Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - March 29, 2016
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- On Sunday night, Donald Trump threatened a lawsuit after it was reported that Ted Cruz was likely to receive more delegates than Trump in Louisiana. He tweeted, “Just to show you how unfair Republican primary politics can be, I won the State of Louisiana and get less delegates than Cruz—Lawsuit coming.” Senior adviser Barry Bennett clarified on Monday that Trump’s complaint would be directed to the Republican National Committee’s committee on contests rather than a court of law. (TIME)
- Cruz challenged Trump to a one-on-one debate on Tuesday night during the time slot reserved by CNN for a Republican town hall. “Look, tomorrow CNN has two town halls back to back. An hour with me, an hour with Donald Trump in the exact same location. We should make it a debate. Let’s make it a two-hour debate. CNN has already scheduled it. You’ve got a venue. You’ve got a location. You’ve got the TV cameras. The only thing missing is Donald Trump because he’s scared to debate,” Cruz said. Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said on Monday night that Trump would “absolutely not” agree to Cruz's request. She continued, “Senator Cruz does not dictate Mr. Trump’s schedule and he’s going to proceed accordingly.” (Daily Caller)
Polls
- In a Los Angeles Times poll of California voters released on Monday, Hillary Clinton maintains a single-digit lead over Bernie Sanders, 45 percent to 37 percent. The poll also found that nearly “8 in 10 Sanders supporters said in the survey that they would vote for Clinton in a race against Trump, although many said they would do so reluctantly.” (The Los Angeles Times)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Joel Benenson, a campaign strategist for Hillary Clinton, said on Monday that Clinton would consider a debate before the New York state primary if Bernie Sanders’ campaign changed its tone. "She's done well in the debates. The debates have been very good. But Sen. Sanders doesn't get to decide when we debate, particularly when he's running a negative campaign against us. Let's see if he goes back to the kind of tone he said he was going to set early on. If he does that, then we'll talk about debates,” Benenson said. (CNN)
- The Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC), a bipartisan organization focused on a pro-Israel domestic agenda, endorsed Clinton over the weekend. The organization's executive director, Marcia Balonick, said in a statement, “Hillary has first-hand experience in diplomatic efforts to create a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israel conflict. She is uniquely qualified to promote and protect the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs)
- After The Washington Post reported that there were 147 employees working on the FBI investigation into whether classified material was mishandled during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, Politico reported on Monday that that number had been “greatly exaggerated,” according to their source. Fox News placed the number at approximately 100, while former U.S. Attorney Joseph DiGenova said there were more than 150 agents involved. Washington Post reporters noted that such large numbers could indicate that the agency wants to bring the matter to a close as soon as possible or that the investigation is more wide-ranging than publicly stated. (Politico, The Washington Post)
- During her speech on Monday at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Clinton called on U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to “step up and do his job” by giving Merrick Garland a hearing. "He says we should wait for a new president because – and I quote – 'The American people shouldn't be denied a voice.’ Well, as one of the more than 65 million Americans who voted to re-elect Barack Obama, I'd say my voice is being ignored right now because of their obstructionism,” Clinton said. (CNN)
Bernie Sanders
- Following his landslide victory in Alaska, Bernie Sanders has picked up another superdelegate: Alaska Democratic Party vice chairman Larry Murakami. Collin Peterson, a moderate House Democrat from Minnesota, also said on Saturday that he would cast his vote for Sanders to keep in line with his district’s 67 percent support of the candidate. (Politico, The Huffington Post)
- Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, announced on Monday that the campaign had raised nearly $4 million since Sanders’ sweep of the Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii caucuses over the weekend. (The Hill)
- Along with U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sanders is leading the effort to encourage the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address the cost of the prostate cancer drug Xtandi. ““The United States government should use every tool available to lower outrageously high prescription drug prices. NIH has the power to stop this blatant profiteering and put the pharmaceutical industry on notice that the era of charging unconscionable prices must end,” Sanders said in a press release on Monday. (U.S. Senator for Vermont, Bernie Sanders)
Republicans
- On April 8 and April 9, 34 delegates will be chosen at Colorado’s Republican state convention to represent the state at the Republican National Convention in July. Ted Cruz committed to attend the event on Monday and John Kasich and Donald Trump are tentatively scheduled to join him. (Politico)
