Free Republic

As Ohio Gov. John Kasich campaigned for the presidency, Ohio taxpayers paid $222,243 in overtime during the past year to the state troopers who guard him on the road and at home. The nine State Highway Patrol troopers assigned to the governor's executive-protection unit earned $183,600 in overtime in 2015, a 64-percent jump from 2014, according to state payroll records released today in response to a request from The Dispatch. Four troopers earned more than $20,000 in overtime pay last year for working more than 40 hours a week; one earned nearly $27,000 to boost his annual pay to $94,400....

Senator Ted Cruz has at least eight Super-PAC’s assisting his presidential campaign; and according to a recording obtained by Politico a Cruz’s campaign bundler was directing large donors toward one PAC specifically. The “Stand for Truth” PAC. However, the campaign appears to have, yet again, gone into the land of illegality with the following statement (via audio recording): “If you hit your max then we have a table for you that is the unlimited table,” Keet Lewis, a bundler for the campaign and co-host of a Dec. 30 fundraiser in Dallas, says on the recording provided to POLITICO. “It can...

Ted Cruz wants to make the argument that he’s best prepared to take on Hillary Clinton in two ways. First, he’s an authentic anti-establishment conservative who has no taint of crony politics or connections to the Clinton establishment, unlike you-kn0w-who. Second, his organization is better prepared to out-organize and out-hustle the Democrats. Bloomberg’s report on Cruz’ fundraising helps underscore the second argument, with a total of $32 million in the first quarter of 2016: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz raised $12.5m in March, campaign says in news release. Cruz raised $7.6m in January, $11.9m in February, according to FEC...

Donald Trump's convention manager, Republican strategist Paul Manafort, described his new role in the campaign Friday, saying it shows the billionaire's signature leadership style. "This is an example of Donald Trump managing, and the type of leadership he will bring to the presidency in November," Manafort said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo. "He also understood that winning isn't enough, that it's about how you win and how much you win." Manafort told CNN, "I work directly for the boss," a notable departure from the usual workflow at Trump's 2016 operation, where most campaign staff answer to campaign...

Hillary Clinton’s campaign team reportedly used a static noise machine on Thursday to block reporters outside of a fundraiser in Denver from hearing her remarks. That’s according to Stan Bush, a reporter for Denver’s CBS-4, who was stationed outside of the event, which was held outdoors at the home of Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a superdelegate who has endorsed Clinton. Stan Bush ✔ ‎@StanBushTV Guess @HillaryClinton campaign dsn't want reporters to hear fundraiser speech. Turned on a static noise machine pointed at us when she spoke 5:08 PM - 7 Apr 2016 1,235 1,235 Retweets 1,136

Multiple source told Politico that layoffs, outbursts from Corey Lewandowski, and a lack of attention to detail are to blame for low morale among Donald Trump campaign staffers. Since March, several field staff workers have been laid off, and many members of the South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio teams have not had their contracts renewed, sources said. One layoff in particular has made a huge impact, Politico reports: The leader of the data team was let go, and because he didn't train a successor, the campaign is now unable to access some data. Another source said several staffers and advisors...

Much has been made over Hillary Clinton’s prolonged hospital stay for a concussion in December 2012. But recent photos during her campaign show her cross-eyed. Here are some photos that show the situation. It is doubtful they were Photoshopped. Two were taken by an MSNBC photographer and published on the MSNBC’s website. The most recent one is a color AP photo carried by Drudge today (4/02/16).

He was a lobbyist who represented one client who sought funds from the federal stimulus program and then another, a group backed by the Koch brothers, who opposed it. He was a political operative who once debated a cardboard cutout of the Democratic governor of New Hampshire to protest tax rates. And he was a congressional aide who was arrested after he brought a gun to work, then sued when he did not get it back. Perhaps not surprisingly, the campaign manager for Donald J. Trump’s unorthodox bid for president, Corey Lewandowski, a 40­year­old New Hampshire resident, does not have...

Trump For President

Ted Cruz’s campaign on Monday abruptly canceled two New York appearances by his wife so she could rush to Wisconsin to stump with him ahead of that state’s April 5 primary approaches. The Texas senator was ready to put aside his dislike of “New York values” and stick it to Donald Trump in his own backyard, bringing the GOP battle to the billionaire’s base. Heidi Cruz, just days after Trump mocked her mental state and appearance, was slated to meet voters at Connect Church in Bellmore, LI, Tuesday and then hit the Brighton Beach Jewish Center, the senator’s site said...

