A new Public Policy Polling survey in Maryland finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 43%, followed by John Kasich at 29%, and Ted Cruz at 24%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton looks to be headed for a resounding victory over Bernie Sanders, 58% to 33%.
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New York Times: “Records kept with the Federal Aviation Administration show the aircraft’s registration lapsed on Jan. 31. Laura J. Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, confirmed that the plane’s registration was not in good standing and said the owner had not renewed it.”
“With few exceptions, aircraft must be registered in order to fly. Mr. Trump’s plane could be grounded for several days, or even months, while the issue is sorted out. In the event of an accident, the company that insures the plane could use the expired registration as a reason to decline any claims.”
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rejected Donald Trump’s complaints that the GOP presidential process is “rigged,” the Washington Examiner reports.
Said McConnell: “So there are some candidates suggesting that it’s somehow tricky to simply follow the rules of the convention.”
He added: “When a nominee gets to a majority, he will actually be the candidate. If he doesn’t, there will be a second ballot and about 60 percent of the delegates who are bound on the first ballot will be free to do what they want on the second ballot. And I’m increasingly optimistic that there actually may be a second ballot.”
“You notice that my favorability was higher than anybody that’s running for office in either party.”
— Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview with CNBC.
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told Morning Joe that he’s not endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz for president.
Said King: “I hate Ted Cruz. And I think I’ll take cyanide if he got the nomination.”
Donald Trump tried to praise the heroes of 9/11 at a rally Monday — but botched the compliment by saying cops and firefighters responded on “7-Eleven,” the New York Post reports.
“All these rules are a lot simpler than the rules of foreign affairs or the rules of our economy. And if you want to be president, you are going to have to deal with things far more complicated than Republican delegate rules.”
— Mitt Romney, in an interview with CNN, on Donald Trump’s complaints that the GOP primary is rigged.
“Bernie Sanders accused rival Hillary Clinton on Monday of appearing to violate campaign finance laws with her expansive use of a joint fundraising committee set up last year with the national party,” the Washington Post reports.
“The controversy seemed to further sour relations between the two Democratic hopefuls at a point in the campaign where their patience with one another had already worn extremely thin, as evidenced by their testy debate in Brooklyn this week.”
First Read: “Sanders has earned the right to have a voice within the Democratic Party going forward. But what does he want? And will he do it in a way that can maximize influencing the party? Because things like this doesn’t help win friends and influence people inside your own party.”
Washington Post: “For someone like Cruz to campaign exactly where Republicans are least popular is actually a very reasonable strategy. That’s because 81 of 95 delegates are allocated equally between the 27 congressional districts. While congressional districts are drawn by population size, the number of registered Republicans per district varies widely in New York.”
“As a consequence, some congressional districts will have their three delegates decided by just a few hundred voters.”
“No more than 285 Republicans voted in the primary here in 2012. Primary turnout in the low three digits per district is common in New York City. On the highest end, we expect the Republican turnout to be in triple digits, so just a few dozen Republican voters in the Bronx — one restaurant stop’s worth — could be enough to tip the election in that congressional district.”
Politico: “Chaos erupted at a Virgin Islands Republican Party Territorial Committee meeting regarding delegates over the weekend, and the pandemonium has been further muddled by wildly differing tales from the Virgin Islands’ GOP leadership that now include accusations of battery and defamation.”
Politico: “But according to interviews with more than a dozen operatives — including several who oppose Trump, some who support him, and the leaders of some prominent D.C. political shops — some of those who go to work for Trump face an implicit, and occasionally overt, threat: Help Trump, and you’ll never work in this town again.”
“It may be unenforceable, but the push to stigmatize Trump’s aides, advisers and vendors is among the last remaining pieces of ammunition available to a Republican establishment that has tried just about everything else to block the billionaire from taking over of the GOP. And, critically, it has complicated Trump’s efforts in recent weeks to hire top-tier operatives, according to sources familiar with Trump’s campaign.”
“Voting has begun in the most raucous nominating contest of an already acrimonious season, which closed the day before with a flurry of retail politicking in New York that appeared likely to strengthen the trajectory of the two front-runners,” the Washington Post reports.
“Polls have shown both front-runners ahead by double-digit margins in Tuesday’s New York primary. A big win for Trump would bring him closer to securing an outright majority of Republican delegates — an outcome that remains in jeopardy and has prompted rival Ted Cruz to mount a spirited campaign to force a contested convention.”
Politico: How New York will be won
Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has been “reduced to a role that amounts to body man and scheduler,” CBS News reports.
“The number of staffers directly reporting to Lewandowski has also been dramatically reduced under the new structure.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that Stuart Jolly, the national field director for Trump’s campaign — who is a loyalist to Corey Lewandowski, the embattled campaign manager — resigned on Monday afternoon.
Wall Street Journal: “As the pace of voting picks up… both parties face intense pressure to explain why the outcome of primary elections may be overtaken by party rules that give outsize powers to party leaders and delegates.”
“The squeeze is particularly strong on the Republican side. Turnout this year is up 57% over 2012 and viewership for the party’s debates has set records… But party leaders who have cheered the high turnout are now under fire to explain a process that could deprive Mr. Trump of the nomination, despite his large lead in both delegates and overall votes.”
“Among Democrats, a parallel debate about the balance between primary voters and party insiders has broken out over the role of superdelegates, the party officials and activists who can vote at the convention for whoever they choose.”
“In a shakeup that’s roiling Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the GOP front-runner told senior staffers at a Saturday meeting that he wants his recent hires Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley to take the reins in upcoming states, giving them a $20-million budget for key contests in May and June,” Politico reports.
“The spending authorization, which covers most of the month of May, is far more than the campaign has spent in any prior month, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The cash infusion — which the sources said is intended to fund an aggressive advertising push, as well as more staff at Trump’s New York headquarters and in upcoming states — is part of an effort by the billionaire to expand and professionalize a shoestring operation that had mostly gotten by on the strength of free media exposure and a small core team.”
If Donald Trump clinches the 1,237 delegates required to win the Republican nomination, he told the Washington Post that he’s not sure he’ll keep Reince Priebus as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The Supreme Court “seemed sharply divided during an extended argument over a challenge to President Obama’s plan that would shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to work in the country legally,” the New York Times reports.
“The case, brought by 26 states, may produce a significant ruling on presidential power and immigration policy in the midst of a presidential campaign in which both issues have been prominent.”
Washington Post: “Instead, the court’s conservatives and liberals seemed split, and a 4-to-4 tie would leave in place a lower court’s decision that the president exceeded his powers in issuing the directive. It could affect about 4 million undocumented immigrants who have been in the country since 2010 and have family ties to U.S. citizens and others lawfully in the country.”
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.
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