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Shutdown: Why Republicans and Democrats will work to avoid crisis
(Exclusive to Yahoo! News)
Political News
Exclusive to Yahoo! News - For a moment in the breathless talk about a government shutdown, a real threat emerged. Nextgov.com reported that federal workers might lose access to... Source: Yahoo! News: Politics News>
Republicans have a 49%-44% edge over Democrats in a generic ballot, a key 2014 midterm election indicator, according to a new CNN/ORC International poll.
Three in 10 registered voters say they are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting for Congress next year, compared with more than four in 10 who felt that way in late 2009 at roughly the same point before the 2010 midterm elections.
Democratic voters seem particularly unenthusiastic about voting, which is likely to benefit the GOP. Another Republican advantage is President Barack Obama's standing with the public. The President may be a drag on Democratic congressional candidates -- more than half of registered voters say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who opposes Obama than one who supports him. Ref. CNN
Republicans have taken control of the Senate by picking up a seat in North Carolina and five other seats, according to a CNN projection.
Their victory means that Republicans will control both chambers of Congress during President Barack Obama's final two years in office. Ref. CNN
Let's see how Pres. Obama copes now. You can only veto and put executive orders in place for so long but eventually the Senate and Congress gets their way.
International Level: New Activist / Political Participation: 20 2%
Republicans and outside groups used anonymous Twitter accounts to share internal polling data ahead of the midterm elections, CNN has learned, a practice that raises questions about whether they violated campaign finance laws that prohibit coordination.
The Twitter accounts were hidden in plain sight. The profiles were publicly available but meaningless without knowledge of how to find them and decode the information, according to a source with knowledge of the activities.
The practice is the latest effort in the quest by political operatives to exploit the murky world of campaign finance laws at a time when limits on spending in politics are eroding and regulators are being defanged.
The law says that outside groups, such as super PACs and nonprofits, can spend freely on political causes as long as they don't coordinate their plans with campaigns. Sharing costly internal polls in private, for instance, could signal to the campaign committees where to focus precious time and resources.
Posting the information on Twitter, which is technically public, could provide a convenient loophole to the law - or could run afoul of it. Ref. CNN