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.”
Trump Staffers Face Threat of Blacklist
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.”
Clinton and Trump Look for New York Boost
“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
Trump Campaign Manager Stripped of Authority
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.
Fight Over Delegate Rules Escalates
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.”
Trump Approves New Campaign Spending
“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.”
Trump Suggests He Could Oust Priebus
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.
Said Trump: “I don’t know. I haven’t made the determination.”
Court Appears Divided On Immigration Action
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.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“Sure, I could say I’m going to be the next senator, but that wouldn’t be honest.”
— California U.S. Senate candidate Ron Unz (R), quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle, admitting he’s just using his bid to fight a ballot measure on bilingual education.
Trump Spends More on Jet Fuel than Staff
National Journal reports that Donald Trump has spent more than $3 million on fuel for his Boeing 757 — more than he’s spent on staff and consultants — so that he can sleep at home in New York or Florida while on the campaign trail.
Clinton’s National Lead Evaporates
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders nationally by just two points in the Democratic presidential race, 50% to 48%.
That’s down from Clinton’s nine-point advantage a month ago, 53% to 44%.
The RealClearPolitics polling average shows Clinton’s lead at just 1.4%.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“We don’t know. We literally don’t know.”
– NRCC Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), quoted by the Dallas Morning News, on Donald Trump’s effect on down-ballot races.
Why Cruz Could Win In November
National Journal: “Ted Cruz is Matt Bevin , on a national level… Democrats and Republicans alike dismiss his chances in a general election at their own risk. The main reason Cruz will be competitive for the presidency is the fundamental reality of the 2016 election. With the backdrop of a disaffected electorate and a deeply polarizing president leaving office after two terms, any Republican nominee benefits from being the candidate of change.”
The Cut and Paste Candidate
Lucy Flores (D) “is one of the worst Web page plagiarists ever to run for a high office in Nevada,” the Reno Gazette Journal reports.
“Her web site teems with passages directly lifted from Sanders or another progressive champion, Sen. Elizabeth Warren. (Some pages have recently been slightly altered and may be more so since I contacted her Friday. I have the archived versions.)”
Clinton Has a Big, Growing Problem with Democrats
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GOP Voters Think Delegate Leader Should Be Nominee
A new NBC/WSJ poll found that 62% of Republican voters believing that, if no GOP presidential candidate wins a majority of delegates before the convention, the one with the most votes should be the party’s nominee.
That’s compared with 33% of Republicans who say the nominee instead should be the candidate whom convention delegates think would be the party’s best standard-bearer.
Good News Ahead for Trump
Washington Post: “Looking forward, there’s reason for optimism in the Trump camp. He looks well positioned to take the lion’s share of New York’s 95 delegates Tuesday. Seven days later, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island vote — these should be good states for Trump. It’s not until May 3, in Indiana, where Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will go all out, that Trump would be likely to face the prospect of defeat again.”
“Then there’s this fact: Recent polling suggests little appetite in the Republican Party to keep the nomination from Trump if he has the most votes but can’t get to 1,237 delegates before the convention.”
Quote of the Day
“Look, nobody has better toys than I do. I can put them in the best planes and bring them to the best resorts anywhere in the world.”
— Donald Trump, explaining to the New York Times how he could bribe delegates if he wanted to.
