Donald Trump slammed the Des Moines Register just hours before the newspaper is releasing a key poll in Iowa’s presidential race, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “You have one of the most dishonest right here in your backyard. The Des Moines Register is the worst. They’re very dishonest.”
The poll is out tonight at 6 p.m. ET.
Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s chief strategist in 2012, tells the Washington Post that he thinks Donald Trump will finish fourth in Iowa, “with Cruz winning and Rubio and Carson in second or third, pick ’em.”
“Trump’s entire definition is based around ‘winning.’ So if he doesn’t win Iowa he has lost Iowa and that makes him a…loser, that dreaded word in the Trump lexicon. So Loser Trump comes out of Iowa and goes into New Hampshire. When is the last time the first-place Republican candidate in New Hampshire spent less time campaigning in the state than the second or third place? New Hampshire voters want to be loved and demand great amounts of personal commitment. If you can win by flying in and out and holding a rally, New Hampshire becomes just another Tarmac Campaign State.”
“Ted Cruz, the no-compromise conservative purist, is on the verge of securing the Christian conservative bloc, a linchpin that could secure victory in the 2016 Iowa caucuses,” GOP insiders tell the Des Moines Register reports.
“The question is whether Cruz can siphon enough tea party voters from front-runner Donald Trump to vault Cruz into the No. 1 slot when votes are counted less than two months from now, they say.”
Also interesting: “The campaign last week opened ‘Camp Cruz’ in some of the apartment buildings near a soon-to-close business college in Des Moines. The 48 dorm-style rooms will house supporters from outside of Iowa (mainly from Texas) who have been moved to come to the state to organize for him.”
Pollster Ann Selzer: “A key question I often get from the press these days is: When will Iowans finally make up their minds? Based on the astonishing number of candidates still under consideration in the Republican field, my answer is: Late, very late.”
“History shows that even in an normal year, Iowans rarely settle on a final decision until the last possible moment. In past election cycles, the final four-day poll conducted just before the caucuses shows how much turbulence remains late in the race.”
A new Monmouth University poll in Iowa finds Ted Cruz surging into the lead with 24%, followed by Donald Trump at 19%, Marco Rubio at 17%, Ben Carson at 13%, and Jeb Bush at 6%.
Said pollster Patrick Murray: “This marks the first time Ted Cruz has held a lead in any of the crucial early states. As Ben Carson’s stock has fallen, Cruz has been able to corral most of those voters. Rep. Steve King’s endorsement may not be the primary reason for this swing, but it certainly put a stamp on the Cruz surge in Iowa.”
“Republicans in Iowa are working overtime to prevent a repeat of the botched 2012 caucuses when scores of unaccounted ballots caused Mitt Romney to be wrongly declared the winner over Rick Santorum,” The Hill reports.
“State party officials say they’ve moved aggressively to address the problems that plagued the ballot count in January 2012, and believe the new technologies they’ve adopted, as well as having more workers on staff and enhanced training programs, will pave the way for a smooth and accurate reckoning at the Feb. 1. caucuses.”
Politico: “For the first time since we began tracking this question last spring, a majority of Iowa GOP insiders say Cruz, the conservative Texas senator, would be the top vote-getter if the state’s caucuses were held today.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa finds Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders, 51% to 42%, with Martin O’Malley way back at 4%.
A new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa finds Donald Trump leading with 25%, followed by Ted Cruz at 23%, Ben Carson at 18% and Marco Rubio at 11%.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “The Iowa Republican Caucus has become a two-tiered contest: Businessman Donald Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson lead on the outsider track, and Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio lead among party insiders. The other candidates will need miraculous comebacks to crack the top tier with slightly more than two months before the voting begins.”
A new CBS News poll in Iowa finds Donald Trump leading the GOP field with 30%, followed by Ted Cruz at 21%, Ben Carson at 19%, Marco Rubio at 11% and Jeb Bush at 5%.
A new Gravis Marketing poll in Iowa shows Donald Trump leading the GOP race with 29%, followed by Ben Carson at 22%, Marco Rubio at 18%, Ted Cruz at 9%, Jeb Bush at 6% and Carly Fiorina at 5%.
“Top Republican strategists are almost universally predicting a record-setting turnout at the 2016 Iowa caucuses, but there’s widespread disagreement between them over just how big turnout will be – and whether it will be high enough to lift political outsiders like Donald Trump or Ben Carson to victory,” Politico reports.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Iowa finds Donald Trump leading with 22%, followed by Ben Carson at 21%, Ted Cruz at 14%, Marco Rubio at 10%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Bobby Jindal at 6%, Carly Fiorina at 5%. and Jeb Bush at 5%.
A new Fulmer & Associates poll in Iowa finds Ben Carson leading the GOP presidential race with 28%, followed by Donald Trump at 20%, Ted Cruz at 15%, Marco Rubio at 10% and Jeb Bush at 9%.
Ten paid Jeb Bush staffers made over 70,000 phone calls to Republican voters in Iowa but the team “was only able to rope in four volunteers and root up a total of 1,260 Bush supporters statewide,” according to The Week.
A new Monmouth University Poll in Iowa finds Hillary Clinton with a huge lead over Bernie Sanders, 65% to 24%, with Martin O’Malley at 5% and Lawrence Lessig at 4%.
Key findings: “Clinton enjoys a large lead over Sanders among both male (55% to 33%) and female (73% to 16%) voters. She also has an edge across the ideological spectrum, leading among voters who are very liberal (57% to 34%), somewhat liberal (68% to 22%), and moderate (69% to 19%).”
A new Loras College poll finds Clinton leading Sanders, 65% to 24%, with O’Malley at 3%.
A new Loras College survey in Iowa finds Ben Carson leading the GOP presidential field with 31%, followed by Donald Trump at 19%, Marco Rubio at 10%, Jeb Bush at 7%, Ted Cruz at 6% and Bobby Jindal at 5%.
A new Monmouth poll finds Carson leading with 32%, followed by Trump at 18%, Cruz at 10%, Rubio at 10% and Bush at 8%.
“Iowa’s annual Democratic fund-raising dinner is just another night on the rubber pork chop circuit, but it has a place in political legend as a pivot point for presidential races,” the New York Times reports.
“The dinner this weekend will unfold amid the hoopla of a mini-nominating convention. There will be bands, parades and orchestrated cheering sections for Mrs. Clinton and her main rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Bill Clinton, on his first visit to Iowa this year, will appear at a pre-dinner rally for Mrs. Clinton outside the Iowa Events Center in downtown Des Moines that will include a performance by Katy Perry.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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