Late Monday morning, Wisconsin conservative radio host Charles Sykes made the announcement via Twitter that the Kasich campaign ordered an immediate pull of all radio campaign ads from Wisconsin markets. BREAKING: Kasich campaign immediately pulling all radio ads from Wisconsin markets. — Charles Sykes (@SykesCharlie) March 28, 2016 With rumors swirling that candidate John Kasich is running woefully short on cash in a race he has no mathematical chance of winning, it would not be particularly surprising to see Kasich dropping out. As recently as Sunday, Kasich said that calls for him to drop out by competitor Ted Cruz were...

Donald Trump is likely on the verge of losing the Republican primary, falling short of the number of delegates required to win the presidential nomination. But, as bullies are wont to do, Trump is now trying desperately to change the rules—to argue that the nomination should go not to the candidate who wins 1,237 delegates but to whoever comes closest. Here are the hard facts: As of today, 32 states have cast votes in the Republican presidential race through primaries, caucuses or conventions. In every single one of them, the anti-Trump forces have won a majority. In 22 of those...

Interesting development. It appears the Cruz Campaign is planning to slow walk the information on the 2011/2012 campaign loans: (Yahoo News) Ted Cruz has rebuffed a request by the Federal Election Commission to disclose more information about some $1 million in loans he received from two major Wall Street banks during his 2012 Senate campaign. In a letter to the FEC this week, the treasurer of Cruz’s 2012 campaign turned down a request by agency auditors to reveal in writing “the complete terms” of two personal loans Cruz received from Goldman Sachs and Citibank — the proceeds of which, he...

Last July, a Cruz-affiliated super PAC donated $500,000 to Fiorina's campaign, without explanation -- a highly unusual move that is being reexamined in light of the Enquirer's report about Cruz's indiscretions. And Fiorina made a highly publicized last-minute endorsement of Cruz in the final days before the Florida primary, helping him come in a respectable second to Trump and keeping his White House hopes alive.

Money is the mother’s milk of politics. If a candidate can’t raise money, they can’t compete. Contrary to what Democrats would have you think, this is a feature, not a bug. If no one is confident enough of your prospects or governance to finance you, you probably shouldn’t be in the race.Right now, for all his bluster, John Kasich is approaching what, in Appalachia, is called nut-cutting time. That time where you have to either accomplish something or fold. Back in February, I posted on the end-of-year campaign finance reports for the various candidates. At the time, John Kasich was...

The long 2016 presidential campaign trail is nearing the end.  One person now has a chance of winning the delegates needed to avoid a floor fight at the Republican Convention this July in Cleveland, Ohio.  That man is Donald J. Trump. Out of a field of seventeen, three men are left standing.  Two of them have a question to ponder.  That question is this. Senator Cruz, Governor Kasich, what do you two want your legacy to be? At the current time, Senator Cruz needs 84% of the remaining delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot.  Governor Kasich needs...

Despite President Obama citing the bipartisan congressional support his Supreme Court pick received in the past, Senate Republicans vowed to remain firm on not moving nominee Merrick Garland forward. Garland, a Harvard Law grad and the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997, stood by Obama's side in the Rose Garden today as the president detailed the judge's list of accomplishments. During the confirmation process to the D.C. Circuit, Obama noted, "he earned overwhelming bipartisan praise from senators and legal experts alike." "Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who was then chairman...

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he was dismayed by "vulgar and divisive rhetoric" directed at women and minorities as well as the violence that has occurred in the 2016 presidential campaign, a swipe at Republican front-runner Donald Trump that also served as a challenge to other political leaders to speak out and set a better example.

Dana Bash: It may surprise some people that Ted Cruz, who went in riding a wave of anti-Washington sentiment, that his wife, you, are an executive at Goldman Sachs, the epitome of Wall Street. Do you see any contradiction there? Heidi Cruz: I don’t. Ted doesn’t have an anti Wall Street sentiment. He has an anti government support sentiment, an anti-relying on government for their well-being.

Newt Gingrich laid it out perfectly on Sunday. The forced ouster of Mozilla co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich this week was a sign of the "new fascism" of liberalism that's sweeping American life. "People need to realize, if you're a young faculty member, in a lot of places if you're a young member of a news department and you have the wrong views – meaning conservative – you have no career," Gingrich said on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "This is just the most open and blatant example of the new fascism, which says, 'if you don't agree with us...