Observer » US Senate

Biden Emails For Gillibrand

David Freedlander — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:55:10 -0400

The Kirsten Gillibrand for Senate campaign sent out an email to supporters this morning from Vice-President Joe Biden urging them to donate to her campaign.

Writes Biden: "Kirsten is ready to move America forward, but she needs your help to win in November. Will you help her today? You can make a difference! A crucial deadline is coming up, and Kirsten needs to raise $50,000 by Friday, October 15 to make sure she can fight attack ads and get New York Democrats to the polls."

Although getting Biden to email her supporters is hardly a big ask from Gillibrand, the Obama administration has aided her to an unusual degree by edging out possible primary challengers like Steve Israel and Carolyn Maloney. Polls show Gillibrand starting to distance herself from her Republican opponent, former congressman Joe DioGuardi, and she already has a commanding fundraising advantage.

Full email below:

Dear Friend,

President Obama said it best: You choose "D" to drive forward and "R" to drive backward.

In 21 days, America will choose a path. We will either continue forward, growing our economy and getting it out of the ditch the GOP drove it into. Or we'll take the road back to Bush-era policies that punished the middle class, gave tax breaks to billionaires and brought our economy to its knees. The stakes are as high right now as they were two years ago when a grassroots force of millions chose to start America on that path forward.

Kirsten is ready to move America forward, but she needs your help to win in November. Will you help her today?

You can make a difference! A crucial deadline is coming up, and Kirsten needs to raise $50,000 by Friday, October 15 to make sure she can fight attack ads and get New York Democrats to the polls.

Click here to give $5 or more to help elect Kirsten. She's the Democratic fighter New York can count on!

In the short time she's been in Washington, Kirsten has fought to defend a woman's right to choose, argued for health care for all, protect unemployment benefits, and fought to cut taxes for the middle class. Kirsten stands up for New Yorkers every day in the Senate, and now she needs you to stand up for her.

Thanks to you and millions of other grassroots supporters, Americans chose progress in 2008. Now's the time we have to defend and continue that progress, and I'm counting on Kirsten Gillibrand - and you - to stand with President Obama and me. Please join me in the fight.

Click here to give $5 or more to help elect Kirsten Gllibrand. She's the Democratic fighter New York can count on!

Kirsten is the right choice for New York - and for America's future. Please support her today. Driving forward is the only way we'll ever get anywhere.

Sincerely,

Vice President Joe Biden

This message was sent to dfreedlander@observer.com. To unsubscribe from the Gillibrand for Senate email list, please click here.

PAID FOR BY GILLIBRAND FOR SENATE

Financial Reform Passes Last Senate Hurdle, With Three Republicans But No Feingold

Max Abelson — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:20:02 -0400

The Senate needed 60 votes to end debate on the final version of the enormously widespread financial reform bill. With three Republicans, but without Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, who said it wasn't strict enough, the bill got exactly that this morning: The vote was 60 to 38.

Final Senate approval will come later this afternoon (see update), and a bill signing ceremony could be next week. "We won't know the full results of what we have done until the very institutions we have created, the regulations we have suggested and provided for are actually tested," said Connecticut's Christopher Dodd, the bill's main writer. "We can’t legislate wisdom or passion. We can't legislate competency. All we can do is create the structures and hope that good people will be appointed who will attract other good people—people who will make careers and listen and see to it that never again do we go through what we have gone through."

The bill won't break up the nation's enormous banks, and it isn't entirely how strict it will be. But its hundreds of new rules will redefine how Wall Street makes money from derivatives, credit cards, and trading, and it will create a new consumer protection agency.

"It's just unconscionable," the Arizona Republican Jon Kyl said just now from the Senate floor.

Update: And, as expected, it passed.

59 Votes, 1,500 Pages, and One ‘Good Day’: Senate Passes Financial Reform Bill

Max Abelson — Fri, 21 May 2010 02:55:06 -0400

Wall Street's Wild West days are almost over. Tonight, by a count of 59 to 39, with four Republicans voting along with the Democratic majority, the Senate passed a 1,500-page financial reform bill. It not only includes the so-called Volcker Rule, which limits banks' proprietary trading, but will create new consumer protection, curbs on banking, federal oversight of derivatives, restrictions on the size of financial giants, and a process to break them down without burdening taxpayers.

"It's a good day," said Sen. Scott Brown, one of the Republicans who voted for reform.

In a statement, Sen. Carl Levin, whose subcommittee grilled Goldman Sachs last month, complained about the unbridled greed that created unheeded risk, which created an atrocious financial crisis. "Wall Street may not have learned the lessons of that story," he said, "but we must pay attention. We must act. We must return the cop to the Wall Street beat, or once again suffer the consequence."

