Tag: primary

GOP goes all-out to avoid another Senate primary mess

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All told, the NRSC under Daines has now endorsed four candidates, including Rep. Jim Banks in Indiana. It’s a strategy not seen since the GOP took the Senate from Democrats in 2014 after poor showings in 2010 and 2012. Even then, the party focused on ousting unelectable candidates, rather than officially boosting its preferred picks as Daines is this year.
“It’s been a great decision on his part. Clearly, we need quality candidates to win, we learned that in ‘22, 2010, 2012. Steve’s doing a great job getting us the most electable nominees, because that’s the way you win in November,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview.
Those tactics come at the expense of Senate hopefuls like Rep. Alex Mooney in West Virginia, Jim Marchant in Nevada and potential candidate Rep. Matt Rosendale in Montana — contenders who enjoy more support from the party’s conservative ranks. Leadership’s heavy hand is stirring consternation within that sizable wing of the party.
Yet many in the GOP see it as a bet worth making. Because if Republicans don’t get it right this time, when they have one of their best maps in years, they may not have another chance to flip the Senate until 2028.
“You can play to win or you can play not to piss people off — you can’t do both,” said Josh Holmes, an adviser to McConnell.
The party brass’ most urgent task is keeping Rosendale out of a race against Sheehy in Montana, where the GOP fears that Rosendale would win a primary but suffer another general election loss to Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). Rosendale has told colleagues he plans to run and has attacked Sheehy for being backed by McConnell. Sheehy, meanwhile, already has endorsements from Gov. Greg Gianforte and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) — as well as nine senators, including Daines.
“After last cycle, there’s evidence that we’ve got to get the electable candidates on the field,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday afternoon. He’s backing Sheehy as well: “It would be nice if we could clear the field there.”
Daines has also endorsed Trump’s presidential campaign to help preempt any disruptions to the intraparty playing field. And GOP leaders are intent on recruiting Dave McCormick for another run in Pennsylvania; Trump backed Mehmet Oz over McCormick in the 2022 primary. Oz won the primary but lost the general election.

Already, Mooney is making hay of Justice’s strong Washington backing as the governor leads the primary handily in recent polls — even as his coal empire faces legal scrutiny. Mooney’s campaign manager, John Findlay, said that “Jim Justice is one of the all-time worst recruits by the GOP establishment.”
In response, Justice’s campaign manager Roman Stauffer said the governor is achieving widespread buy-in from supporters in D.C. and West Virginia because they know he “is the strongest candidate to win the U.S. Senate race.”
But not every senator in the conference is eager to see the NRSC pick favorites in crowded fields.
“I wish they weren’t, but I’m not in charge,” said one Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly about party strategy. “Not everybody agrees” on which candidates are the most electable, this senator added.
And Democrats say the aggressive GOP efforts will backfire come next November, dividing the GOP well into the summer of next year.
“Across the Senate map, Republicans are brawling in vicious primaries and putting forward flawed candidates with disqualifying baggage. That’s a toxic combination that will lead their campaigns to defeat in 2024,” said David Bergstein, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
In Wisconsin, the NRSC launched a concerted effort to woo Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), a telegenic military veteran, by commissioning polling and publicly touting his strengths as a candidate. But the congressmember ultimately passed on a run against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, sending recruiters back to the drawing board just as polarizing former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke began to taunt them with a potential bid of his own.
He tweeted a Democratic poll of a possible Wisconsin Senate primary field that showed him leading by 20 points.
Now, GOP recruiters are refocusing efforts on candidates with the resources to block Clarke and tie up Baldwin, who just reported raising $3.2 million last quarter. Eric Hovde, a wealthy businessman who lost a primary bid for the seat in 2012, is still seriously considering another run but does not have a timeline for a decision, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
“We will continue working to recruit candidates who can win both a primary and a general election,” Daines said.
In Nevada, the NRSC eagerly recruited Brown, a decorated Army veteran who survived an IED attack in Afghanistan, to take on Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen. Their interest in him became more urgent once other candidates moved toward running.
One less establishment-friendly potential candidate, Jeffrey Gunter, had a controversial tenure as Trump’s ambassador to Iceland. And Marchant, a former state lawmaker who ran unsuccessfully for Nevada Secretary of State, is already in the race. A prominent member of a group of Trump supporters who baselessly deny the validity of the 2020 election, Marchant is readying for a primary brawl.
“Jim Marchant has never lost a primary, outspent every time. Sam Brown has never won a primary despite his attempts in multiple states,” said Rory McShane, a spokesperson for Marchant’s campaign.
It’s not yet clear how the party will handle Ohio, where Secretary of State Frank LaRose is looking at joining a field including state Sen. Matt Dolan and businessman Bernie Moreno. That state could be a free-for-all exception to the GOP’s approach, as it looks for a candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
There are more headaches in Arizona, where Kari Lake could mount another statewide bid. And in Michigan’s open seat, Republicans have yet to secure a top-tier candidate, although they hope to land NYSE vice chair John Tuttle as former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers also mulls a bid.
Even with some questions still unanswered, there’s still a new sense of normalcy in the party’s upper ranks. Senate Republicans’ top super PAC is back on the same page with the campaign arm after a high-profile break in strategy last year.
“Aggressively recruiting quality candidates is the only way Republicans will retake the Senate majority. Every one of these top-tier races will be very tough, and sub-par candidates only help Democrats,” said Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law.
Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

