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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - August 11, 2015
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- The Washington Post and National Journal reported on Monday that Rick Perry’s campaign has frozen pay for all staff across the country. Super PACs supporting Perry, however, have raised $16.8 million and are expected to build ground organizations in primary states like Iowa. “We’ve got plenty of money. That’s what I know. And we’re going to put that money to use in Iowa to make sure the governor is in the top three there. The super PAC is not going to let Rick Perry down,” one senior advisor to Perry’s super PAC said. (The Washington Post, National Journal)
- Lawrence Lessig announced on Tuesday that he is considering running for president as a Democrat. The Harvard Law professor and constitutional lawyer stated that if he raises $1 million by Labor Day, he will formally enter the race. The sole purpose of his campaign would be to pass the Citizen Equality Act, “a proposal that couples campaign finance reform with other laws to curb gerrymandering and expand voting access.” Lessig explained he would resign from the presidency once he had passed the law. “This is the year that people are more open than ever to think about how to address the issue of politics without politicians being at the center,” Lessig said. (CNN)
- The New York Times released a study of how Republican presidential candidates are performing in the “invisible primary," measured, in part, by support from party leaders and donors. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump lead the pack. (The New York Times)
- Poll: Donald Trump is at the top of the Republican field in Iowa with 19 percent support according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling. Ben Carson and Scott Walker are tied for second with 11 percent. Chris Christie and Rand Paul suffered the greatest drops in support to 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Hillary Clinton continues to lead the Democrats, polling 52 percent to Bernie Sanders’ 25 percent. (Public Policy Polling)
- Poll: In a poll of Republican-leaning voters conducted by Morning Consult, Donald Trump leads his Republican competitors at 32 percent. Jeb Bush followed with 11 percent and Ben Carson with 9 percent. (Morning Consult)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- A new survey from Chegg found 40 percent of college or college-bound students want Joe Biden to enter the presidential race. (The Hill)
- According to Bloomberg, labor leaders are skeptical about a Biden presidential run. South Central Iowa Federation of Labor President Mark Cooper and Iowa AFL-CIO President Ken Sagar both said they had not heard of any efforts within union leadership to draft Biden into the race. (Bloomberg)
Lincoln Chafee
- Lincoln Chafee appeared on Boston Public Radio’s “On the Campaign Trail” series on Monday. When asked why he was running, Chafee said, “I have three children and I care about the future of the world and of our country. … The war in Iraq was really a defining moment. After September 11, I think we made a lot of mistakes as Americans and the war in Iraq, being the biggest one. And now the repair work that needs to be done around the world to make our planet safer for our children. That’s really the motivator. The next generation and what’s happening in the Middle East and North Africa. All of as a result of that mistake, I believe, of invading Iraq.” (WGBH)
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton defended the Iran nuclear deal on Monday, describing it as the joint effort of several nations and noting it could negatively impact the United States’ reputation if it were rejected. “The Europeans, the Russians, the Chinese, they’re going to say, ‘We stuck with the Americans. We agreed with the Americans. We hammered out this agreement. I guess their president can’t make foreign policy. That’s a very bad signal to send in a quickly moving and oftentimes dangerous world,” Clinton said. (The Los Angeles Times)
- While commenting on Donald Trump’s derogatory statements about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, Clinton said Marco Rubio’s position on abortion “is as offensive and troubling a comment as you could hear” about women’s issues. (The Huffington Post)
- During a campaign stop in Vermont on Tuesday, Clinton accused Scott Walker of cutting funding for higher education in Wisconsin. “[Walker] seems to be delighted in slashing higher education in his state, in making it more difficult for students to get scholarships and pay off their debt, eliminating opportunities for young people who are doctors or dentists to actually work in underserved areas in return for having their debt relieved, ending scholarships for poor kids,” Clinton said. (Politico)
