Daily Political Wire 4-15-2010

George Wenschhof

President Obama will have another busy day that includes a trip to Florida - before leaving, the president will meet with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Mine Safety administrator Main. Obama will discuss mine safety issues in a press conference scheduled for late morning. This is a result of the recent mine explosion in W. Virginia that resulted in many deaths.

Later he will travel to Cape Canaveral, Florida where he will discuss his planned NASA policy. The NY Times has more here. Obama has come under fire from some Republicans and some former astronauts for ending another planned manned landing on the moon. He is sure to address these concerns today.

Later, he attends a fund raiser in Miami before heading home. The upscale fund raiser will be held at the home of Gloria Estefan and cost $30,400 per couple. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

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Former Governor Tommy Thompson will announce today if he will be running against Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) - If the former governor is in, Feingold will face a strong opponent. Otherwise, expect Feingold to retain his seat. TheFix.com has more here.

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Republican battle for Florida Senate seat helping Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek - A new Quinnipiac poll shows Republican Marco Rubio beating Governor Crist by a huge margin 56-33%. However, if Crist runs as an Independent, Crist is leading with 32%, Rubio has 30% and Democrat Meek has 24%.

Interestingly, in a two way match up Crist beats Meek 48-34%, but Rubio only beats Meek by 4 points; 42-38%. Quinnipiac has more here.

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Initial unemployment filings rise for second straight week - the 24,000 rise in filings was not expected last week and follows a week in which there were 14,000 new unemployment filings. This shows the reluctance of employers to hire as the U.S. edges out of a deep recession. Bloomberg.com has more here.

Keep an eye on these figures as summer nears for filings should decrease as seasonal employment opportunities become available.

I continue to call for the use of federal Stimulus bill funding for public service employment programs which would put the unemployed to work and ease the layoffs being experienced at the local and state level.

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