The ballot measure, Issue 3, would have legalized recreational use of marijuana in the state and allowed the use of pot for medicinal reasons. The initiative had a unique, and ultimately fatal, feature, though. It awarded a monopoly on growing pot to just 10 farms in the state.
Virginia Republicans look set to hold onto their Senate majority despite aggressive campaigning by Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Businessman Matt Bevin won the Governor’s race in Kentucky Tuesday, becoming just the second Republican Governor in the Commonwealth in the last 40 years.
Virginia voters are deciding which party will control the state Senate, the upper chamber of the commonwealth’s legislature. Republicans currently have a two-seat majority in the Senate.
Despite spending more on TV than all other candidates combined, Jeb has dropped to sixth place in nation’s first primary state, a must-win for his Presidential ambitions. In July, Jeb Bush was second in New Hampshire.
The poll, conducted by Viewpoint Florida interviewed 2,047 likely Republican voters and has a margin of error of 2.2 percent. The poll was taken after last week’s CNBC debate, where Bush challenged Rubio about his Senate attendance, a preview of Bush’s more aggressive stance against his one-time protege. According to this poll, Rubio came out of that exchange stronger than Bush.
With 26 percent support each in the poll, the two first-time candidates command support from more than half of Republican voters nationwide. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz enjoyed a big bounce from his performance, rising to third, with 10 percent. No other candidates earn double-digit support in the poll, from NBC News/Survey Monkey.
Thursday marked the third anniversary of Superstorm Sandy that ravaged the East Coast. While the direct impact of the storm caused tremendous damage and suffering, the human, and political, consequences are still unfolding. A new report, however, finds that of the $47 billion appropriated by Congress for Sandy disaster relief, more than $30 billion remains unspent.
The economy grew just 1.5 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reports. This initial estimate is a huge drop from the second quarter, when the economy grew by 3.9 percent. It was also below economists’ estimates, for growth of at least 1.6 percent.
Passed in haste, we now have time to review exactly what all House Democrats and around 80 Republicans voted for when they passed a budget deal hammered out between outgoing Speaker John Boehner and President Obama.
This Republican party, which came of age politically after Reagan and during the triangulating years of the Clinton presidency, is transactional. It takes for granted almost all of the federal government’s spending, regulatory and entitlement programs and strives to trim the excesses at the margin. Its highest aspirations are to make the government more efficient, rather than rolling it back.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching another broadside in the culture wars, declaring red meat a health risk and asserting that “processed meats,” like bacon and hot dogs were cancer risks. To ensure everyone got the message, WHO put bacon into the same category of cancer risk as smoking or asbestos.
By surrounding himself with D.C. political veterans, incoming Speaker Paul Ryan is likely to perpetuate the leadership priorities that most voters, especially Republicans, find so frustrating. The phenomenon that has pushed outsider, anti-establishment candidate to the top of the Republican field isn’t a rejection of Speaker Boehner personally, but a Washington mindset that seems to push an agenda foreign to average voters.
A large block of House Republicans is working with Democrats to resurrect the Export-Import Bank, a New Deal-era federal agency benefiting the largest corporations. The Ex-Im Bank expired at the end of June, but has been resurrected through legislative efforts of Tennessee Republican Rep. Steve Filcher.
Either Rubio or Bush would be considered a favorite for Florida’s delegates. With both on the ballot, though, the odds of another candidate winning Florida increase. Currently, Rubio is third and Bush is fourth in Florida. Their combined vote, 24 percent, would narrowly lead the field, however.
The Republican establishment needs one of the two to drop out before the Florida primary vote on March 15. It can withstand outsiders doing well in the early states, if the large, winner-take-all primary states fall back into the Republican fold. Combining some early state wins with the larger states in late March, however, would put the nomination far out-of-reach of the Republican establishment.
The confab with donors in Houston is probably not how Bush envisioned preparing for the final 100 day sprint to the Iowa Caucuses. Jeb Bush began his campaign with the often repeated phrase that he was “his own man,” yet his father and brother, both former Presidents, are assuming a large role reassuring donors this weekend.
Texas has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging an “unconstitutional tax” that is being imposed by ObamaCare’s blend of government and corporate power.
Hillary Clinton is repeating the Democrat trope about “offshore tax havens” that immorally divert profits from workers and the taxman. Closing these is a central plank of her promised agenda as President, she explains in an op-ed laying out her economic agenda.
The DSCC, the campaign arm of the Senate Democrats raised $12.4 million in the 3rd quarter filing period, but it is struggling with a $13 million debt load.
The elections in Canada Monday ended almost 10 years of rule by the Conservative Party and delivered a broad majority to the centrist Liberal Party. The more interesting story, however, for American political observers is the utter collapse of the hard-left New Democrat Party (NDP). That party, which was the second largest block in Canada’s parliament before Monday, last more than half its seats.
A new Wall Street Journal poll finds Donald Trump increasing his hold on the top spot in the race for the Republican nomination. Trump is supported by 25 percent of GOP primary voters now, up from 21 percent in September. Ben Carson also increased his support, rising from 20 percent to 22 percent in the latest poll.
According to the WSJ poll, Republican primary voters would prefer a House Speaker who stood on principle, rather than one who comprised to pass legislation. Even if such a stand meant the House got less work done, 56% of GOP voters wanted a Speaker to stand on Republican principles as opposed to just 40% who would prefer compromise to get results.
Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are reportedly planning legislation allowing President Barack Obama to lift the nation’s debt ceiling on his authority, according to sources on Capitol Hill. Under the Senate Republican plan, Congress would merely retain the right to “disapprove” of the President’s action to lift the nation’s debt limit. But disapproving the action would require a hard-to-reach two-thirds vote of both chambers of Congress.
Last week, federal and state prosecutors sent subpoenas to drug company Valeant over its recent price hikes for at least two of its disease-fighting medicines. Democrats in Congress have been pressing for hearings on recent increases in drug prices, especially generic drugs. With a national election just months away, these recent actions are just the first moves in a politically charged issue.
Marco Rubio actually raised just $5.7 million in the quarter. This may seem a minor difference, but the amount the campaign claimed is a 5 percent inflation of the actual amount. Rubio’s cash-on-hand, however, wasn’t $11 million, but $9.5 million, around 15 percent less than reported and less than Jeb Bush. Rubio’s spending was double the amount spent by Carly Fiorina, who raised some $1 million more than Rubio and is roughly in the same polling position. Rubio’s spending is almost the same as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who raised more than twice the amount Marco did.
