking lot in a black van amid a string of seven other cars, and headed for Iowa City. There, she made a off-schedule stop with Braley at the Hamburg Inn restaurant. Clinton ordered a chocolate bourbon pecan pie milkshake, or pie shake, and sat down at a table just below a framed photo of Harkin. (Her husband’s picture was hanging not too far away.) A group of young women one spot over struck up conversation. Clinton talked about her new granddaughter, and whether she’d watch the seventh game of the World Series.
The ordeal didn’t last long. (Clinton has made similar drop-ins during trips to rallies in Colorado and Illinois this month.) But the brief stop amounted to rare time with voters, not spent from the lectern or a hurried, hectic ropeline. And to longtime political observers in Iowa, it signaled a change in Clinton’s approach.
John Deeth, an Iowa political blogger, used to feature a count on his homepage of the number of days Clinton had spent away from Iowa. The final tally: 2,446.
When he saw news of the Hamburg Inn stop, he tweeted a picture of a beret on a plate, set with silverware as if for a meal. “Tonight I’ll be dining on this,” he said.
Deeth was not able to cover Clinton’s visit, though he has long argued that her campaign was far too scripted. “Of course, after six years of loudly demanding that Hillary do exactly this, I’m stuck at the office when it happens,” he wrote on his blog.
At her rally in Davenport, Clinton kept up the personal touch, calling out two volunteers from the Braley campaign to thank them by name. “Is Bobby Dodd here? Where is Bobby Dodd? Oh, Bobby. Bobby is 91 years old and volunteering,” Clinton said. “What about Judy? Judy Moss? Is she here? Judy? Thank you, Judy!”
Clinton seemed to suggest she’d be ready for the Iowa test next time around. “I don’t know any place in America that takes politics more seriously. You take politics seriously because you take public service seriously.”
“And you like to test your candidates, don’t ya?” she said. The crowd laughed. “You wanna force them to be the best they can be. I have experienced that myself.”
“And you wanna know if somebody is here asking you for your votes — they have to answer some tough questions. About what they would do if you gave them your vote. Not in Iowa do people get away with not answering questions.”
“Except… questions that are far in the future,” Clinton said with a grin and a quick glance at Braley. It was the only reference that day to her possible campaign.
This month, in trips to about a dozen states to campaign for Democratic candidates running in the midterm races, Clinton has kept the focus off herself. She has tamped down the coy references to her potential presidential run, which came up frequently in interviews during a publicity tour to promote her memoir this summer.
“She’s made it very clear that she’s stumping for other people right now,” said Liz Mathis, a state senator who was a caucus leader for Clinton. “She’s been very careful to step back and let other people shine. She uses her clout in the right way.” Once Clinton “reestablishes herself as ‘the candidate,’” Mathis said, “you’ll see full commitment, and you’ll see that relationship come together with Iowans.”
People in Iowa politics haven’t forgotten the difficulties Clinton had in the state. This summer, a state newspaper wrote a pointed second-person editorial, warning Clinton to show Iowans she wanted it, “sooner rather than later this time.”
And officials with the pro-Clinton group, Ready for Hillary, first landed in Iowa in January to commit early to the state and gather a list local supporters who would back a campaign. (They have not made the length of that list public.)
Jerry Crawford, a mainstay in Iowa politics who supported Clinton in 2008 and has advised Ready for Hillary, said that voters in the state do enjoy a contested race.
“On the one hand, no candidate in the Iowa caucuses has ever approached them with as much organized support as Ready for Hillary has created for Clinton,” he said. “On the other hand, caucuses are by nature contentious and contrarian events that appeal most to the philosophical edges in each party. That is how Rick Santorum won Iowa.”
Clinton won’t have a coronation in Iowa. But any challenger will “have trouble beating her,” Crawford said. “She is beloved by mainstream party regulars.”
Petersen, the state senator, said that eventually Iowans will want more direct contact with Clinton. “They’re used to getting that chance,” Peterson said. “With Ready for Hillary, they don’t speak on behalf of the candidate. That’s not who Iowans want to engage with. They want to get to know the candidate and hear her vision.”
“But she’s showing us that she’s going to be back,” Petersen said.