July 11, 2023
Messing with New Hampshire’s primary could have consequences for Biden and the ballot, senator says

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In a December letter to the Democratic National Committee, Biden called on the DNC to consider changing the calendar to ensure the nominating process reflects “the diversity of America.”
“For decades, Black voters in particular have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process,” Biden wrote in the letter. “We rely on these voters in elections but have not recognized their importance in our nominating calendar. It is time to stop taking these voters for granted, and time to give them a louder and earlier voice in the process.”
In February, the DNC voted to move South Carolina into the first slot on Feb. 3, followed three days later by New Hampshire, which has long held the first primary, and Nevada. (Iowa, which holds its caucuses before New Hampshire holds it primary, also would move back.) Republicans would maintain their current schedule.
Removing New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status could chase independent voters into the arms of the GOP, Shaheen cautioned Sunday. New Hampshire has open primaries, and undeclared voters are the largest share of registered voters in the state.
New Hampshire voters, particularly independents, are very engaged in elections, considering candidates on both sides of the aisle, Shaheen said.
“The fact that we would now discount their participation, I think, is unfortunate,” said Shaheen, who is not up for reelection until 2026. “And again, I think it has implications for Democrats in the state — hopefully not for the general election, but we don’t know that yet.”
Shaheen’s comments are the latest salvo in the bitter battle over changing the 2024 nominating calendar that’s pitted the state’s top Democrats against the president and the DNC.
New Hampshire Democrats have said they were blindsided and betrayed by Biden’s move to strip New Hampshire of its prized first primary and put South Carolina to the lead-off spot, and have publicly and privately fought both the president and the DNC on the matter.

Now the state is poised to go rogue and hold the first primary anyway. The DNC gave New Hampshire — and Georgia, which Biden wants to move up in the process — until early June to make the necessary adjustments to stay in the early state window. But Republicans who control the governor’s office and the legislature in New Hampshire are refusing to change the state law that requires its primary to be held a week before any others.
That puts Biden in a predicament of his own making. If he participates in an unsanctioned primary he risks violating party rules, which would likely impose sanctions on candidates or states in violation. (A Biden campaign aide said the president and his team would abide by any sanctions imposed by the DNC, if it gets to that point.)
But if Biden skips New Hampshire, he could cede the unofficial first contest to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and self-help guru Marianne Williamson, an outcome that’s unlikely to threaten his chances for renomination but that would still be an embarrassing start to the process.
Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) told POLITICO last week that she’s twice urged Biden to compete in New Hampshire.
“He should be on the ballot in New Hampshire. He’ll win handily,” she said. But even if he doesn’t, Kuster and other top Democrats believe he could win on a write-in campaign.
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#Messing #Hampshires #primary #consequences #Biden #ballot #senator
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 1, 2023
Brutal Dem primary could pit ex-lawmaker against gov’s sister

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Jones’ backers are already peeved at what they see as an unnecessarily messy primary that will detract from efforts to flip the seat. Adding to the angst: Jones and his allies already felt he’d been screwed out of the seat in 2022, after former House Democratic campaign chair Sean Patrick Maloney ran in Jones’ district following a redistricting saga. And then Maloney lost in the general, after an aggressive national GOP campaign, to Rep. Mike Lawler.
“I want him to run. He needs to run,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) of Jones. “What Sean Patrick Maloney did was bullshit. That should have been Mondaire’s seat.”
“I didn’t even know her sister lived in the district,” he added, referring to Gereghty. “And I don’t know many people who know her.”
Gereghty supporters note she’s lived in the area for two decades and serves on a local school board. And even some of Jones’ former New York colleagues are tepid about his return after his unsuccessful run for a different seat — miles away from his old one — after last year’s redistricting mess.
Jones has reached out to those members in recent days, according to four people familiar with the conversations, and it’s not clear how many of his former colleagues would support his comeback bid.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a fellow progressive, said she didn’t want to get involved before anyone officially entered the primary.
“Mondaire being in a neighboring district, we’re always kind of talking and chatting,” she said. “I think those are decisions that’s very personal and I think it’s one that I defer to him.”
And Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus’ political arm, said he wasn’t going to weigh in yet, either: “I’ll give everyone the opportunity to make their case to see who would be the best candidate.”

