Former Rep. Stephanie Murphy is running for mayor in Florida
'I was proud to represent parts of Orlando in the House of Representatives, where I was ranked one of America's most bipartisan and effective members of Congress,' she said in her announcement Wednesday. 'But before I was ever in Washington, I worked in business, helping companies grow, solve problems and cut through red tape. Now I want to bring that same approach to local government.'
Murphy made a surprise announcement in 2021 that she would not seek reelection to her Orlando-area House seat. She had ousted Republican John Mica in 2016 from the seat he had served in for 12 terms.
She had helped Democrats develop a strategy to retake the House in 2018, and her retirement sparked concerns from moderate Democrats about the future of the party.
At the time, Murphy told POLITICO she was not ruling out a run for other offices in the future. Her decision to leave, she said, was because serving had been a 'personal sacrifice' that was 'hard on my family and my kids.'
'I think it's hard for people in politics and especially in Washington to understand that someone at my age would quote unquote, retire ... without having some sort of scandal or without fear of losing a reelection or without immediately running for another position or job,' Murphy said. 'But really, right now I need to be with my family.'
In her mayoral announcement, Murphy cited raising her kids in Orange County, saying she had 'skin in the game.' Much of her announcement video centered around policies for working families, like safer communities and stronger schools.
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Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Can Beau Bayh and that 'incredible surname' reignite the hopes of Indiana Democrats?
Beau Bayh has reentered the chat. Bayh has been in Indiana's spotlight since he and his twin brother were born to a sitting Indiana governor: Evan Bayh. Their mom, the late former Indiana First Lady Susan Bayh, even gave a post-delivery interview from the hospital in 1995. Now, all grown up at age 29, some Indiana Democrats hope the younger Bayh is their best hope to regain a shred of the political power and relevance they had when the elder Bayh was in office. Beau Bayh isn't quite ready to share his plans, but he looks and sounds lately like he's about to run for political office here. Speaking to a room of about 175 Indiana Democrats down near French Lick over the weekend, Bayh spoke of standing up to the powers that be. Rebuilding the middle class. The broken bonds between the people and politicians. The Harvard graduate and U.S. military member told IndyStar he's currently moving back to Indianapolis from Bloomington, following his judicial clerkship for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. But he signaled more could be coming soon. 'I'm going to take the next month or so to get settled,' he told IndyStar over text. 'But I'm sure of one thing: we need a change in our politics. More unity, less division. More progress, less partisanship. More elected officials who represent the public interest and not the special interests or themselves.' Meanwhile, speculation is high that he's considering waging a bid against Secretary of State Diego Morales, and if Bayh could make inroads for Democrats as they keep losing statewide elections. 'If you can get someone at the top of the ticket people are excited about, it's easier to ask people to write a check, knock on doors or go to this and that event,' said Greg Shufeldt, a University of Indianapolis political science professor, when asked about the prospect of Bayh running. 'Those are all good things for the Democratic party even if the on-the-ground reality makes it a tough fight for any Democrat.' Getting people excited doesn't appear to be out of reach for Bayh, if the reception at a recent Orange County Democratic Party event translates statewide. County Chairman Larry Hollan had to add two extra tables to the American Legion hall where Bayh served as keynote speaker on Aug. 15 due to an increase in ticket sales that he thinks was driven by interest in Bayh. 'They hung onto his every word,' Hollan said. 'You could hear a pin drop when he was speaking. He held the audience in the palm of his hand.' Bayh didn't make any announcements at the dinner, but did show up with two heavyweight supporters: his dad and Mayor Joe Hogsett. 'It was a mini reunion, you might say,' Hollan said. '(The elder Bayh) also felt welcome but … Beau was the star of the show.' Could Beau Bayh turn around Democrats' chances in Indiana? Even for a Bayh, running for a statewide seat in Indiana is going to be an uphill battle, according to political analysts contacted by IndyStar. The fundamentals of the state are just so heavily tilted against Democrats at this point, said Shufeldt. 'Our politics have become increasingly nationalized and candidate attributes, including last name, matter less and less,' Shufeldt said. 'The letter for the party after your name tends to matter a whole lot more. Devoid of anything specific to his candidacy, any Democrat faces an intense uphill fight.' Democrats thought state races could be close, but Republicans clobbered. What happened? Shufeldt said that, on paper, Democrats have run some good candidates recently. All got handily defeated electorally. Republicans haven't won a statewide race since U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly squeezed out a win against Richard Mourdock in 2012. 'Evan Bayh lost quite comfortably to Todd Young, and I think people thought that would be a lot closer,' Shufeldt said, harkening back to the 2016 U.S. Senate race featuring Beau Bayh's dad. Still, Republicans have seemed eager to pounce on Bayh's candidacy. "The guy seems genuinely nice and I appreciate his military service… but this is the secret weapon we've heard about for 6+ years that's going to save the Indiana Dems?" state Rep. Kyle Pierce, R-Anderson, posted on X after Bayh's recent appearance on a liberal podcast. "Bayh barely wants to talk policy, avoids sharing his ideological beliefs and barely shares any vision of public service besides his personal desire to do it." 