National Journal: “Where Hillary Clinton Is Most in Her Element”
By Emma Roller
October 30, 2014
[Subtitle:] At Georgetown, Clinton could speak freely about women’s economic inequality without fear of immediate reprisal.
Hillary Clinton doesn't want to talk about politics, and that's perfectly fine—for now.
Speaking at Georgetown University on Thursday, Clinton addressed women's economic empowerment.
She told a story about a trip she made to India with a group of economists. Clinton noticed many women were working in the street markets or hauling water.
"How do you evaluate women's contributions to the economy?" she asked. One economist responded that they didn't because women don't participate in the formal economy.
"What would happen if women stopped working in the informal economy?" Clinton asked, and suggested that the economy would screech to a halt.
"Well yes, that is a point," the economist replied. The audience laughed.
The anecdote dovetails nicely with Clinton's semi-new stump-speech thesis: that by empowering women across the economic spectrum, the world succeeds.
It's an argument echoed in her speeches for female candidates like Martha Coakley, Jeanne Shaheen, Staci Appel, and Mary Burke. At an event for Coakley on Monday, Clinton made an economic observation that got her in some trouble.
"Don't let anybody tell you it's corporations and businesses that create jobs," she said. "You know that old theory—trickle-down economics. That has been tried; that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly."
Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul quickly seized upon the comment, linking it to President Obama's much-derided "you didn't build that" comment from 2012.
"Hillary Clinton says, 'Well, businesses don't create jobs,'" Paul told a crowd in Kansas on Tuesday. "Anybody believe that?" The crowd roared its disagreement.
But back at Georgetown, speaking to a women's economic forum, Hillary Clinton is absolutely in her element, her public safe space. Even at the Democratic National Committee Women's Leadership Forum, Clinton's performance sounded more like a paid advertisement for the Democratic Party than a speech she truly cared about. At Georgetown, she could be as pragmatic and professorial as she wanted.
This is not to say she's not trying to reconnect with the plebs as she seeks their political favor. Ruby Cramer reports that while visiting Iowa on Wednesday, Clinton worked the crowds, "calling out individual [Bruce] Braley volunteers by name to thank them, making time for an unannounced stop at a restaurant in Iowa City, and joking about that special kind of devotion to presidential politics for which the early-voting state is known."
As one of the most famous politicians in the country, it's difficult to not become isolated from mainstream American life. It's easy to seek solitude at the Congressional Country Club, as Newt and Callista Gingrich often do, or simply remain on your ranch and paint portraits of your dog. It would be so easy for Hillary Clinton to simply sink into the jacuzzi of liberal intellectualism, leading microfinance programs in third-world countries and giving commencement speeches when she wants to. But no matter how uncomfortable Clinton may be with the gladhanding, the eating at diners in Iowa and pretending to care about local unions, she's not going to settle for an easy retirement.
After her Georgetown speech ended, Clinton was hustled out the door to a campaign event for Anthony Brown, a Democrat running for governor of Maryland. If Clinton and her fellow Democrats only had to persuade liberal intellectuals at elite coastal universities to vote for them, they'd have nothing to worry about come Tuesday. As it stands, the midterm campaign trail is not such a safe space.
Reuters: “Crucial Iowa Senate race tied; Romney, Clinton lead for 2016: Reuters/Ipsos poll”
By Gabriel Debenedetti
October 30, 2014, 8:12 p.m. EDT
The high-profile U.S. Senate race in Iowa is a dead heat, with Democratic Representative Bruce Braley and Republican state Senator Joni Ernst each garnering the support of 45 percent of likely voters, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Braley and Ernst have been locked in a tight race that has seen an influx of outside money and appearances from prominent national figures on both sides of the aisle.
Republicans, who need to pick up six seats to take control of the Senate from Democrats, see the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin as one they could move to their column.
Ernst, a Tea Party-backed Iraq war veteran who grew up on a farm, has a slight edge over Braley, an attorney and an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Congress in favorability ratings, the poll showed. Ernst has 50 percent favorability and unfavorability ratings, compared to Braley's 48 percent favorability and 52 percent unfavorability.
"There's not a lot of elections where I say it's genuinely too close to call, but because of the lack of incumbency and because of the closeness of the polls, I genuinely find it too close to call," said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.
More than one-third of respondents said they had already voted, taking advantage of early voting provisions ahead of Election Day on Nov. 4. The Braley-Ernst race is one of about 10 Senate races around the country that polls are showing as closely matched.
