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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - September 16, 2015
From Ballotpedia
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Wednesday's Leading Stories
- Polls: Ballotpedia released two insider polls on September 14, 2015, that gave insight into how the Republican establishment perceives Donald Trump and Jeb Bush. Bush leads the Republican candidates with 74.1 percent of the 640 total points he could have earned according to the survey. On the other hand, 42 percent of 125 insiders polled think that Trump is “hurting” the GOP. (Ballotpedia, Ballotpedia)
- Poll: A Public Policy Poll released yesterday found that 42 percent of Florida voters thought Jeb Bush should drop out of the race, compared to 40 percent who supported his run. Similarly, 48 percent thought Marco Rubio should drop out, while 42 percent supported his run. The results also showed Donald Trump in the lead with 28 percent, followed by Ben Carson at 17 percent. (Public Policy Polling)
- Poll: A CBS/New York Times poll released yesterday finds Bernie Sanders gaining significantly on Hillary Clinton’s lead in the polls. Clinton has the support of 47 percent of Democratic primary voters (down from 58 percent), while Sanders has 27 percent support (up from 17 percent). (CBS News)
- Poll: A CBS/New York Times poll released yesterday shows Donald Trump still leads the Republican field with 27 percent support, but Ben Carson follows closely behind with 23 percent support. (CBS News, New York Times)
- Poll: A poll released today by Boston’s NPR News Station (conducted by Mass Inc. Polling Group) shows Trump leading in New Hampshire at 22 percent support, with Ben Carson at 17 percent in second. (WBUR)
Democrats
- The Iowa Democratic Party announced Tuesday that Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley and Lincoln Chafee will speak at an Iowa Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner in October. (CNN Politics)
Joe Biden
- On Tuesday, Joe Biden called Donald Trump’s remarks on immigrants “sick” and said that Trump was “absolutely denigrating an entire group of people, appealing to the baser side of human nature, working on this notion of xenophobia in a way that hasn't occurred in a long time.” (CNN Politics)
Hillary Clinton
- The New York Times released an article yesterday analyzing Hillary Clinton’s support over the course of her career, focusing on her recent loss of popularity. “Over the last two months, the steady and expected erosion of her ratings has surprisingly accelerated. Her ratings are now lower than they were in 2007 or 2008, or at any point in her political career,” the New York Times noted. (New York Times)
- Staten Island “White House” owner Sal Rusi will host a private political fundraiser for Clinton on Wednesday. The cost of attendance is $2,700 and includes a photo reception with Clinton. (Silive.com)
- On Monday, Clinton tweeted against Scott Walker’s union policies: “Unions help keep working families strong. Scott Walker's attacks on unions and workers' rights aren't leadership—they're bullying.” On the same day, she released a video asserting that victims of sexual assault have the right to be heard and supported. (Twitter)
- Yesterday, Clinton retweeted a caption of Bush’s “anchor babies” comment and subsequently tweeted, “While others attack, insult, and denigrate—today we proudly celebrate the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. Sí se puede.” (Twitter)
- Clinton will have a series of small, more intimate “Conversations With Hillary Rodham Clinton” events on September 27, 2015, in the Los Angeles area. The events cost between $1,000 and $2,700 to attend. (Daily News)
Lawrence Lessig
- While Lawrence Lessig said he “wished there was a way to run as an independent,” he has ruled out an independent bid for the presidency. “The two parties have made that essentially impossible — at least to win,” commented Lessig. (The Hill)
Martin O’Malley
- Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.) called Martin O’Malley’s conduct regarding the removal of furniture from the governor’s mansion “misleading” and added that his account was “absolutely blatantly false.” (Baltimore Sun)
- O’Malley’s campaign will participate in a protest calling for more Democratic debates outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington today. (Southern Maryland Online)
- Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms opposed O’Malley’s gun control plan in a press release yesterday. “Governor O'Malley's proposal would not reduce violent crime," said Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "He's putting forth an agenda that would ultimately destroy the Second Amendment, treating the right to keep and bear arms like a disease he's trying to eradicate.” (PR Newswire)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders attended the America's Journey for Justice rally promoting the Voting Rights Advancement Act at the Lincoln Memorial Tuesday. The same day, Larry Cohen, a campaign advisor to Sanders, released an article on the campaign website noting, “Unless we enact reform that provides easy access for all voters, we will continue to miss 30 million voters from working families. If we don't root out big money in politics, the oligarchy of the wealthy will increasingly control our government.” (Bernie 2016, CNN Politics)
- In response to the Wall Street Journal’s claim that Sanders’ social programs would cost $18 trillion over ten years Sanders stated, “I think most of the expense that they put in there, the expenditures have to do with the single payer health care system. They significantly exaggerated the cost of that and they forgot to tell the American people in that article that that means eliminating the costs that you incur with private health insurance.” (Real Clear Politics)
Republicans
Jeb Bush
- The super PAC Right to Rise is supporting Jeb Bush with a 24 million dollar ad buy that began yesterday in Iowa and New Hampshire. (CNN Politics)
- Bush held two fundraisers in Portland on Tuesday, one of which cost between $1,000 and $$2,700 per person to attend. According to Charles Swindells, the ambassador to New Zealand during the second Bush administration, "Everyone in that room was very, very optimistic." (Oregon Live)
- John “Jock” McKernan, former Maine governor and current adviser for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, endorsed Bush on Tuesday. McKernan expressed support for Bush’s stance on economic growth. (Bangor Daily News)
Ben Carson
- Ben Carson won a Maryland straw poll released Tuesday with 296 points (31.8 percent). (WBAL-TV)
Chris Christie
