Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - April 19, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- The New York primary will be held on Tuesday with polls closing at 9 p.m. local time. Donald Trump, who has been polling with a 20-point lead in the state for the past month, is hoping for a sweep of its 95 delegates. That would require crossing the 50 percent threshold not only statewide, but also in each congressional district. With 247 pledged delegates at stake in the Democratic contest, Hillary Clinton looks for her first win in her adopted home state after seven consecutive primary losses. (USA Today, Ballotpedia)
- Brad C. Deutsch, counsel to Bernie Sanders’ campaign, submitted a letter to Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday which questioned the fundraising relationship between the DNC and Clinton’s campaign. Deutsch wrote that the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising effort created for the DNC, Clinton’s campaign, and 32 state party committees, appeared to be using large-dollar individual contributions to pay for advertising that exclusively benefited Clinton’s campaign. (Bernie 2016)
- Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook responded, “As Senator Sanders faces nearly insurmountable odds, he is resorting to baseless accusations of illegal actions and poisoning the well for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. It is shameful that Senator Sanders has resorted to irresponsible and misleading attacks just to raise money for himself.” (ABC News)
Polls
- In a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Monday, Donald Trump expanded his lead by 10 points since last month’s poll, registering 40 percent support. Cruz followed closely behind with 35 percent. The survey additionally found that “62 percent of Republican primary voters say that the winner of the Republican nomination should be the candidate who received the most votes in the primary, while 33 percent say the nominee should be the candidate whom the delegates at the convention believe would be the best party standard-bearer.” (NBC News)
- NBC News/Wall Street Journal also conducted several general election matchups:
- Clinton (50 percent) vs. Trump (39 percent);
- Clinton (46 percent) vs. Cruz (44 percent);
- Kasich (51 percent) vs. Clinton (39 percent);
- Paul Ryan (45 percent) vs. Clinton (44 percent);
- Sanders (52 percent) vs. Cruz (40 percent). (MSN)
- According to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released on Monday, Trump reigns in New Jersey with 52 percent to Kasich’s 24 percent. In the Democratic race, Clinton has a single-digit lead over Sanders, 51 percent to 42 percent. (Rutgers-Eagleton)
- A Gravis poll released on Monday showed Trump with a huge lead in New York, 57 percent to Kasich’s 22 percent. Clinton topped Sanders, 53 percent to 47 percent. (Gravis)
Democrats
- Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both issued statements of support on Sunday for the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which would deny foreign immunity in cases “arising from a terrorist attack that kills an American on American soil.” (New York Daily News)
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton wrote an op-ed for The Times of Israel on Sunday that applied the biblical story of Exodus to her political philosophy. She expressed her opposition to the Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions movement, support for minority religions and affordable housing, and a commitment to not remaining “neutral” in the defense of Israel. (The Times of Israel)
- The Washington Post reported on Monday that Priorities USA, a super PAC backing Clinton, has reserved $35 million “in online advertising in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia, targeting millennials, Hispanics, African Americans and women who watch videos or use online streaming services.” (The Washington Post)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders again joined striking Verizon workers on Monday to protest “corporate greed.” Referring to the terms of negotiations between the union and Verizon, Sanders said, "We will not tolerate large profitable corporations sending jobs to low wage countries [while] cutting back on health care benefits - and they're paying their CEO $18 million a year. That is the kind of greed that is destroying the American middle class.” (New York Daily News)
- Sanders called for a nationwide end to fracking in an op-ed in USA Today on Monday. “If we are serious about safe and clean drinking water and clean air, if we are serious about protecting the health of our children and families, and if we are serious about combating climate change, we need to phase out fracking nationwide,” wrote Sanders. (USA Today)
Republicans
- Shane Goldmacher of Politico noted on Tuesday that a large swath of districts that have not yet voted in Republican primaries skew liberal. “Roughly 70 percent of the Republican delegates have already been allocated, but more than half of the 100 most liberal districts in America—including 39 in California, Maryland and New York alone—have not yet voted. And those 39 districts are worth a combined 117 delegates—more than the state of Florida. They very possibly could make the difference in whether Trump seals the nomination or not,” Goldmacher wrote. (Politico)
Ted Cruz
- When asked on Monday what he would do to protect gay individuals from “institutionalized discrimination,” Ted Cruz referred to religious liberty and states’ rights. He said, “When it comes to religious liberty, religious liberty is something that protects everyone. It is our very first amendment, very first phrase that is protected in the Bill of Rights." Cruz continued, “We want to be able to live in a world where we don't have the government dictating our beliefs and how we live. We have a right to live according to our faith and according to our conscience.” (CNN)
- Cruz said on Monday that he had "zero interest whatsoever" in being Donald Trump’s running mate. He said the “simplest” reason for his disinterest was that if Trump won the Republican nomination, Hillary Clinton would win the general election. (Business Insider)
- In a statement on Sunday, Cruz applauded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim of sovereignty over Golan Heights. “Today, the government of Israel reiterated the reality that the Golan Heights are part of Israel’s sovereign territory. Given the presence of hostile terrorist organizations ranging from ISIS to Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border, it is foolhardy and dangerous for elements in the international community to try to pressure Israel to abandon the Golan to the chaos engulfing Syria. The path to peace cannot involve Israel’s abdication of its own security,” he said. (Ted Cruz for President)
