Elections GOP Road to 2016 Primary Thread

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Jeb Bush and Scott Walker Point G.O.P. to Contrary Paths

As Jeb Bush mingled with Hispanic workers on a company tour a few weeks ago on his first trip here as an all-but-declared candidate for president, he was able to guess the region in Colombia where one woman was born just from hearing her accent.

That night, he told Republicans that their party had to

 

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George Pataki Says Bet on Him to Run For President

George Pataki, the former three-term New York governor, has a tip for gamblers: Place your chips on his running for president.

Pataki has traveled to New Hampshire six times since September and two weeks ago appeared at the Republican National Committee

 

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Ben Carson Says It's

 

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The Conservative Group Behind Scott Walker's Political Rise

When Wisconsin Democrats failed this month to block anti-union legislation supported by Governor Scott Walker, one name kept coming up: the Bradley Foundation.

The Republican governor

 

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Marco Rubio Confirms that He'll Announce His 2016 Plans on April 13

April 13 is officially a day to watch. Senator Marco Rubio confirmed Friday that he will make an announcement on that day regarding his political future, and whether he will run for president or the Senate.

During an interview on Fox News' The Five, Rubio was asked about reports that he plans to announce his presidential campaign that day at the Freedom Tower in Miami. "I will announce on April 13th what I'm going to do next in terms of running for president or the U.S. Senate. So we're going to formally announce that on the 13th," Rubio said.

Rubio also confirmed that he would make an announcement on his website.

He could become the third sitting senator to enter the presidential race. Ted Cruz of Texas became the first, earlier this month, and Rand Paul of Kentucky is scheduled to reveal his plans on April 7.

The interview also touched on the debate over Indiana's religious liberty law and Rubio's ability to fundraise against former Florida Governor and presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.

 

[RetiredWisFighter]

So uhh how many people are the GOP going to have in this thing?

Walker
Jeb
Rubio
Cruz
Paul
Carson
Pataki
Fiorinia
Trump (lulz)
Christie
Santorum
Graham
Jindhal

Anyone I'm missing? 13 candidates? Jesus they're going to kill their chances before they get to the GE

 

[ShoelessRye]

^Jeb is laughing all the way to an easy nomination as he has his Bush Family backers and $100M primary war chest and the rest of the GOP donor monies will be divided up between 10 or so other candidates, including possibly 3-4 other top level ones.

 

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So uhh how many people are the GOP going to have in this thing?

Walker
Jeb
Rubio
Cruz
Paul
Carson
Pataki
Fiorinia
Trump (lulz)
Christie
Santorum
Graham
Jindhal

Anyone I'm missing? 13 candidates? Jesus they're going to kill their chances before they get to the GE

Trump, Pataki, and Fiorinia likely won't be in the debates. The GOP chairman said there will be a theshold with polling to make the debates. I think that also means they will be more specific with who's allowed. Also, no donors are going to take them seriously and divert money away from real candidates.

Graham probably won't run. Either way, I think the first election you can expect 8-10 and for the second debate they will move it down.

 

[jehosafats]

Pataki should consider closing up shop. Why so desperate for significance?

 

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^Jeb is laughing all the way to an easy nomination as he has his Bush Family backers and $100M primary war chest and the rest of the GOP donor monies will be divided up between 10 or so other candidates, including possibly 3-4 other top level ones.

With 500 million, what are the Koch's putting their money on? Is this a spread between Senate and primary elections? I wonder how much they are putting on primary candidates

 

[ShoelessRye]

Trump, Pataki, and Fiorinia likely won't be in the debates. The GOP chairman said there will be a theshold with polling to make the debates. I think that also means they will be more specific with who's allowed. Also, no donors are going to take them seriously and divert money away from real candidates.

Graham probably won't run. Either way, I think the first election you can expect 8-10 and for the second debate they will move it down.

Fiorina will get a couple debates because she's the only woman in the field and the GOP doesn't want to exclude the only woman and have be even a small issue when they're going to be running against Hillary and the potential of her historic Presidency. Also they want to raise her profile so she can be an attack dog against Hillary as the feeling(and probably right) is that a woman attacking another woman would protect them from sexism claims.

Ideally I'd suspect the GOP would have wanted Sen. Kelly Ayotte for this role, but she's up for re-election herself and could draw a A-List Dem recruit in former Gov Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire. NH will likely go Clinton in 2016, so for Ayotte to hold on to her seat she needs enough Clinton/Ayotte split ticket voting, which means she can't play the attack dog role and push away these voters.

 

[ShoelessRye]

With 500 million, what are the Koch's putting their money on? Is this a spread between Senate and primary elections? I wonder how much they are putting on primary candidates

This is their total 2016 political donation budget - for all President, Congress, House, State level races of interest both primary and GE.

