Subject: Correct The Record Wednesday July 16, 2014 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:08:51 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

**

*Correct The Record Wednesday July 16, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: On @TheDailyShow, @HillaryClinton said
that we must give people a sense of security “that they will be better
off.”
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/extended-interviews/aw9j6p/exclusive-hillary-clinton-extended-interview
…
<http://t.co/0YgxB5LwL3> [7/16/14,12:40 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/489449433377959936>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: #ICYMI @HillaryClinton’s appearance on
@TheDailyShow:
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/extended-interviews/aw9j6p/exclusive-hillary-clinton-extended-interview
…
<http://t.co/DwPvfmiTDe> [7/16/14, 12:28 p.m. EDT
<%23ICYMI%20@HillaryClinton%E2%80%99s%20appearance%20on%20@TheDailyShow:%20http://thedailyshow.cc.com/extended-interviews/aw9j6p/exclusive-hillary-clinton-extended-interview%20%E2%80%A6>
]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@BStrider says, "The best defense is
a good offense" on @CBSThisMorninghttp://youtu.be/RnjykIAiAkg?t=1m58s …
<http://t.co/uSshKs59BP> [7/16/14, 11:15 a.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/489428015122616320>]

*Pres. Bill Clinton* @billclinton: From today's visit w/@AkshayaPatra,
which feeds more than 1M kids a day in 10,500 schools across India.
#CFAsia2014 pic.twitter.com/Ej1tJl78OF <http://t.co/Ej1tJl78OF> [7/16/14, 10:43
a.m. EDT <https://twitter.com/billclinton/status/489420150299316224>]

*Headlines:*

*CBS THIS MORNING: Featuring CTR and Ready For Hillary: JULY 16, 2014
<http://mediacenter.tveyes.com/downloadgateway.aspx?UserID=294652&MDID=3768153&MDSeed=6073&Type=Media>*

CORRECT THE RECORD’S BURNS STRIDER: The best defense is a good offense.

CORDES: Burns Strider runs "Correct the Record” where a couple dozen
staffers work to rapidly counter criticism of everything from Clinton’s
speaking fees to her record at the State Department.

STRIDER: You don't let an attack, you don’t let a news story, you don’t let
something sit idly by and just think it's going play out on its own.

*Associated Press: “Liberals Assessing 2016 Race As Clinton Weighs Bid”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEMOCRATS_2016?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

“As Hillary Rodham Clinton promotes her book, liberals in the Democratic
Party are elbowing into the 2016 presidential conversation, pitching a
populist message on the economy and immigration.”

*BuzzFeed: “Martin O’Malley Gets Aggressive”
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/martin-omalley-gets-aggressive-2016>*

“O’Malley’s words were slow and measured, but his comments broke
aggressively with President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, the woman believed to have hold of the next Democratic nomination,
if she wants it — though she isn’t talking or acting like a candidate yet,
not entirely. Not like O’Malley.”

*Daily Mail (U.K.): “Pregnant Chelsea Clinton pictured smiling as she is
dismissed from New York jury duty after serving for a day”
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2694294/Pregnant-Chelsea-Clinton-pictured-smiling-dismissed-New-York-jury-duty-serving-day.html>*

“Chelsea Clinton has been dismissed from jury duty in New York after
serving for just one day.”

*Slate blog: Weigel: “Seven Skeptical Questions with the Founder of the
Elizabeth Warren Presidential Draft Campaign”
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/07/16/seven_skeptical_questions_with_the_founder_of_the_elizabeth_warren_presidential.html>*

“I talked to Sagrans today as she rode to this weekend's annual Netroots
Nation conference, and the following transcript has been lightly edited. My
‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ were lost somewhere.”

*Washington Post blog: The Fix: “The Obama-Clinton surrogate money war
begins to tilt toward 2016”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/16/the-obama-clinton-surrogate-money-war-begins-to-tilt-toward-2016/>*

“All of these numbers are sketchy. No fundraising organization is likely to
share exact numbers, given how much benefit wiggle room provides.”