That’s the standard line from most members, for now, but the potential matchup threatens to pit members of the New York delegation against their Michigan counterparts and senior Black Caucus members against allies of the popular Democratic governor.
The race will also test competing views on how the party should run in competitive districts: by juicing up the progressive base or appealing to the center. Jones was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus while Gereghty seems more likely to carve out a more moderate lane. She met Thursday with the executive director of the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund, the political arm of the centrist group, according to a person familiar with the situation.
New York’s 17th District, which includes parts of Westchester County and all of Rockland and Putnam counties, is a crucial battleground for Democrats who saw Maloney, their own 2022 campaign chief, lose it in the midterms. After a court tossed out the map New York Democrats drew following the 2020 census, Maloney declared he would run in the new 17th district, which included most of Jones’ current turf, leaving the first-term lawmaker with no clear political home.
The bitter feelings haven’t subsided in Jones’ camp, and his allies are eager to clear his path for 2024.
“We saw what happened the last time political elites in Washington tried to determine the Democratic nominee in the district he represented 75 percent of,” Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) said. She praised Jones as a “highly productive” member who could retake the seat.
Maloney’s shocking upset last year forced the district, which President Joe Biden won by 10 points, to the top of Democrats’ 2024 target list. The party has signaled it’s willing to spend heavily to recapture Biden-won districts in New York after suffering unexpected losses in 2022.
Other candidates could still emerge in the race, but so far, Gereghty is the only Democrat who has filed.
Both Jones and Gereghty bring their own advantages. Jones could draw from wells of support among other national Democrats and the powerful Congressional Black Caucus. As a first-term lawmaker, he had carved out a niche by vocally calling for the expansion of the Supreme Court. He’s stayed active in local politics, too.
“He’s a dear friend, and I’d like to see him come back, and so I would love to be able to support him,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who served with Jones on the House Judiciary Committee.
Gereghty, for her part, has been reaching out to members in the Michigan delegation, and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) has been helping with the early stages of her campaign. Gereghty’s campaign manager will be Carissa Best, who led Rep. Hillary Scholten’s (D-Mich.) successful campaign to flip a Grand Rapids-based seat in 2022.
“We love her,” Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) said of Gereghty, though she is not yet endorsing and is also friendly with Jones.
“New York has lost some female leadership over the years,” the Michigan Democrat added. “She’s been steeped in that community for decades and is on the school board and was a small business owner and a mom.”
Jones, first elected in 2020, would not likely not launch a run until the third quarter of the year and wouldn’t make a final decision before May, according to a person familiar with his thinking. But he is starting to assemble his political operation and a campaign staff-in-waiting. Some Democrats on the ground in his district are urging him to jump in, too.
“Mondaire has a great relationship with most of the voters in NY-17 and it’s unfortunate others would risk forcing a divisive primary instead of uniting around our strongest candidate to beat Mike Lawler,” Rockland County Democratic Party Chair Schenley Vital said in a statement.
Jones, he added, was forced out of office by some in “the national party establishment.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 28, 2023
‘Annoying’: Trump rivals hunker down for the indictment primary

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“As bad as it was for Trump, it was worse for DeSantis and everyone else,” said Mike Madrid, the Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “It rallies the base—there’s this rally around the flag effect for Trump. Second, probably most importantly, it just completely sucks the oxygen out of the room.”
In a less polarized political climate, an indictment from a grand jury targeting a primary frontrunner would create an opening for another candidate, let alone an indictment that remains under seal and its specifics unknown—never mind a general election.
So far that isn’t happening, even in a GOP increasingly obsessed with electability following the loss of the White House in 2020 and disappointing midterm elections in 2022.
Across the field on Friday, GOP strategists said their candidates were hunkering down, wish-casting the news away.
“This news cycle will last days, not months,” said a senior adviser to a prospective candidate granted anonymity to discuss their camp’s political calculus, conceding the development does thrust Trump to the center of the primary.
“Annoying,” carped another 2024 hopeful’s strategist, granted anonymity for the same reason.. “We’ve already been talking about this for two weeks because Trump cried wolf,” the strategist said.
A third strategist working on a different potential GOP competitor’s campaign, also granted anonymity to discuss the dynamics of the race, acknowledged there is no way to beat Trump in the primary by cheering on the Manhattan prosecution. This person likened the indictment Thursday to news last year of the Supreme Court reaching a decision in the Dobbs case: “There was a big surprise when this came down, but you’ve been lying in wait, expecting it for a little bit.”
The GOP’s circling of the wagons is the surest sign yet that the coming months of the primary will orbit solely around the party’s standard-bearer. Every court proceeding, every new twist in the case will represent a litmus test other candidates in the field will either pass or fail.