 

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This is their total 2016 political donation budget - for all President, Congress, House, State level races of interest both primary and GE.

Yea, thats why I'm wondering how much will go to a primary candidate(s)

 

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Fiorina will get a couple debates because she's the only woman in the field and the GOP doesn't want to exclude the only woman and have be even a small issue when they're going to be running against Hillary and the potential of her historic Presidency. Also they want to raise her profile so she can be an attack dog against Hillary as the feeling(and probably right) is that a woman attacking another woman would protect them from sexism claims.

Ideally I'd suspect the GOP would have wanted Sen. Kelly Ayotte for this role, but she's up for re-election herself and could draw a A-List Dem recruit in former Gov Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire. NH will likely go Clinton in 2016, so for Ayotte to hold on to her seat she needs enough Clinton/Ayotte split ticket voting, which means she can't play the attack dog role and push away these voters.

I think that's fairly lame a c-list candidate gets in on that merit. The field already has enough diversity to it. A woman not in the field means nothing. Bachman was in 2012. The GOP could come back with the entire Democratic field being old rich white people (something the GOP is constantly portrayed as)

 

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Here Are the Real Republican Primaries

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has become the first Republican to eschew the phony

 

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Jeb Bush Gives One Of His Most Revealing Interviews Yet

Jeb Bush previewed his plans Monday to attack one of Hillary Clinton's supposed strengths, criticizing her foreign policy record and blaming current global unrest in part on her term as secretary of State.

"She can't do the Heisman on the first four years of the Obama foreign policy" and then disown the current unrest abroad, Bush said Monday while appearing on The Hugh Hewitt Show.

Since Bush began considering a run for president late last year, he has been virtually absent from the influential conservative talk-radio circuit. But this was his second appearance in as many months on Hewitt's program, even coming in-person to Hewitt's Southern California studio Monday. In recent months, Hewitt has emerged as the go-to pundit for the Republican Party establishment.

 

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Mike Pence: 'Was I expecting this kind of backlash? Heavens no.'

Gov. Mike Pence pledged Tuesday to "fix" Indiana's controversial religious freedom law to clarify that it does not allow discrimination against gays and lesbians.

But he insisted the problem isn't the law itself but how it's being perceived, saying a fix is needed only because of "frankly, the smear that's been leveled against this law." And he said the fix won't involve statewide anti-discrimination protections for LGBT Hoosiers.

The first-term Republican governor sought to tamp down the backlash Indiana has faced since he signed the law -- which its in-state supporters had claimed would allow businesses to turn away LGBT customers -- last week. He said he's asking state lawmakers to send him a followup measure before this week's end to ensure that's not the case.

"It would be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses a right to deny services to anyone," Pence said in a press conference in Indianapolis on Tuesday.

The entire Pence thing is hilarious. His already small 2016 hopes are burning right now all over the media outlets. I have no idea why he thought this would help him. It has pretty much sparked a debate where neither side can be appeased and put him right in the middle of it.

 

[Diamond Jim]

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/has-ron-paul-ruined-iowa-for-rand-115122005281.html

It doesn’t look like it’s going so well in Iowa, where Paul will land on April 10 as part of his “National Stand with Rand Tour,” wherein he is expected to formally declare, on April 7in Kentucky, that he is running for president.

Politico’s Ben Schreckinger reported on March 26 that Drew Ivers, the chairman of the elder Paul’s 2012 campaign in Iowa, has already jumped ship because of Paul’s shape-shifting: “He’s moderating most of [his positions], not taking a real clear stance on a number of them,” Ivers told Schreckinger. “The strategy of sending a blended message is one that has risk.”

Additionally, Paul has lost the support of Iowa Ron Paul-ites State Senator Jason Shultz and former Iowa GOP central committee members Chad Steenhoek and Joel Kurtinitis, Schreckinger reported. All three of them view Ted Cruz, who announced his candidacy last week, as the greener pasture.

“He’s being pulled in two different directions,” Craig Robinson, a former chairman of the Iowa GOP, told me of Paul.

 

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Rubio Pollster: GOP Must Top 40% with Latinos to Win White House in 2016

Republicans widely acknowledge that in order to take back the White House in 2016, they must make steady gains in winning back Latino voters, only 27 percent of whom supported Mitt Romney in 2012.

But Whit Ayres, a prominent Republican pollster who will work for Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign, says the party has to do much better much faster. Ayres told reporters Tuesday morning that the Republican nominee must capture more than 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2016 to win the presidency

 

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Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Rick Santorum, and Martin O