Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) last week turned his back on calls for him to save his party as a last-minute candidate for the GOP presidential nomination. His excuse was that he had a lot of work to do in the House.
He’s not lying.
The first order of business is protecting the GOP majority from the prospect of collapse withDonald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) at the top of the ticket in November. Right now, about 20 of the 30 Republican House seats the Democrats need to win to claim the majority are in danger.
To try to reinforce the party’s defenses against that challenge, Ryan had to break fundraising records in the first quarter of the year, hauling in $11 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee. He needs to beat that pace in the second quarter.
And Ryan will have to find those dollars while Trump continues to whip the GOP base into a frenzy against the party’s Washington establishment— including raising the specter of riots at the Republican National Convention. There is no more obvious personification of that establishment than the party’s top elected official – the very same Speaker.
Trump is increasing the pressure with daily accusations that the establishment is manipulating the delegate selection rules to steal the nomination from him.
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday the GOP likely won’t change a rule that requires candidates to have 1,237 delegates to clinch the GOP presidential nomination.
“Having a plurality of the delegates means the field has the majority. You have to have the majority, it’s the United States of America,” Priebus said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The majority rules, and that is an American concept I can’t imagine us turning our backs on.”
GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he should receive the party’s nomination if he has more delegates than his opponents, even if he hasn’t reached 1,237.
Trump has ramped up his attacks against the RNC in the past week, accusing party officials of “canceling the vote” in Colorado, which had a convention to award delegates instead of a primary of caucus.
A New Jersey judge has ruled that Sen. Ted Cruz meets the constitutional requirements to be president and may appear on the state’s presidential primary ballot. Associated Press, Read more
On the heels of a snazzy jazz soundtrack conference call intro, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno this afternoon whisked away the tarp over Building a Better NJ Together, a new registered 501(c)4 political organization based in Ocean. Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ Read more
Move makes Colorado only state to date to opt out of early nomination process
By John Frank
The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/25/2015 02:06:20 PM MDT193 COMMENTS
UPDATED: 04/10/2016 10:01:32 PM MDT
DITOR’S NOTE: This story was first published on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015 at 2:06 p.m. Please see Angry Donald Trump blasts Colorado GOP results as “totally unfair,” published on Sunday, April 10, 2016.
Colorado will not vote for a Republican candidate for president at its 2016 caucus after party leaders approved a little-noticed shift that may diminish the state’s clout in the most open nomination contest in the modern era.
The GOP executive committee has voted to cancel the traditional presidential preference poll after the national party changed its rules to require a state’s delegates to support the candidate who wins the caucus vote.
The move makes Colorado the only state so far to forfeit a role in the early nomination process, according to political experts, but other caucus states are still considering how to adapt to the new rule.
“It takes Colorado completely off the map” in the primary season, said Ryan Call, a former state GOP chairman.
Even as Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)56%denied three times that he was interested in being selected as the Republican nominee via a brokered convention, Politico’s Mike Allen suggested that the Wisconsin Speaker is still playing along with the suggestion being leaked by establishment Republicans.
When Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Donald Trump square off in Pennsylvania’s April 26 Republican presidential primary, they will find themselves competing for votes from a rapidly changing base.
At least 128,000 voters statewide have changed their registration since Jan. 1 to join the party. Nearly 85,000 of them had been Democrats; 42,000 were independents or third-party voters. The GOP has also racked up 55,468 more first-time registrants.
The changes reflect what experts are calling an unprecedented number of party switches before a primary election.
That raises questions: Are Democrats and other voters flocking to the GOP in support of one of its three candidates? Or could they be plotting to stuff the ballot boxes for a Republican they think their nominee can beat in November?
MADISON, Wis. – Contrary to the left’s claim that Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s tax cuts have only helped the rich, a new report by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance finds most taxpayers have seen their income taxes decline during the Walker era – some significantly.
And the rich didn’t make the cut.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan group’s study found middle-income earners who made between $20,000 and $50,000 a year saw their income taxes drop by 32 percent from 2008 to 2014, the latest data available. Their average bill dropped from $688 in 2008 – during Democrat Gov. Jim Doyle’s last term in office – to $467 in 2014, the final year of Walker’s first term.
Taxes fell 7.6 percent over the period for filers with annual incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, according to the study. Their tax burden declined from $3,167 to $2,926.
Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, acknowledges 2008 and 2009 were trying times for state budgets everywhere. Doyle and the Democrats responded by raising taxes in the 2009 budget.