It also underscores the narrowness of the path Trump’s opponents have to navigate: While the Never Trump movement has always consisted of an ineffectual sliver of the broader GOP—a sideshow to Trump’s main event— the movement hit rock bottom Thursday.
From former Vice President Mike Pence to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, would-be Trump challengers castigated Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to indict Trump. As Pence had it: “outrageous.” “Beyond belief,” Youngkin tweeted. Even Ohio State Sen. Matt Dolan, the U.S. Senate candidate who had not previously bowed to kiss Trump’s ring, called Bragg’s actions “politically motivated.”
And former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who vowed earlier this week to never back Trump again and who appeared to be carving a lane for himself in the GOP primary as Trump’s critic in chief, has been conspicuously silent since news of the indictment broke.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who’s called for the party to move on from Trump in 2024 but said he would still support him if he’s the nominee, wouldn’t distance himself too much from the former president in an interview with POLITICO last week. “You have to hold everyone to the rule of law,” Sununu said, “but clearly there’s been some hesitation on whether they could really find anybody guilty on this.”
Former New Hampshire GOP Chair Fergus Cullen said, “Never blame a politician for acting like a politician, whether you’re Chris Sununu or Nikki Haley or even Mike Pence, you’re not trying to alienate the 75 percent of primary voters” who still support Trump or remain open to him as the nominee. “Maybe someone would have the decency to not defend [Trump], or point out that this is a behavior that gives them concerns, but that’s asking a lot.”
Though the Republican field is siding with Trump in the early days of the primary, it doesn’t foreclose the possibility they will pivot when and if future criminal cases are brought against him.
In a previously booked interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Thursday evening, Pence left perhaps the most wiggle room of any possible challenger in his response about whether Trump, if convicted, should drop out of the race.
“It’s a long way to that decision,” Pence said, “I promise to answer that question if it approaches.”
Still, just one likely, longshot GOP candidate so far, Asa Hutchinson, has said Trump’s indictment should be disqualifying, evidence of a dearth of Republicans willing to endure the attendant slings and arrows of attacking Trump first. Especially not after the blowback DeSantis received by criticizing Trump on moral grounds, saying at a press conference last week he didn’t “know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star.”
The former Arkansas governor, who has yet to show signs of gaining any traction with the Republican electorate, said earlier this month Trump should drop out of the presidential race if indicted. Hutchinson seems undeterred that his stance on Trump is unpopular with the base: he has continued to prepare for an announcement next month. On Wednesday, he called a Trump donor to seek a meeting ahead of his planned campaign launch, according to a copy of the voicemail obtained by POLITICO.
“There is an opportunity for somebody who’s really good at this,” said Sarah Longwell, the Republican political strategist and publisher of the Never-Trump Bulwark. “We just don’t have that person.”

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#Annoying #Trump #rivals #hunker #indictment #primary
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 1, 2023
Christie sees a lane in the GOP primary: Trump destroyer

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Christie’s former supporters in New Hampshire hope it’ll be him.
“We definitely need somebody strong and optimistic,” said Hillary Seeger, a conservative activist who backed Christie’s 2016 presidential bid. “We need to have somebody that can win the primary and the general election.”
Christie reunited a group of his New Hampshire backers on Monday night, when he returned to the state for a town hall at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics — a prerequisite for any presidential hopeful — followed by a private dinner with close friends, former supporters and some donors.
Christie was cagey about whether he is actually running for president again. But if he is — he’s said a decision could come in 45 to 60 days — he spelled out a clear lane for himself as Trump’s critic in chief.
Christie doesn’t see one in what is shaping up to be the 2024 Republican field.
“They’re going to wriggle right up next to him and say ‘I’m almost like him, but I’m not quite as bad,’” Christie said of his would-be rivals. “Let me tell you something, everybody. That’s going to lose as certain as he lost in ‘20, as we lost the House in ‘18, as we lost the Senate in ‘21, as we underperformed in ‘22.”
Christie later told reporters that “no one has to wonder” whether he’s got the chutzpah to take on Trump.
But just as Christie puffed up his own abilities, one audience member at Saint Anselm College openly questioned his credentials in that arena. Christie had plenty of opportunities to take down Trump in 2016, before he dropped out after a dismal sixth-place finish in New Hampshire’s primary, so why didn’t he do it then?