*Articles:*

*CBS THIS MORNING: PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: JULY 16, 2014
<http://mediacenter.tveyes.com/downloadgateway.aspx?UserID=294652&MDID=3768153&MDSeed=6073&Type=Media>*

CBS THIS MORNING’S GAYLE KING: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
sat down last night with another important political player, Daily Show
host Jon Stewart. He gave her many chances to spell out her future. She
might have let something slip, some people say. Nancy Cordes is in
Washington where Clinton supporters and opponents are looking for all and
any kind of hints that they [indecipherable]. Nancy, good morning to you.

CBS REPORTER NANCY CORDES: Good morning. It was her third time on the show.
It was a mostly friendly encounter. And Stewart wanted to know what it’s
like to have her every word parsed and analyzed by friends and her foes. He
argued that the fact that she is still willing to endure it means she’s
probably going to run.

JON STEWART: I have, it’s like a career aptitude test, and it could help
you to…

CORDES: Jon Stewart used – what else—humor to gage Hillary Clinton’s
presidential ambition.

STEWART: Do you like commuting to work or you do like a home office?

SEC. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: You know, I've spent so many years commuting;
I kind of prefer a home office.

STEWART: Do you have a favorite shape for that home office?

CORDES: Clinton's appearance was partially designed to boost lagging sales
of her new book "Hard Choices" which was just knocked out of its top slot
on the New York Times best seller list by a salacious unauthorized
biography about the Clintons. Still, supporters swarm her book signings by
the hundreds. And while the former secretary of state has not formally
announced plans to run, outside her events volunteers for an unaffiliated
group called ready for Hillary have already started gathering grassroots
supporters. While Clinton considers her options, Ready for Hillary has
hired 27 staffers and raised more than $8 million through donations and the
sale of kitschy Clinton gear.

READY FOR HILLARY’S ADAM PARKHOMENKO: The onesies have been huge. They’re
sold out after the big Chelsea news.

CORDES: Adam Parkhomenko is the expectative director.

PARKHOMENKO: In 2008, she really didn't have a group of supporters that she
could go back and ask to chip in $5 or knock on doors and make calls. So we
want to make sure that this time if she does that, they're there.

CORDES: His group has plenty of company.

CORRECT THE RECORD’S BURNS STRIDER: The best defense is a good offense.

CORDES: Burns Strider runs "Correct the Record” where a couple dozen
staffers work to rapidly counter criticism of everything from Clinton’s
speaking fees to her record at the State Department.

STRIDER: You don't let an attack, you don’t let a news story, you don’t let
something sit idly by and just think it's going play out on its own.

CORDES: There are just as many groups on the right like the Hillary Project
which vows to quote wage a war on Hillary Clinton’s image. Garrett Marquis
said his group, Stop Hillary PAC, will start going after Clinton this year
in both in advertisements and online.

STOP HILLARY PAC’S GARRET MARQUIS: She has a liberal machine that’s behind
her. She's already started activating. There's no doubt she's campaigning
for president, although quietly. So somebody, us, needs to come about and
stop her. That's what we're doing.

CORDES: The shadow campaign, for and against Clinton, is so intense she
joked about it herself last night.

STEWART: If you said, I am not running for president, it all stops. Do you
agree or disagree?

CLINTON: I think a lot of people would lose their jobs if it all stopped.
I've been amazed at what a cottage industry it is and so I kind of expect
it would continue.

CORDES: Especially because she has sent no signals to her supporting groups
that they should stop raising money and gathering names. In fact, last
night when Jon Stewart asked her what shape of office she likes best, she
said the kind without any sharp corners. We should mention, Margaret, that
Clinton’s book is published by Simon and Schuster, which is a division of
CBS.

*Associated Press: “Liberals Assessing 2016 Race As Clinton Weighs Bid”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEMOCRATS_2016?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

By Ken Thomas

July 16, 2014, 11:22 a.m. EDT

As Hillary Rodham Clinton promotes her book, liberals in the Democratic
Party are elbowing into the 2016 presidential conversation, pitching a
populist message on the economy and immigration.

Potential Clinton rivals like Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen.
Elizabeth Warren and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley are in the middle of a
summertime tour of Democratic constituencies and campaigns, drawing
contrasts to Clinton as she weighs a heavily anticipated second
presidential bid.