- The Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations slammed Cruz for declining to meet with them during Monday’s National Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill after they tried scheduling time with his staff for weeks. “We traveled all the way from North Texas to come and meet with our elected officials. I know they have things they have to do, but what I’m concerned about is the complete and utter shutdown, not finding one legislative aide to meet with us,” said Alia Salem, the chapter’s director. She added, “This is indicative of what a Cruz presidency would look like. He has made clear in the media what he thinks about Muslims, how he plans to treat them, and today in his day job, he exhibited no less.” (The Dallas Morning News)
John Kasich
- While campaigning at Great Neck Synagogue over the weekend, John Kasich said that he was “not a neutral broker when it comes to Israel.” He continued, “The one thing I said was that the Israelites have entered the promised land, and they will always be in the promised land, forever – until the end of human history; they will be there. I am not neutral when it comes to Israel. I consider them to be one of the greatest allies. The only democracy in the Middle East under constant attack – both above the ground and beneath the ground. With people walking in and trying to kill Jews just because they happen to live in Israel. We would all love to see a two-state solution, but that’s up to the parties. I am not going to tell the Israelis how to run their security and how to run all their foreign policy.” (The Jewish Journal)
- Kasich’s campaign announced on Monday that it had hired Brian Haley to serve as a senior finance advisor. Haley previously worked as the deputy finance director for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid. (Washington Examiner)
- On Monday, Kasich’s campaign said that it had gained the support of a majority of Indiana’s 57 delegates if the Republican National Convention goes beyond the first ballot. "We feel very good about the number of delegates who will support Governor Kasich on a second ballot. Electability is an extremely important part of the nomination for the Indiana delegation. The whole point of this is to win the White House. Governor Kasich has the best shot of doing that,” said consultant Pete Seat. (The Indianapolis Star)
Donald Trump
- In an interview published by The Washington Post on Sunday night, Donald Trump said that the Republican National Convention should be a “monumentally magnificent convention and it should be brilliantly staged, but they're spending $50 million on security.” He added that he should have some control over its production "It's very important to put some showbiz into a convention, otherwise people are going to fall asleep,” he said. (The Washington Post)
- In the same interview, Trump added that he had not yet “made the determination” about whether he would retain Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus if he won the party’s nomination. (The Washington Post)
- Republican consultant Cheri Jacobus filed a multimillion-dollar libel lawsuit against Trump and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Monday. In the filing, Jacobus said that she experienced “enormous damage to her career and reputation” and “significant emotional distress” after Trump publicly called her a “real dummy” and said that she “begged my people for a job.” (The New York Times)
- Trump national field director Stuart Jolly resigned on Monday following weekend reports that Trump had expanded the authority of convention manager Paul Manafort. In his letter to Trump, Jolly wrote that his departure “has nothing to do with you or Corey [Lewandowski]’s staff, because I have never worked with a finer group of people.” According to Politico, Jolly was dissatisfied with staffing changes which would have him reporting to recent hire Rick Wiley. (The New York Times, Politico)
- The night before the New York primary, Trump tweeted the following about his closest rival: “Lyin’ Ted Cruz even voted against Superstorm Sandy aid and September 11th help. So many New Yorkers devastated. Cruz hates New York!” (Twitter)
- The National Diversity Coalition for Trump officially launched on Monday with 60 members gathering in Trump Tower in New York for a two-minute press conference. There was some initial confusion over the location and structure of the group’s meeting and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said that he had not been aware of the event. (NBC News)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Jill Stein released a statement on Monday calling for a reduction in U.S. military spending of at least 50 percent. “Far too much of the military budget has become wasteful corporate welfare, and war profiteers drive our foreign policy. Profit-driven military adventurism is not making us more secure, it’s making the world more dangerous for Americans and everyone else. We need to refocus our military on defending our country, not dominating the globe,” said Stein. (Jill 2016)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- In a Facebook post last week, Libertarian presidential candidate and millionaire software developer John McAfee said that he would not support Gary Johnson in the general election. “A rumor has spread that if I do not get the Libertarian nomination I will abandon the party. Totally untrue. What I said was that I would completely support any candidate running with the single exception of Gary Johnson. If Johnson does get the nomination then it is clear that I misjudged the party and I do not belong here. Nothing and no one will change my mind on this,” McAfee wrote. (Examiner.com)
- In an interview with MinnPost over the weekend, Johnson said that Donald Trump has given him an opportunity to gain some traction in the general election because of his rhetoric on immigration. “First of all, having been in New Hampshire, having been in the Midwest, what I recognized was that 30 percent of Republican voters believe the scourge of the earth is Mexican immigration, no matter what you tell them. I was the one that said, ‘Look, they’re taking jobs that U.S. citizens don’t want. They’re the cream of the crop when it comes to workers. They’re not siphoning off our welfare system. Don’t build a fence. That’s an insane idea.’ That’s Trump’s 30 percent. … And New Mexico is a state that’s two-to-one Democrat. I get re-elected [as governor] by being a penny pincher. But I never said anything as stupid as deporting 11 million illegal immigrants.” (MinnPost)
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Important dates in the 2016 presidential race
- Polls and Straw polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