TAX RELIEF: Most taxpayers have seen some income tax relief during Gov. Scott Walker’s time in office. The exception, contrary to the left’s spin, is Wisconsin’s wealthiest taxpayers.
But in 2013-14 in particular, Walker called for sweeping tax cuts and the Republican-controlled Legislature complied, thanks in large part to better-than-expected revenue.
“They don’t get much credit for it but they really deserve credit for it,” Berry told Wisconsin Watchdog this week on the Vicki McKenna Show on NewsTalk 1310 WIBA. “(It was) one of the first times I can remember in my 30, 40 years of watching the income tax that they actually cleaned up the income tax law a little bit, got rid of some of the stuff people aren’t using.”
Walker and the Republicans received only scorn and spin from their political foes.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, has called the tax cuts a giveaway for Wisconsin’s wealthiest.
“If this is anything like the Republicans’ past tax plans, it will primarily benefit the wealthy and not have an impact on most Wisconsin families,” Barca said as Republicans promoted another round of tax cuts in 2014.
In fact, a new top tax bracket created by controlling Democrats in 2009 led to a 5.7 percent increase in income tax liability for filers earning more than $500,000 a year. Their taxes climbed from $74,107 in 2008 to $78,345 in 2014.
“By far the largest percentage reduction was the $20,000 to $50,000 range. Surprisingly the tax burden actually went up at the really high range,” Berry said.
Individuals with income under $20,000 saw a cut in their refundable tax credits due to changes in tax law. As a group, these filers do not pay income tax, but the state writes them a check thanks to the tax credits.
In 2013, all tax rates were reduced and the number of tax brackets was reduced from five to four.
The top rate was trimmed from 7.75 percent to 7.65 percent, while the bottom rate dropped from 4.6 percent in 2012 to 4 percent in 2014.
Still, there has been little will to bring significant tax reform to the table.
Berry said the state income tax is essentially one of the largest government regulations anyone faces, and Wisconsin remains one of the most tax-burdened states in the nation.
The Badger State in 2013 ranked 7th in percentage of income taxes claimed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Wisconsin ranked 11th, at $1,262 in per capita income tax collected.
“If we want to reduce that burden, then we have got to make it a lot easier and quicker and less emotionally draining to file a state income tax return,” Berry said. “Unfortunately, partisans on both sides of the aisle love to propose little deductions and exemptions and credits so they can have a press release. The problem is that that just keeps adding to the instructions and to the length of the form.”
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT |
THE RECORD
U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett said Wednesday that his position on gay candidates running for Congress is being distorted by his political opponents, and that the media are letting it happen.
In an interview in his Washington office, Garrett said he was not, as some critics have said, opposed to gay people seeking office. That is “everyone’s right,” he said.
BREAKING ENDORSEMENT! A special message from Bergen & Passaic County Assemblyman Robert Auth
“Bergen & Passaic Are NOT BLUE, Neither Is New Jersey, We Are Ignored! Donald Trump Will Not Ignore Us!”
Dear Bergen and Passaic County Voters,
I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President of these United States.
Donald Trump is a neighbor who understands and cares about the quality of life in our region, but most importantly — I want us to win again! I believe Donald Trump is the only candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton in Bergen and Passaic County in this general election.
In a recent Fredric U. Dicker column (NY Post) it was reported that Trump is winning Orange, Rockland and Westchester counties.
These New York counties are neighbors to Bergen and Passaic, and their demographics are similar to ours. I believe Donald Trump will not only win them all, but help Republican candidates across New Jersey win at the local level, to help rebalance government within our local communities.
I ask you to join me in supporting Donald J. Trump for President. Not only will he Make America Great Again, he will help make New Jersey Great Again, and most importantly, he will help make a better Bergen and Passaic County for my constituents.
Whether it is through restructuring unfair trade deals, reforming health care, bringing REAL support to our veterans and law enforcement professionals, reducing taxes, or ending illegal immigration – Donald Trump will revive our economy and revitalize our national stature like no other candidate can.
Let’s work and vote together to make Bergen and Passaic Great Again. Donald Trump 2016!
N.J. Assemblyman Robert Auth (D39 – Bergen, Passaic)
The meeting is scheduled for two days after tonight’s primaries in what many Republican operatives believe will determine whether Trump is on an unstoppable march to the nomination.
By SHANE GOLDMACHER
03/15/16 02:33 PM EDT
Three influential leaders of the conservative movement have summoned other top conservatives for a closed-door meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., to talk about how to stop Donald Trump and, should he become the Republican nominee, how to run a third-party “true conservative” challenger in the fall.
