Recent News

Southern Republican Leadership Conference: 5 takeaways

Like most other recent GOP presidential forums and meetings, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last week teemed with 2016 candidates aiming for a breakthrough moment.

No one will blame you if you can’t keep track of the Republican presidential field. It’s huge. If you count declared candidates, prospectives, and announced aspirants, you have 18 people from across the Republican ideological spectrum: Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Gov. John Kasich, Gov. Rick Snyder, Gov. Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, Rick Perry, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. The field is so large that news networks have put limits on who can join the debates. Fox News, for example, will invite only candidates who placed in the top 10 of an average of national polls. Likewise, CNN will hold two debates: one for top-tier candidates, and one for the bottom tier. (One possible effect of this? Underdog candidates will pull every stunt they can to get onstage.)

Chris Christie pins presidential hopes on New Hampshire, skips events in Iowa and South Carolina

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has ducked major GOP gatherings in Iowa and South Carolina and appears to be focusing his potential presidential campaign on New Hampshire instead, a move that analysts said could make or break his White House dreams.

There was a lot of talk last week about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential hopes suffering a mortal blow after two of his associates, including a former deputy chief of staff, were indicted on charges related to the “Bridgegate” matter, with a third pleading guilty. The only part I would quibble with is whether his hopes were still alive before the indictments or if they were, in fact, already dead for reasons mostly unrelated to the George Washington Bridge controversy.

Maybe his last name isn’t such a liability, after all.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush leads the GOP presidential field according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll. Bush was the first pick of 23 percent of the 251 Republican primary voters surveyed.

G.O.P. Hopefuls Now Aiming to Woo the Middle Class

The last three men to win the Republican nomination have been the prosperous son of a president (George W. Bush), a senator who could not recall how many homes his family owned (John McCain of Arizona; it was seven) and a private equity executive worth an estimated $200 million (Mitt Romney).

Chris Christie headed back to Iowa in June

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to head back to the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa in early June as he approaches an announcement on his 2016 plans.