Overall, Iowa voters seem happy with the current state of affairs: Iowa governor Terry Branstad leads his challenger, Democrat Jack Hatch, by a 57 percent to 34 percent margin.
And more than 60 percent of voters said Iowa is headed in the right direction, compared to just 28 percent who believe the country as a whole is moving in the right direction.
Voters in the state have a dim view of President Barack Obama, broadly reflecting a wider national picture: just 41 percent of Iowans approve of his handling of his job, compared to 58 percent who disapprove.
ROMNEY, CLINTON LEAD 2016 FIELDS
As happens at this stage in every presidential election cycle, likely 2016 White House aspirants have already descended in droves upon Iowa, which holds the first-in-the-nation caucus in presidential election years.
Unsuccessful 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney is the most popular choice for 2016 among Iowa Republicans and independents, with 17 percent support, even though he says he does not plan to run again.
He is closely followed by his former vice-presidential nominee, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, at 13 percent, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie, with 12 percent.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and former Florida governor Jeb Bush each got 10 percent, and five other Republicans got at least 5 percent, reflecting the likely fractured nature of the Republican primary season.
On the Democratic side, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains the prohibitive favorite, garnering 60 percent of support from Democrats and independents, compared to 17 percent for her closest potential challenger, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Clinton says she will decide whether or not to run in early 2015.
Vice President Joe Biden was next, with just 4 percent of the vote.
The online poll of 1,129 likely voters in Iowa, conducted between October 23 and 29, had a confidence interval - similar to a margin of error - of 3.3 points.
Houston Chronicle blog: Texas Politics: “Clinton endorses Davis: ‘She never backs down’”
By Patrick Svitek
October 30, 2014
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is officially throwing her support behind Democrat Wendy Davis, applauding her for running a “tough, strong campaign” for governor.
“That’s no surprise, because Wendy has shown us time and time again that she never backs down, whether she’s fighting for Texas school children or working to create an economy that works for all Texans,” Clinton is quoted as saying in a graphic Davis shared Thursday morning on Twitter.
Clinton also cited the filibuster that launched Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, on to the national stage, praising her “immense courage in fighting to protect women’s access to health care, which remains an inspiration to me and so many others.”
The endorsement was not unexpected. Earlier this month, Clinton mentioned Davis in a fundraising appeal for Democratic women running for governor. Speaking last month in Washington, D.C., Clinton pointed to Davis as an example of female Democrats on the ballot in November who “give me hope.”
Davis has returned the praise, saying last month she hopes Clinton “will consider moving forward” with a bid for the White House. Throughout the governor’s race, Davis has suggested her campaign could benefit someone like Clinton, laying the groundwork to make Texas more competitive for Democrats eyeing the White House in 2016.
The campaign of Davis’ Republican opponent, Greg Abbott, often derides her support from national Democrats as evidence she’s out of step with most Texans on the issues. In the closing days of the contest, Abbott, the attorney general, has missed few opportunities to remind supporters of Davis’ ties to D.C. and the “Barack Obama operatives” working on her campaign.
Associated Press: “Hillary Clinton praises possible primary rivals”
By Ken Thomas
October 31, 2014, 3:34 a.m. EDT
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — When it comes to potential Democratic primary rivals, Hillary Rodham Clinton is displaying a light touch.
Heading into Tuesday's midterm elections, Clinton has crossed paths with two possible presidential competitors in the past week: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. By all accounts, the back-and-forth of a debate stage remains a long way off.
"For the past eight years, you've had a great team," Clinton said at the University of Maryland, where she vouched for Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who is running to succeed O'Malley. The outgoing governor has a lengthy record that puts him in good standing with liberals, and he's also known for fronting a Celtic rock band.
"I don't know if Anthony plays an instrument but your current governor does," Clinton said. "And so he's gotten the Legislature and the people to sing along for eight years, and the melody has been terrific."
Clinton offered a similar embrace in Boston last week, heaping praise on Warren as a "passionate champion" for workers and families. "I love watching Elizabeth give it to those who deserve to get it," she said.
The midterm elections have put them the three Democrats, along with Vice President Joe Biden, before crowds of Democrats who could help energize a future White House bid. They haven't declared their intentions yet but Clinton remains the dominant Democratic contender if she runs.