The organizers of the meeting include Bill Wichterman, who was President George W. Bush’s liaison to the conservative movement; Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and longtime conservative convener; and Erick Erickson, the outspoken Trump opponent and conservative activist who founded RedState.com.
“Please join other conservative leaders to strategize how to defeat Donald Trump for the Republican nomination,” the three wrote in an invitation obtained by POLITICO that recently went out to conservative leaders, “and if he is the Republican nominee for president, to offer a true conservative candidate in the general election.”
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, two days after winner-take-all Florida and Ohio vote in what many Republican operatives believe will determine whether Trump is on an unstoppable march to the nomination or is likely to stall out short of the 1,237 delegates he needs.
This is no ordinary Presidential election. We are experiencing something as close to a revolution as might be possible in America. The outrageous things some of the Presidential candidates are saying have captured the public’s rage, anger, and hate combined with an overwhelming outcry to dismantle the status quo in Washington D.C. At the same time, we are witnessing the evolution of political parties and a redefinition of terms like “liberal” and “conservative.” Donald Scarinci, PolitickerNJRead more
Though the senate and assembly races in Republican-leaning LD40 won’t be held until 2017, a number of moving parts have made the district one to watch. When Senator Kevin O’Toole announced that he would not be pursuing reelection when his term ends, it opened the door for speculation on what would happen when his retirement came. Now, some are wondering who will eventually become the Republican nominee for his seat and what will happen to the assembly positions in the district.
O’Toole’s decision brings into question the fate of his district mates, Assemblyman Scott Rumana and Assemblyman David Russo. Some wonder if O’Toole’s decision to depart will entice either of the sitting assemblyman to pursue the LD40 senate seat. That move would open at least one spot in the assembly.
The mayor of Wyckoff is no longer pursuing the BCRO chairmanship.
Despite considerable speculation that Wyckoff Mayor Kevin Rooney dropped from the race for Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman in order to pursue an LD40 assembly seat, the mayor said he is not planning on making the move at this time.
“I am happy where I am,” Rooney told PolitickerNJ. “We have two assemblymen who just got elected so why would I even try that?”
On Tuesday, Rooney announced that he would be exiting the BCRO race for chairman and would be endorsing current chairman Bob Yudin. According to his remarks, Rooney’s decision stems from a desire for Bergen County’s Republicans to move forward as a unified front to the November elections.
“If we are going to win this November and in the future we must unite and stop the interparty fighting,” Rooney said. “I know some of you will be disappointed by my decision, but now is not the time for a ugly divisive chairman’s race, this will only lead to a democrat victory.”
On Wednesday, Assemblyman Scott Rumana held a successful fundraiser in Little Falls. Over 130 guests were present and the event drew the likes of Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, Congressman Scott Garrett, Senator Gerald Cardinale, Conference Leader Dave Rible, Passaic County Chairman John Traier, Ocean County Chairman George Gilmore, and NJ Federation of Republican Women President Vanessa LaFranco.
According to one source, any speculation on what impact O’Toole’s departure might have is nothing more than conjecture. Because the LD40 races are not until 2017, the source said it is hard to know how the process will play out until after this year’s elections are no longer a main priority.
“Rumana is out there fundraising and, as far as I know, David Russo has not said that he is retiring,” the source said. “It is a rumor. Everybody is always looking for the curve behind the curve and, sometimes, there really isn’t just anything there. I think you are going to see a lot of candidates running for a lot of things depending on what happens in the next year.”
Even so, some insiders are saying that Rumana may be positioning himself to run for the Senate seat to be vacated by O’Toole in 2017. Others are saying that he might accept a judgeship.
Yes, he remains thin-skinned and easily riled. But his fearlessness and brash energy also seem necessary and rare
CAMILLE PAGLIA
I’m dying for an update from you on Donald Trump. Last summer you called him “not a president” and a “carnival barker.” Do you still feel the same? If you loved Trump, would Salon even let you proclaim it? I mean, they’re kind of as liberal as they come, no?
Why can’t there be a party that is basically Republican, but minus the religion, minus the legislating of morality, and that cares about climate change/overpopulation? Could Trump be that guy?
Christie Cooley Randolph Santa Rosa, CA
Well, Trump may still be a carnival barker, but he’s looking more and more like a president! Along with most media pundits in the Northeast, I found it improbable if not impossible that Trump could survive his klutz-o-rama cascade of foot-in-mouth flubs, from carelessly categorizing Mexican immigrants as rapists to hallucinating about “thousands’ of Muslims cheering the fall of the twin towers from the mean streets of New Jersey. Surely he would soon implode and pouf into fairy dust!
