Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - September 25, 2015
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Friday's Leading Stories
- Ray Sullivan, who helmed the super PAC network backing Rick Perry, has joined Jeb Bush’s campaign. Sullivan helped raised $17 million in his former role supporting Perry. (The Hill)
- Poll: According to a CNN/WMUR poll released on Thursday, Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire 46 percent to 30 percent. Unlike recent national polls, without Joe Biden in the race, Sanders still pulls ahead of Clinton with 49 percent to her 36 percent. (CNN)
- Poll: A CNN/WMUR poll of New Hampshire Republicans found Donald Trump topping the Republican field with 26 percent. Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio followed with 16 percent and 9 percent, respectively. (CNN, University of New Hampshire)
Democrats
Joe Biden
- In New Hampshire, Joe Biden’s poll numbers rose from 5 percent in July to 14 percent in September, according to the new CNN/WMUR poll. (CNN)
- Biden will appear at a gala dinner next week for the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest gay rights organization. According to TIME, “The move is the latest sign that Biden may want to boost his national profile and put him in a cavernous ballroom with roughly 3,000 gay and lesbian donors—and their allies.” (TIME)
Hillary Clinton
- Adm. Michael Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday where he said Hillary Clinton’s private email server would have been an “opportunity” and “top priority for foreign intelligence services.” (The Hill)
- On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal noted some of the emails the State Department has not released under FOIA exemptions include discussions between State Department officials and Clinton Foundation officials, Huma Abedin’s special employment arrangement, and 14 separate discussion threads related to Benghazi. (The Wall Street Journal)
- According to The Hill, donors are calling on Bill Clinton to get involved in Hillary Clinton’s fundraising efforts because she “is lacking a certain personal touch” and appears “a little stiff.” Clinton’s husband is beginning to appear at major fundraising events, although the campaign’s strategy continues to place “Hillary Clinton front and center for voters” as compared to her 2008 presidential campaign. (The Hill)
Martin O’Malley
- In an interview with Salon published on Thursday, Martin O’Malley called Hillary Clinton “a specialist at vaguely saying things.” He also discussed his perspective on taxes and Wall Street. “[B]y concentrating wealth at the top and manipulating the tax code, piling on tax cut after tax cut for the benefit of the wealthiest 1-2 percent of America, we sold the country short. We stopped making the investment in our nation, in our nation’s economy, our nation’s infrastructure, in the skills of our people. That’s required in a modern information-based economy, and we’re paying the price for it in the growing inequality and injustice,” O’Malley said. (Salon)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders applauded Pope Francis for naming Dorothy Day as an American who embodies the nation’s spirit on Thursday. He said, “The name Dorothy Day has not been used in the United States Congress terribly often. She was a valiant fighter for workers, was very strong in her belief for social justice, and I think it was extraordinary that he cited her as one of the most important people in recent American history. This would be one of the very, very few times that somebody as radical as Dorothy Day was mentioned." (Washington Post)
- In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, Sanders said he was a feminist. He highlighted his voting record on abortion rights, family and medical leave, increasing the federal minimum wage, pay equity and childcare as evidence he has fought for women’s rights. “I do understand there is a desire on the part of many women, perfectly understandable, to see a woman being elected president. And we all want to see that. We want to see women hold more political offices. But I also would hope that, in these enormously difficult times, where it is absolutely imperative that we stand up to the billionaire class, bring our people together, to fight for a progressive agenda, that all people—women—look at that candidate who has the record to do that,” Sanders said. (Washington Post)
Jim Webb
- On Thursday, Jim Webb appeared on RFD-TV’s “Rural Town Hall” where he discussed agriculture and food production policy. Webb said he supported country-of-origin labeling and imposing “the right boundaries” when using tools like human growth hormones. (RFD-TV)
Republicans
- The Washington Post noted the Republican National Committee (RNC)’s and some Republican candidates’ efforts to conduct outreach to Latino voters. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and Jeb Bush have both spoken with Latino business leaders this week. John Weaver, an adviser to John Kasich, said, “We have to diversify. To do otherwise puts us in the dustbin. We have been in the wilderness on this issue for 10 years. The party has to grow with other groups or the math doesn’t work out.” (Washington Post)
- According to a Politico Caucus survey of Iowa and New Hampshire political insiders released on Friday, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki and Rand Paul top the list of candidates most likely to leave the presidential race next. (Politico)
Jeb Bush