How fellow Democrats could influence Clinton in presidential primary contests — as candidates or on the sidelines — remains an open question.
O'Malley picked a policy fight with the Obama administration last summer over the influx of unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the southern border into Texas. Expediting the deportations of the children, O'Malley said at the time, would "send them back to certain death."
Clinton's Maryland speech was interrupted several times by protesters pressing her over President Barack Obama's expected executive orders on immigration after the midterm elections. Carrying signs that read "Choose Families Over Politics," waves of activists heckled Clinton during her speech, prompting her to respond that she was a "strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform."
Warren has repeatedly denied interest in running for president — although she did suggest some wiggle room recently — but she remains a forceful voice on income inequality and refinancing college loans. Liberals hope Warren's popularity within the party encourages Clinton to adopt some of their concerns. But they remain wary of the former secretary of state's ties to Wall Street.
"The single best way for Hillary Clinton to ingratiate herself with Elizabeth Warren is to embrace Warren's populist agenda of reforming Wall Street, reducing student debt and expanding Social Security benefits," said Adam Green, who leads the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has been a staunch supporter of Warren.
Other potential candidates like former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., have questioned U.S. foreign policy, which could once again place a spotlight on Clinton's hawkish record, which Obama used to his advantage in 2008.
In Maryland, O'Malley was more clipped in his appreciation, noting Clinton had "served our country so very well" as first lady, senator and secretary of state. The two never appeared on stage together, but aides said they chatted beforehand.
The governor remains relatively unknown to national Democrats but has made multiple visits to early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, where he planned to help gubernatorial candidate Vince Sheheen on Saturday.
He also has longstanding ties to the Clintons. Former President Bill Clinton appeared in a campaign ad for him in 2006, and O'Malley was the second governor in the nation to endorse Hillary Clinton's presidential bid a year later.
Hillary Clinton praised O'Malley's tenure, saying he had joined with Brown to create "more good-paying jobs and fewer layoffs," while signing laws to raise the minimum wage and legalize same-sex marriage.
O'Malley sat next to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., in the stands, applauding Clinton during the event. When she finished her remarks, Clinton raised her hands with Brown and his running mate, Ken Ulman, presenting the ticket to the cameras. O'Malley quickly departed through a door near the stage.
Their next meeting might be more interesting.
Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton fires up Democrats at U-Md. rally for Anthony Brown”
By Hamil R. Harris
October 30, 2014, 7:28 p.m. EDT
Backed by a high school marching band and Democratic politicians, Hillary Rodham Clinton urged hundreds of potential voters at the University of Maryland on Thursday to cast their ballots for Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
“This race comes down to one simple question: Who is on your side?” said the former secretary of state, who encouraged students to vote early in Tuesday’s elections. “Please don’t miss this opportunity.”
Clinton, who is considering a 2016 White House run, praised the Democratic administration of Gov. Martin O’Malley and Brown. “Under this administration, there are more good-paying jobs, fewer layoffs, the minimum wage is up and crime is going down,” she said.
Clinton was interrupted during her speech at the university’s Ritchie Coliseum by hecklers protesting the deportation of thousands of undocumented immigrants by the Obama administration.
Politicians including U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, Brown’s running mate, attended the rally, as did Samara Jackson, a senior at U-Md. from Silver Spring.
“A lot of people in our generation are beginning to wake up to be more politically active,” Jackson, 21, said of millennials. “I do feel like we are being targeted, but the tactics to get people to come out to vote are positive.”
O’Malley, who is also considering running for president, spoke at the rally, praising Brown’s performance as lieutenant governor.
The event was the latest example of national involvement in the race between Brown and Republican nominee Larry Hogan, an Anne Arundel County businessman.
Hogan has campaigned with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, three times in recent weeks, and Christie plans to return Sunday.
Earlier this month, Brown appeared with President Obama in Prince George’s County, and in September, he had a fundraiser with former president Bill Clinton in Potomac. He will also campaign with first lady Michelle Obama at a “get out the vote” rally Monday in Baltimore.
With Brown maintaining a single-digit lead over Hogan according to most polls, the Democratic Governors Association and the RGA have been spending money to buy television commercials on the race.