Biden and Warren were addressing Generation Progress, an organization of
young Democratic activists, on Wednesday and speaking at the annual
Netroots Nation conference later in the week, putting them before liberals
who form a core of the Democratic base. O'Malley has been exploring a
presidential campaign for months and made a splash last weekend when he
said the Obama administration should not turn away Central American
immigrant children crossing the border without due process.

Clinton, who dominates early 2016 polls, may avoid a significant primary
challenge if she runs for president. Biden has kept all options open,
Warren has repeatedly denied interest, while O'Malley promotes his record
in Maryland as a model in the party. But the jousting shows an interest in
an alternative, and preparations in the event Clinton doesn't run.

"Ongoing current events give her potential opponents an opportunity to
position themselves in contrast to her," said Democratic strategist Tom
McMahon.

Biden has been a leading advocate for President Barack Obama's agenda,
backing unsuccessful efforts to raise the minimum wage and curb gun
violence. The vice president has maintained ties to the early voting states
of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and projects a blue-collar image
in contrast to the former first lady's recent stumbles over discussions of
her family's wealth.

During a White House summit on working families last month, Biden said he
had been the "poorest man in Congress" and didn't own a single stock or
bond - even though financial disclosures show he had a small savings
account and owned mutual funds. Biden's remarks came as Clinton faced
criticism for saying her family was "dead broke" when they left the White
House in January 2001 because of hefty legal bills fending off GOP-led
investigations. The Clintons paid off their debt and became
multimillionaires within a few years.

Warren has become a hero of the party's economic populists, railing against
high student loan debt at a time when Clinton has received six-figure
speaking fees on college campuses. She passes them along to her family's
foundation.

At a well-received speech to about 1,000 young people attending Generation
Progress, Warren noted that her bill to help students refinance their
college loans at lower rates had been blocked by Senate Republicans and she
cast blame on Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

"Our voices matter and it's time to use them. Together that's how we make
sure that our government works," Warren said.

Warren has turned into a go-to surrogate for Senate candidates, campaigning
for Democrats in Oregon, Kentucky and West Virginia. She planned to raise
money for Rep. Gary Peters, who is seeking Michigan's open Senate seat,
during her trip to Detroit for Netroots Nation and was ending the week in
Los Angeles at the National Council of La Raza, where immigration will be a
leading topic.

O'Malley has made trips to Iowa and New Hampshire in the past month and
notably distanced himself from both Clinton and Obama on the crisis along
the Mexican border.

"We are not a country that should turn children away and send them back to
certain death," O'Malley told reporters in Nashville, Tennessee, during a
weekend meeting of the National Governors Association.

Clinton cited the need to reunite the children with their families but said
during a CNN forum in June that the U.S. needed to "send a clear message:
Just because your child gets across the border doesn't mean your child gets
to stay."

During her book tour, Clinton has frequently cited the economic struggles
of many Americans who have yet to partake in the recovery and pointed to
the broad-based growth in jobs during her husband's two terms in the White
House. In an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel, Clinton said
the work of Thomas Piketty, the economist and best-selling author, showed
that income inequality was "threatening to democracy."

That message could help her connect with liberals, who have been wary of
her ties to Wall Street and the corporate support of the Clinton
Foundation. Liberals are closely watching how Clinton might frame an
economic agenda in a potential presidential campaign.

"She has to figure out what's her message for a new American electorate:
African-Americans, Hispanics, young people, women, all of whom are
suffering," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's
Future.

*BuzzFeed: “Martin O’Malley Gets Aggressive”
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/martin-omalley-gets-aggressive-2016>*

By Ruby Cramer

July 16, 2014, 12:25 a.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] The odds aren’t great against Hillary Clinton, but the
Democratic governor from Maryland is doing the actual things people do
before running for president: donors, new policies, campaign travel,
distance from Obama. “I think people are going to be surprised at the
amount of time he does this.”

Martin O’Malley waited for the question. He slid forward in his seat. He
sat up straight and smoothed his jacket. He took notes on a slip of paper
as the other governors spoke. Then it came: a question about the border
crisis, and the tens of thousands of undocumented immigrant children
detained in U.S. facilities.