'Incredible surname' A win for a Democrat statewide now would require a fortuitous confluence of events for the candidate, Shufeldt said. 'It's a lightning in a bottle thing,' he said. However, University of Indianapolis political science professor Laura Merrifield Wilson said Bayh has some key advantages that other Democratic candidates would lack, including that 'incredible surname.' 'You're talking about a great legacy in terms of public service,' Wilson said. 'It's hard not to think 'Evan' and 'Birch.'' Along with that name ID comes access to fundraising, polling and public relations resources that other startup candidates would have to work harder for, Wilson said. Bayh could have access to an impressive war chest right off the bat if his dad is feeling generous: Evan Bayh's Senate campaign committee had about $2 million in the bank as of June, according to FEC records. Federal candidates are permitted to donate to statewide candidates subject to state law. 'It's all of the mechanisms you'd need to have a successful campaign,' Wilson said. 'He'd have a foot in the door to begin that first step. It would be a really good strong start.' Questions about his candidacy remain though, Wilson said. Namely around policy. The younger Bayh is largely undefined. Is he a centrist Democrat like his dad or does he lean more progressive? 'I do wonder policy-wise what he has to bring to the table,' Wilson said. 'That's really the struggle to find what their niche is to attract Hoosier voters. I don't know what he has to offer in terms of that.' Contact senior government accountability reporter Hayleigh Colombo at hcolombo@ or follow her on X @hayleighcolombo. Sign up for our free weekly politics newsletter, Checks & Balances, by IndyStar political and government reporters. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'Incredible surname': Can Beau Bayh help Indiana Democrats finally win? Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
23 minutes ago
- USA Today
The only thing Alina Habba is enforcing is Trump's vengeance
U.S. attorney-in-limbo for New Jersey, Alina Habba, is the eager-to-please former personal lawyer to Trump who has turned the federal plaza in Newark into a circus. Letitia James, the New York attorney general, is going to need to 'lawyer up.' So will Adam Schiff, the California senator, and Jack Smith, the former Justice Department official who investigated President Donald Trump's complicity in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. There's a good chance former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, whom Trump has flippantly accused of treason, also may need to. And here is a name that may surprise you: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. He's already ahead of them all. The governor, as Politico New Jersey reported on Aug. 7, retained two top-shelf lawyers – Parimal Garg, his former chief counsel, and Chris Porrino, who served as a state attorney general for former Gov. Chris Christie – after Murphy was served with a subpoena as part of an investigation into New Jersey's 'sanctuary state' immigration policies. Both lawyers work at the Roseland-based Lowenstein Sandler firm and will be paid $450 an hour, the report said. Leading this spurious inquisition is the acting U.S. attorney-in-limbo for New Jersey, Alina Habba, the eager-to-please former personal lawyer to Trump who has turned the federal plaza in Newark into a circus. She is – or was, at least, when she was secure in the job – probing whether the 'sanctuary state' policies interfered with Trump's immigration crackdown. But according to sources familiar with matter, the subpoena apparently was more concerned with the gaffe Murphy made before a left-wing group in February. Playing to the crowd, a puffed-up Murphy suggested to the audience that he might be sheltering an illegal immigrant at his Middletown home. He then dared the federal immigration authorities to try to get her. That annoyed Tom Homan, Trump's border czar and chief enforcer of the ICE raids, who called Murphy's remarks 'foolish' and vowed to look into them. An aghast Murphy spent the next week walking back his comments, explaining that the person in question had never been to his place, and that this unnamed person was, in fact, in the United States legally but was seeking permanent status. It was a form of crowd-pleasing fabulism that probably overtook Murphy in the heat of the moment. (If telling tall tales were a crime, most of the Trump administration would be on a supervised work-release program.) Murphy administration officials declined to comment on the subpoena and status of the investigation – if there is one. Alina Habba isn't enforcing the law. She's playing politics. Yet the subpoena over an absurd, custom-made-for-the-right-wing-echo-chamber 'investigation," and the fact that Murphy needed to go hire two top guns – at taxpayers' expense if at some point they have to do real work – is just another milestone of the absurd Habba circus as the state's top federal law enforcement officer. It's been a debacle since she took the job earlier this year. She began by politicizing the office, telling a right-wing podcaster that New Jersey is ripe for a 'red' takeover. The crime fighter spoke like a political strategist. Then she had Newark Mayor Ras Baraka arrested in May for allegedly trespassing at Delaney Hall, the federally leased detention center in his city, during an immigration protest, only to withdraw the charge and draw the withering scorn of the presiding judge, who publicly scolded her for her 'embarrassing retraction.' Opinion: Alina Habba