Brookline’s town clerk says the 31-year-old Kennedy came to town hall Tuesday and registered to vote as a Democrat, listing a Brookline address.

Kennedy had been living in Cambridge which is not in Frank’s district. A spokesman for Kennedy says he “is taking time to listen to families in the district.”

I just think it will be awesome to have Kennedy in Congress again, so my hope is he’ll run.

With Republican Mitt Romney’s landslide win in the Florida presidential primary powered by a massive number of negative ads, President Obama’s 2012 campaign staff have begun worrying about the eventual influence of so-called Super PACs in the November election.

And the folks back in Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters have reason for concern, according to a new report.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina fired off a fundraising appeal to supporters Wednesday specifically citing the influence of these largely unregulated organizations in Romney’s victory over GOP rival Newt Gingrich.

Messina notes that Romney and the groups supporting him outspent Gingrich and organizations on his side in the Sunshine State by $15.3 million to $3.4 million. Romney and influence groups loyal to him put 13,000 advertisements on the air on Romney’s behalf as of mid-week last week. Gingrich had only about 200, Messina says. Some 92 percent of these ads that were negative, he says.

“That’s ugly, and it tells us a lot about what to expect from Romney if he wins the Republican nomination. They’re going to try to spend and smear their way to the White House,” Messina says.

These Super PACs, which proliferated in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling which struck down most campaign finance regulation, have narrowed the gap between what the president and his supporters can spend and what Republicans their backers can., according to a report published Wednesday by The Washington Post.

“The emerging pattern suggests that Obama may have an increasingly difficult time staying ahead of his competitors in the money race this year, particularly after Republicans coalesce around one candidate focused on winning the White House. That contender will almost certainly receive a surge of contributions from Republicans who want to beat Obama,” the Post says.

The Obama re-election campaign is ready to fight back, however, Messina says.

“These super PACs can dominate the airwaves, but what they can’t do is mobilize volunteers on the ground,” he says. “And that’s how we’re going to win.”

The Obama camp’s focus on the ground game could mean hiring a new field organizer, paying the rent for a field office, or putting together an online training for new volunteers, Messina’s email says.

“The Florida primary will be a turning point in this race — the other side is looking at what could be months of brutal, negative tactics that turn people off to politics altogether,” Messina says. “We’re spending that time building a campaign to win in November.”

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has just announced plans to step down from Congress.

Giffords was the “victim of a gunshot wound to the head in an attack a year ago in her Arizona district.” She said her work toward recovery was her reason for stepping down.

Prior to the shooting Gabrielle Giffords “had been considered a rising Democratic star, and had been considering a bid for Senate this fall.” She has been absent from Capitol Hill over the course of her recovery, except for a very moving surprise return in August to vote on an agreement in the House, to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

Watch her moving announcement here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

UPDATE (2:32 pm): I first caught the breaking news on Twitter and them MSNBC. Since I first posted this, Gabby Giffords has already become a Trend on Twitter.

Image: Democracy Corps

For the first time since the 2010 election, Democrats have taken the lead in the congressional vote and this poll shows that third-party defections on the presidential ballot could prove devastating for the Republicans, according to a new poll out Friday.

Moreover, the intensity gap has shifted in the Democrats’ favor and Democrats have moved to parity on the economy after 28 months in deficit, the Democracy Corps poll finds.

More than half of all voters (53 percent) say that the more they watch the Republicans in Congress, the less they like what the Republicans have to offer; only 39 percent say they like it more — a 14 point margin. The country is equally repelled by the Republican presidential contest (53 to 38 percent). The style of their politics and governance is driving away independents. And more than half of white non-college voters, who were key to Republicans’ wins in 2010, do not like what the Republicans in Congress are offering — a staggering result, the pollsters say.

Key findings:

• For the first time in two years, Democrats are winning the congressional ballot (47 to 44 percent), the result of a major shift among independents. Democrats are now winning independents by 2 points — a net 9-point shift among independents since October and a net 19-point shift since August. In June, Democrats were losing independent men by a margin of 29 points. That gap has closed to just one point. In 2010, Democrats lost seniors by a 23-point margin. That gap has closed to just 7 points.
• The Republicans have lost their advantage on the economy. The parties are now even on which party would do a better job on the economy, a net 7-point shift since October. While most improvements in this poll are due to Republicans faltering, here Democrats have gained 5 points on trust to handle the economy.
• John Boehner’s favorability has fallen off significantly — 44 percent now give the House Speaker a negative rating with three in 10 voters giving him a very negative rating (under 25 on our 100-point scale.)
• Two-thirds of all voters now say they disapprove of this Republican Congress and its approval rating has hit a new low in our tracking — 26 percent. The decline has come from a complete drop-off of those who “strongly approve” of this Republican Congress — down to 8 percent, also the lowest in our tracking.