The RGA, which had been airing anti-Brown television ads in the Baltimore market, is set to expand its effort into the Washington region on Thursday, according to a spokesman. The ads have highlighted tax increases passed during the O’Malley-Brown administration, a key focus of Hogan’s campaign.
Hogan and Brown both spent time Thursday campaigning in Baltimore County, an important battleground where Hogan can cut into Brown’s sizable advantage in liberal Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
Brown appeared at a morning event in Owings Mills with Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger (D), Sen. Bobby Zirkin (D) and Del. Adrienne A. Jones (D).
Hogan visited residents at senior living communities in Catonsville and Parkville, taking walking tours of Parkville and Bel Air. He also stopped by an early voting center in Bel Air and a Havre de Grace Halloween parade.
Hillary Clinton was to headline Brown’s Sept. 30 fundraiser in Potomac, but she sent her husband instead so she could spend more time with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who had just given birth to a girl.
A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted earlier this month found that 63 percent of Maryland Democrats named Hillary Clinton as their top pick for president, while 3 percent chose O’Malley.
Politico: “Dreamers heckle Hillary Clinton in Maryland”
By Maggie Haberman
October 30, 2014, 5:45 p.m. EDT
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Hillary Clinton was heckled repeatedly during a rally Thursday in potential 2016 rival Martin O’Malley’s home state of Maryland, when more than a dozen pro-immigrant activists staggered their protests so they lasted throughout most of her speech.
The rolling protests by members of the group United We Dream came during a rally at the University of Maryland for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown. They also came nearly a week after so-called Dreamers interrupted Clinton’s speech in North Carolina, where she was campaigning for Sen. Kay Hagan; the activists reportedly said they were mishandled by officials at that rally when they were being led out.
Clinton, who has said she will decide on a White House run by early next year, has repeatedly been targeted by Dreamers since she re-emerged in politics as a campaign surrogate this fall. The activists are frustrated with President Barack Obama’s delay in taking executive action on immigration reforms, and they are pushing Clinton to be more outspoken on the issue.
Hispanics are a fast-growing voting bloc, and the Dreamers want to send a signal that Democrats shouldn’t take their support for granted, despite congressional Republicans’ blocking of comprehensive immigration reform in the House.
The protesters on Thursday fanned out around the gymnasium where the rally was held, popping up every few minutes with a new round of heckles.
“Immigration is an important issue in this state,” Clinton said, as the first wave of protesters — a cluster of six people hoisting signs that read, “Choose Families Over Politics” — shouted and drowned her out. They were led out of the gymnasium by officers.
“If they’d just waited a little while I was getting to the DREAM Act,” Clinton said, to some laughs from the crowd. She went on to praise the legislation, which passed at the ballot box in Maryland in 2012. The act was championed by O’Malley, Maryland’s governor, and it allows some undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates for college.
A few minutes later, in a bleachers section of the gymnasium, an activist started shouting Clinton down.
“I’m a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform,” said Clinton, who also called it a “moral” issue. “We have to treat everyone with dignity and compassion.” That shouting activist also was led out of the gym by officers, still protesting loudly as she left.
Clinton again started talking, and then a third, smaller wave began. Toward the end of her speech there was a fourth, and then a fifth.
“I think she avoided the question like she has in the other events where we’ve tried to connect with her before,” said Greisa Martinez, an organizer with United We Dream who said she drew more than two dozen people to the event.
“I know that Hillary Clinton is a very intelligent woman and she knows exactly what we are talking about… it’s not about the DREAM Act and it’s not about immigration reform…it’s about administrative relief, and so to hear her use that as a cop out to” avoid answering was frustrating, she said.
Clinton never seemed rattled by the protesters, although the rolling wave had a jarring effect on the speech. The episode underscored not just that she will continue to face protests until the White House moves on this issue, potentially after Election Day next week, but also how O’Malley has become a voice on the issue in recent months.
With social issues like gay marriage now considered settled within the Democratic Party, the issue of immigration reform and its many components remains a space for people in the party to carve out on the left. It’s an issue that bedeviled Clinton in the 2008 campaign, when, during a Democratic debate in late 2007, she fumbled a question about whether she supported then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give undocumented immigrants drivers’ licenses.