- Since January 1, more than 128,000 voters in Pennsylvania have switched their registration to the Republican Party. When asked to explain the large number of affiliation changes, G. Terry Madonna, the director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs, said, "I don't think we can say there's one reason here. But in the Philadelphia suburbs, if people are switching, some of that would be strategic: Vote for Trump because he would be the weakest candidate against [Hillary] Clinton." (Philly.com)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz wrote an op-ed in The New York Daily News on Monday to address New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s criticism of his proposal to surveil Muslim communities in the U.S. Discussing a now-disbanded New York City counterterrorism unit that used demographics to target certain communities, Cruz wrote, “Simply put, demographic trends are not static. They are dynamic. They change over time. The pockets of New York City that are fertile grounds for terrorist recruitment today may not be fertile grounds next year, and places without a significant radical presence right now may become hotbeds of terrorist activity in the future. To say that the work of a vital intelligence unit ‘was finished’ is not plausible. It is the excuse of an administration grasping for anything to justify what was obviously a surrender to political correctness.” (New York Daily News)
- Commenting on Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s veto of a religious liberties bill, which some argued would discriminate against gay and transgender individuals, Cruz told reporters on Monday that it “was very disappointing to see Governor Deal in Georgia side with leftist activists.” (The Washington Post)
John Kasich
- John Kasich’s campaign announced on Monday that it was adjusting its ad buys in Wisconsin to focus on certain congressional districts. Kasich spokesman Chris Schrimpf said in a statement, “Like any good campaign, we are regularly allocating and reallocating media in a dynamic atmosphere.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
- CNN reported on Monday that Kasich’s campaign attempted to coordinate with Ted Cruz’s campaign, using 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as an intermediary, to prevent Trump from attaining the minimum number of delegates necessary to win the Republican presidential nomination. Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe has reportedly not reached out to Kasich’s campaign as requested. Roe told CNN that “the Cruz campaign has no desire to work with Kasich because they do not believe there is any advantage in it to the Texas senator. Cruz officials insist the Ohio governor is a spoiler -- plain and simple -- because they say he does not take votes from Trump, only Cruz.” (CNN)
- Kasich’s campaign has hired Michael Biundo and Andrew Boucher to develop and lead a team of operatives working to secure more delegates, including those currently pledged to Marco Rubio. (The New York Times)
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump participated in a hostile interview with Wisconsin talk radio host and #NeverTrump supporter Charlie Sykes on Monday. Sykes compared Trump’s rhetoric in the election to that “from a 12-year-old bully on the playground” and questioned him about his feud with Ted Cruz and the negative statements Trump has made about women. “I thought this was actually a dead issue until I just spoke to you. I’d rather be talking about trade. I’d rather be talking about the things I’m best at,” Trump said after Sykes played a clip of an ad featuring women reading some of Trump’s controversial statements. (Politico)
- Ben Carson warned on Monday that a brokered convention with “shenanigans” could have disastrous consequences for the Republican Party down-ticket. “If there are shenanigans, if it’s not straightforward, all of those millions of people that Donald Trump has brought into the arena are not going to stay there, and the Republicans are going to lose and it’s going to be not only the presidency but it’s gonna be the Senate and it could even be the House,” he said. (Politico)
- Trump’s campaign has hired Paul Manafort, who “helped manage the 1976 convention floor for Gerald Ford in his showdown with Ronald Reagan, the last time Republicans entered a convention with no candidate having clinched the nomination,” to lead the campaign’s delegate strategy. (The New York Times)
Third Party Candidates
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Hacktivist collective Anonymous set its sights on Jill Stein on Sunday in a video announcing the launch of #OpJillStein. “We have seen many ops to expose corruption of US presidential candidates in the interest of creating an informed voting public. … Sanders supporters have accused us of showing bias by ignoring US presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and we agree. This candidate has not only been censored and ignored by the mainstream media, by Google and by Twitter, she was even arrested and held in a black site during the 2012 election for trying to attend a debate. … We encourage everyone to do all they can to spread everything they can find about Dr. Jill Stein and all of her policies to all political hashtags and forums and insist she has a voice in future debates and media coverage,” the video’s narrator says. (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