- At a campaign stop in Virginia, Jeb Bush described the Environmental Protection Agency as “aggressive” for its recent regulations impacting the coal industry. “Their whole effort has been to destroy the coal industry and all the communities that are associated with it,” Bush said, noting he would roll them back. (WJHL)
- According to NBC News, Bush appears to be embracing his famous last name at recent campaign appearances. At the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, for example, Bush said of his ability to forge improved relations with Israel and Canada, “I know how to do this because, yes, I am a Bush. I happen to have seen two really good presidents develop relationships with other countries." (NBC News)
- Bush said he finds Donald Trump’s insults more “amusing” than bothersome on Thursday. He noted, however, "Most of what Trump says I find amusing, except for the stuff that is hurtful, that I know for a fact when you think about people struggling and you think about the hardship that people are going through right now and some of the things he says are hurtful to them," Bush said. (Business Insider)
- When asked on Thursday how he would appeal to African-American voters, Bush said, “Our message is one of hope and aspiration. It isn’t one of division and get in line and we’ll take care of you with free stuff. Our message is one that is uplifting — that says you can achieve earned success.” (The New York Times)
Chris Christie
- Ben Dworkin, the director of Rider University’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, said Chris Christie is well-positioned to benefit from Scott Walker’s departure from the presidential race. “Even if Walker and for that matter Rick Perry had little polling support, their withdrawal puts that much more focus on those who remain, and that gives Chris Christie that much more of a chance with people thinking about him. … The people who were financially backing Perry and Walker may want to look to another candidate who’s been governor, and if they do they may take their money to Christie,” Dworkin said. (Asbury Park Press)
- In a Quinnipiac University national poll released on Thursday, Christie’s favorable rating rose from 27 percent to 36 percent since August. (NJ.com)
Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz praised Pope Francis’ speech on Thursday, calling him “a powerful voice for life at a time when life is profoundly threatened in America.” Cruz added, “Pope Francis has been a powerful voice for marriage at a time when five unelected judges are seeking to tear down marriage laws across this country. And Pope Francis has been a powerful voice for religious liberty at a time when the Obama administration is waging a relentless war against religious liberty.” (Bloomberg)
- Keep the Promise I, a super PAC backing Cruz, has launched a $1 million radio ad campaign that introduces Cruz to voters in 60 seconds. “His father was jailed fighting for the freedom of his fellow countrymen and fled Cuba to live the American Dream. Like his father, Ted Cruz fights for what matters: liberty, freedom, and the Constitution that protects both,” the ad’s narrator says. (The Dallas Morning News)
Carly Fiorina
- Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for Carly Fiorina, said Fiorina did not support an individual mandate in a 2013 interview. Flores explained, “She was agreeing with the Heritage proposal, which said that there would be some type of catastrophic care requirement – set up a little like auto damage liability insurance – aimed at reducing taxpayer costs of unexpected ER visits. Not what Obamacare required, which is actually high end insurance coverage." (CNN)
- At a crisis pregnancy center in South Carolina on Thursday, Fiorina said it was “hypocritical” for liberals to simultaneously support environmental protection and abortion rights. “They are perfectly prepared to destroy other people's jobs and livelihoods and communities in order to protect fish and frogs and flies. But they do not think a 17-week-old, a 20-week-old, a 24-week-old, is worth saving,” said Fiorina. (NPR)
Lindsey Graham
- On Thursday, Lindsey Graham said he wasn’t sure what “Jeb [Bush] was driving at” when he opposed multiculturalism. “The goal is to become one America, but you don’t have to detach yourself from your heritage,” Graham said. (BuzzFeed)
Mike Huckabee
- Mike Huckabee warned against accepting refugees to the U.S. without “vetting” them first in a radio interview on Thursday. He said, “If we don’t have a vetting process and understand this is not just letting, you know, some hungry children in. This is letting a bunch of military-age-able males that we have no idea who they are, why they’re coming, and how ridiculous it would be to just say, 'Open the floodgates.' I mean we could be inviting some of the most violent and vicious people on Earth to come right in here and live among our families, and I think it’s insane." (The Huffington Post)
John Kasich
- Although John Kasich placed second in a poll of New Hampshire Republicans prior to the second Republican debate, he now sits in fifth place with 7 percent support, according to a CNN/WMUR poll released on Thursday. (The Columbus Dispatch, University of New Hampshire)
Bobby Jindal
- According to a CNN/WMUR poll released on Thursday, Bobby Jindal’s unfavorability rating increased from 21 percent to 35 percent since June. (NOLA.com)
