Swing-vote senators signal potential support for Kavanaugh, despite well-funded left pressure

Several swing-vote senators, including moderate Republicans and vulnerable Democrats in the Red States, have given GOP leaders for optimism that Brett Kavanaugh will soon be confirmed to replace retired Associate Judge Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court. the confirmation remains uncertain because of the 51-49 majority in the Senate, the first reactions of the moderates indicate that millions of dollars spent by Liberal groups to influence key senators against Kavanaugh could prove unsuccessful.

Only 50 votes are needed to confirm Kavanaugh, after Republicans eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court candidates last year. Democratic leaders had already abolished systematic obstruction for other federal judges' posts in 2013 to confirm President Barack Obama's candidates for the DC circuit.

Democratic senator facing a re-election battle, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, has already indicated that she was closely related.

"If you want to ask me questions about the Supreme Court candidate, I have absolutely nothing to say," McCaskill repeatedly said on Thursday

. Republicans – Meaning. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine – would not have expressed any concerns about Kavanaugh at an in camera meeting of GOP officials this week.

In Public, Collins Congratulated Kavanaugh "It will be very difficult for anyone to claim that he is not qualified for the job but he is clearly qualified for the job," Collins said. "But there are other issues concerning the judicial temperament and its judicial philosophy that will also play in my decision."

Meanwhile, Murkowski made it clear that she thought Kavanaugh was a better person. choice than the other candidates. because of his long record and his stated support, the precedent of Roe v. Wade. Both Senators voted in favor of Kavanaugh's confirmation at the Circuit Court of New Brunswick in 2006.

The two pro-choice moderates said they would not support a candidate who would overthrow Roe v. Wade. They have also joined Arizona senator John McCain – whose illness will probably make him unable to vote for Kavanaugh despite his support for the candidate – by stopping a GOP offer to repeal ObamaCare last year.

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"They do not want to be the deciding vote on this, we are going to force them to be the deciding vote on this."

– Ezra Levin, Founder of the Indivisible Project

Well-heeled liberal groups are now hoping for a similar defection, as they seek to pressure Murkowski and Collins to vote against Kavanaugh's confirmation .

Even the former senator from Minnesota. Al Franken went into action by writing a long series of hypothetical questions that he would have asked Kavanuagh during his confirmation hearing – though he had not been unceremoniously dismissed Senate and Judiciary Committee last year following accusations several wome n and grope another camera.

"They do not want to be the deciding vote on this;" Ezra Levin, the founder of the progressive group Indivisible Project, said on MSNBC last week.

An Assault of Money Flows in Maine and Alaska, So The Moderate Democratic States, re-elected this year by conservative and liberal organizations, are the newly created Demand Justice Group, as well as Naral Pro -Choice America and Planned Parenthood

. Expects to spend $ 5 million for advertising related to the candidacy, while a conservative group called the Judicial Crisis Network expects to spend close to $ 10 million.

This money will not be limited to Alaska and Maine. Senators in states that support Trump to put their political life on the line by trying to block Kavanaugh's confirmation

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Among the moderate Democrats who will be re-elected this year in the states that chose Trump in 2016 include Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota

. three voted to confirm Conservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court last year – even though New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillbirand falsely claimed on CNN that no Democrats He had voted for Gorsuch

. and Heitkamp only said that they would carefully screen Kavanaugh, Manchin accentuated his warning in his statement after Kavanaugh's nod and focused primarily on health care issues

" The Supreme Court will finally decide if existing conditions will lose their health care, "said Manchin." This decision will have an impact on almost 40% of my condition, so I am very interested in its position on protecting Western Virginians with pre-existing conditions. "

Doug Jones, Democrat Senator from Alabama, who recently won a special election Kavanaugh, who promised to be elected in 2020, was content to be the only one to be elected. a scrutiny of his powers, but analysts say he would face significant political consequences if he tried to defeat Kavanaugh's appointment.

Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ad clared on Fox & Friends last week that Democrats can not count on their leadership unless confirmation Kavanaugh is already assured.

"I think we can not count on any democrats until we get the 50 votes we need, and then we'll get five or six," Grassley said. do not think we can count on them. "

But, he added, it would be" very bad to go "to lose votes o Murowski and Collins

Speaking of" Cavuto Live "Saturday, Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, also predicted that all Republicans would support Kavanaugh.

"I can not speak for any colleague, but I nevertheless expect that we will meet with the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh by all Republicans," Lee said. "I also think we will meet with some Democrats."

Lee also strongly criticized Hillary Clinton's "absurd, hyperbolic" allegations that Kavanaugh's appointment would return in the 19th century, saying that the former first lady "should be ashamed of the comments."