O’Malley’s words were slow and measured, but his comments broke
aggressively with President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, the woman believed to have hold of the next Democratic nomination,
if she wants it — though she isn’t talking or acting like a candidate yet,
not entirely. Not like O’Malley.

He spoke about the “power of our principles,” about believing that
“hospitality to strangers is an essential human dignity,” a belief that
“unites us all.”

He argued that the children — he called them “refugees” — should be
entitled to make “their case for protection and asylum”; that it would be
“contrary to everything we stand for as a people to try to summarily send
children back to death.”

He suggested that the president, and presumably Clinton, could “at least
have been doing a better job” of building partnerships with the Central
American countries, many torn by gang violence, from where most of the
minors are coming. “We have failed to be good partners and neighbors,” he
said.

Inside the banquet room of the Nashville Hilton, reporters quickly took
notes. Press conferences for the Democratic Governors Association were
usually more routine.

Almost immediately, O’Malley picked up headlines and the support of
national immigration activist groups like United We Dream. Obama and
Clinton say “more deportations of kids,” the group tweeted the next day.
“Governor O’Malley has a different idea.” Last month, Clinton said the
minors should be “sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible
adults in their families are.” The president has said he supports laws to
speed up deportations.

The White House was so bothered by the comments they called O’Malley to
complain, then appeared to leak the call to the press on Tuesday night.

O’Malley has bucked the administration on immigration before; this spring,
he announced that Maryland would no longer comply with parts of the federal
program that facilitates deportations. But his comments last weekend
signaled the extent to which O’Malley looks like a guy running for
president.

Aides say that was always the idea. In the last year, the governor has
stepped up efforts to put together what he has called a “framework” for a
national campaign: He’s traveling the country to stump for Democrats, he’s
speaking at state party dinners, he’s raising money, and he’s working on
developing new policies.

In recent months, those efforts have intensified. About a dozen friends,
former aides, strategists, and a handful of donors and fundraisers ready to
support O’Malley if he runs, say they see the governor moving forward with
those plans without a shade of hesitation.

“I don’t think he’s worried about who’s in or who’s out,” said Joe Trippi,
a Democratic strategist who first met O’Malley during the 1984 presidential
race. Trippi worked for the Walter Mondale campaign, and O’Malley for Gary
Hart.

“That makes him more aggressive than others and a lot more open, because
he’s not looking over his shoulder thinking about who is and who isn’t,”
Trippi said. “He’s building the national infrastructure and fundraising.
He’s been doing this methodically and building it without any regard for
who else runs.”

Clinton, who has super PACs and millions of dollars lined up behind her
possible campaign, has said she won’t make up her mind about running until
the end of this year. Even then, she may not announce her plans until the
following spring.

Aides have suggested O’Malley is unlikely to run if Clinton gets in the
race. But people close to the governor say that, until that happens, he’s
going for it.

Shaun Adamec, who worked as O’Malley’s press secretary for more than three
years, said the governor will “do what he’s doing for as long as he can do
it.”

“I think people are going to be surprised at the amount of time he does
this,” Adamec said. “He’s got a powerful record of what he’s done in
Baltimore and Maryland. I think it’s a liberating experience for him to
just sort of say it.”

O’Malley, 51, started in politics as a city councilman in Baltimore. In
1999, in a crowded, divisive mayoral campaign, O’Malley ran on crime and
won. His new stump speech — which he used for the first time last November
at a party dinner in New Hampshire, the important primary state —
highlights the “BELIEVE” drug and crime campaign he launched during his
second year as mayor.

And with a Democratic state legislature, he pushed bills on immigration and
same-sex marriage; he funded an offshore wind project and passed firearm
restrictions; and, during the last legislative session of O’Malley’s
tenure, raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The structurally flawed
Maryland health care exchange, abandoned this spring for another state’s
model, accounts for one of the major failures of the governor’s eight-year
tenure.

People in the governor’s orbit say he’s now looking for what’s next — for
new ideas on economic policy, on income inequality, and on problems like
climate change. It’s a process O’Malley has described in recent interviews
as “a lot of listening.”

