Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball sees a potential political pitfall for DC mayor Adrian Fenty after the city’s lackluster efforts at snow removal.
Matthews says, “This city needs a little better effort right now.”
He goes on to note that this is an election year.
“I’ve watched the big cities where mayors lose their jobs over stuff like this… It’s time for competition in the next primary.”
Fenty, who was first elected in 2006 and won every precinct in the city, has suffered from a serious of gaffes and hubris. A recent Washington Post poll revealed Fenty’s approval rating at 42%, while 49% disapprove of the job he’s doing.
At present Fenty has no challengers. DC Council Chair Vincent Gray is considering a bid. Millionaire developer R. Donahue Peebles, who last year talked about running but pulled back for family reasons, is re-considering.
DC political consultant Chuck Thies doesn’t quite agree with Matthews, but sees problems ahead for Fenty. “Chris Matthews pays attention to the White House and Capitol Hill, not local DC politics. It’s not the snow that is Fenty’s problem, it’s Fenty himself. He ran as a populist and a hands-on public official. That ended soon after he was sworn in and was replaced with arrogance and aloofness. Add to that some very real concerns that he’s handing out city contracts to his personal friends, plus a poor relationship with local press, and you’ve got the perfect formula for toppling a once-popular incumbent. All this race needs is a viable candidate with the guts to jump in.”
A popular figure in the nation’s second-largest city, analysts expect Villaraigosa to have a promising future in national politics or in statewide office in California. He is widely popular among Hispanic voters, who make up an increasingly large percentage of Democratic voters in California and many other states. In 2004, 21 percent of California voters were Hispanic, according to exit polls there.
Villaraigosa’s endorsement of Clinton is not unexpected; he lavished praise on the New York senator at a campaign event in Los Angeles in March, calling her campaign “fighting for a brighter and cleaner future for all our children.” And last month, his top political consultant, Ace Smith, joined the Clinton campaign as its California director.
What do you think…could be a very interesting choice for VP for HRC? Thoughts on this?
YouTube is proving to be very troubling for some GOP candidates who continue to “out” their true political stances by way of old video footage of, well, themselves contradicting the positions they currently hold.
We’ve seen it with Governor Mitt Romeny and his positions on abortion and other social issues.
Today’s GOP candidate caught in the YouTube cross-hairs is former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
This video is from a Women’s Coalition for Giuliani event in 1989…Enjoy…
Back in 1993, when Rudy Giuliani was making his second run for mayor, his strategists felt a need to soften his image and show that he wasn’t just the guy who would lead a group of racist policemen in yelling “Bullshit!” in front of City Hall. They came up with this ad (entitled “Gentle”) which featured then-wife Donna Hanover praising her husaband’s family values. As it turned out, he had so much love for family that he went and got a whole other one. Still, in light of recent developments, fun to watch!
From the New York times:
Noticeably Absent From the Giuliani Campaign: His Children
Tomorrow, New Orleanians spread out all over the country will vote for a new mayor to lead a city that was battered and beat up last summer by Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst storms to hit America in the past century.
The race is heated and while the candidates are talking about issues surrounding the massive rebuilding effort that is underway in NOLA; issues of race, poverty and displacement are also on the minds of voters. They want to rebuild, but first, many want to come home.
For my money (and according to most polls), it looks like there are three main contenders at this point. The top two vote getters will face off in a runoff election on May 20th.
Take a look at the top tier candidates and check back with DoubleSpeak for in depth election analysis and coverage this weekend and in the lead-up to the May 20th runoff.
