Tag: 2016

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Scott Walker forms committee in preparation for 2016 presidential bid

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Scott Walker forms committee in preparation for 2016 presidential bid

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose speech to activists in Iowa last weekend drew strong reviews, has taken the first formal step toward a presidential candidacy in 2016, establishing a committee that will help spread his message and underwrite his activities as he seeks to build his political and fundraising networks in the months ahead.

Walker filed papers to set up the committee, called “Our American Revival,” and a new Web site for the organization was scheduled to go live later Tuesday. The steps come after a busy weekend of pre-presidential events that included his address at the Iowa Freedom Summit, a later appearance at a gathering in California hosted by the billionaire Koch brothers and a stopover in Denver for additional fundraising.

“Our American Revival encompasses the shared values that make our country great; limiting the powers of the federal government to those defined in the Constitution while creating a leaner, more efficient, more effective and more accountable government to the American people,” Walker said in a statement in the release announcing the committee

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/01/27/scott-walker-forms-committee-in-preparation-for-2016-presidential-bid/

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Scott Walker WOWS them in Iowa

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Scott Walker WOWS them in Iowa

By Cameron Joseph

DES MOINES, Iowa — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) delivered a fiery speech in Iowa on Saturday, wowing the conservative crowd with a passionate argument for small government and his own lengthy resume.

The Wisconsin governor, in rolled-up shirtsleeves, paced the stage as he blasted big government and touted a long list of conservative reforms he’s pushed through in blue Wisconsin.

The governor also showed a rhetorical flourish that’s largely been absent from his previous campaigns, drawing the crowd to its feet multiple times.

“There’s a reason we take a day off to celebrate the 4th of July and not the 15th of April,” he said, almost yelling as his voice grew hoarse. “Because in America we value our independence from the government, not our dependence on it.”

Walker’s speech had something for every element of the activist crowd. The governor touted his three victories over Democrats and recall win as well as his state-level education reforms. Each new policy he helped pass drew cheers: Voter ID laws, education reforms, tax cuts and defunding Planned Parenthood.

The biggest question for Walker as he ramps up for a race is whether he has the fire in the belly and political skills to stand onstage against the other candidates. And in his first major Iowa address, he may have done a lot to dispel notions that he lacks charisma.

When he said he won reelection as Milwaukee County Executive in an area where President Obama won by a two-to-one margin, some in the audience gasped.

“If you get the job done the voters will actually stand up with you,” he said before contrasting his record with Washington’s deadlock.

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/230636-walker-shows-fire-in-iowa

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Scott Walker, Chris Christie heading to U.K next month

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Scott Walker, Chris Christie heading to U.K next month

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced Wednesday he will be leading a trade mission to London next month — one day after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office offered details about Mr. Christie’s own trip to the U.K. in the coming weeks. (Sherfinski/The Washington Times)

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/21/scott-walker-chris-christie-heading-to-uk-next-mon/#ixzz3PYNLdZoM

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Ex-US ambassador ‘serious’ about run for New Jersey governor

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Ex-US ambassador ‘serious’ about run for New Jersey governor

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) – President Barack Obama’s former ambassador to Germany said Wednesdaythat he’s serious about running for New Jersey governor in 2017.

Philip Murphy said after a policy summit at Rutgers that he hasn’t made a final decision about running but is traveling the state to build support and discuss policies. (Catalini/Associated Press)

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/21/potential-candidate-for-new-jersey-governor-holds-/#ixzz3PYPylqih

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Iowa Sen. Ernst promises GOP focus on Americans’ concerns

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Iowa Sen. Ernst promises GOP focus on Americans’ concerns
Jan 20, 8:13 PM (ET)
By ALAN FRAM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans controlling Congress will focus on people’s concerns about jobs and health care and steer the country away from President Barack Obama’s failed policies, the newly minted senator delivering her party’s official response to the State of Union address said Tuesday.

In remarks that mixed calls for bipartisan cooperation with a flexing of GOP independence, freshman Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, cited Americans’ worries about stagnant wages, lost jobs and canceled health care coverage. She called on Obama to cooperate with Republicans to simplify the tax code by lowering rates and eliminating unspecified loopholes, and to ease trade barriers with Europe and Asia.

“Americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often Washington responded with the same stale mindset that led to failed policies like Obamacare,” Ernst, referring to Obama’s health care overhaul, said in excerpts from her speech released before its delivery. “It’s a mindset that gave us political talking points, not serious solutions.”

Ernst’s speech marked her party’s first State of the Union response during the Obama presidency in which the GOP has had majorities in both the House and Senate. It came as Republicans are hoping to expand their appeal among women and minorities in advance of the 2016 presidential and congressional elections.

“We plan to make Washington focus on your concerns again,” she said. “We heard the message you sent in November, loud and clear.”

The evening’s speeches came as the economy has been adding muscle, with economic growth accelerating and unemployment falling. In his remarks, Obama said it was time to “turn the page” on years of war and economic weakness and turn to investments that would strengthen the country.

https://apnews.myway.com/article/20150121/us–state_of_union-gop-129d9847cf.html

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Scott Walker sprinkles 2016 themes into Wisconsin address

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Scott Walker sprinkles 2016 themes into Wisconsin address

By: Catalina Camia 4 hours ago

Amid Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s State of the State address were subtle messages for a possible presidential campaign.

The Republican outlined his plans to tackle the state’s fiscal challenges in a Tuesday night speech  and stressed “more people are working, while fewer are unemployed” and that property taxes are lower now than when they were four years ago when he first took office.

Those points — part of what Walker referred to as the “Wisconsin Comeback” in his remarks —  could be repeated often in a national campaign.

He also made references to the need for smaller government and reducing burdensome regulations on business that come from Washington — principles that have long become part of the conservative mantra.

https://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/01/14/scott-walker-presidential-themes-wisconsin/

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Eying a White House bid, New Jersey’s Chris Christie faces economic challenges at home

New Jersey Governor Christie gives news conference in Trenton

Eying a White House bid, New Jersey’s Chris Christie faces economic challenges at home

NEWARK, N.J. — As he casts his eye toward a potential presidential bid, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie must also take on some work at home. First up: a statewide address expected to touch on nagging economic issues that could complicate his political plans.

Observers expect Christie to use his fifth State of the State address on Tuesday to define his tenure as governor on his own terms, while not missing the chance to articulate his rationale for a potential run for president. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

https://www.startribune.com/politics/national/288230971.html

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Scott Walker to Iowa to Speak at Freedom Summit

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Scott Walker to Iowa to Speak at Freedom Summit

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will speak at the Iowa Freedom Summit at the end of January hosted by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Citizens United, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

“Governor Walker looks forward to sharing the story of Wisconsin’s successful reforms and common sense message with grassroots conservatives,” Walker’s spokesman Tom Evenson told Breitbart News.

Citizens United president David Bossie added that he’s thrilled Walker will join the already impressive lineup of speakers.

“Congressman Steve King and I are thrilled Governor Scott Walker, a leading conservative voice, plans to attend the Iowa Freedom Summit,” Bossie said. “The Iowa Caucus is the first step for any conservative running for the Republican nomination and we are pleased Governor Walker appreciates and respects its importance.”

Walker, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, has held off the left for years amid numerous attempts by Democrats to take him down. During his tenure as governor, he’s cut unemployment in Wisconsin substantially—it was 7.8 percent when he took office and it’s currently down to 5.2 percent. He cut taxes by $2 billion, including lowering property taxes in the state compared to their rise of 27 percent in Wisconsin in the decade before he took office. Taxpayers have saved an estimated $3 billion at the state and local level, too, thanks to Walker’s collective bargaining reforms—the catalyst which caused the institutional left, organized labor, and democrats to target him. He also froze tuition for all University of Wisconsin system students for two years and is aiming to do so again for another two years because of the system’s surplus.

The Iowa Freedom Summit event takes place on Saturday Jan. 24, 2015 at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines. “The Freedom Summit will focus on how we can get America back on track by focusing on our core conservative principles of pro-growth economics, social conservatism, and a strong national defense,” the event’s website states.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/08/exclusive-scott-walker-to-iowa-to-speak-at-freedom-summit/

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‘What Are You Willing to Fight For?’: Democrats’ Depressing New Reality

‘What Are You Willing to Fight For?’: Democrats’ Depressing New Reality

The divisions that were on full display during the debate over a $1 trillion spending bill may become the norm in 2015.

