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.
The challenge involved in the Jeb Bush quest for the White House is perfectly encapsulated in a new poll of Pennsylvania by Public Policy Polling. At -35, Jeb Bush has the worst favorable rating of any candidate for President, including Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump’s campaign collected $4 million in the third quarter, roughly the same as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Trump himself contributed $100,000 to the campaign in the third quarter. The more interesting fact, though, is that almost 75,000 people also sent his campaign money, with an average contribution of $50, without any fundraising outreach, solicitation, or even obvious way to do so.
Jeb Bush’s campaign announced late Thursday that it had raised just $13.3 million in the 3rd quarter period from July to September. The amount, which was about $7 million short of the GOP money leader, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, was a precipitous drop from his 2nd quarter fundraising.
Ahead of its required disclosure of third quarter fundraising, the Jeb Bush campaign says it is cutting back and being more frugal in its campaign spending. With the upcoming report, the last bit of Bush’s inevitability argument is likely to evaporate.
Carly Fiorina capitalized on her strong first debate performance, raising $6.8 million in the third quarter. Her impressive total beat out Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, long considered a formidable candidate by Republican party insiders. Rubio’s fundraising disappointed in the July-September period, raising just $6 million.
Hillary Clinton is very weak in a general election match-up. In the new Fox poll, she loses to every potential Republican candidate. She trails Trump by 5 points, Ben Carson by 11 points, Jeb Bush by 4 points and Carly Fiorina by 3 points. This is not in the Democrat script for the general election. Hillary Clinton, in fact, could be the first Democrat candidate in recent memory who has to actively campaign for the female vote.
Donald Trump continues to lead the race for the GOP nomination with 27% support, according to a new CBS poll released Sunday. His support is unchanged since early September. Ben Carson is second and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has moved into 3rd place. Jeb Bush has faded into a tie for 5th place.
While the specific reasons prompting McCarthy to drop out of a race he was expected to win are murky, the aftermath has brought another round of concern-trolling from the media and displayed, for all to see, a national political party that is hopelessly out of touch with its voters.
Billionaire Google Executive Eric Schmidt hasn’t contributed directly to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, but the savvy tech mogul as found a more meaningful way to support her efforts. Schmidt is the angel investor behind The Groundwork, a new data mining firm under contract with the Clinton campaign.
According to the FEC, Marco Rubio ended the second quarter fundraising period with $10 million in the bank. If the $11 million reported by his campaign is accurate, then the $6 million raised over the last three months only added around $1 million to his campaign war chest for the Fall. This would indicate that the campaign spent almost every dollar it raised between July and September.
Kevin McCarthy’s decision throws the search for a new House Speaker into chaos. It also, temporarily at least, blocks movement on a planned reshuffling of the House Republican leadership team. McCarthy had indicated that he plans to remain as Majority Leader. The next few days, and his explanations for his withdrawal from the Speaker’s race, will determine whether that remains on option.
Hillary Clinton’s new positioning also, however, puts her on the opposite side of President Obama on several major issues. Her fears of a Joe Biden candidacy for the nomination are rekindling the Obama-Clinton war from 2008.
As in other states, real estate developer Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson win the top spots among Florida Republicans. Trump continues to lead the field with 28 percent support, up 7 points from August. Carson is second with 16 percent support. It is noteworthy that Trump’s support among Florida Republicans is more than Rubio and Bush earn combined. This is not how major candidates normally poll in their home states.
Pity the poor folks at satirical periodical The Onion. It is increasingly hard to parody everyday life when reality has become an electric kool-aid acid test. On Monday, purported news site Politico brought its self-reported sharp political analysis to bear by analyzing the grammar of Facebook commenters for various Presidential candidates.
If Democrats are already trailing in the Hawkeye State with Hillary as their standard-bearer, they face a much more difficult task keeping the White House. And a new NBC/WSJ poll of Iowa finds presumptive Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton trailing all Republican candidates tested in the poll. Democrats have carried Iowa in 5 of the last 6 presidential contests.
