• The 2016 presidential polling continues! The latest from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling of N.C. respondents has Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker surging to the lead among Republican contenders (following national trends), with 24 percent support. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush falls from first to second with 17 percent. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and physician Ben Carson are the other GOP candidates reaching double digits. Hillary Clinton continues to lead Democrats, with 56 percent support. Only Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (13 percent) and Vice President Joe Biden (11 percent) also cracked double digits among Democrats. The poll was taken last week, before reports that Clinton kept a private (and potentially illegal) personal email account while she was secretary of state.
• Rep. Walter Jones, R-3rd District, was the only Republican member of Congress to skip yesterday’s Tuesday’s address to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two the three Democrats in the state’s House delegation — G.K. Butterfield (1st District) and David Price (4th) — also boycotted the speech. Democrat Alma Adams (12th) attended.
• North Carolina’s U.S. Senators, Republicans Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, will vote not to confirm Attorney General-designate Loretta Lynch (a Greensboro native), noting her refusal to say she would drop the federal lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s recent election law changes.
• The left-leaning League of Conservation Voters issued its 2014 congressional scorecard, and the N.C. delegation followed the usual partisan split, with one notable exception: Retiring Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre of the 7th District voted with the environmental lobbying group only 26 percent of the time, giving him the third-lowest score of any Democratic House member. Jones had the only double-digit score among the state’s GOP delegation; only five Republicans nationally had higher scores.