politicized her job as US attorney. Team Trump politicizes her exit. Both U.S. senators from New Jersey refused to sign off on her nomination, and the state's federal District Court judges voted not to extend her interim rein. They made their vote of no confidence clear by replacing her with prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace, a registered Republican. An angered Trump defended Habba and devised a work-around by firing Grace and installing Habba as the first assistant U.S. attorney, which would effectively put her in charge of the office without needing to get approval from the Senate or the blessing of federal judges. But this piece of creative shuffling has only created more confusion, as lawyers for several defendants are now seeking to get their charges dismissed on the grounds that Habba was not authorized to bring the charges under this new end-around role. And looming over this recent résumé is an ethics investigation into Habba's allegedly improper role in settling a sexual harassment claim of a former employee at Trump's Bedminster golf club. Opinion: Midterms are more than a year away, but Trump is already challenging them Trump – suddenly – cracks down on crime The irony is that Trump has made a great show lately of cracking down on crime. He authorized a military takeover of the Washington, DC, police department on Aug. 11, vowing to wipe the nation's capital of crime and homelessness –despite a drop in crime rates in the city. He has hinted that he may deploy more federal troops to Democratic-controlled cities. Crime fighting doesn't seem to be his purpose in Newark. He's digging in his heels in support of Habba out of anger at being rebuffed by federal court judges. He feels his prerogative of picking his own people has been once again thwarted by unelected judges. His prerogative just ran smack into long-established institutional guardrails. And as always when he runs into guardrails or norms, he seeks to ignore them or blow them up. Habba is simply not qualified One clear reason Habba has collided with those guardrails is that she is clearly not suited for the job. The United States attorney for New Jersey is a powerful and prestigious job that was held by a long roster of venerable prosecutors: Frederick B. Lacey in the late 1960s, the first in a series of important mob-busting prosecutors, like Jonathan Goldstein, a Nixon appointee in the mid-1970s, and Robert Del Tufo until 1980. Chris Christie, sworn into office in 2002, was widely accused of targeting mostly Democrats, but there was at least a focus on rooting out political corruption, and he parlayed that record into the governor's office. Regardless of his motives, he put the political class on notice. Alina Habba? Is she the best that Trump can do for a state where he raised and later bankrupted his casino empire and where he retreats from the Florida heat? Or is New Jersey not really a front in his purported War on Crime but just another battleground in his war on institutional power? Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. This column originally appeared on
USA Today
23 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump approval holds at 40%, lowest of his term, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's approval rating held at 40% in recent weeks, matching the lowest level of his current term, amid weak ratings from Hispanic voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday. The six-day poll was conducted as economic data showed signs the U.S. labor market is weakening and as Trump oversees a sweeping immigration crackdown, while at the same time the Republican has been engaged in intense diplomacy to end a war between Russia and Ukraine. Trump's approval rating was unchanged from a late July Reuters/Ipsos poll, but has dropped seven percentage points since his first days back in the White House in January, when 47% of Americans gave him a thumbs-up. The latest poll showed Hispanics, a group that swung toward Trump in last year's election, have also soured on the president. Some 32% approved of his performance in the White House, matching their lowest level of approval for Trump this year. More: Trump approval rating round-up: Where does president stand in recent polls? More than half of respondents -- 54%, including one in five Republicans -- said they thought Trump was too closely aligned with Russia, even as he ramped up a push to broker peace between Moscow and Kyiv. Trump has appeared to embrace Russia's claim that Ukraine must cede territory to Russia in order for the war to stop. Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, and the poll closed just ahead of the president's meeting on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Just 42% of respondents approved of Trump's performance on crime and 43% thought he was doing a good job on immigration policy. On all policies, Trump's support came overwhelmingly from Republicans. After returning to the White House in January, Trump ordered a sweeping crackdown on people living in the country illegally, deploying masked agents to arrest and deport migrants across the country. The policy has triggered mass protests in cities including Los Angeles, where about half the population identifies as Latino and many people have family members who are recent immigrants. More: What is Trump's approval rating? See states where he is most, least popular More recently, Trump ordered federal agents and National Guard troops to aid in law enforcement in Washington, D.C., arguing that crime was rampant there. Statistics show that violent crime shot up in 2023 but has been rapidly declining since. The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 4,446 U.S. adults nationwide and online and had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points. (Reporting by Jason Lange; editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