Christie chalked his performance in that primary up to “strategic error” — one that he doesn’t plan on making again.
“Trump said a few weeks ago: I am your retribution. Guess what everybody? No thanks,” Christie said. “The only person he cares about is him. And if we haven’t learned that since Election Day 2020 until today, we’re not paying attention.”
Christie also took direct shots at former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — hitting the former for not doing more to stand up to Trump and the latter over his mangled forays into foreign policy.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not a “territorial dispute,” as DeSantis said in now-walked-back remarks, but an act of “authoritarian aggression,” Christie said. And the U.S. doesn’t have to worry about being dragged into a “proxy war” with China over Ukraine — as DeSantis suggested — because “we’re in one.”
But even as he jabbed his would-be rivals, Christie also spoke repeatedly of injecting optimism and civility back into politics that these days is defined by “anger and retribution.”
And his old supporters who gathered in Manchester on Monday consider that to be a selling point for potential presidential candidates like Christie and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, another moderate-leaning Republican considering a run.
“You have Trump, and you have the alternative to Trump,” former New Hampshire GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald, who chaired Christie’s 2016 campaign in New Hampshire. “Once you start comparing his record in New Jersey with DeSantis’ record in Florida, you’re going to see a much more viable and effective leader than Governor DeSantis is. And I think that’s going to enable him to emerge as the alternative to President Trump.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 28, 2023
Security indeed a primary concern, taken care of in J&K Budget: LG Manoj Sinha

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Srinagar, Mar 15: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha he was thankful to Centre for releasing a compact budget for the J&K which is aimed at building ‘Naya J&K’ under which special focus will indeed remain on security. He said that Tourism, Youth Empowerment, Education, Industrial investment will be top priorities in the years ahead.
Talking to reporters on the side-lines of a function in Jammu, the LG as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that security indeed is a primary concern which has been duly taken care off in the J&K Budget announced by the Centre. “But Tourism, Youth Empowerment, Education and Industrial investment will be the top priorities that have been addressed in the Budget,” he said. The LG said that 70 per cent of the J&K population is dependent on Agriculture and its allied sectors. “This is our top priority and the budget allocation for Agriculture and its allied sectors have been addressed through huge allocation,” he said.
He said that the computer based examinations that were deferred yesterday will be conducted once Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board will be fully satisfied and that exams will be held soon.
He said that the transparency is a top priority for them and if there is any iota of doubt that will be addressed. The LG said that the recruitments will be done based on merit and transparency is the top priority for them and there will be no compromise on it.
Replying to a question, Sinha said 47 employees have been dismissed from their services as they were having militancy links.
“The statement I made a day before about jobs were given to militants was based on facts as action has already been taken against many people,” he said—(KNO)
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#Security #primary #concern #care #Budget #Manoj #Sinha

( With inputs from : roshankashmir.net )

March 15, 2023
Trump continues to suck the air out of the GOP primary

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While Trump’s approval ratings may be slipping and Republican voters tell pollsters they are willing to look elsewhere, a series of recent developments has kept the party fixated on him and the scandals that defined his time and office. Washington D.C. and the largest conservative news outlet have spent days reliving the Jan. 6 riot. And the specter of a Trump indictment in New York portends an early primary season spent relitigating his record.
“There’s no question he’s the giant in the middle of the room, and other people will define themselves in comparison to him,” said Whit Ayres, a longtime Republican pollster.
In recent days, Trump said he will “absolutely” stay in the race if he is indicted and that it would likely “enhance my numbers.” Far from distancing himself from the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — a general election liability with independents and pro-democracy Republicans — Trump has suggested pardoning some Jan. 6 defendants and recently collaborated on a song with some of them. More traditionalist Republicans winced at that — and again when Fox’s Tucker Carlson aired footage downplaying violence at the Capitol.
“Just reliving the worst moment of the Trump presidency is probably not exactly what the doctor ordered for 2024,” Ayres said.
For any other presidential candidate or any down-ballot Republican next year, said one Republican strategist granted anonymity to discuss the dynamics of the campaign frankly, the “huge risk” is that “we have to talk about Jan. 6 on the campaign trail.”
“God, I don’t want to be on this side of that issue,” he said.
The primary was always going to be, first and foremost, about the former president — who remains, despite his foibles, the frontrunner in the 2024 field. But after a less-than-red-wave midterm and the first few lackluster weeks of Trump’s campaign, it appeared he might not singularly set the terms of the debate. It was time for a “new generation,” Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, said when she launched her campaign. Republicans, said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu — a potential candidate — would not choose “yesterday’s leadership.”
The problem for Republicans is that Trump is making it impossible to run anything other than yesterday’s campaign.