- Clinton explained why she attended Trump’s wedding in 2005. “I didn’t know him that well. … I happened to be planning to be in Florida and I thought it would be fun to go to his wedding because it is always entertaining. Now that he is running for president it is a little more troubling," Clinton said on Monday. (CNN)
Martin O’Malley
- Joe Sandler, an attorney for Martin O'Malley, wrote a memo examining the legality of the Democratic National Committee's limitations on debate participation. In the document released on Tuesday, Sandler suggested the DNC’s exclusion of candidates who participate in non-DNC sanctioned debates was “unprecedented” and “legally unenforceable.” (MSNBC, Scribd)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders received a major endorsement on Monday from National Nurses United. With 185,000 members, the endorsement is Sanders' largest from a union. The union’s executive director, RoseAnn DeMoro, said in a press release, “Bernie Sanders has a proven track record of uncompromised activism and advocacy for working people, and a message that resonates with nurses, and, as we have all seen, tens of thousands of people across the country. He can talk about our issues as well as we can talk about our issues. We are proud to stand with him in his candidacy for President today." (CNN)
- More than 27,000 people showed up to Sanders’ rally at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena on Monday evening. Before Sanders took the stage, he had a representative from the Black Lives Matter address the crowd. (The Boston Herald, The Los Angeles Times)
- Support for Bernie Sanders has begun to level off in early primary states. According to FiveThirtyEight, “The Sanders surge has slowed (or stopped), and gaining more support will be harder for him than it has been. To win in Iowa or New Hampshire, Sanders will have to appeal to voters less predisposed to him than his current supporters.“ (FiveThirtyEight)
Republicans
- All Republican presidential candidates, except for Jim Gilmore, have been invited to participate in two back-to-back debates on September 16, 2015. Hosted by CNN and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the candidates will be split into two groups for two debate segments of equal length. (CNN)
- The Club for Growth announced it will funnel donations to the following five Republican presidential candidates: Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker. “Five candidates are at the forefront of the Republican presidential field on issues of economic freedom, and the Club for Growth PAC is standing with them to help them stand out from the rest. … That’s why, for the first time, the Club’s PAC is encouraging Club members to give to these presidential campaigns through the Club for Growth PAC, and to send a strong message about economic freedom as a central issue in the 2016 race,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh said in a statement. (The Hill)
Jeb Bush
- At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Tuesday night. Jeb Bush is set to attack Hillary Clinton for her role in “creating the void that ISIS moved in to fill” in the Middle East. “In all her record-setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly once. Who can seriously argue that America and our friends are safer today than in 2009, when the President and Secretary Clinton — the storied ‘team of rivals’ — took office? So eager to be the history-makers, they failed to be the peacemakers,” a pre-released version of Bush’s remarks read. (The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post)
- Bush criticized Clinton’s “New College Compact" in a statement released on his campaign website on Monday. “We don’t need more top-down Washington solutions that will raise the cost of college even further and shift the burden to hardworking taxpayers. We need to change the incentives for colleges with fresh policies that result in more individualization and choices, drive down overall costs, and improve the value of a college degree, which will help lead to real, sustained four-percent economic growth,” Bush said. (Jeb Bush for President)
Ben Carson
- When asked if he would ban all abortions even where the mother’s life was endangered, Ben Carson said, “That's largely a spurious argument because we have advanced so much in medicine these days that that situation rarely occurs.” (CBS News)
Chris Christie
- On Monday, Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have enabled transgender people to request their birth certificate be modified if they could provide proof from a medical professional that they were undergoing gender transition. Christie said, “Birth certificates unlock access to many of our nation and state’s critical and protected benefits such as passports, driver’s licenses, and social services, as well as other important security-dependent allowances. Accordingly, I remain committed to the principle that efforts to significantly alter State law concerning the issuance of vital records that have the potential to create legal uncertainties should be closely scrutinized and sparingly approved.” (The Huffington Post)
