Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama To Give Up 5% of Salary As a Result of Sequestration - President Obama will return 5 percent of his salary to the U.S. Treasury when other federal workers are being furloughed as part of the mandatory budget cuts that took effect earlier this year.

The voluntary move would be retroactive to March 1 and apply through the rest of the calendar year, the official said. The White House came up with the 5 percent figure to approximate the level of automatic spending cuts to non-defense federal agencies that took effect that day.

“The president has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury,” [an administration] official said.  NBC News has more here.

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Maryland Gun Control Act Includes Fingerprinting and Classroom Training - The Maryland House of Delegates passed what would be among the nation’s most restrictive gun-control measures Wednesday, voting to ratchet up the state’s already tough rules by requiring fingerprinting of gun buyers, new limits on firearm purchases by the mentally ill, and bans on assault weapons and on magazines that hold more than 10 bullets.
 
The 78 to 61 vote handed Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) a major policy victory as Maryland joins the ranks of Democratic-leaning states passing broad gun-control restrictions in response to the December school shootings in Connecticut — a state where lawmakers Wednesday also passed tough new gun legislation.  You can read more here.
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Senate Republicans Continue to Block Gun Violence Legislation - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid originally vowed to bring a gun control bill up for a vote when Congress returns from recess next week, but sources said Reid doesn't have the 60 votes needed to break a Republican filibuster of the legislation.

A Senate vote on tighter gun control laws is unlikely to occur next week, according to two Democratic sources, who described a hang-up among Republicans over bolstering rules regulating background checks during gun sales.  CNN.com has more here.

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James Carville Joins Ready For Hillary PAC - Democratic strategist James Carville, a longtime confidant of the Clinton family, has signed on with the super PAC devoted to luring Hillary Clinton into the 2016 presidential race.

A person familiar with Ready for Hillary PAC’s outreach efforts tells Post Politics that Carville will join the effort and will send an e-mail Thursday asking supporters to do the same.

“I’m not going to waste my time writing you about how great Hillary is or how formidable she’d be – you know it all already,” he will say in the e-mail, which was shared with Post Politics. “But it isn’t worth squat to have the fastest car at the racetrack if there ain’t any gas in the tank — and that’s why the work that Ready for Hillary PAC is doing is absolutely critical. We need to convert the hunger that’s out there for Hillary’s candidacy into a real grassroots organization.”  The Washington Post has more here.

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64% Democratic Voters Support Clinton in 2016 - Hillary Clinton has hit a new high in support for a potential presidential run.

Sixty-four percent of Democratic voters surveyed by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) support the former secretary of State as the party's nominee for president in 2016, with every other potential candidate trailing by huge margins. Vice President Biden, in second, got only 18 percent support.

Clinton has majority support among every age group polled, nearly every ethnic group and both men and women, as well as a majority of support from liberals and moderates.  TheHill.com has more here.

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