In Washington, Carlson’s relitigating of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol on Fox News forced Republicans to answer new batteries of questions about an event they’d been eager to forget — reminiscent of the Trump tweets they’d been forced, awkwardly, to respond to throughout his term. It sparked intraparty debates about whether the insurrection had, in fact, been essentially peaceful and led to accusations that those in the party who called it a dark day were ideological squishes.
Then came news that Trump had been invited to testify before a New York grand jury investigating his involvement in hush money payments during the 2016 campaign, raising the prospect of a bombshell criminal case that would again keep Trump as a central litmus test for the party: would fellow Republicans decry the prosecution or turn on the former president?
“Ignore it, deflect it all you want,” said Mike Noble, the chief of research and managing partner at the Arizona-based polling firm OH Predictive Insights. “This is, right now, going to be the Trump show … The oxygen is just going to be sucked out of the room focusing on Trump.”
The effects were already evident in the nascent campaign. In announcing last week that he would not run for president, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan pointed to Trump, saying he feared a “pile up” of low-polling candidates preventing an alternative candidate from “rising up.”
Vivek Ramaswamy — the wealthy biotech entrepreneur and longshot candidate — went the opposite way, diving right into Trump’s orbit. By mid-week, he was calling for “due process” for those arrested in the Jan. 6 riot.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, meantime, took his biggest swing yet at Trump, telling a crowd at the Gridiron dinner on Saturday that “history will hold Donald Trump accountable for Jan. 6.”
Even DeSantis, who has largely sidestepped the former president, appears unlikely to avoid him for long. His visit on Friday to Iowa came with Trump right over his shoulder, with Trump set to follow DeSantis into the first-in-the-nation caucus state on Monday.
And then there are the potential candidates who, by virtue of their resumes, are already inextricably tied to Trump. Haley, Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were all part of his administration.
“It feels like candidates are trying to break away from talking about Trump, but keep getting pulled back in,” said Bob Heckman, a Republican strategist who has worked on nine presidential campaigns. “That’s all good for Trump for two reasons. One, it keeps him relevant, and two, I think it’s what he wants. He wants to be the center of attention.”
Trump’s likely to stay there, too, as multi-candidate events pick up this spring — followed by debates in which Republicans will be pressed for commentary on the riot and other elements of his tenure.
Already, lanes in the GOP primary are constricting in ways that nod to Trump’s strength, with Hogan’s announcement serving as a tacit acknowledgement of the lack of room for any outspoken Trump critic. Former Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who became the GOP’s most prominent antagonist of Trump, has taken an appointment as a professor of practice at University of Virginia. Former Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial, became a president … of the University of Florida.
In the GOP primary, said former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh — who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020 — “It’s going to be Trump, or it’s going to be the Trumpiest son-of-a-bitch out there.”
“That,” he added, “is what this base wants.”
In a normal reelection year for a sitting president, the opposition party would spend its primary at least partly focused on the incumbent — setting up a referendum on President Joe Biden in the fall. But as it was in the midterms in 2022 and, before that — in his own, failed, reelection campaign — the primary is unfolding as a referendum instead on Trump. Noble called it “the sequel, … 100 percent” about Trump. And his opponents, it appears, can do very little about it.
“The press likes him. He’s the story, he’s conflict,” said Beth Miller, a longtime Republican strategist. “How do you not continue to write about him, since all of those issues are still at the forefront.”
It’s possible, if DeSantis or some other Republican makes the primary competitive, that the singular focus on Trump will fade. Significant differences may arise between candidates on immigration, Social Security or any number of other issues.
It’s also possible some other candidate will get in, appealing to what former Republican New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman called voters “who have been dissatisfied, who have moved to the independent column” and who “might come back if they saw a Republican they thought was viable and sane and a little more to the center.”
Asked if any names came to mind, however, she said, “No, not right now.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 13, 2023
Once an albatross around Trump’s neck, Jan. 6 is now taboo in the GOP primary