For Clinton, the Dreamer protesters are figuring out new tactics just as her window to avoid taking stands on certain issues will come to a close, should she run for president. She’s said she’ll make her decision at the beginning of next year, but the media will turn its attention to 2016 almost immediately after the midterms.
The Maryland governor, who already is laying the groundwork for a presidential run of 2016, made himself a champion of immigration advocates when he blasted Obama over the summer for the handling of the surge in unaccompanied children sneaking across the U.S. border. Many of the children were said to be trying to escape violence in their South American countries.
The Obama administration has been in many cases deporting the children to their home country. Clinton, asked about the crisis at a CNN town hall over the summer during her book tour, said the children “should be sent back” when their families are identified to keep them safe, a line that ricocheted online and angered immigration advocates.
She’s since been approached by Dreamers on a rope line in Iowa and elsewhere.
Thursday’s protests capped an event that began as a reminder of a past political problem for Clinton as opposed to a future one. Clinton was there to stump for Brown, the only statewide African-American candidate Democrats have this cycle, and a potentially strong surrogate for whoever the Democratic nominee is for president in 2016.
The presidential primary race between Clinton and Obama split along racial lines by the end, as African-American voters moved toward the then-Illinois Senator after he won the Iowa caucuses. In the upcoming presidential race, in which Clinton will likely be the dominant Democratic frontrunner, Hispanic voters will be critical.
Earlier in the rally, O’Malley praised Clinton. She heaped praise back on him, ticking through his record on issues such as guns and gay marriage. The picture was supposed to be that of a happy Democratic family, but at times the awkwardness of Clinton appearing at the same event with the only potential 2016 rival who is actively campaigning for himself was clear.
An aide to O’Malley said the two spoke briefly at the event backstage. O’Malley was not listed on the initial release about the event, but aides to both him and Clinton said he was always expected to speak at it. He also spoke at a fundraiser that Bill Clinton headlined for Brown weeks ago, after Hillary Clinton bowed out when their granddaughter was born.
O’Malley tried to whip up the crowd when he spoke, talking about his work with Brown and saying, the people “you’re all here to see, Anthony Brown and Hillary Clinton,” were about to come out. He repeated it for good measure: “Let me say that again: Anthony Brown and Hillary Clinton.”
There was no question, when Brown, who has a strong lead in the polls, was on stage, where his focus was. He thanked O’Malley for being his partner in government. But he also drew attention to Clinton, introducing her as “Charlotte’s grandmother” and saying, “She’s a great leader, and a great foot soldier.” When he first came onstage, he asked, “Are you ready for Hillary?”
Once the immigration protests quieted down, Clinton made her way through the basics of her midterms stump speech, continuing with a line that cleaned up on a statement she made at a Boston rally last week about corporations and businesses not creating jobs.
She said that people “have to ask yourself, what is the Republican alternative” to improving the economy. And she blasted “more trickle-down economics and tax breaks” for companies that “ship jobs overseas while you’re paying the freight.”
Republicans, she said, “are running campaigns based on fear…[what people do when they’ve] run out of ideas and run out of hope.”
Brown’s campaign put the attendance at 2,500 people in a press release. But there did not appear to be more than 1,000 people in the gym.
CNN: “Deportation foes interrupt Hillary Clinton”
By Dan Merica
October 30, 2014, 6:58 p.m. EDT
College Park, Maryland (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton was just starting to get into her stump speech on Thursday when immigration protesters began shouting at a rally in Maryland.
They were from United We Dream, a pro-immigration reform organization that dispatched about 20 people to interrupt Clinton's rally with Anthony Brown, Maryland Democrats' gubernatorial candidate.
A series of four groups stood up during quiet moments in Clinton's speech and began to shout.
"Choose families over politics," some signs read. Others chanted as they were escorted out by police.
According to Mario Carrillo, United We Dream's spokesman, the coordinated protest was "part of a broader effort of demanding to know where she stands on the President using his executive authority to protect millions of people from deportations, especially since it looks like she's starting to actively campaign towards 2016."
After the first wave of protests, Clinton responded by stating that immigration is an "important issue."
"If they would have just waited a little while, I was getting to the DREAM Act," Clinton said. "I am really proud to be in a state who has opened the doors of opportunity to students who work and study hard regardless of their parents immigration status."