O’Malley has made several trips, the most recent at the start of this year,
to the Center for American Progress, a leading liberal think tank in
Washington, for briefings on the economy, income inequality, health care,
and climate, among other issues, according to Carmel Martin, the group’s
vice president for policy.

Martin, who sat in on the briefings, said he’s been primarily interested in
economic issues, at the federal and state levels. “He seems to be focused
on both.” The conversations were often rooted in finding the “next good
idea,” she said.

Trippi, the strategist, said a significant portion of O’Malley’s
preparatory work has focused on idea-building. “It strikes me that he has
really thought and is thinking a lot about policy. He’s looking at what new
thinking needs to be injected into the debate,” he said. “He’s on a mission
to find a vision for the future.”

Friends of O’Malley say his experience on the 1984 Gary Hart campaign has
been central to his thinking. When Hart, a U.S. Senator from Colorado,
first announced he was running, he barely registered on national polls
against Vice President Mondale. But he had new ideas, and his dark-horse
campaign almost worked.

Democrats in New Hampshire who have been around long enough still remember
the college kid on the campaign, sleeping on floors around the state. And a
Google group for Hart alums often features emails about the latest on
O’Malley.

Like Hart, O’Malley can hardly get his name on some of the early
presidential polling. (In several surveys, he garners less than 1% of
Democratic support up against names like Clinton and Biden.) But he is not
without supporters. His early efforts have the backing of donors and
fundraisers.

Paul DiNino, a lobbyist and fundraiser, is one. DiNino raised money for all
four reelection campaigns for Tom Harkin, the U.S. Senator from Iowa, and
supported Clinton in her 2008 presidential race after serving as the
national finance director for the Democratic National Committee under Bill
Clinton. DiNino, who lives in Maryland, said he’s already helped direct
donors to O’Malley’s PAC.

“It hasn’t been difficult,” DiNino said. He cited a recent meeting with a
“prominent northeastern entrepreneur,” who had only met O’Malley once but
committed. “The guy said, ‘I wasn’t with Clinton last time. I’m not gonna
be with her this time. I’m with you.” (The businessman declined through
DiNino to be named.)

“Certainly the army of people in Maryland who have national contacts are
being as helpful as possible,” said DiNino.

A more unlikely O’Malley backer is John P. Coale, the well-known Washington
attorney and the husband of the Fox News anchor, Greta Van Susteren.

The lawyer supports an odd cadre of politicians including Democrats and
Republicans like Sarah Palin. He has known O’Malley for “a decade or two”
and said he has “a lot of friends in the media I plan to sit him down
with.” Coale backed Clinton in 2008, but said he’s “better friends” with
the governor.

In the last year, Coale has chartered flights on his private plane for six
trips O’Malley has taken to give speeches or make campaign stops, according
to filings for the governor’s PAC and the Democratic Governors Association.
(Coale frequently accompanies O’Malley on the flights, and the two will
discuss the event on the ride home, he said.)

For some of the donors behind O’Malley, part of the appeal lies in the
reality that Clinton already has a very crowded, established network of
backers.

“That is a full boat. There is a waiting list. You need a significant
number to be someone in that world,” DiNino, the fundraiser, said. “On the
other hand, if you were willing to pitch a governor from an east Atlantic
state — that’s a good investment. He’s not going anywhere. He’s got a loud
voice in the debate whether it’s part of this administration, or the next,
or in the Senate, or as our chief executive.”

Since 2013, O’Malley has headlined 11 state and local Democratic Party
events, hosted fundraising events for 18 candidates, and has made campaign
stops for six Senate and gubernatorial races, according to his political
office. Later this month, he is slated to speak at a Nebraska Democratic
Party dinner. Next month, he goes to Mississippi to speak at their
Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

The travel schedule makes O’Malley one of the party’s most visible national
surrogates, second only perhaps to Vice President Joe Biden. And the work
has helped him make a mark on Democrats where other possible candidates
haven’t.

Jim Hodges, the former governor of South Carolina and a prominent figure in
the state’s Democratic Party, said O’Malley has shown interest in traveling
to the primary state “more than anyone.” He noted that O’Malley is always
eager to meet with as many people as possible during trips there. Last
year, Hodges set O’Malley up for a donor meeting before his speech at an
issues conference in Charleston.