- Continuing his criticism of the Iran nuclear deal, Christie commented, “Well what did we expect when we put a weakling like John Kerry in charge of the negotiations?” (Mediaite)
- Christie sent a joint letter with Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) to President Obama on Tuesday that said New York and New Jersey would pay half of the $20 billion required to build a new Hudson River tunnel, if the federal government would pay the other half. (AM New York)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz will run an ad during the debate tonight playing on Ronald Reagan’s “The Bear” ad from the Cold War era. The ad will use a scorpion in the desert to represent Middle East terrorist threats, and will follow the text of the Reagan ad. (New York Times)
- On Tuesday, Cruz criticized a PolitiFact article that claimed his statements on the Iran nuclear deal were false. He wrote, “‘PolitiFact’ represents a new species of yellow journalism, where liberal reporters dress up as ‘facts’ their liberal opinions and accuse anyone who disagrees with them of ‘lying.’” (Washington Times)
Jim Gilmore
- According to Politico, Jim Gilmore plans to live tweet the GOP debate tonight. (Politico)
Lindsey Graham
- Lindsey Graham plans to return to Iowa on Friday and Saturday to attend nine campaign events, including the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's candidate forum on Saturday. (Des Moines Register)
Mike Huckabee
- Mike Huckabee said that putting Kim Davis in jail for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses was “what I call the criminalization of Christianity.” He continued, “She had strong conviction. This violated her basic conviction.” (Washington Times)
John Kasich
- According to NBC News, John Kasich is turning the attention of his campaign from New Hampshire to Iowa in the coming weeks. Kasich will make a stop in Sioux City to speak at a national security forum sponsored by Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security on Sept. 26. (NBC News, Des Moines Register)
- Rep. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) may have criticized Kasich’s campaign strategy in a letter to presidential candidates campaigning in New Hampshire. According to Politico, Ayotte did not directly criticize Kasich, but she did advise doing the opposite of what Kasich had recently done in his New Hampshire campaign. (Politico)
Bobby Jindal
- Bobby Jindal wrote an op-ed for CNN on Tuesday that criticized Donald Trump and called on conservatives to stop his progress as a candidate. “Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Rick Perry admirably called Trump out for his conservative heresy, but it backfired because he doesn't give a hoot about conservatism. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz is clinging to Trump like a limpet to an oil tanker, hoping to suck up his votes when Trump eventually sinks. Conservatives need to say what we are thinking: Donald Trump is a madman who must be stopped. Failure to speak out against Trump is an endorsement of Clinton,” wrote Jindal. (CNN)
Rand Paul
- On Tuesday, Rand Paul made it clear he wanted Trump challenged in the GOP debate tonight. “I think he deserves both barrels,” he said. “I want to make sure everyone in the whole country knows he’s a fake conservative.” (Daily Caller)
- Paul commented on the successfulness of the Republican Party on Tuesday, saying, “We have to be a different kind of party if we’re ever going to win again. If you look at the demographics of how we’re voting, we get more of the white vote every year. And we keep getting clobbered because we’re a more diverse nation.” (Press Enterprise)
- Paul sent out an email asking the people of New Hampshire to encourage state Sens. Andrew Hosmer (D), Donna Soucy (D) and Jeff Woodburn (D) to override the veto on Senate Bill 116, which, according to Paul, “enables every law-abiding citizen to bear arms as the Constitution intended: without government permission.” (Union Leader)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ-4) announced the #FreeChinasHeroes initiative today. The movement will endeavor to bring about awareness concerning individuals who are detained or have disappeared in China. Rubio is the co-chair and Smith is the chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). Said Rubio, “As the Obama White House prepares to roll out the red carpet for President Xi, we must not forget the men, women and juveniles who languish unjustly in dark prison cells, the family members who do not know the fate of their loved ones and the professionals who have disappeared for daring to do their job” (Marco Rubio Senate Page)
- Rubio released a video on Monday called “Catching Footballs, Fielding Questions,” in which he answered rapid-fire questions about football and politics. (YouTube)
Rick Santorum
- This week, Rick Santorum said that America needs to consider how the Syrian refugee crisis could spread Islam. “We’re seeing this emigration out of the region and it’s interesting that you’d think it would be women and children, but it’s not. It’s primarily men,” said Santorum. He later commented, “There are serious questions here about Islam and the spread of Islam and how it spreads and, again, because the administration refuses to acknowledge that Islam has anything to do with anything, we can’t even have a discussion about why we’re taking only Muslims here in the United States.” (Buzzfeed)
Donald Trump
- In an interview released today, Trump commented on his own demeanor during debates and campaign interactions. “I've had a great temperament. You couldn't build a great business like I've built if you didn't have good temperament but I think maybe I can sometimes tone it down. When somebody hits, you can hit a little less hard. At the same time that may be the kind of thing the country needs because we have to hit back hard to fight hard because we're not going to have a country,” said Trump. (CNN Politics)
Scott Walker
- A USA Today article suggests that Walker has been losing support because he has expressed different opinions on the presidential campaign trail than he has previously. Said Rick Esenberg, founder of the conservative think tank Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, “ I fear what happened when he decided to run for president is he decided to act like a politician instead of a leader.” According to the article, Walker’s supporters are encouraging him to return to core beliefs. (USA Today)
- On Monday, Walker responded to Clinton’s tweeted criticism of his position on unions by tweeting back, “.@HillaryClinton Actually, we're protecting the American worker from being forced to support candidates like you.” (Twitter)
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
