A new Public Policy Polling national survey finds Scott Walker leads the Republican presidential field with 25%, followed by Ben Carson at 18%, Jeb Bush at 17% and Mike Huckabee at 10%.
No other potential candidate gets more than 5% of the vote.
Key finding: “Walker is climbing fast in the polling because of his appeal to the most conservative elements of the Republican electorate.”
Coming later this year: Killing the Messenger: Clintonland, Kochville, and the Battle for 2016 by David Brock.
New York Times: “Mr. Brock declined to comment… But one person involved in the production said it’s expected to be an outgrowth of a speech Mr. Brock gave at the Clinton School of Public Affairs in Little Rock., Ark., last year. That address was something of a matriculation for the former self-described ‘hit man’ whose work for conservative outlets in the 1990s produced some of the ugliest stories the Clinton White House had to contend with.”
Jeb Bush “plans to reward his biggest early financial backers with a mid-April meeting in Miami with his likely campaign team,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The confab is being organized for so-called bundlers who have ‘met or exceeded’ their fundraising targets, according to an email circulated by Mr. Bush’s finance team. Heather Larrison, who runs his fundraising effort, told a group in Washington last week that the event would take place on April 13… The timing of the session is bound to fuel speculation that Mr. Bush will officially announce his intent to run for president beforehand. The Bush team is scrambling to collect as much money as possible for a pair of political-action committees by March 31, the first-quarter fundraising deadline.”
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The New York Times reports Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “is quietly telling donors that he is committed to running for president, not re-election to the Senate.”
He’s expected to make a formal announcement in April.
Rick Klein: “This is the era of manufactured crises, as President Obama is fond of pointing out. It is also, apparently, the era of manufactured crises without exit strategies. Two months in the new year surely felt like plenty of time back when Republicans agreed to set a Department of Homeland Security funding deadline to force a showdown over immigration. But the end of February has come fast, with no change in the political dynamics or vote results or rhetoric. There’s been wide commentary on how Republicans knew they were given the keys to Capitol Hill on a provisional basis – that they needed to show they can govern, not just hold a majority. Well, here’s such a time.”
First Read: “Republicans claim that Senate Democrats are the ones obstructing things, because they are filibustering a DHS funding bill that contains riders rolling back President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Yet as we learned during the last government shutdown, the side that’s using government spending to demand changes to existing law or directives is going to be side that gets blamed if the government (or just part of it) shuts down.”
Morning Line: “By the way, this funding crisis probably isn’t the last one we’ll see this year. There are more within view — in coming months, the U.S. will again hit its debt ceiling and the Highway Trust Fund will go into the red if Congress doesn’t act.”
A new Elon Poll in North Carolina finds Hillary Clinton leading Jeb Bush in a possible presidential match up, 46% to 40%.
Bloomberg: “Eight days after joining the Treasury Department as an adviser, Antonio Weiss was the lead U.S. official listed at a meeting with Wall Street executives. It’s a role typically played by the undersecretary for domestic finance — the same post Weiss lost after Democratic senators stymied his nomination.”
“The sequence of events has raised questions about whether the administration is trying to circumvent the normal Senate confirmation process.”
“I’m still trying to decipher if this is God’s calling. You’ve got to be crazy to want to be president of the United States. You’ve got to be crazy. To look at what it does to a person and a family, you’ve got to be crazy. But you should only do it if you feel that God’s called you to get in there and make a difference.”
— Gov. Scott Walker (R), quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
“The scale of race-ethnic transformation in the United States is stunning,” according to the States of Change: Demographics and Democracy Project.
“In 1980, the population of the United States was 80 percent white. Today, that proportion has fallen to 63 percent, and by 2060, it is projected to be less than 44 percent. Hispanics were 6 percent in 1980, are 17 percent today, and should be 29 percent by 2060. Asians/Others were just 2 percent in 1980, are 8 percent today, and should be 15 percent by 2060. Blacks, however, should be stable at 12 percent to 13 percent over the time period.”