“There are a lot of people that like him,” Hodges said.

In Wisconsin, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, remembers the
thought O’Malley put into his visit there in April. “It isn’t land an hour
before the event and wheels up an hour after,” said Mike Tate, the chair.
“He’s a very hands-on guy.”

Tate said that after trip, he and his executive director both received
hand-written notes from O’Malley and a follow-up email sent from his
personal address.

“Stuff like that for a state party really goes a long way,” said Tate.

O’Malley’s focus on campaigning for other Democrats may increase this year,
particularly as his likely successor, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, gets ready to
take over in Maryland. Hodges, who keeps in touch with O’Malley, said the
governor is likely to “exit the stage” in Maryland, so as not to “cast a
shadow” over Brown, whom he campaigned for during an ugly primary battle
this year. (When Brown won the nomination in June, O’Malley notably did not
attend the victory party. He wanted to let Brown have his night, one person
close to the campaign said.)

“I imagine he’ll speak out a lot more,” said Hodges.

Even if O’Malley never gains an inch on Clinton, he is still has something:
At the moment, he’s the only Democrat acting like a serious candidate.

Clinton may get in the race sometime next year — and she has plenty of
surrogate organizations doing work on her behalf — but personally, she has
spent the summer selling her memoir on a book tour that has skipped primary
states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Aides have suggested she’ll do campaign
stops after Labor Day, and that her husband will be an aggressive
surrogate. But so far, since stepping down from the State Department last
year, she has appeared on behalf of just one candidate — her close friend,
Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia.

Earlier this month, the second-largest paper in Iowa wrote a staff
editorial urging Clinton to come to the state, which her 2008 campaign
considered skipping altogether at one point. “We need to see that
connection in action,” the editorial read. “We’d suggest sooner rather than
later this time.”

“What’s missing out there today is a voice — any voice,” said DiNino, the
fundraiser with experience in Iowa politics. When DiNino was working on a
congressional campaign there in 2006, there were no fewer than eight
Democrats — Obama, Clinton, John Edwards, Mark Warner, Evan Bayh, Joe
Biden, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson — who were in Iowa “supporting,
stumping, providing field.”

“That’s just not there now,” except for O’Malley, DiNino said. “I’m happy
that there’s someone not only who has a message that resonates, but who
will go out there.”

Friends and supporters also make the point that O’Malley seems to be
enjoying himself, despite his long odds.

Or as Adamec, the former aide, put it, “He’s probably having a little fun,
too.”

“There’s something that he has that’s missing with a lot of politicians,”
said Hodges. “There’s a certain joyfulness to the way he handles politics.
It’s like he’s having fun. And for the last seven years, with the
president, that seems to be missing.”

“I think Hillary Clinton showed it in the last stage of the ‘08 campaign,”
he said. “I think, yes, she showed it. But she’s been out of it for a
while.”

*Daily Mail (U.K.): “Pregnant Chelsea Clinton pictured smiling as she is
dismissed from New York jury duty after serving for a day”
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2694294/Pregnant-Chelsea-Clinton-pictured-smiling-dismissed-New-York-jury-duty-serving-day.html>*

By Lydia Warren

July 16, 2014, 7:39 p.m. EST

Chelsea Clinton has been dismissed from jury duty in New York after serving
for just one day.

The 34-year-old, who was not selected to serve on a trial, was all smiles
as she left a Manhattan state courthouse on Tuesdayafternoon, wearing a
snug t-shirt that revealed her growing baby bump.

The other jurors didn't even know she was among them until her name was
called, Pix11 reporter James Ford told Reliable Source. Ford, who was also
at the court for jury duty, was the first to reveal the low-key former
first daughter was at the courthouse.

'So I'm on jury duty today,& just saw that part of my pool is
@ChelseaClinton,' he tweeted to his 2,700 Twitter followers on Tuesday.
'And she seems nice. And she's really pregnant. #BestWishes.'

Other reporters saw the tweet and swarmed the courthouse as Clinton left -
but only after she stopped to pose for selfies with her fellow jurors,
including Ford.

