U.S. President
With the first debate between President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney a little over a week away, the presidential race is generating daily headlines on issues ranging from a leaked video of Romney criticizing the 47 percent of Americans who do not pay income taxes to what Romney characterizes as Obama's lukewarm support for Israel.
Romney has readjusted the focus of his campaign - which previously centered around the sluggish economic recovery under Obama - and spent much of this week criticizing his opponent's foreign policy. Romney accused Obama of neglecting Israel after the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not meet when the prime minister recently visited the U.S. "It sends a message throughout the Middle East that somehow we distance ourselves from our friends," Romney said in an interview on 60 Minutes on CBS Sept. 23. "I think the exact opposite approach is what's necessary."
Romney added that Obama has not been active enough in response to Iran's alleged attempts to build nuclear weapons, which would threaten Israel, and Syria's crackdown on civilian protesters, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths.
In a separate 60 Minutes interview, Obama responded that Romney's foreign policy comments were vague. "If Governor Romney is suggesting that we should start another war, he should say so," he said.
Romney also attacked Obama's policy on China this week, releasing a televised ad that accuses Obama of losing American jobs to China due to weak trade policies. In the ad, Romney called on Obama to declare China a "currency manipulator." Romney has repeatedly argued in the past week that such a designation would give the U.S. more leeway to confront China over policies that artificially deflate their currency.
Obama has received a bump in the polls since the end of the Democratic National Convention. Real Clear Politics, which compiles polls and averages their findings, has Obama leading Romney by an average 3.7 points in the popular vote as of Monday afternoon.
The first presidential debate will be held Oct. 3, in Denver, Col., from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
U.S. Senate, Massachusetts
Following the first debate of one of the nation's most highly contested and watched Senate races, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-M.A., continues to defend his seat against former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Democrat Elizabeth Warren. The race is widely seen as vital both for Republicans, who want to retake the Senate, and Democrats, who see it as an opportunity to pick up a seat in a year when they have few other prospects.
Warren, who currently leads slightly in most polls following a boost after the DNC, has tried to connect the senator to the national Republican party, which has little support in the traditionally blue Massachusetts.
Scott Brown won his seat in a 2010 special election following the death of longtime Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy in 2009. Scott Brown's election shocked the Democratic party and nearly derailed Obama's signature health care law, though the bill eventually passed. Democrats are hoping that the presidential election this year will bring Democrats to the polls who may not have voted in the special election, which recorded low turnout in districts that had voted heavily for Obama in 2008.
In last week's debate, Scott Brown - who is pro-choice, unlike most of his Republican colleagues - renewed his character attacks against Warren. He immediately criticized Warren for describing herself as Native American in a legal directory - a lie that he said raises questions about her integrity. Warren repeated her defense that she had grown up hearing stories of her Native American ancestry and had never knowingly lied about her family.
Warren, in turn, focused on tying Scott Brown to the Republican leadership in Washington. She highlighted the senator's announcement that he would vote against a plan to extend the Bush tax cuts for the bottom 98 percent of earners, if the top 2 percent were left out of the bill. Warren said the Massachusetts race might make the difference between a Democratic Senate and a Republican one, emphasizing that Scott Brown would vote with the Republican leadership. The senator defended himself by citing a study that ranked him the second most bipartisan senator.
U.S. House of Representatives, Rhode Island District 1
U.S. Rep. David Cicilline '83, D-R.I., who just six months ago recorded a job approval rating of just 15 percent, according to a Taubman Center for Public Policy poll, is now leading his Republican challenger in the race to represent Rhode Island's first congressional district by 11 percent, according to a new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee poll. The poll shows Cicilline with 46 percent support and Republican Brendan Doherty, former superintendent of the Rhode Island state police, at 35 percent. Independent David Vogel garnered 8 percent of likely votes.
The poll would be a tremendous endorsement for Cicilline, but critics have raised questions about the validity of a poll sponsored by the Democratic Party. The DCCC has refused to release the poll's full contents, allowing Doherty's campaign to speculate that the questions on the survey were misleading and the results are not indicative of actual voter preference. A Doherty aide told WPRI that the campaign's own internal polling data has Doherty leading Cicilline, but did not provide any details to the public.
Doherty also sought to distance himself from certain Republicans in Congress by declaring his support for Social Security and Medicare at a press conference in front of Memorial Hospital Monday. Doherty promised to vote against any measure that would cut or privatize Social Security or Medicare. He added that he would support increasing Social Security benefits to those individuals who are currently a part of the program.
U.S. House of Representatives, Rhode Island District 2
PolitiFact Rhode Island, an organization that rates politicians' claims as true or false, struck a blow last week to businessman Michael Riley, who is challenging Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I. The organization rated an ad by Riley stating that Langevin "received almost $20 million from taxpayers and special interests to use at his own discretion to supposedly champion Rhode Island's needs" as "mostly false."
Though Langevin has received $18 million during his time in the House, PolitiFact wrote,
the sum is composed of Langevin's salary, campaign contributions and payments from the federal government that every congressman receives to run his or her staff - common practices, according to PolitiFact.
Riley received positive press this week when the New York Times' Ezra Klein included him on a list of candidates with "intriguing policy proposals." Klein cited Riley's opposition to the Federal Reserve paying ".25 percent on excess reserves held by banks." Riley argued that this policy incentivizes saving, when banks should be lending that money out to help stimulate the economy.
