Wake Up To Politics - October 28, 2014

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Tuesday, October 28, 2014
7 Days Until Election Day 2014
742 Days Until Election Day 2016
Spotlight on the MA gov race, Angus King endorses Lamar Alexander, Obama campaigns in WI, and trivia: It's Tuesday, October 28, 2014, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com. To learn more about WUTP or subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or read my tweets and follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Wakeup2Politics.
Election Central

• Spotlight: Massachusetts Gov Race Just three days before the publication endorsed him, a Boston Globe poll released last Thursday night showed Republican Charlie Baker leading Democrat Martha Coakley by nine points for governor in deep-blue Massachusetts. Baker stood at 45% among likely voters, while Cokaley was at 36%, according to the poll.
• The Globe survey is just one of many that has showed Baker pulling ahead from Coakley in large numbers, as Election Day nears.  The latter is Massachusetts Attorney Governor, best known for her loss in the 2010 U.S. Senate special election to Scott Brown, while the former is health care CEO running for governor for the second time, having lost to incumbent Deval Patrick in 2010.
• According to convention wisdom, Coakley’s impending loss is shocking. But is it? Yes, Massachusetts is known as home base for liberals, but is this race really only in the news because of Coakley? Coakley, who lost to Brown in 2010, losing Ted Kennedy’s seat for the Democrats and dashing any hopes the party had (at the time) of health care reform. Coakley, who may now let the Democrats down once again in this blue state.
• Blue state? In presidential elections, no doubt, but in statewide elections, Massachusetts voters don’t tend to stick with one party. The Washington Post looked at the state’s past four statewide elections, and found the Republican candidate winning an average 48% of the vote, a respectable amount in a “blue state”. Of the past five governors Massachusetts has elected, four have been Republicans – a number stunning to some claiming the Bay State to be “blue”.
• So don’t be very shocked if Martha Coakley loses by the time Election Day rolls around. But that probably won’t stop the Democratic Party from being very annoyed.
• Independent Angus King Endorses Republican Lamar Alexander Sen. Angus King (ME), and Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, endorsed Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander’s bid for re-election last Friday.
• King’s endorsement won’t have any impact on Alexander’s race: the incumbent will have no trouble beating Democrat Gordon Ball in his race for a third term.
• But the announcement is certainly a statement, especially coming from King, who has been the center of speculation on which party he will caucus with in the next Congress. The senator refuses to say, although it is possible he will leave the Democratic caucus if the party loses the Senate majority next month.
• King’s endorsements this year have been spread across the political spectrum, from Maine Democratic House candidate Emily Cain and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to Maine Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). And while Alexander is not one of the Senate’s most conservative members, he is certainly to the right of Collins.
• The fact that of all Republicans, Alexander is who King endorsed in the homestretch. The Tennessean previously served as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate. But he is also, along with King, a member of the Senate’s informal former governor caucus, and according to Sen. King’s endorsement, “the kind of person who we absolutely need” in the U.S. Senate.

White House Watch

• The President’s Schedule After a 12:30 lunch with Vice President Joe Biden, President Obama heads to Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 3:10 PM today.
• While in Wisconsin, Obama will headline both a DNC fundraiser, and a campaign rally for Mary Burke, the Democratic nominee challenging Gov. Scott Walker.

Question of the Day

• Yesterday’s Answer On Monday, I asked where Theodore Roosevelt became the first President to fly in an airplane.
• Roosevelt flew in a Wright Brothers biplane while campaigning for the Missouri Republican Party in October 1910, along with pilot Arch Hoxsey, Missouri Governor Herbert S. Hadley, St. Louis Mayor Henry W. Kiel, and Sheriff Louis Nolte. He was the first former or siting President to fly in an airplane. You can watch a whole video of the occurrence on YouTube here, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
• GREAT JOB…Steve Gitnik, Joe Bookman, and Ross Brewer!!!!

Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham (seated, left) is briefed on her paper’s Watergate reporting by executive editor Ben Bradlee (seated, right), managing editor Howard Simons (seated on desk, right), and Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (seated on desk, left and center, respectively), the journalistic team termed “Woodstein” by Bradlee.
Photo: Mark Godfrey, April 1973.

White House Watch

• The President’s Schedule At 10 AM, President Obama receives the Presidential Daily Briefing.
• At 3 PM, the President sits down with Ron Klain. This is Klain’s first day as Ebola Response Coordinator, or “Ebola czar”.
• At 4:45 PM, Obama meets with senior advisors.

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