'#ChelseaClinton was very agreeable about a selfie with me,' he wrote on
Instagram beneath their picture. 'She seemed quite nice.'

He also shared a photograph of her leaving the court smiling and dressed in
a gray T-shirt, black leggings and black ballet flats.

Ford said the group of 90 had arrived at the courthouse at 9am before being
dismissed seven hours later. They were told that they had all been excused
for six years.

As she exited the courthouse, the dutiful daughter of the former president
and former secretary of state told the waiting reporters that she was happy
to be there.

'I think it's important that everyone participate in jury duty, just as
it's important that people vote and pay their taxes,' she said.

Fellow jurors said that Clinton spent most of the time listening to her
iPhone and commended her for her appearance - especially because she's
pregnant.

Janice Montague, a juror, told the New York Post: 'I was impressed with the
idea that she wasn't excused or exempt. I said if she couldn’t get off we
should all be here because she has the pull.'

Her appearance at the court comes just days after Madonna did a brief stint
in jury duty at the same place - but with two bodyguards and with much
fanfare. She was dismissed after two hours.

Chelsea, who married investment banker Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010,
revealed they were expecting their first child during a New York forum on April
17.

She told guests: 'Marc and I are very excited that we have our first child
arriving later this year... I just hope that I will be as good a mom to my
child and hopefully children as my mom was to me.'

Her appearance at court came after she revealed she commands as much as
$75,000 per speech, just a fraction of the $200,000 her mother, Hillary
Clinton, receives to speak.

The family's finances have come under scrutiny after the former secretary
of state said during her book tour that the family was 'dead broke' when
husband Bill Clinton left the White House in 2001.

*Slate blog: Weigel: “Seven Skeptical Questions with the Founder of the
Elizabeth Warren Presidential Draft Campaign”
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/07/16/seven_skeptical_questions_with_the_founder_of_the_elizabeth_warren_presidential.html>*

By David Weigel

July 16, 2014, 12:06 p.m. EDT

This here blog is a proud source of 2016 narrative-bashing, a place where
it is very clear that progressive Democrats want Hillary Clinton to be
their 2016 nominee and are not seriously seeking a challenger. In polls, up
to 90 percent of liberal Democrats say they like Hillary. She's running
30-odd points ahead of her best primary numbers from 2007. Ready for
Hillary, the Super PAC created by superfans, is raising more money. Etc,
and so on, etc, take this cold water and dump it.

Yet there really is a campaign to draft Elizabeth Warren into the
presidential race. It is embryonic, launched this week, and first reported
by the Huffington Post. Ready for Warren is headed by Erica Sagrans, an
online Democratic strategist with tours at the DNC and on the 2012 Obama
re-elect, then went to the Working Families Party as it challenged New York
Democrats from the left. I talked to Sagrans today as she rode to this
weekend's annual Netroots Nation conference, and the following transcript
has been lightly edited. My "ums" and "uhs" were lost somewhere.

Slate: How and why did you guys start this draft campaign?

Sagrans: Well, we weren’t the only Twitter and Facebook accounts that were
supporting Warren. This started as an informal conversation among friends
and activists, and we formalized it with a website. We were planning a
bigger launch for Netroots Nation – we’re still planning that – but word
got out. Our take is that now is the time when we want to be thinking and
dreaming big about what we want to see in the next president, and what the
Dem nominee should look like. It should be a progressive leader. And
Elizabeth Warren ends up embodying those values we’re campaigning for.

Slate: It feels like the debate in the Democratic Party is over how best to
nudge Hillary Clinton to the left, or win commitments from her on economic
issues. Is running Warren the best way to do that?

Sagrans: Our end goal is to convince her to run, to convince her there’s
the support needed to do it. Even if she doesn’t end up running, one of our
goals is to push that conversation and push for those issues she’s fought
for; advocating for students facing lots of debt, breaking up the big
banks. She’s been the most visible leader on those issues.

Slate: Does she have the experience to be president on January 20, 2017?