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If any subject is verboten in the early stages of the Republican presidential primary, it’s the insurrection that once served as a defining point in 2024 frontrunner Donald Trump’s career. Whereas Republicans once talked openly about it being disqualifying for the former president, today it is little more than a litmus test in GOP circles of a candidate’s MAGA bona fides. None of them want any part of it.
For a primary candidate, said Scott Walker, the former Republican governor of Wisconsin, going after Trump for Jan. 6 is “a huge risk.”
The Jan. 6 avoidance is not just in DeSantis’ book. Mike Pence, the former vice president and likely presidential candidate, is preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena for testimony about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, seeing only political landmines in testifying. Nikki Haley, asked on a podcast recently if she would describe the riot at the Capitol as an “insurrection, a riot, or a coup,” went instead with a more banal — and safer — description: “a sad day in America.”
In the primary, said Dave Carney, a national Republican strategist based in New Hampshire, “I don’t think January 6th will come up, period.”
The insurrection wasn’t always destined to be taboo in GOP primary politics. In the immediate aftermath, the riot appeared to provide an opening not only for Trump’s loudest critics in the party, but also for more mainstream, otherwise-Trumpian Republicans seeking to distinguish themselves from him ahead of 2024.
It was Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, who once said she was angry and “disgusted” with Trump and told Republican National Committee members that his “actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.” Pence made his first post-presidential break with Trump by declaring that he and Trump might never “see eye to eye” on the insurrection. DeSantis once openly criticized “the rioting and disorder” at the Capitol.
“The calculation was that this is clearly indefensible, he’s not going to have a place in the party going forward,” said one Republican strategist and former congressional aide. “That clearly hasn’t happened … January 6th is advantageous for Trump in a Republican primary now. Nobody’s going to hit him on January 6th.”
The advantages for Trump, if they do exist, were in plain view at the gathering of conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference. At the yearly confab — held this year outside of Washington — some attendees wore their connection to Jan. 6 as a badge of honor and found sympathetic ears.

Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt — the protester shot and killed by Capital police at the riot as she tried to break down a door inside the building — appeared on set with Donald Trump Jr. outside the convention’s main stage. There were two booths in the CPAC exhibition hall focused on Jan. 6 defendants. And it was standing room only for a breakout session at the conference titled: “True Stories of January 6: The Prosecuted Speak.” Speakers included Jan. 6 defendants Brandon Straka, Simone Gold, West Virginia legislator Derrick Evans, John Strand and Geri Perna, the aunt of Matthew Perna, who died by suicide after pleading guilty to four charges related to the Capitol riot.
In the halls, it wasn’t unusual to bump into people who were protesting on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. Deborah Gordon, a retiree from Maryland, said it was “disgusting” that politicians didn’t talk about Jan. 6 more. “I was there,” Gordon said. Bruce Cherry, the chair of Seminole County Republican executive committee in Florida, said it was important to reelect Trump “to pardon those people.” Melissa Cornwell, who attended CPAC from Beaumont, Texas, called Jan. 6 a “non-event,” adding that the “real insurrection” was the riots that followed the death of George Floyd in 2020.
If anything, the tone and tenor of the conference suggested that Republican presidential candidates may feel pressure from corners of the base to talk about Jan. 6 in positive terms — and rally to the defense of people arrested following the riot.
“I can tell you that just interacting with a lot of the activists here, there is concern that the violations of protocol and civil rights around the Jan. 6 issue haven’t gotten sufficient attention from the Congress, and that’s really a matter for us in the House majority more so than 2024 candidates,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said on the sidelines of CPAC.
Already, the Trump world attacks on potential 2024 contenders for not being sufficiently supportive of the Jan. 6 protesters are coming. Alex Bruesewitz, a Republican strategist and influencer close to the Trumps, said others who could seek the nomination have shown they “don’t care” about Jan. 6 defendants “because they’re going to lose out on the Wall Street money, they hate Trump and his base.” Bruesewitz himself was summoned by the Jan. 6 committee but reportedly pleaded the Fifth when asked to testify about the events on that day. He once said he would help pay for the legal defense of accused Capitol rioters, while Trump has suggested pardoning some Jan. 6 defendants and even collaborated on a song with some of them.
CPAC has grown increasingly aligned with Trump, making it difficult to assess how representative its gathering is of broader Republican politics. Indeed, last August, the conference featured a fake jail cell where a convicted Capitol rioter sat, fake cried, and prayed with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Still, the crowd assembled there was full of precisely the kind of hardline activists critical to presidential contenders in a GOP primary.
In the broader GOP ecosystem, even more moderate Republicans see little upside in mentioning the riot.
“I’m not trying to downplay January 6th and how terrible it was, but really, a lot of us just want to move past this guy, right?” said Mark Graul, a Republican strategist who worked on George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign. “We want to move past him, and move past the awfulness, which culminated on January 6th. That was the peak of Trump awfulness.”
But Graul added that anyone running to be the GOP standard-bearer understood the calculations that come with it.
“We’re still in this stage where if you’re running for the Republican nomination, you’re going to need to get votes from people who voted for Donald Trump,” he said.
Indeed, polls show that there just isn’t much of a constituency in the GOP primary for anyone criticizing Trump on Jan. 6. More than two years after the riot, the share of Republicans who disapprove of Trump supporters taking over the Capitol building has fallen to 49 percent, from 74 percent in 2021, according to a recent Economist/YouGov poll. And even if Republicans didn’t like what they saw that day, a majority of them don’t blame Trump.
Two years ago, Walker said, Jan. 6 was worthy of condemnation. He said so at the time. But it makes no sense for presidential candidates to be talking about it now, he added, when most people have moved on.
Anymore, he said, “Nobody cares.”
Natalie Allison contributed to this report.