“Nothing captures the magnitude of these shifts better than the rise of majority-minority states.”
“Every single day Joe Biden says something that would end my career if I said it once.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted by NH Journal.
Roll Call: “Just days from a shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has begun to pivot toward a new strategy to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from the GOP’s plan to roll back President Obama’s immigration actions.”
Jeb Bush’s “emerging sway among moderates might not seem like a big deal in a Republican Party dominated by conservatives — with most candidates seeming eager to run as far to the right as possible. But moderates play a much bigger role in the G.O.P. primary process than they do in Washington, and it would take a very strong conservative to defeat a candidate with a big advantage among moderates,” the New York Times reports.
“The relatively moderate half of the Republican Party is underrepresented in Washington because most moderate Republicans hail from blue states and therefore lose in general elections. It’s a different story in the primaries.”
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald apologized for misstating that he had served in the military’s special forces, CBS News reports.
Said McDonald: “While I was in Los Angeles, engaging a homeless individual to determine his veteran status, I asked the man where he had served in the military. He responded that he had served in special forces. I incorrectly stated that I had been in special forces. That was inaccurate and I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement.”
Gov. Chris Christie (R) “will disclose that he and the teachers’ union have spent weeks in secret talks aimed at closing the billion-dollar deficit that involves the teachers’ retirement and health benefits,” the New York Times reports. The union, an aide to the governor said, has “signed on to and endorsed a road map for reform that the governor will outline in today’s speech.”
“It is an unexpected turn in a relationship that has at times redefined dysfunction. Since 2009, the Democratic-leaning teachers’ union has clashed often and openly with the governor, a Republican who is bent on overhauling benefits and tenure rules for teachers.”
Politico: “It ought to be a coronation, Rahm Emanuel must figure. But as he nears what might or might not be the end of his exhausting race for a second term as Chicago’s mayor, the former White House chief of staff and tough-guy insider on Tuesday faces a possibly humiliating setback—particularly ego-crushing because he is running against an extremely weak field of four, has vastly more money than any of them, has television ads airing 24/7 and has run the table on endorsements. He ought to be resting easy—well, Rahm seems never to rest, but at least he should be confident of a win.”
“During his first run, against more seasoned competitors, it was clear early on that Emanuel would win; four years later, after Chicagoans have gotten to know the guy who spent most of his career in Washington—he was a congressman for four terms before heading to the White House—it’s not clear whether he wins outright tomorrow (he needs 50 percent plus one vote) or, according to the rules, faces a time- and money-consuming runoff on April 7 against the second-place candidate.”
“The Senate’s chief referee has dealt a significant setback to conservatives who want to send an Obamacare repeal bill to the president’s desk this year,” The Hill reports.
“GOP sources say Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has raised red flags in response to queries about whether it’s possible to use a special budgetary procedure to repeal the controversial law “root and branch,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said. Senate Republican officials have pushed for an interpretation of the rules that would allow for repealing the law with a one-sentence provision on a simple-majority vote.”
Wyoming state Rep. Harlan Edmonds (R) was kicked out of a House Labor, Health and Social Services meeting after proposing an amendment to a bill protecting gay and transgender people from discrimination that would make it effective when “hell freezes over,” instead of the date of July 1, the Casper Star Tribune reports.
“Many longtime observers said that while some members of the public have been tossed from committees, this was the first time they’d seen a lawmaker removed from a meeting.”
“To most Democratic and Republican leaders in Wisconsin, it’s no longer a question of if Russ Feingold runs for Senate—it’s a question of when he’ll formally enter the race,” National Journal reports.
“If Feingold’s departure is imminent, that comes as no surprise in Wisconsin, where political insiders have believed for months that Feingold would return to take on GOP Sen. Ron Johnson next year in a repeat of their 2010 matchup.”
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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