Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - April 5, 2016
From Ballotpedia
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- On Monday night, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders agreed to the time and location of the next Democratic presidential debate. It will be hosted by CNN and NY1 and take place in Brooklyn on Thursday, April 14. CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer will moderate with additional questioning from CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash and NY1 political anchor Errol Louis. The Democratic National Committee has sanctioned the event. (CNN)
- The Wisconsin presidential primary takes place on Tuesday with 86 pledged delegates at stake in the Democratic contest and 42 in the Republican race. “For Democrats, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hopes to build momentum for his candidacy after winning the Alaska, Hawaii and Washington caucuses on March 26. And GOP leaders across the country will watch the returns with anticipation to see if Texas Sen. Ted Cruz can slow the campaign of Republican frontrunner and billionaire developer Donald Trump. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is also competing in Wisconsin, and could perhaps capture a handful of delegates, but he’s not seen as a threat to finish first,” Ballotpedia senior writer James A. Barnes noted. (Ballotpedia)
Poll
- An American Research Group poll of Wisconsin voters released on Monday found Donald Trump with a double-digit lead in the state over Ted Cruz, 42 percent to 32 percent. (American Research Group)
- On the Democratic side, the race is extremely close in Wisconsin with Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders, 49 percent to 48 percent. (American Research Group)
- A poll from Emerson College also released on Monday found the opposite: Cruz leads Trump in Wisconsin by five points with 40 percent support. Sanders is ahead of Clinton, 51 percent to 43 percent. (Emerson College)
- Trump leads Cruz with 40 percent to Cruz’s 32 percent in California, according to a new poll from SurveyUSA. In the Democratic race in California, Clinton leads Sanders, 53 percent to 39 percent. In general election match-ups, both Democrats soundly beat their Republican rivals:
- Clinton (60 percent) vs. Trump (26 percent);
- Clinton (57 percent) vs. Cruz (32 percent);
- Clinton (56 percent) vs. Kasich (33 percent);
- Sanders (63 percent) vs. Trump (24 percent);
- Sanders (61 percent) vs. Cruz (26 percent);
- Sanders (57 percent) vs. Kasich (28 percent). (SurveyUSA)
- According to a weekly national tracking poll released by NBC News/SurveyMonkey on Tuesday, Trump’s lead has dropped slightly from 48 percent to 45 percent. Cruz follows with 28 percent. (NBC News)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton’s use of the term “unborn person” during a discussion of abortion and constitutional rights over the weekend gained the attention of activists both opposed to and in favor of legalized abortion. “Hillary Clinton further stigmatizes abortion. She calls a fetus an ‘unborn child’ and calls for later term restrictions,” tweeted Diana Arellano, community engagement manager for Planned Parenthood of Illinois. Rebecca Kiessling, the spokeswoman for the Personhood Alliance, said, “It’s interesting that Hillary has now recognized the unborn as person and that she wants to deny them equal protection. You can’t have it both ways.” (The New York Times)
- Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook released a memo on Medium on Monday to discuss what Clinton’s delegate lead means for the Democratic presidential race. “Hillary Clinton has a lead of nearly 230 pledged delegates — and with each passing week, it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that Senator Sanders will be able to catch up. In order to do so, Sanders has to win the four remaining delegate-rich primaries — New York, Pennsylvania, California, and New Jersey — with roughly 60 percent of the vote. To put that in perspective: Sanders has thus far won only two primaries with that margin: Vermont and New Hampshire,” Mook wrote. (Medium)
- On Monday, Clinton appeared with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the rally where he signed into law a $15 minimum wage in New York City and its suburbs by 2021. Clinton, who has previously promoted raising the federal minimum wage to $12 and encouraged cities to go higher, said that she “will proudly take what’s happened here in New York, and go to Washington.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Bernie Sanders
- Calling for the closure of the nuclear power plant Indian Point in New York, Bernie Sanders said in a statement on Monday: "I am very concerned that the Indian Power nuclear power reactor is more than ever before a catastrophe waiting to happen. In my view, we cannot sit idly by and hope that the unthinkable will never happen. We must take action to shut this plant down in a safe and responsible way. It makes no sense to me to continue to operate a decaying nuclear reactor within 25 miles of New York City where nearly 10 million people live." (NBC News)