The DREAM Act is a proposal that establishes a pathway to citizenship for young, undocumented immigrants pursuing education or military opportunities. The law, despite support from Democrats, has not seen much success with Republicans in the House of Representatives.
Clinton later added during the speech, "I am a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform."
The crowd drowned out most of the protests. After the first group was escorted out, the audience -- mostly made up of young people -- began to chant "Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!"
For the next three interruptions, however, Clinton spoke over the protests and instead decided to focus on Brown's record as lieutenant governor for the last either years, touting his record on guns, the minimum wage and women's issues.
This is far from the first time Clinton has been interrupted by immigration protesters. Last week in North Carolina, Clinton was interrupted by thee United We Dream activists at a rally for Sen. Kay Hagan. And in Iowa this September, immigration protesters confronted Clinton on a rope line after her speech.
The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “First presidential debate set for Republicans”
By David McCabe
October 30, 2014, 10:20 p.m. EDT
The Reagan Library in California has announced it will host candidates contending for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in September of next year.
No one from either party has declared their candidacy to succeed President Obama yet. But many, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have said they will decide whether to run after the first of next year.
In 2012, some Republicans felt that the party damaged its eventual nominee, Mitt Romney, because it allowed too many debates — 20 in all, according to the New York Times. That meant that candidates spent time attacking each other, rather than Obama.
With the recent past in mind, the party has made moves to limit the number of debates in the coming election. Candidates will be penalized if they participate in forums that are not sanctioned by the party.
Wall Street Journal editorial board: “Hillary Rodham Warren”
By WSJ Editorial Board
October 30, 2014, 7:48 p.m. EDT
[Subtitle:] Mrs. Clinton begins her dance with the Democratic left.
So we hear that Hillary Clinton ’s Wall Street admirers are concerned about her comments last week, at a rally with Senator Elizabeth Warren, that businesses don’t create jobs. They better get used to it, because this is only the beginning of Mrs. Clinton’s dance with Liz as the former first lady adapts to the leftward shift of her party while making another run at the White House.
“Don’t let anybody tell you that corporations and businesses create jobs,” Mrs. Clinton said in Boston. She added that “I love watching Elizabeth, you know, give it to those who deserve to get it.” She didn’t say who deserved it, but Sen. Warren has a long target list.
Mrs. Clinton tried to backtrack on Monday. “Trickle down economics has failed. I short-handed this point the other day, so let me be absolutely clear about what I’ve been saying for a couple of decades,” she said. “Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in America and workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out—not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas.”
Bill Clinton must have helped on that one, and it’s nice to know she thinks some businesses create jobs. But the real importance of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign remarks is what they say about the direction of the Democratic Party since she and Bill lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Democratic economic policy has moved sharply to the anti-business left. President Obama ’s soak-the-rich rhetoric has led the shift, but even he hasn’t gone far enough for the Warren wing. This accounts for the Massachusetts Senator’s star status on the stump this year, as she bashes bankers and proposes even higher taxes on business.
To distance themselves from Mr. Obama’s economic record, Hillary and Bill will try to make voters ignore the record of the last six years and recall the 1990s. Her political problem will be reconciling the claims of that record with the Obama-Warren economic agenda.
What the Clintons won’t mention is that the economy really took off after Republicans took Congress in 1994, or that Mr. Clinton agreed with Newt Gingrich to cut the capital gains tax rate to 20% in 1997. Don’t expect to hear much about welfare reform, the passage of Nafta, or the repeal of Glass-Steagall. Look for her to suggest that the 1990s boom was all the result of the tax increase of 1993, without mentioning that it cost Democrats control of Congress.
Watching Mrs. Clinton dance this two-step will be one of the political dramas of 2015. Mrs. Clinton knows that minor-league liberals like Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley pose no political threat to her nomination, but Mrs. Warren could. The Senator could neutralize Mrs. Clinton’s first-woman-President pitch while being more popular with the party’s Argentine economics wing. This explains Mrs. Clinton’s effusive praise for Mrs. Warren and what is sure to be a major bow to her policies.
The Wall Streeters who think Mr. Obama is an aberration and that electing Hillary Clinton will return the country to the 1990s should think again. If we know anything about the Clintons, it is that they will do whatever it takes to win. So don’t rule out a Vice President or Treasury Secretary Warren.