Still, it will take weeks to combine the Senate bill with the House's version. The Times has an excellent run-down of the differences between the two, although their cores are similar. And Reuters and the Wall Street Journal both have good features on financial reform's cast of characters. It turns out, for example, that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who won Sen. Brown's last-minute support, used to be a boxer.

The Schumer Option: A Short-Term Winner

Steve Kornacki — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:34:00 -0400

We still don’t know for sure what the final Senate health care plan will look like, but the most likely resolution to one of the stickiest issues has been obvious since early May. That’s when Chuck Schumer outlined his own compromise vision for an optional government-run insurance package. His proposal, a “level playing field” public option that would be subject to the same rules that govern private insurance plans, was vintage Schumer, reflecting his canny grasp of the various political calculations guiding his colleagues’ thinking. There’s a catch, though: For all of its present-day political savvy, Schumer’s solution poses a potential long-term political risk for Barack Obama and the Democrats if they do ultimately embrace it.

The Anti-Gun Schumer Returns

Jason Horowitz — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:38:00 -0400

In the minutes before the Senate barely voted down an amendment that would have allowed gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines, Chuck Schumer delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor urging his colleagues not to back the measure. "This amendment will incite a dangerous race to the bottom in our nation's gun laws," he said. It was like watching the Ghost of Schumer Past. As a member of the House of Representatives, Schumer was a proudly outspoken big-city advocate of gun control who played a key role in the drafting and passing of the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban.

Blue Dog Math

Joe Conason — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:06:00 -0400

"Fiscal conservative” is one of those terms used by politicians of all sorts to describe themselves, without any real justification. Parroted mindlessly from one news cycle to the next by major media outlets, that phrase is often used to mislead the public about the priorities and policies favored by those who claim to embody budgetary prudence.
Consider the Democrats in the Blue Dog caucus, who constantly trumpet their fiscal conservatism and enjoy hearing that claim echoed in the media, especially now, when they are threatening to block health care reform. The Blue Dogs don’t like the public option for national health insurance; they bemoan the estimated trillion-dollar cost of covering everyone; and they zealously defend the prerogatives of the private insurance industry and the pharmaceutical manufacturers (who coincidentally give them millions of dollars in contributions).

Kirsten Gillibrand vs. McNuggets

Jason Horowitz — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:29:00 -0400

Kirsten Gillibrand has had it with McDonald's.
"Have you been to McDonald's and looked up on that wall and seen what a Big Mac is?" Gillibrand said, laughing, as she spoke on a conference call with reporters this afternoon to announce a new proposal to counter childhood obesity. "Have you looked at that lately? If you had, you wouldn't be ordering a Big Mac. It's like your whole daily caloric intake is in a Big Mac. It's a lot of calories."
Gillibrand proposed investing $3.9 billion of federal funding to increase the federal reimbursement rates for schools so that they could spend 70 cents more a day on a more nutritious lunch.

Carolyn Maloney and Bill Clinton, Friends

Jason Horowitz — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:58:00 -0400

Bill Clinton helped Carolyn Maloney get over her N-word incident by helping her raise money last night, but he carefully avoided endorsing her in her prospective Senate primary bid against Kirsten Gillibrand.
That wasn't surprising to several bundlers I spoke to who are loyal to the Clintons (and who now contribute to Gillibrand). One such bundler said people close to the former president had made assurances that the fund-raiser for Maloney meant nothing politically.
When I sat down with Maloney for a profile last week, she suggested it was significant, even if it didn't constitute an actual endorsement.
"It's very important," she said. "I can't tell you how many people tell me ‘bring back the Clinton years, bring back the Clinton economy.

Massa Says Gillibrand Has Not Sought his Endorsement

Jimmy Vielkind — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:48:00 -0400

ALBANY—Representative Eric Massa has still not endorsed Kirsten Gillibrand's re-election, and insists she hasn't brought it up.
"No, not at all," he said during a conference call with reporters. "I speak to her almost weekly about matters of legislative business that we collaborate on for the benefit of the people in the district and the state in general."
He said it's "awful early" in the process, and that he's currently focused on a major piece of health care legislation pending before Congress. Massa said he wrote to congressional leaders asking that a vote not be rushed by the August recess.

Hold ‘Em Republicans

Steve Kornacki — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:28:00 -0400

Asked on Sunday’s Meet the Press whether he believes there’s a need for Congress to pass some kind of health care reform, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell replied, “Oh, absolutely. I’m not in favor of doing nothing.”
Well, of course he’d say that. Voters have long ranked health care as one of their top concerns and candidates from both parties routinely make pledges of reform a centerpiece of their campaign. McConnell knows there’s a broad consensus in America that something needs to be done and he’s not about to make headlines by challenging it.
But that doesn’t mean he actually wants Congress to do anything.