The Presidential Contest Full of Peril

The race for president remains very close, though showing the first signs of improvement for Barack Obama. With his approval rating at 44 percent and vote at 47 percent, you have a close contest. But Obama’s strong support is up 5 points, has more winnable voters than Romney and has made some important recent gains with key swing groups. Obama is now winning 40 percent of white-non college voters, his highest total among that group in a year. Among independents, Obama now trails by just 3 points—cutting his deficit in half since October.

Romney is not popular -– only 31 percent of all voters, and only 27 percent of independents, give him a warm, favorable rating. Obama, on the other hand, remains personally popular, with nearly 50 percent giving him a warm, favorable rating. As a result, Mitt Romney has not been able to energize voters. Voters, especially Republicans, are ready to bolt to independent candidates in large numbers — indeed, remarkable numbers.

This new poll shows that as a third-party candidate, Republican Ron Paul would take 18 percent of the vote in a match-up against Obama and Romney. Almost all of this comes at Romney’s expense. Nearly tied in a head-to-head match-up against the president, Romney’s vote plummets when Paul is added to the ballot, losing 12 points of his vote share.

The libertarian-leaning Texas congressman, Paul has neither announced any plans for a third-party campaign if he should lose the GOP nomination, but neither has he entirely closed the door on the idea.

The poll results are based on a national survey of 1,000 likely 2012 voters conducted January 8-11, by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for Democracy Corps. Its overall margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points.

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.

Former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson nascent White House bid on the Justice Party ticket could cloud President Obama's re-election effort on his left.

In a move which could cloud President Obama’s re-election campaign, a new third party called the Justice Party has begun a ballot-access drive in California.

Headed by presidential candidate Ross “Rocky” Anderson, the Justice Party could complicate Obama’s left flank in a way that Ralph Nader helped frustrate Democrat Al Gore’s election to the White House in 2000.

He may be a former mayor of Salt Lake City in the deep-red state of Utah, but Anderson and his Justice Party appear to be staking out highly progressive positions on corporate influence of government, environmentalism, and national security.

Anderson and his party don’t appear to be sitting back as minor players.

The Justice Party National Committee (JPNC) on Thursday launched its California “Force for Justice” Ballot Access Campaign. The Golden State requires that 103,000 California residents, who are eligible to vote, file a new voter registration form and designate their party affiliation as the Justice Party, by Jan. 2, 2012. Only paper voter registration forms must be used.

“Californians are being invited to join the Justice Party and lead the Force for Justice Campaign in a grassroots community-by-community mobilization. Already, we have dozens of people that are mobilizing to set up events and activities to register people to vote,” says Paul Zeitz, acting chair of the JPNC Steering Committee. “Media, events, and mobilization efforts are envisioned to be locally led and run around the State of California during the period of December 17, 2011 – January 2, 2012. The Justice Party calls on all Californians to take action now to show the nation and the World the promise of the Justice Party. California can lead the nation, as the old saying goes ‘as California goes, so goes the nation.’”

A former Democrat who led Salt Lake City for two terms as mayor, Anderson introduced his nascent presidential campaign two weeks ago on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC program, in which he emphasized a number of left-leaning themes which appear designed to appeal to the national Occupy Wall Street movement.

Among his issues, Anderson says he will tackle unemployment and income inequality.

“We are in a new Gilded Age in this country with the greatest disparity of wealth since the 1920s. And people are suffering, the lack of a decent jobs program,” he says. “This party, the Justice Party, will fight for the people.”

While Anderson has little real chance of being elected president, he could challenge Obama on the left and complicate the president’s ability to win a second term.

Longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader played a similar role in 2000, when he ran for president on the Green Party ticket. Nader ran to Vice President Al Gore’s left that year, arguably siphoning support.

Nader won just 2.74 percent of the vote nationally, but his candidacy could have pulled enough support from Gore in the key state of Florida, in which he trailed George W. Bush by just 537 votes.

The Florida results, and subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision, ultimately cost Gore any chance of becoming president.

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.

In Hawaii, hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, President Obama also is negotiating a new, 9-nation trade agreement.

By leading negotiations for a new international trade pact among nine Asian and Pacific Rim nations, President Obama has the opportunity to create “a pro-worker, pro-jobs trade agreement,” a U.S. labor leader says.

In Hawaii hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Obama also is continuing talks on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPP would be trade agreement among the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

It also is the first free trade agreement negotiated by the Obama administration. Although the president supported the recently approved trade agreements with Columbia, Panama, and South Korea, that trio of pacts originally were negotiated during the Bush administration.

The United Steelworkers (USW) union hopes the TPP represents a new kind of trade agreement, according to Leo Gerard, international president of the 850,000-member union.

“The USW appreciates the Administration’s aggressive outreach on ways that the TPP could support manufacturing and create jobs in the U.S.,” Gerard says. “We have spent considerable time with our negotiators and have offered specific ideas as to what provisions will achieve our goals. The USW is committed to working with the Administration to achieve an agreement that will strengthen U.S. manufacturing and create economic opportunity at home for all, not just the fortunate few.”

The USW position on the potential TPP represents some optimism as organized labor, and many other progressives on the left, have strongly opposed most previous large free trade deals because they’ve benefited large corporations, while costing average Americans their jobs.