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#albatross #Trumps #neck #Jan #taboo #GOP #primary
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 6, 2023
Sununu: If GOP primary were today, DeSantis would win New Hampshire

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“I’m not really focusing on the decision right now, there will be plenty of time for that,” Sununu said. “Right now my mission is making sure we’re making this party bigger, frankly. You can’t govern if you don’t win, and so I’m really focused on how do we win?”
DeSantis has also not yet announced plans to run in 2024, though he is widely expected to join what could become a crowded Republican primary — a race that so far includes former President Donald Trump, former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Polls identify DeSantis as the only Republican who has anywhere near the current support of Trump.
Sununu, known for being outspoken against Trump, also told Todd he would support the Republican nominee, whoever it may be — but he remains convinced that someone will defeat the former president in the primary.
“I’m a lifelong Republican. I’m going to support the Republican nominee,” Sununu said. “As far as a former President Trump, I think he’s going to run — obviously he’s in the race. He’s not going to be the nominee. That’s just not going to happen.”
“I just don’t believe the Republican Party is going to say that the best leadership for America tomorrow is yesterday’s leadership,” Sununu added. “That doesn’t make any sense. That is not in our DNA as Americans.”
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#Sununu #GOP #primary #today #DeSantis #win #Hampshire
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 5, 2023
In MP, education in primary level schools horrible

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Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh, the central state of the country is in a bad state as far as school education of kids is concerned. This came to light when the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), was released recently.
The ASER document says that only 56.8% of the children enrolled in primary and upper-primary schools in the rural areas of Madhya Pradesh attend their schools regularly. In this respect, Madhya Pradesh is the second worst state in the country after Bihar, where 54.6% children show up in schools. Uttar Pradesh is slightly better in this respect, with 56.2% children attending schools. In contrast, 88.6% children attend schools in Tamil Nadu.
The report also shows that Madhya Pradesh is among the only three states in the country where enrolment of children of the age group 6-14 years in private schools has increased after the Covid-19 pandemic. It is generally believed that the pandemic triggered movement of children from private to government schools as the income of the parents fell due to growth in unemployment and closure of industries. The trend, however, was different in Madhya Pradesh with the percentage of children in private schools growing from 26.1% in 2018 to 27.4% in 2022.
Another interesting fact is that the learning gap induced by the prolonged closure of schools during the pandemic has led to a larger number of children in the state opting for private paid tuitions. The percentage of such children in the state was 11% in 2018 whereas it grew to 15% in 2022.
The closure of schools has affected the learning levels of children. In 2018, 10.4% children of Std. III could read Std. II-level text whereas in 2022, the figure fell to 7.9%. Similarly, in 2018, 34.4% children studying in Std. V could read Std. II-level text whereas their percentage dropped to 29.2% in 2022. The arithmetic skills of the students also showed a decline. In 2018, the percentage of students of Std. V who divide two numbers was 16.5; it dropped to 15.7 in 2022.
Discrimination against girls still exists
The ASER document shows that girls are still discriminated against as far as enrolment in schools is concerned with the gap between boys and girls not attending schools growing in higher classes. In the age group 7-10 years, 1.8% boys and 1.9% girls did not go to school. In age 11-14, the percentage of out-of-school boys was 2.8% and girls were 3.8%. The gap widened further in the age group 15-16 years, with 12.6% and 17% girls not attending schools.
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#education #primary #level #schools #horrible

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 27, 2023