- On Sunday, approximately 2,000 Sanders supporters protested outside of CNN’s Los Angeles bureau to oppose the disproportionate amount of coverage given to Donald Trump. (NBC Los Angeles)
- Over the weekend, The New York Times described several of Sanders’ damaging early campaign strategies, including a resistance to attacking Hillary Clinton and retail-style politics. “Despite the urging of some advisers, Mr. Sanders refused last fall and early winter to criticize Mrs. Clinton over her $675,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, an issue that he now targets almost daily. He also gave her a pass on her use of private email as secretary of state, even though some allies wanted him to exploit it. And he insisted on devoting time to his job as a senator from Vermont last year rather than matching Mrs. Clinton’s all-out effort to capture the nomination. Some advisers now say that if he had campaigned more in Iowa, he might have avoided his critical loss there,” The New York Times noted. (The New York Times)
Republicans
- While traveling abroad in Israel on Sunday, Paul Ryan denied that he could potentially be in contention for the Republican presidential nomination. He said, “I decided not to run for president. I think you should run, if you're going to be president. I think you should start in Iowa and run to the tape.” (CNN)
- CNN reported on Monday that Marco Rubio has been discouraged from endorsing Ted Cruz by some of his advisers because they “have a somewhat limited impact” and Rubio may battle Cruz again in 2020 if he decides to make a second attempt for the presidency. (CNN)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz argued on Monday that only he or Donald Trump are qualified to win the Republican presidential nomination. “If over 80 percent of delegates are Cruz delegates and Trump delegates, under what universe do 1,000 Trump delegates or 1,000 Cruz delegates go vote for some uber-Washington lobbyist that hasn’t been on the ballot? That’s simply not going to happen,” he said. He added that if another candidate was put forward, “the people would quite rightly revolt.” (The New York Times)
- Cruz will be the only candidate attending the Jewish Telegraphic Agency forum for presidential candidates this weekend. John Kasich and Donald Trump cited scheduling conflicts for their absence. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
John Kasich
- While campaigning in New York on Monday, John Kasich agreed with Donald Trump that he was “taking” some of Trump’s votes. “Donald Trump said that I need to get out the race because I’m getting his voters. I’ve got news for him: I’m gonna get a heck of a lot of his voters, OK? That’s what’s gonna happen,” Kasich said. He added that he understood these voters’ anxieties: “They’re worried that their job is not secure, that some politician’s gonna do something goofy or some business is gonna do something without thinking about him or her, and they’re out of work. They’re worried about the fact that they don’t get a pay raise.” (Politico)
- Kasich also turned his attention to Ted Cruz on Monday, calling him “Senator Smear.” He said, “He smeared Ben Carson, he smeared Marco Rubio, he smeared Donald Trump and now he’s smearing me. … This guy plays that kind of politics — it's down, it's dirty, it's negative and it’s not uplifting.” (The Columbus Dispatch, CNN)
Donald Trump
- On Monday, The Washington Post obtained an internal memo circulated by Donald Trump senior adviser Barry Bennett accusing the national media of jumping on the opportunity to criticize Trump last week.“Yet another pathetic display by the so called experts who line their pockets at the expense of our candidates and causes,” he wrote. (The Washington Post)
- In an ad released by the pro-Trump Great America PAC in Wisconsin ahead of the state’s primary, a mother explains why she plans to vote for Trump: “Ted Cruz? He wanted to let in more Syrian refugees and give more amnesty to illegal immigrants. That won’t protect my family. Donald Trump will.” The ad refers to two policy positions Cruz has since changed, according to The Washington Post. (The Washington Post)
- The white nationalist American Freedom Party issued a new set of robocalls in Wisconsin in advance of the primary to encourage voters to support Trump because he “will respect all women and help preserve western civilization.” Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks said, “We have no knowledge of this and strongly condemn these views.” (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- The Green Party of Colorado pledged all five of its delegates to Jill Stein during its state nominating convention over the weekend. (Green Party Watch)
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