- Jindal released a statement on Wednesday accusing President Obama of lying to Pope Francis. “The President told the Pope that, in America, people must be free to live out their faith without fear of intimidation. That’s the opposite of reality in America today, Mr. President. We have Christians who are jailed for their closely-held religious beliefs. We have Christians fined thousands of dollars by the government simply because they didn’t bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple,” Jindal wrote. (Bobby Jindal for President)
George Pataki
- In an interview with Grist on Friday, George Pataki explained why he supported a gradual approach to addressing climate change. “America is not the problem, America is the solution. Today, we emit only 16 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. If we were to reduce that by a few percentage points, the growth in the economy in other parts of the world would still result in a massive increase in greenhouse gas emissions. When America innovates, we can export those technologies to countries like China that are emitting almost certainly far more greenhouse gasses. There are a lot of things that can be done to encourage American innovation, American technology, to dramatically lower CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions without the need to raise costs on the American people.” (Grist)
Rand Paul
- Rand Paul was the only sitting senator running for president who did not attend Pope Francis’ address to Congress on Thursday. (Kentucky.com)
- In a press released on Friday, Paul defended his vote against the short-term continuing budget resolution in the Senate. “Since coming to Washington, I have voted against every spending bill that continues to add to our nation’s mountain of debt. Spending at the levels in this bill will add $400 billion more new debt this year. Time and time again, the President and Congress fail to do one of their most basic jobs, which is to review and adjust federal spending and fund the government. While I support all efforts to stop federal funding of Planned Parenthood, this bill is a clear representation of business as usual in Washington - too much spending and too much debt. The American people deserve better,” said Paul. (U.S. Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul)
Rick Perry
- On Thursday, Rick Perry praised Carly Fiorina as “solid” and “steady.” He added, “Carly is an impressive leader. She is impressive on the stump. She's obviously a very, very capable debater, and an individual that you know Americans are looking at right now, and they're liking what they're seeing." (Politico)
Marco Rubio
- Marco Rubio is set to introduce his paid leave platform on Friday. According to U.S. News & World Report, “Rubio would give businesses a 25 percent tax credit for providing at least four weeks of paid family leave. It would be limited to 12 weeks of leave and $4,000 per employee.” (U.S. News & World Report)
- In response to Donald Trump calling him a “lightweight” this week, Rubio said, “[Trump] had a really bad debate performance last week. He's not well informed on the issues. He really never talks about issues and can't have more than a 10-second sound bite on any key issue. I think he's kind of been exposed a little bit over the last seven days and he's a touchy and insecure guy. So that's how he reacts and people can see through it." (U.S. News & World Report)
- In a Politico Caucus survey, nearly 40 percent of Iowa and New Hampshire political insiders identified Rubio as the candidate most likely to benefit from Scott Walker’s departure. “He is offensive to no one in the GOP. As such, as candidates drop out, they may naturally gravitate to Rubio. He is the one candidate who could unify a very angry, fractured party,” said one insider. (Politico)
Rick Santorum
- In an interview on Fox News Radio, Rick Santorum supported President Obama meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He noted that Putin’s alliance-building has outpaced the U.S. “What it shows is the United States influence is weaning dramatically and a country that is not a first-rate economic global power and is a second-rate power at that, is having huge influence because they’re willing to exercise and craft in their own national security interest and it’s a lot easier for those countries like Egypt and Israel and Syria and others to see clearly what direction Putin is going in. And with this administration it is a mystery as to what the president wants to do,” Santorum said. (Fox News Radio)
- Santorum said Pope Francis’ call to address climate change was not inconsistent with church doctrine. “We can agree or disagree as to how big a threat global climate change is, and obviously, I have some disagreements there. But the thrust of it is, we need to be good stewards of the environment,” he said. (The Hill)
Donald Trump
- Donald Trump called Marco Rubio “a kid” during an interview on CNN on Thursday. “I know more about Syria than Marco Rubio knows about Syria. Marco Rubio . . . he’s like a kid. He shouldn’t even be running in this race, as far as I’m concerned. He’s a kid,” said Trump before he attacked Rubio’s voting record. (The New York Post)
- In the same interview, Trump said the media focused too much on climate change. “I believe in clean air. Immaculate air. But I don’t believe in climate change,” he said. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Trump is scheduled to meet with Roger Ailes and other Fox News editorial executives next week “to discuss their differences of opinion regarding Fox’s coverage of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.” (The New York Times)
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Important dates in the 2016 presidential race
- Polls and Straw polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards