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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - October 23, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Friday's Leading Stories
- Lincoln Chafee announced on Friday that he was suspending his presidential campaign. Speaking at the Democratic National Committee's Women’s Leadership Forum, Chafee said, “As you know I have been campaigning on a platform of Prosperity Through Peace. But after much thought I have decided to end my campaign for president today. I would like to take this opportunity one last time to advocate for a chance be given to peace." (CNN)
- Hillary Clinton testified before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Thursday. Although U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) briefly asked Clinton about the operation of her private email server near the end of the 11-hour hearing, most lines of questioning focused on what kind of access Ambassador Chris Stevens had to Clinton, what security measures Stevens had requested and the nature of Clinton’s communications with her informal political adviser, Sidney Blumenthal. When asked if the committee learned anything new from the hearing, chair and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said, “I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has the previous times she’s testified." (The Washington Post, NBC News, Politico)
- Poll: According to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Friday, Hillary Clinton has regained her lead in Iowa, with 51 percent to Bernie Sanders’ 40 percent. Peter Brown, the assistant director of Quinnipiac University Poll, said, “A strong debate performance doesn't always translate into better poll numbers, but it sure did for Hillary Clinton. Likely Iowa Caucus participants who watched or listened to the debate scored it 2 - 1 for the former secretary of state.” (Quinnipiac University)
- Poll: In a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll of Iowa Republicans released on Friday, Ben Carson topped the field with 28 percent. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz followed with 19 percent and 10 percent, respectively. “Evangelical Christians, who represent 42 percent of likely Republican caucus participants in the poll, appear to be aligning behind Carson. He received support from a third of that group, up from 21 percent in August, when he only narrowly led Trump with that key segment,” Bloomberg noted. (Bloomberg)
- To appear on the ballot in 2016, presidential candidates must meet a variety of complex, state-specific filing requirements and deadlines. Ballotpedia is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, October 28, to explain these presidential access laws and deadlines. Please visit this link to register. (Ballotpedia)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- FiveThirtyEight reported on Wednesday that Hillary Clinton received the biggest bump in the polls following the first Democratic presidential debate. “All told, Clinton has averaged 59 percent to Sanders’s 27 percent in national polls without Biden since the debate. In an average of all polls without Biden in the month before the debate, Clinton was at 53 percent to Sanders’s 29 percent,” Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight wrote. (FiveThirtyEight)
- Clinton’s campaign confirmed on Friday morning that it will no longer accept contributions from federally registered lobbyists and PACs working for private prison companies. Prior contributions will be donated to charity. (Fusion)
Martin O’Malley
- In his first campaign event since the Democratic presidential debate last week, Martin O’Malley appeared at a civil tech startup pitch competition in Washington, D.C., at Microsoft’s Innovation & Policy Center. When asked how he would help grow the U.S. tech industry, O’Malley said, "First and foremost, we need to start investing more in the sort of new solutions, the research and development that actually creates new opportunities and solutions to human problems. Secondly, we need to upscale our people for the information age. There is a tremendous amount of demand in the tech sector for people to understand coding and have some basic skills but we’re letting our kids down by not giving more of them those skills by the time they graduate high school. And then third, I believe that our government, especially at the federal level, needs to walk the walk. I think we need a new, better and more modern way to govern and get things done—with a common platform with data analytics with big data and with more personal connection to individuals that the internet and information age allows." (DC Inno)
Bernie Sanders
- In an op-ed for The Washington Post on Thursday, Bernie Sanders advocated for tuition-free public colleges and universities. Sanders wrote, “An important pathway to the middle class now runs through higher education, but rising costs are making it harder and harder for ordinary Americans to get the education they want and need. In 1978, it was possible to earn enough money to pay for a year of college tuition just by working a summer job that paid minimum wage. Today, it would take a minimum wage worker an entire year to earn enough to cover the annual in-state tuition at a public university. And that’s why so many bright young people don’t go to college, don’t finish or graduate deeply in debt.” (The Washington Post)
- César Vargas, the first undocumented attorney admitted to practice law in New York, has joined Sanders’ campaign as part of his Hispanic outreach team. (BuzzFeed, New York Magazine)
Republicans
Jeb Bush
- On Thursday, Jeb Bush received endorsements from three Alabama state senators: Jimmy Holley, Steve Livingston and Gerald Dial. Livingston said, "I have a lot of experience in the energy field, and Jeb's plan to unleash America's oil and natural gas reserves as economic drivers is brilliant. Jeb is decisively laying out an agenda that will create jobs and opportunity in Alabama, and that's I am endorsing him for President." (AL.com)
- Appearing on “Newsmax Prime” on Thursday, Bush said the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack “is a big problem for Hillary Clinton.” He continued, “Not so much because of the fact that it happened, although there were requests for security. But it's how the government responded afterwards." (Newsmax)
Ben Carson
- In an interview with The Kansas City Star published on Thursday, Ben Carson said the Constitution was “as good a document as you can have,” before emphasizing the importance of context. He noted that term limits for Supreme Court judges were not considered in an era where the average age of death was 47 and that the Fourteenth Amendment “was primarily there for the rights of freedmen. It certainly wasn’t there to guarantee that a person here illegally could have a baby and use that as an anchor to stay. That wasn’t part of the intention of it.” (The Kansas City Star)
- Carson defined marijuana as a “gateway drug” on Wednesday, and said he would “intensify” the war on drugs if he were president. (Reason)
- Earlier this week, Carson said he did not believe Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee because of the investigation into her private email server. He said, “Hillary could well be in jail, and it’s hard to run from there.” He amended his comments shortly after, saying, “I think she may not be actually in jail, but I think the controversy swirling around that will have an extremely damaging effect.” (Talking Points Memo)
- Carson’s campaign has purchased $500,000 of ad buys in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. In one ad entitled “Future,” a narrator says that people "are hungry for some honesty and for some real solutions to the problems that ail us." (NBC News)
Chris Christie
- Kaci Hickox, a nurse who was quarantined last year after being in contact with Ebola patients, has sued Chris Christie and the New Jersey state health department for holding her against her will. (New York Post)
- Christie said on Thursday he planned to increase his presence in Iowa leading up to the state’s caucus in next February. "Now that we've got 100 days to go, and we're really in the stretch where people I believe are going to pay attention, you'll see me here plenty,” Christie said. (Philly.com)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz received endorsements from nine Tennessee state legislators and 48 other Republican leaders on Thursday. (The Tennessean)
- In an interview last week following the 603 Alliance Caucus, Cruz said Democrats “sort of pat [minorities] on the head” rather than electing to them office. “It’s interesting if you look in 2012 at the national conventions of Republicans and Democrats. At the Republican convention there were four speakers who were Hispanics who had been elected statewide either as senators and governors: Myself, Marco Rubio, Susana Martinez, and Brian Sandoval. The Democratic convention had zero. They did not have a single statewide elected Hispanic and there’s a reason for that. Democrats tend to view people — they pigeon hole you,” Cruz said. (BuzzFeed)
Carly Fiorina
- On Friday, Carly Fiorina said she believed Hillary Clinton “did reasonably well” during her testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi. “I think it demonstrates that she won’t be held accountable until we have a nominee in a general election debate who will hold her accountable,” Fiorina continued. The Washington Times
Lindsey Graham
- Lindsey Graham called Donald Trump’s positions concerning Russia, Afghanistan and ISIS “chillingly dangerous” on Thursday. Graham said, “The bottom line is that now Donald Trump says he will allow the Russians to fight ISIL. This is a new low for me in this primary process. Our leading candidate is now suggesting we allow Russia to destroy ISIL. That we're outsourcing the defense of the American homeland to Putin. That's beyond crazy." (CNN)