Sagrans: We feel she has the experience from the work she’s done as a
senator, as well as the work she’d done previously. It’s hard to say how
she would avoid it, but obviously since she’s been to DC she’s been a real
fighter on the issues she was working on before. She’s continuing to do
that. But another goal of ours is to build this grassroots organization, to
have a grassroots infrastructure to support other progressive candidates.

Slate: I guess the problem is that progressives have been here before; they
elected Barack Obama, who got into office and had to staff the government.
He was the progressive candidate, he upset the establishment -- which never
happens -- and progressives didn't get all they wanted. How do you prevent
that from happening again?

Sagrans: I think it’s about looking at who the candidates connected to, who
they’ve surrounded themselves with. But it’s also important to have that
grassroots pressure on someone, something that elevates them and holds them
accountable. Whoever is president, you’re got to need to have that
continued pressure and continued support.

Slate: Hasn't that existed during the Obama years, though? There were two
years when Democrats controlled Congress, and Obama got plenty done; since
the House flipped, not so much. Why focus on a presidential race, given how
Congress can grind down an agenda?

Sagrans: We know it’s hard, in terms of making progress and change in DC.
There’s a lot of obstruction in Congress. It’s definitely been challenging.
Regardless of what a president can do at any given time it’s important to
fight for the most progressive leader we can, and as senator Warren is the
most visible and outspoken progressive.

Slate: Are you guys getting salaries? Is this a full-time organization with
full-time jobs?

Sagrans: We’re still figuring out the structure. Right now we’re just
building momentum and focusing on Netroots. Right now, we’re figuring it
out.

Slate: And would you support Hillary if she won the nomination.

Sagrans: I personally would, yes. Some people in this group would go one
way, some would go another way.

*Washington Post blog: The Fix: “The Obama-Clinton surrogate money war
begins to tilt toward 2016”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/16/the-obama-clinton-surrogate-money-war-begins-to-tilt-toward-2016/>*

By Philip Bump

July 16, 2014, 10:53 a.m. EDT

One of the weirder aspects of modern politics is that everyone has some
other independent organization raising money on his or her behalf. Elected
officials have PACs that raise money for them to give away. Independent
PACs raise money to spend on a candidate or campaign. Non-profits raise
money to help bolster a candidate or politician's pet causes.

So here we are. Last week, Organizing for Action, a non-profit set up to
raise money for organizing around President Obama's issues, announced how
much it had raised in the second quarter of the year, its sixth quarter in
existence. And on Tuesday, Ready For Hillary, a hybrid PAC, announced how
much it had raised in support of a possible presidential run by Hillary
Clinton. It, too, is six quarters old.

What's interesting is that both groups raised amounts in the same general
ballpark. OFA came out of the gates very strong in 2013, but has slowed
substantially in the last few quarters. In part, the most recent quarter's
lower total -- about $3.87 million -- is due to its decision to curtail
fundraising in light of the upcoming elections. But RFH is nonetheless
catching up, raising over $2.5 million in the second quarter.

Here's what it looks like on a quarterly basis. (RFH didn't report for its
first quarter, and only reported a total for the second half of 2013, which
we split in half.)

[GRPAH OF QUARTERLY FUNDRAISING]

All of these numbers are sketchy. No fundraising organization is likely to
share exact numbers, given how much benefit wiggle room provides. Both
organizations offer occasional glimpses at the size of their donor pools.
OFA gets about 100,000 per quarter; in the most recent quarter, RFH
reported less than half of that, about 43,000.

But that means that RFH donors generally give more, on average. The
organization puts a cap on donations at $25,000 -- in part, according to
reports, so that it didn't compete for big donors with the Priorities USA,
a Democratic aligned super PAC. The group therefore has more of a need to
get more from smaller donors.

This is what the average donations for each group looks like per quarter.
(Several of the averages were provided as year-to-date.)

[AVERAGE DONATION AMOUNT]

What metric actually matters? That's subjective. The more money the groups
have, the more of an impact they can have. The bigger the average donation,
the more that can be raised as the donor pool increases. And there are
complicating factors: OFA's fundraising hiatus and the boost RFH has
certainly gotten from Clinton's book tour.

If, however, you would like to use this as a measure of the shifting center
of gravity in Democratic party politics, far be it from us to stand in your
way.