The number of U.S. factory workers plunged from 17 million to about 12 million, fewer than at any time since before World War II, with many opponents of free trade deals blaming such agreements for the steep decline.

Obama and his administration have a responsibility to ensure that this and future trade agreements not only create “family-supportive” jobs in America and opportunities for U.S.-based producers to share in the benefits of trade, but to ensure there is little incentive for producers to chase the lowest labor and environmental standards in order to maintain their competitiveness in the global market, Gerard says.

“There’s a lot more work to be done and improvements in the traditional approach to trade will be necessary,” he says. “The TPP provides an opportunity to update and reform the trade rules, addressing the real challenges facing working Americans. We cannot abide by countries that maintain and erect non-tariff barriers to our products, engage in predatory practices such as currency manipulation, provide subsidies through state-owned enterprises, and simply don’t play by the same rules that we do.

The announcement over the weekend that Japan is looking at joining the TPP negotiations raises new issues and new complexity, Gerard says.

“Japan has one of the most closed markets in the world to outside players. Its web of interlocking relationships engages in many exclusionary practices,” he says. “An agreement that includes Japan must have provisions to ensure true reciprocity is achieved, not just by lowering tariffs, but through real market access as well as elimination of non-tariff barriers. And, it must address the challenges many Japanese exports will pose to American manufacturers. Other potential future participants in the TPP must know that the status quo approach is no longer acceptable.”

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.

Helping to enact a new proposed Constitutional amendment to roll back Citizens United would seem to be right up the Occupy movement's alley.

The Occupy movement so far has steered clear of articulating any clear policy goals, or engaging at all in the political process. That’s been smart, because the movement’s been able to grow as quickly, and effectively, as it has precisely for this reason. If Occupy had become about this bill, or that legislation, or whatever, the movement easily could have become too narrowly defined and been diminished as a result.

But now a political issue has come along that is as big as Occupy itself; one that is at the core of what animates the movement, and itself would rely on the kind of geographically dispersed support that Occupy represents. It’s been said often that the Occupy movement is diverse, and that the protesters themselves have differing views. However, if there is any single overarching grievance behind the entire movement, it would be too much corporate influence in our lives, and in our government.

Several Democratic senators on Tuesday unveiled a new proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution, an amendment which would strike back specifically at last year’s Citizens United Supreme Court decision that gave corporations even greater unfettered reach into our government.

The constitutional amendment would authorize Congress to regulate the raising and spending of money for federal political campaigns, including independent expenditures, and allow states to regulate such spending at their level. It would also provide for implementation and enforcement of the amendment through legislation.

“By equating campaign spending with free speech, the Supreme Court has essentially ruled that the wealthiest among us should have the loudest voices in our elections,” says Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, one of the sponsors of the proposed amendment. “The American public is fed up with the outsize influence that money has on our politics. This constitutional amendment will restore the balance to our system that the American people expect in a democracy. It is time to return our elections to the hands of everyday citizens rather than the special interests.”

The fact is that it is hard, by design, to enact a new amendment to the Constitution. It’s been amended just 27 times in all of U.S. history, and 10 of those all came at once as the Bill of Rights. The Constitution’s not been amended successfully in 20 years. Even an amendment as basic as the Equal Rights Amendment has failed.

Given the fact that this new proposed amendment would cut into the influence of big, deep-pocketed corporations, you can bet those corporations will fight back hard to prevent it. It will take the sustained pressure of a movement the size and power of Occupy to get it done. Moreover, enacting a new amendment takes more than just convincing Washington to do so.

An act of Congress is only the start of a long process. To become enacted, an amendment must be ratified be three fourths of the state legislatures.

That’s 38 of the 50 states, and that’s where Occupy’s geographical reach comes in. Whether in Oakland, Calif., New York City, or Wichita, Kan., Occupy has proven its staying power to keep the pressure on its message. It will take that strength and commitment to ratify this new amendment. It would have to be the Occupy movement versus corporate influence, day in and day out, until that 38th legislature finally did the right thing.

It would seem to be just the kind of fight the Occupy movement was built for.

Scott Nance has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade. Capitol Idea is his regular column from Washington. This article originally was published as “The Political Issue Uniquely Suited to the Occupy Movement,” on Blogcritics.

Organized as part of Take Back Chicago Monday, a group of 40 activists dressed as Robin Hoods kayaked the Chicago River toward a Mortgage Bankers Association meeting to deliver a message: it’s time for the big banks to pay Americans back for the losses they have suffered through lost homes, lost revenue, and lost jobs.

Additionally, the group dropped a banner on the Michigan Bridge that read: “Wall Street: Steals from the 99%. Gives to the Rich. Let’s take it back!”

The Robin Hood action was organized by National People’s Action, a member of Take Back Chicago.  National People’s Action is also a member of The New Bottom Line campaign, a nationwide coalition of 1,000 faith-based and community organizations that seeks to hold Wall Street accountable.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.