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With the ranks of declared 2016 presidential candidates growing, a new CNN/ORC poll finds the contests for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations solidifying around two key points: Hillary Clinton dominates everyone on the Democratic side, while no one has broken out of the pack on the Republican side.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is about to get really boring—at least, if everything goes according to plan.

For anyone who paid attention to her trip to Iowa last week, the former secretary of state’s agenda for Monday and Tuesday in New Hampshire looks strikingly similar: two small roundtable conversations open to the press but not to a larger audience of voters, a few carefully-staged photo ops at coffee shops and restaurants, plus private meetings with party activists and elected officials.

The New Hampshire Republican Party held an event this weekend for potential 2016 candidates to address local activists, and it looks like nearly all of them showed up. Here are a few key takeaways according to Politico‘s coverage of the event:

Reports of Chris Christie’s political death are exaggerated.

The New Jersey governor is down, but not out. He’s putting all his chips on winning the Granite State, and the positive reception he received here showed that it’s probably the best bet ... Read More >>

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is not enjoying much of a home court advantage of late.

A new Marquette Law School poll finds that Walker’s approval rating in Wisconsin has fallen to 41 percent, with 56 percent surveyed saying they disapproved of how he is handling his job. The 41 percent figure is the lowest recorded since the Marquette poll began surveying registered voters three years ago. In October of 2014, the poll found that 49 percent of voters in Wisconsin approved of the way Walker was handling his duties as governor, while 47 percent disapproved.

It never really dawned on Leslie Combs that Hillary Clinton might lose. Combs, a new state legislator from Pike County, Kentucky—Democratic turf since the Union fought the Confederacy—had endorsed Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid. And yet the frontrunner stumbled, and kept losing primaries to a freshman senator named Barack Obama.

“Our region had no thought or concept that he would win,” said Combs. “There were people who were just in awe about what was happening. Our folks were just so dead set for her and had no intention being for him. As soon as she was out of the picture, the rest of us Democrats would be out.”

Ninety-nine lawmakers have endorsed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 run for president, locking down over 40 percent of all Democrats in Congress, according to a survey by The Hill.

Seventy-one House lawmakers, more than one-third of the 188 Democrats in the chamber, as well as 28 senators, more than 60 percent of the upper chamber’s 46 Democrats, are in the former secretary of State’s camp.

David Corn has a pretty smart take on how Hillary Clinton needs a real opponent in the Democratic nomination contest, and points to former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley as the most likely person to fill the role:

Why Hillary Clinton Needs Martin O’Malley to Run for President

…Clinton, who finally jumped into the 2016 race with a tweet and video splash on Sunday, could benefit if she is challenged in her party’s primaries by O’Malley or someone else.

There’s about nine months to ... Read More >>