About two thirds of Americans in a recent CNN poll said they support hearings for Merrick Garland. | Getty Obama alum group: Congressional recess 'disaster' for GOP on Merrick Garland

The leading outside group of Obama alums campaigning for Judge Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court confirmation claimed in a report out Friday that the congressional recess was an “absolute disaster for Republicans” on Garland.

The Constitutional Responsibility Project published a 9-page progress report that says 1.5 million petition signatures have been sent to Congress to act on Garland (#DoYourJob), including 42,000 to Judiciary Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).


“While many Senate Republicans ... have gone into hiding and chosen not to hold any public town hall meetings over recess, they still got a taste of what they would hear in their local newspapers,” the report also said, noting that there have been over 420 editorials calling on the GOP to let Garland get a hearing and vote.

The GOP argues that because President Obama is in his last year of office, the Senate should wait until voters choose a new president in November before acting on replacing the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Most GOP senators have declined to meet with Garland, a Senate tradition for Supreme Court nominees, although Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), facing a tough re-election, was the first Republican to meet with Garland on Tuesday.

About two thirds of Americans in a recent CNN poll said they support hearings for Garland, while 52 percent support his confirmation with a third against it. Only 13 percent feel he is not qualified.

The project, with the star firepower of top Obama alums Anita Dunn, Stephanie Cutter, Katie Fallon and Amy Brundage, said that more than 36 national groups are helping out in the effort to urge voters to call their senators and use social media to pressure the GOP to relent. Rallies on March 21 calling for the Senate to act on Garland generated about 300 media stories.

The group also notes in their new report that more than 350 law professors and scholars, including Norm Ornstein and Doris Kearns Goodwin, have urged the Senate to act on Garland.

Later Friday, the group is holding a noon press conference call with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY, pollster Geoff Garin and Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, to give an update on the Supreme Court campaign.

"A month and a half ago there were three GOP Senators open to hearings and a vote. Now, after a massive campaign by the White House, Moveon.org, unions, etc and millions in special-interest ad spending, there are two GOP Senators calling for hearings," said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, referring to Sens. Kirk and Susan Collins (R-Me.).

"The poll numbers haven’t moved, no Senators have changed their minds and every liberal special interest group involved in the project must be starting to wonder about the wisdom of spending all that money for zero change."

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