Washington Post opinion: Harold Meyerson: “Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street problem”
By Harold Meyerson
October 30, 2014, 5:15 p.m. EDT
Over the past week, the usually redoubtable Hillary Clinton has comported herself like a leaf in a storm. Last Friday, campaigning in Boston for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley, Clinton not only praised Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who has won a devoted following as the scourge of big banks; she sounded like her.
“I love watching Elizabeth giving it to those who deserve it,” Clinton said. She touted Coakley for her presumably Warrenesque attributes: “She stood up to the big national banks that tried to trick and trap and cheat our families.” Warming to the topic, Clinton continued in an unaccustomed populist vein: “Don’t let anybody tell you that, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics: That has been tried; that has failed.”
Problem is, some of Clinton’s long-standing supporters run those big banks. On Monday, at a campaign stop in New York, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential front-runner rephrased. “Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in America, where workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out.”
Clinton’s semi-demi-about-face reflects a fundamental tension in Democratic politics. Like most Americans, the party’s activists have nothing but scorn for Wall Street, which they see — with ample data backing them up — as enriching itself at the expense of the rest of the nation. Yet at the level of presidential politics and government, a significant sector of big-time banking has long supported the Democrats. Indeed, as Wall Street’s share of the nation’s wealth has grown, it has become a leading funder of Democratic, no less than Republican, presidential hopefuls and has claimed for itself the top economic posts in the past two Democratic administrations.
But the Wall Street from which banker C. Douglas Dillon emerged to become John F. Kennedy’s treasury secretary in 1961 couldn’t be more different from the Wall Street that spawned Robert Rubin and his like-minded protege at the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner, the respective secretaries of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. In Dillon’s day, Wall Street, still laboring under New Deal-era regulations, funded American businesses and didn’t take a huge cut for itself. Over the past quarter-century, however, Wall Street became the dominant force and most lucrative sector in the U.S. economy, enriching shareholders and bankers at the expense of nearly everyone else. The adamant opposition of Clinton’s Treasury Department to the regulation of derivatives and its support for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had kept publicly insured depositor banks from risky investments, directly contributed to the financial collapse of 2008 and the ensuing recession. The indifference of Obama’s Treasury Department to the plight of underwater homeowners — a striking contrast with the solicitude it showered on the big banks — made that recession longer and more severe.
Today, as New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin reported, “an army of Wall Street bankers has been angling for roles in her [Hillary Clinton’s presidential] campaign in hopes of clinching spots in her administration.” Those bankers, Sorkin wrote, greeted Clinton’s Boston speech with a mixture of dismay and skepticism. “I doubt she meant that,” one told him.
How, then, does the non-Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party — the Democratic 99 percent, we might say — keep its presumptive presidential nominee from entrusting the nation’s economy to those who see Wall Street as the solution rather than the problem? How can Democrats save Clinton from herself?
Here’s how: In the winter of 1932-1933, as President-elect Franklin Roosevelt was assembling his Cabinet, he was lobbied to appoint a leader of the J.P. Morgan investment bank, then headquartered at 23 Wall St., to a top post at Treasury. Roosevelt refused — categorically. “We simply cannot go along with 23,” he told an aide.
Roosevelt’s refusal should become a standard to which Democratic activists hold all their presidential candidates. FDR understood that the largely unregulated banks of the 1920s had substantially created the 1929 crash and Great Depression and should not be entrusted with rebuilding the economy. Faced with the almost equally disastrous record of the post-regulation Wall Street of the past several decades, the new president needs a similar understanding.
So as Roosevelt said no to 23, Democrats should insist that their candidates say no to 200 (the street number of Goldman Sachs’ headquarters), no to 270 (JPMorgan Chase) and so on. Wall Street bankers have their place, but it’s not at Treasury.
Calendar:
Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official schedule.
· November 1 – New Orleans, LA: Sec. Clinton campaigns for Sen. Mary Landrieu (AP)
· November 1 – KY: Sec. Clinton campaigns in Northern Kentucky and Lexington with Alison Lundergan Grimes (BuzzFeed)
· November 2 – NH: Sec. Clinton appears at a GOTV rally for Gov. Hassan and Sen. Shaheen (AP)
· December 1 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton keynotes a League of Conservation Voters dinner (Politico)
· December 4 – Boston, MA: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Massachusetts Conference for Women (MCFW)