“It was really touching. I got phone calls, text messages from people who I’ve become friends with over the last number of months, including Cory, Kamala, Beto and people that have reached out on a personal level. They’re not trying to get anything out of it. It’s just sort of sharing your human experience.”
— Andrew Yang, quoted by the New York Times, on ending his presidential campaign.
ProPublica: “The Biden brothers … have pursued overlapping careers — one a presidential aspirant with an expansive network of well-heeled Democratic donors; the other an entrepreneur who helped his brother raise political money and cultivated the same network to help finance his own business deals.”
“Jim Biden, 70, has cycled over the years from nightclub owner to insurance broker to political consultant and fundraiser to startup investor and construction company executive. But the through line of his resume was his bond with his brother, a Democratic Party stalwart in a position to push legislation or make government contracts happen.”
The Democratic National Committee will host another presidential primary debate on March 15 in Phoenix, just two days before the Arizona primary, Politico reports.
The debate will be the 11th of the party’s nominating process.
Daily Beast: “Late last year, the U.S. government signaled that it was about to level a new round of sanctions targeting people and entities linked to Deripaska… Back in April 2018, the U.S. sanctioned the oligarch, who once lent millions of dollars to convicted Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort as part of a decades-long relationship between the two men. Over the following months, Deripaska’s allies made a deal with Treasury to limit Deripaska’s control over the companies in exchange for sanctions relief. Then Treasury lifted the sanctions on the companies—though the sanctions on the oligarch himself are still in place. In the year since then, it’s been all quiet on the Deripaska sanctions front.”
“Until December, that is. What’s strange is that despite the signal, Treasury didn’t follow through and the sanctions—which would have targeted the unnamed people and entities because of their proximity to Deripaska—didn’t materialize. It’s been two months since the U.S. indicated that the new sanctions were about to come out, and there’s been no movement from Treasury on the oligarch. The two months of inaction has stirred suspicions of political interference in the sanctions process.”
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Sen. Bernie Sanders would defeat each of the other Democratic presidential candidates in a one-on-one race — in many instances by double-digit margins.
“Attorney General William Barr has assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn,” the New York Times reports.
“The review is highly unusual and could trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career prosecutors.”
Asha Rangappa: “This is simply insane. Barr is basically trying to systematically ‘undo’ the entire Mueller investigation. And it’s so Trump can have reelection fodder.”
“The Iowa Democratic Party will ask a former Iowa attorney general and a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa to investigate the events leading to problems on caucus night and the party’s response to them,” the Des Moines Register reports.
A new WPA Intelligence poll in Alabama of likely Republican primary voters found Jeff Sessions leading the U.S. Senate race with 34%, followed by Tommy Tuberville at 29%, Bradley Byrne at 17% and Roy Moore at 6%.
A new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Cook Political Report finds that 41% of voters in the “blue wall” states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — have not decided who they will support for president in 2020.
The report also found that President Trump is an key factor in motivating voters to turn out. Twenty-one percent of voters said that their primary motivation to vote in 2020 is to defeat Trump, compared to the 8% who said they were motivated by a desire to reelect Trump or to oppose a Democrat.
Key takeaway: Trump’s disapproval in these states is 59%.
The Washington Post has a nice Democratic nomination simulator which allows you to make various assumptions about the candidates.
“You should also notice that, in most scenarios, it takes a while for a candidate to get a delegate majority and, therefore, the nomination. In some scenarios, no one may, meaning that the party gets to its convention without a clear nominee — the dreaded ‘contested convention’ scenario.”
“What may be more subtle is how hard it is to overtake a front-runner. Once someone jumps out into the lead, it’s tough to catch them, since unless the challenger earns 85 percent of the vote in a contest, the front-runner gets delegates too.”
“The top Republican in the Pennsylvania Senate announced late Wednesday that he is not running for reelection, becoming the second ranking GOP lawmaker in the Capitol to seek retirement in a pivotal election year,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
“The Justice Department plans to reveal soon that it will not bring charges against former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe for lying to investigators about a media disclosure, ending a long-running inquiry into a top law enforcement official who authorized the bureau to investigate President Trump and soon became the commander in chief’s political punching bag,” the Washington Post reports.
“The department could make the decision public in the coming days, the people said, though the exact mechanism for their doing so remains unclear. The move will surely infuriate Trump, who has raged publicly and privately in recent months that McCabe and others he considers political enemies should be charged with crimes.”
A new Las Vegas Review-Journal/WPA Nevada poll finds Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic presidential race with 25%, followed by Joe Biden at 18%, Elizabeth Warren at 13%, Tom Steyer at 11%, Pete Buttigieg at 10% and Amy Klobuchar at 10%.
“Facebook decided Friday to allow a type of paid political message that had sidestepped many of the social network’s rules governing political ads, in a reversal that highlights difficulties tech companies and regulators have in keeping up with the changing nature of paid political messages,” the AP reports.
“Its policy change comes days after presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg exploited a loophole to run humorous messages promoting his campaign on the accounts of popular Instagram personalities followed by millions of younger people.”
Democratic megadonor Alan Patricof told CNBC he’s staying with Joe Biden but said the former vice president must “show his stuff” in the next two nominating contests.
Said Patricof: “It’s critical that Biden wins South Carolina and he’s got to produce in Nevada. He’s said it. Donors feel it. Everybody is sticking with Joe until they see what happens there.”
President Trump is trying again to sow division among Democrats on Twitter, while possibly elevating the candidate he most wants to face.
Said Trump: “It is happening again to Crazy Bernie, just like last time, only far more obvious. They are taking the Democrat Nomination away from him, and there’s very little he can do. A Rigged System!”
A new St. Pete Polls survey in Florida shows Michael Bloomberg leading the Democratic primary race with 27%, followed by Joe Biden at 26%, Pete Buttigieg at 11%, Bernie Sanders at 10%, Amy Klobuchar at 9% and Elizabeth Warren at 5%.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.