- Graham said that Hillary Clinton should be disqualified from becoming president because she was dishonest about what happened during the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack. “Here’s what I think, no one should be promoted to President of the United States who allowed a story to be told about how four people died in the service to their country, who sat on the sidelines at the very best, and did nothing to correct the records. I don’t think you should be President of the United States if you can tell family members we’re going to get that guy who made the video, when you know their family members didn’t die because of a protest. I think that is a really big deal,” he said. (Fox News Radio)
Mike Huckabee
- Following Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Thursday, Mike Huckabee said, “If she had believed what Chris Stevens was telling her about the need for more security at the consulate in Benghazi, the same way she believed what Sidney Blumenthal was telling her about the politics of the Obama administration, then those four Americans might not be dead today.” (Breitbart)
- In an interview published by CBN News on Friday, Huckabee called the IRS a “criminal enterprise” that can only be stopped by instituting the Fair Tax. He added, “They use the extraordinary, almost unlimited power of government that they have and they use it to attack political enemies. They use it to attack conservatives, pro-Israel groups. They hide the records, they destroy the records.” (CBN News)
John Kasich
- John Kasich announced endorsements from South Carolina state Sen. Raymond Cleary (R) and state Rep. Gary Clary (R) this week. (John Kasich for President)
Rand Paul
- The Senate rejected on Thursday Rand Paul’s amendment to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act which would have removed liability immunity for companies that break user or privacy agreements. (The Hill)
- According to Politico, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) has been pressuring Paul to refocus his campaigning efforts on his reelection to the Senate. Commenting on the story, Paul said, “I’m running for president and that’s the answer. It’s pretty simple. … I have no opponent [in Kentucky] and I probably have the highest poll numbers in the state. … You guys come up with conclusions you want to write about, but it’s not true.” (Politico)
- Paul will open a campaign office in Las Vegas, Nevada, next week. (Las Vegas Now)
Marco Rubio
- On Thursday, Marco Rubio defended former President George W. Bush from blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “That plot to conduct 9/11, and the steps that it took to bring it about, those began well before he was even sworn into office. It happened under the watch of President Clinton. In fact, the 9/11 Commission says that. If you look, all of their recommendations, many of them were about reversing mistakes that were made during the Clinton presidency,” Rubio said. (The Huffington Post)
- Rubio wrote an op-ed for Breitbart on Thursday evaluating Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. In addition to criticizing her foreign policy in Russia, Asia and Syria, Rubio said Clinton showed “little interest in the deteriorating situation in Libya.” He continued, “As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently admitted, Secretary Clinton’s postwar plan [in Libya] amounted to ‘playing it by ear.’ The result has been extended anarchy in Libya, which has been exploited by America’s enemies, including al Qaeda affiliates and ISIL. As the Libyan government was left on its own, so too were our personnel in Libya.” (Breitbart)
Donald Trump
- After a Quinnipiac University poll of Iowa Republicans found Ben Carson leading Donald Trump by 8 points, Trump retweeted the following comment, “@mygreenhippo #BenCarson is now leading in the #polls in #Iowa. Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain? #Trump #GOP.” Trump later said the tweet was sent out by a “young intern.” (CNN, Business Insider)
- U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said on Wednesday that Trump was “unfit” to lead the military given his understanding of foreign policy. “For Donald Trump to be implying President Bush was responsible for 9/11, that sounds like Michael Moore. Almost every one of the Democrats has latched on to what Donald Trump said so basically, he is being a mouthpiece of the Democrats and I think it shows he is unfit to be commander in chief if he doesn’t understand foreign policy to that extent,” King said. (Boston Herald)
- Following an announcement from Trump’s campaign that he disavowed any super PAC “claiming to support him in his bid for the Republican nomination for President of the United States and subsequently demand[ed] the return of all funds raised,” the Make America Great Again super PAC is shutting down. (CBS News)
- On Wednesday, Trump rejected the idea of political correctness during the winter holiday season. He said, “I'm a good Christian. If I become president, we're gonna be saying Merry Christmas at every store ... You can leave happy holidays at the corner." (CNN)
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