- Christie signed several new bills into law this week, including stricter sentencing terms for domestic violence offenders, an initiative to study later start times for secondary school students and the expansion of drug abuse recovery programs. (The Washington Times)
Ted Cruz
- In an interview with The Federalist on Monday, Ted Cruz said he had one question for Hillary Clinton. “Over the last six-and-a-half years, the rich have gotten richer and hard-working men and women across America have seen their lives get harder and harder. The people who have been hurt the most are the most vulnerable. Young people, Hispanics, African-Americans, single moms. We’ve seen for two terms now the big government policies you and Barack Obama advocate don’t work.Why should anyone believe a third term of the same failed policies would produce anything different?” Cruz asked. (The Federalist)
Carly Fiorina
- A new poll from Suffolk University found Carly Fiorina rated higher than Jeb Bush among Iowa Republican caucus-goers with 7.2 percent to Bush’s 4.6 percent. (CBS News)
Jim Gilmore
- Jim Gilmore was the only Republican presidential candidate not invited to the September 16, 2015, debate hosted by CNN. To qualify, Gilmore will need need to register an average of 1 percent support in three national polls prior to September 10, 2015. (CNN)
Lindsey Graham
- Lindsey Graham announced on Monday he will attempt to block $88 million in funding to the International Atomic Energy Agency until Congress is given access to the terms of “side deals” made between the IAEA and Iran. “It’s a secret deal between the two parties that limits inspections of their military facilities. I don’t believe it’s a deal that until I get to look at it, so that’s the problem here. I betcha dollar if you looked at it, it would be a joke,” Graham said. (Roll Call)
- During an interview on CNN on Monday, Graham questioned the impact Donald Trump was having on the GOP’s outreach to certain voters. “I think Mr. Trump’s approach, with all due respect, is not helping our party with women, particularly young women. And his rhetoric about illegal immigration is so over the top. If I was a young woman or a Hispanic watching this debate I think I’d have been pretty turned off by Mr. Trump and the question is does it bleed over to all of us,” Graham said. He also noted he would grudgingly vote for Trump if he were to receive the Republican nomination, but expected “Hillary Clinton would beat him like a drum” in the general election. (CNN, Breitbart)
Mike Huckabee
- Mike Huckabee criticized Hillary Clinton’s “New College Compact” for being an overreach of federal authority. “While Hillary Clinton proposes government bailouts for states, government handouts for schools and band-aides for irresponsibility, $350 billion in new government spending is no way to solve a college debt crisis that is crushing American families. Higher education, like K-12, is a state function, not a federal one. And Governors can deal with this far better than Hillary,” Huckabee said in a statement. (Breitbart)
Bobby Jindal
- According to a new report from the Cato Institute, Bobby Jindal is the only Republican governor running for president to cut spending in his state. (The Cato Institute)
- Jindal participated in the “Skimm Your Candidate” series hosted by The Huffington Post on Tuesday. In addition to speaking on a variety of issues from the economy to climate change, Jindal answered personal questions such as what his greatest strength was. “I’m not afraid of taking on big, complex programs. When I was elected governor, we were coming out of Katrina. We had had 25 years in a row of out-migration. We've now had seven years in a row of in-migration. We've got more people working there and earning a higher income than we have ever had before. So, I'm not afraid to take on the big complex problems, and I think that's what we need in DC right now,” Jindal said. He also noted his greatest weakness was impatience. (The Huffington Post)
- Jindal suggested Hillary Clinton could be criminally convicted for falsely stating she had released all her weekends. “She’d better pray the Chinese government doesn’t do a document dump,” he said. (The Washington Times)
Rand Paul
- According to Politico, Rand Paul is working to convince Kentucky party leaders to support him in his bid to simultaneously run for president and senator. A decision will be handed down on August 22, 2015, but one party insider said, “I do not want to lose a Senate seat. I am concerned that he promised that if he realized he wasn’t going to win [the presidential nomination], he’d get out. But when is that going to be?” (Politico)
- Paul has continued to attack Donald Trump for having inconsistent policy positions and his celebrity status. In a call with reporters on Monday, Paul said, “Unless someone points out the emperor has no clothes, he might walk right to the nomination. We might nominate a reality TV star if we’re not careful. Someone needs to point out that the 'truth telling' coming from Donald Trump is bluster, non sequitur, and self aggrandizement." (The Washington Post)
