Hotline Sort: DCCC, Going On Offense
Welcome back to Hotline Sort. It's primary day in Wisconsin, Florida, Connecticut and Minnesota, Christie will keynote the GOP convention, Akin launches his first general election ad, and the DCCC finds new Republican targets over Paul Ryan's budget plan.
9) The Mayo Clinic announced that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., has bipolar disorder. No timetable was announced for the congressman's return to work.
8) The Washington Post takes a look at Paul Ryan's wife, Janna Ryan, who is wading into the spotlight for the first time:
Having grown up in a family deeply rooted in Oklahoma's Democratic politics, Janna Ryan is accustomed to the rigors of political life. But as adoring crowds of Republicans turn out to see her husband, she seems conscious of the size of the stage on which she is now standing.
Congressional fun fact: Janna Ryan is first cousins with retiring Democratic Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla.
7) Steve takes a look at convention bounces: How big are they, generally? And do they last? From the piece:
Polling since 1964 suggests that both Mitt Romney and President Obama can expect a small but significant increase in support following their respective party conventions. But sustaining those bumps is no sure thing.
Since 1964, the median "bump" or "bounce" earned by presidential candidates in Gallup polling after their conventions has been 5 percentage points. In some cases, the convention bump has receded quickly as presidential debates and other outside factors dominate the storyline. But in other years, a convention bump has set the tone for the final few months of the campaign.
6) Hoping to expand the Congressional playing field, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is launching new automated phone calls targeting 50 House Republicans for backing Paul Ryan's budget.
An excerpt from the call in Rep. Dan Lungren's, R-Calif., district:
"Your Congressman, Dan Lungren, voted for a budget that would end Medicare and now the budget's architect, Paul Ryan, is the Republican candidate for Vice President."
My opponent says that no one succeeded on their own. She points to roads and bridges and government services we all use. But to downplay individual initiative as nothing more than a byproduct of big government is to fundamentally misunderstand our free enterprise system, and it is a backward view of who we are as Americans. ... Professor Warren's twisted logic dictates that because businesspeople take advantage of government services, then they owe "a hunk" of their success back to the government in the form of higher taxes. Forget about the rather large "hunk" they already pay. This philosophy is a dangerous one, and it turns the American Idea on its head.
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