Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama Dines With Republican Senators - President Obama "enjoyed a constructive and wide-ranging discussion" over dinner with Republican senators on Wednesday night, White House officials said.

During the dinner, which lasted two-and-half-hours, Obama and the senators discussed deficit reduction and immigration reform, as well as a gun control measure that the Senate will take up in the coming days.  TheHill.com has more here.

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Two-Thirds Support Pathway To Citizenship - With a bipartisan group of senators expected to unveil immigration-reform legislation in the next few days, a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that nearly two-thirds of Americans – including eight-in-10 Latinos – support giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.
 
A slight majority of Republican respondents oppose this path, possibly foreshadowing the resistance which any comprehensive immigration reform bill might receive, especially in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

But when Republicans hear that a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants includes paying fines and back taxes, almost three-quarters of them support the idea.

What’s more, a majority of the public – for the first time in the poll – agrees with the statement that immigration strengthens the nation, reflecting a shift in attitude on this issue. FirstRead.com has more here.

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Mother Jones Lands Another Scoop - The Mother Jones magazine reporter and MSNBC pundit was busy Wednesday handling the fallout from, and some fawning over, his latest revelation about a prominent Republican. Corn unearthed the audiotape of a private meeting in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and his aides mocked a would-be political rival, the actress Ashley Judd, and plotted tactics to undermine her. An unidentified source leaked the surreptitious recording of the February meeting to Corn.

And just like that, Corn and Mother Jones had their second major bombshell in seven months. The first, of course, was one of the most consequential scoops of the presidential campaign — a leaked video recording of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney saying at a small fundraiser last May that “47 percent” of voters were “dependent” on the government. (Corn will receive the prestigious Polk Award for Political Reporting for the Romney story on Thursday.)  The Washington Post has more here.

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Will Democrats Unseat Bachmann in 2014? - Minnesota hotelier Jim Graves is expected to announce Thursday whether he will again challenge GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann. Observers believe he will run.

Minnesota’s 6th District
Michele Bachmann vs. Jim Graves

Bachmann largely got a free pass from outside groups in 2012, but she shouldn’t expect one again in 2014. Touted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman last month, Graves is likely to take another shot at the four-term congresswoman.
After her failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination kept her outside her district quite a bit last cycle, Bachmann squeaked out just a 1-point victory over Graves. Since then, the Tea Party Caucus founder has shunned the national spotlight and spent far more time meeting with constituents in her suburban Twin Cities district than on national cable TV shows.

Despite the district’s GOP lean, national Democrats are expected to invest financial resources here. Along with the DCCC’s interest in the race, Bachmann was among the first Republicans listed as a top target of the Democrat-aligned House Majority PAC.

RollCall.com has a look at the top five (so far) House races to watch here.

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