- In his latest “Waste Report,” Paul called out a $250,000 program funded by the State Department to bring 24 Pakistan children to the United States to visit Space Camp. “Why is the federal taxpayer financing a trip around the world for Pakistani kids to play astronaut?” Paul asked in a statement on his Senate page. (U.S. Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio responded to Hillary Clinton’s accusation this his abortion position was “offensive and troubling” by issuing the following statement on Monday: “Hillary Clinton supports abortion even at the stage when an unborn child can feel pain; she has defended partial birth abortions as a ‘fundamental right;’ she opposes requiring parents to be notified that their minor daughter is having an abortion; she supports funding Planned Parenthood even after they have been exposed for their role in selling the organs of unborn children; and she supports using taxpayer money to pay for abortions overseas. Hillary Clinton holds radical views on abortion that we look forward to exposing in the months to come.” (Roll Call)
- Rubio criticized Clinton’s “New College Compact” as being part of an “outdated” system. “We should be giving people degrees on the basis of what they know, not how many hours they sat in a classroom. I'm not saying we don't continue with traditional higher education but we have to allow some competition to compete with traditional colleges [through] online coursework, competency based education,” Rubio explained. (Newsmax)
- According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, the policy proposals Rubio offered at the first Republican debate on August 6, 2015, would lead to an estimated savings of $68.1 billion over five years, more than any other candidate. (The Washington Times, National Taxpayers Union Foundation)
- A new poll from Suffolk University found Rubio impressed the most among Iowa Republican caucus-goers. (CBS News)
- Rubio wrote an open letter to Secretary John Kerry on Monday requesting he meet with Cuban dissidents during his trip to Havana, Cuba, to mark the reopening of the U.S. embassy there. “I will make sure that the embassy you are opening in Havana will not have a U.S. ambassador unless, at the very least, we see real political reforms and progress on human rights, the return to the U.S. of harbored terrorists and fugitives to face justice, and the resolution of outstanding American property claims and judgments against the Cuban government,” Rubio added. (The Miami Herald)
Donald Trump
- According to The Hill, a new survey from Chegg found 26 percent of college or college-bound students thought Donald Trump won the first Republican debate. Only 8 percent of college Democrats said Trump should be taken seriously as a candidate. (The Hill)
- Trump was coached in a memo by former advisor Roger Stone to attack Jeb Bush for his ties to “big Wall Street donors” at the Republican presidential debate on August 6, 2015. The memo, released on Monday, also encouraged Trump to keep the possibility of a third-party run open and state his top priorities were repealing ObamaCare and immigration reform. (CNN)
- Trump tweeted on Monday morning he had spoken with Roger Ailes, the CEO of Fox News, and been assured he would “be treated fairly.” Trump has since declined to discuss the content of the conversation in interviews. Ailes released the following statement: “Donald Trump and I spoke today. We discussed our concerns, and I again expressed my confidence in Megyn Kelly. She is a brilliant journalist and I support her 100 percent. I assured him that we will continue to cover this campaign with fairness and balance. We had a blunt but cordial conversation and the air has been cleared." (NBC News)
- In response to Rand Paul’s claim that Trump was a “fake conservative”, Trump tweeted on Monday night, “Truly weird Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain. He was terrible at DEBATE!” (Business Insider)
- Trump responded to the suggestion he was a whiner on Tuesday by saying, “I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine, because I want to win. I am a whiner, and I'm a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win. I want to win for our country, and I'm going to make our country great again." (The Washington Post)
Scott Walker
- The American Bridge PAC, a progressive organization that researches conservative candidates’ voting records, published a mock issues page for Scott Walker after he instructed Fox News viewers to visit his campaign website for information on his policy positions, and there was no such section. American Bridge’s page features extensive criticism of Walker’s job creation and tax records and position on social issues. (The Hill, American Bridge PAC)
- The former governor of Nevada, Robert List, has joined Scott Walker’s campaign as his Nevada state chairman. (Bloomberg)
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