To the very limited extent that congressional Democrats have enjoyed the last four years of gridlock on Capitol Hill, they have derived pleasure from watching the Republican Party rupture over and over again, its divisions between the conservative Tea Party and the establishment leadership preventing just about any real legislative accomplishments.

As afternoon turned to evening on Thursday, it was the Democrats who were turning on each other. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senator Elizabeth Warren, the liberal darling, railed against a White House-backed spending deal that narrowly passed the House just a couple hours before a midnight deadline for keeping the government open. During a marathon, closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement, Democrats debated two key questions: whether a pair of onerous giveaways for Wall Street and wealthy donors in a $1 trillion bill were cause for shutting down the government, and whether they could get a better deal from Republicans by rejecting this one.

“It does not get better.”

“It does not get better,” Representative Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who voted for the bill, said on Friday morning. “There were a number of us that respectfully had a different point of view that we didn’t have the kind of leverage that Elizabeth Warren was suggesting.” He was referring to the spending package, but he could have been talking about his party’s prospects as a whole in 2015. Come January, Republicans will run not just the House but also the Senate, and the debates among Democrats about exactly how far they should retreat will become familiar. In lobbying for the bill, which passed the Senate on Saturday night, the White House highlighted increased funding to fight Ebola and for regulatory agencies like the FCC, but officials focused just as much on what the Republicans didn’t gut, namely Obamacare, the president’s climate plan, and his immigration policy. That, too, will become the norm.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/the-democrats-depressing-new-reality/383708/

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Democrats divided on their path to 2016

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Democrats divided on their path to 2016

By Karen Tumulty and Sean Sullivan December 14 at 7:39 PM

In the six weeks since their repudiation in the midterms, Democrats have seen the opening of fissures within their once-disciplined ranks, marking the start of an internal struggle between now and the 2016 election over the ideological identity and tactical direction of the party.

The tension — shown in high relief during the messy final days of the congressional session — is in some ways a mirror image of the stresses within the Republican Party, which has been divided between its tea party and establishment factions in recent years.

In the case of both parties, the argument pits the more populist, purist elements of the base against the more pragmatic center.

For Democrats, “it is a conflict that was looking for an occasion,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who was a policy adviser to former President Bill Clinton. “The election provided the occasion.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-divided-on-their-path-to-2016/2014/12/14/5ff3ba68-82fd-11e4-9f38-95a187e4c1f7_story.html

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“California Über Alles” :Jerry Brown for President? Meets with Donors This Week

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“California Über Alles“ : Jerry Brown for President? Meets with Donors This Week

California Governor Jerry Brown, who was re-elected in a landslide earlier this month to what he says is his last term in office, will ask political donors on Monday to keep contributing, the Los Angeles Times reports. Brown defeated his opponent, Neel Kashkari, while retaining $20 million or more in his reelection account as of mid-October. However, Brown–who says he will not run for President–is still asking for cash.

The Sacramento reception asks for donations of $5,000 for a “private reception and sit down conversation” with Brown at Mulvaney’s B&L. Capitol Advocacy, a top lobbying firm, plans to attend; the firm will reportedly bring some of its major clients, including PepsiCo, Corrections Corporation of America, T-Mobile USA Inc., WellCare Health Plans, Pacific Compensation Insurance Co., and Diageo.

The Times, which secured a copy of the invitation, reports that Brown has spent little of his reelection funds since mid-October; he had told the Times that he was thinking of using any funds left over from his campaign to support ballot measures in his new term.

The Washington Post reported in October that Brown’s campaign said it had spent over $3.3 million on ads for Propositions 1 and 2. At that point he had not run a single television ad for his campaign.

https://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/11/17/Jerry-Brown-Still-Collecting-Money

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Sen. Rand Paul: Hillary Clinton not ‘fit to lead the country’

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Sen. Rand Paul: Hillary Clinton not ‘fit to lead the country’

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Hillary Clinton is not “fit to lead the country” Friday, mocking the former secretary of state’s comments about her wealth and condemning her response to the September 2012 attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi. (Miller/CBS News)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-rand-paul-hillary-clinton-not-fit-to-lead-the-country/