But only a few weeks after that interview of mine in Salon, I suddenly realized that Trump’s candidacy had a broad support that few had expected or discerned. The agent of my revelation was a hilariously scathing, viral Web blog video posted by Diamond and Silk–Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, two African-American sisters and former Democrats in Fayetteville, North Carolina. They were reacting with indignant outrage to the first GOP debate, broadcast by Fox News from Cleveland on August 6 and hosted by Megyn Kelly, whose loaded questions had impugned Trump as a sexist.
If Trump wins the White House, that no-holds-barred video will go down in history as “the shot heard round the world,” Ralph Waldo Emerson’s phrase for the first salvo of the American Revolution by rural insurgents at Concord. The video signaled a popular uprising and furious pushback against the major media and political elites, who had controlled the national agenda and messaging for far too long. Diamond and Silk threw zinger after zinger in defending Trump: “Here’s the damn deal, Megyn Kelly—or Kelly Megyn, whatever your name is!…. Go back and report news onSesame Street!…You hit below the belt, Kelly!…He was the only one up there on that stage with any common sense!… He’s going to be the next president, whether you like it or not. Get used to it, girl! Get used to it!”
This fiery endorsement blew me away because it demonstrated how Trump was directly engaging with a diverse coalition in ways that the mainstream media had completely missed. I felt, and still do, that Trump is far too impetuous and thin-skinned in his amusingly rambling, improvisational style. The American president, who can spook markets or spark a war with a rash phrase, must be more coolly circumspect. And aspirants to the presidency shouldn’t care what small fry like bobble-head TV hosts say or do. A leader must have the long view and show an instinctive capacity to focus and prioritize.
Nevertheless, Trump’s fearless candor and brash energy feel like a great gust of fresh air, sweeping the tedious clichés and constant guilt-tripping of political correctness out to sea. Unlike Hillary Clinton, whose every word and policy statement on the campaign trail are spoon-fed to her by a giant paid staff and army of shadowy advisors, Trump is his own man, with a steely “damn the torpedoes” attitude. He has a swaggering retro machismo that will give hives to the Steinem cabal. He lives large, with the urban flash and bling of a Frank Sinatra. But Trump is a workaholic who doesn’t drink and who has an interesting penchant for sophisticated, strong-willed European women. As for a debasement of the presidency by Trump’s slanging matches about penis size, that sorry process was initiated by a Democrat, Bill Clinton, who chatted about his underwear on TV, let Hollywood pals jump up and down on the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom, and played lewd cigar games with an intern in the White House offices.
From the moment he entered national politics, Rubio was feted as the GOP’s next big thing. So much for that!
GARY LEGUM
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come not to praise Marco Rubio – dear God, never, ever that – but to bury him. And then to salt the earth in the hope that he will never come back.
The Rubio campaign is on its last legs, stumbling dehydrated and desperate through the Florida Everglades like the heroine in the second act of a Carl Hiaasen novel, trying to stay one step ahead of the bloodhounds who want nothing more than to drag the Florida senator into the swamp and tear his throat out, or at least convince him to join with Ted Cruz on some sort of unity ticket to stop Donald Trump, which might be an even worse fate.
The establishment is telling Rubio his dropping out would be for the good of the Republican Party. Which is why he’ll probably at least consider it. He is a party man through and through, and since he gave up his Senate seat to run for president, he’s going to want to come out of this cluster-screw of a campaign with something to show for it besides the humiliation of a crushing defeat in his home state’s primary on Tuesday. Run for vice-president on a ticket with Cruz, the party will whisper in his ear, and when he gets destroyed in the general election in the fall and the country suffers through four years of socialism under a Democrat, you’ll be perfectly positioned to be the 2020 nominee. What’s not to like about that scenario? And why wouldn’t you trust a GOP establishment that has displayed such a sharp political acumen this cycle that it just about handed its nomination over to a jar of orange marmalade in a bad wig before it knew what hit it?
Rubio might not be smart, but he’s a politician who can read poll numbers. It must have sunk in by now that his “Baghdad Bob” primary strategy (claim victory even when you came in a distant third/the American military is a block away and roaring towards you unopposed) has been a galactic failure. With even his financial backersand editorial page cheerleaders telling him it’s time, he must feel like Butch Coolidge getting the order to take his ass down in the fifth.
