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Marc Short, the Koch brothers’ top political adviser in Washington and a trusted member of their inner circle for five years, is making a surprise move to the Marco Rubio campaign as a senior adviser as the Republican establishment ramps up efforts to stop Donald Trump. Short — president of Freedom Partners, the Kochs’ umbrella political organization — will join the campaign in about a week and brings deep connections to the donor and grass-roots worlds.   “Marc has been running the most sophisticated political operation for the last few cycles, and really knows the mood of the electorate," said...

Sen. Ted Cruz drew a stark contrast between Democratic donors and Republican donors during a floor speech late Monday. Democratic donors, Cruz said, don't hate the liberal base, but Republican donors "actively despise" conservatives. "On the Democratic side, the major donors that fund the Democratic Party, they don't despise their base. The billionaires who write the giant checks that fund President Obama and Hillary Clinton and the Democrats on that side of the aisle, they don't despise the radical gay rights movement or the radical environmentalist movement or all of the people that knock on doors and get Democrats elected,"...

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told supporters Saturday in Irving that he has heard plenty of calls to drop out of the Republican presidential primary. Some "special interests" have even made personal appeals to him, he said. "I've got unanswered calls on my phone right now, 'Oh, if you did this or did this, and did this, or if you drop out and support this guy, we'll give you all this money and we'll make sure you're a senator here,'" Carson said.

In a very important time – This is must listen audio from Steven Miller for anyone concerned about Trans-Pacific Trade (TPP) or Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), or the comprehensive immigration reform platform as it relates to Globalism -vs- Nationalism.

In fact, despite his attacks on his party’s donor class and establishment, Cruz, the Texas senator who won last week’s Iowa caucuses, appears to have locked down the support of four of the top six donors ― the Wilks family of Cisco, Texas (the No. 1 donor on POLITICO’s list), New York hedge fund tycoon Bob Mercer (No. 2), Texas energy investor Toby Neugebauer (No. 4) and Illinois manufacturing moguls Dick and Liz Uihlein (No. 6) ― but only one other donor on the list.

Conservative donors have engaged a major GOP consulting firm in Florida to research the feasibility of mounting a late, independent run for president amid growing fears that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination. A memo prepared for the group zeroes in on ballot access as a looming obstacle for any independent candidate, along with actually identifying a viable, widely known contender and coalescing financial support for that person. The two states with the earliest deadlines for independent candidates, Texas and North Carolina, also have some of the highest hurdles for independents to get on the ballot, according to the...

As Donald Trump picks up momentum, the chances of a well-funded assault to block him from the Republican presidential nomination are dramatically dwindling, according to interviews with about a dozen donors and operatives who are appalled by the billionaire real estate showman's campaign. The party's elite donor class has mostly closed its checkbooks to groups dedicated to stopping Trump, while the outfits that have built massive reserves are increasingly deciding to forgo anti-Trump campaigns, despite widespread fears that he is making a mockery of conservatism and could undermine Republicans up and down the ballot. The deepest-pocketed operation on the right,...

The Establishment Plans for an Open Convention February 19, 2016 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Julie in Topeka.It's great to have you. Hi. CALLER: Hi. I just have a question. RUSH: Yes? CALLER: At what point would you see... ?I know Ben Carson wants itand I know Bush wants itand I know Kasich wants it, but by having so many people in thereit allows Trump to carry that banner of,"I'm winning."Is there some point that those others, the lower tier at this point, would say,"For the sake of the Republican Party and saving the country from Trump," that they...

His campaign started out stuffed with money. By last July, Jeb Bush had raised $103 million for his super PAC, Right to Rise, an astonishing sum that seemed to foretell the most lavishly funded campaign in American history. No super PAC had ever raised so much cash so early in an election cycle. In fact, Right to Rise alone outraised all the super PACs combined at the same stage in the 2012 elections. Now, after primary elections in just three states, Bush is out. He finished sixth in the Iowa caucus, fourth in the New Hampshire primary, and now, fourth...

As former Florida governor Jeb Bush suspended his presidential bid Saturday night, new details were trickling in about the massive investments the Right to Rise super PAC made to prop up his candidacy. As of Saturday, the group had raced through at least $95.7 million out of the $118.6 million it had collected by the end of January, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Almost $87 million went into a barrage of television ads, online videos, slick mailers and voter phone calls. The group flew an airplane with a banner mocking Donald Trump over a rally of his supporters, produced...

".....But even Texas loomed over his ambitions, and a dismal finish here could have hurt his son, state Land Commissioner George P. Bush. There was a very real possibility that the elder Bush could have finished a distant fifth place here, dinging a once-dominant family brand in the state. There was no indication that his home state would deliver him many delegates on March 1, if any at all, as Texas Republicans head to the polls during early voting. Most Texas operatives interviewed for this story agreed that recent internal polling among campaigns up and down the ballot showed Cruz...

A super PAC supporting Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign raised $2.5 million in January, including $1 million from tech billionaire Larry Ellison, according to a report filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. The donation from Ellison, the executive chairman of Oracle Corporation, brings his total spending on behalf of Rubio to $4 million, making him among the top donors of the 2016 cycle. Conservative Solutions PAC spent nearly $11 million last month, mostly on ads and direct mail attacking Rubio’s rival for the Republican presidential nomination Ted Cruz and his former rival Chris Christie, who has since dropped out. The...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.expressnews.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Cruz-is-big-oil-s-new-crush-as-donors-cool-to-6843524.php

Jeb Bush has an event on Feb. 15 in Key Largo, while Florida rival Marco Rubio goes to Ocean Reef on March 11. The invitation for Rubio's has more than twice as many names, including Cynthia & Patrick Lee, Judy & Gary Ball, and Maggie & Steve Parker. Bush's host committee includes Jorge Arrizurieta, Nanci & Nick Lanni and Nancy & Bobby Schostak.

The senator's super PACs have launched an unprecedented ground effort in South Carolina and seem intent on going where few super PACs have gone before--door knocking. We all know super PACs have permanently changed the face of American politics. But in South Carolina, right now, we're getting a preview of the unprecedented ways they can alter a campaign. South Carolina, as you may know, is kind of a big deal. It has a large population--4.8 million people--and a bad reputation because it's a place where candidates love to break out their dirtiest tricks. Or, in the case of Ted Cruz's...

Some of the biggest Republican donors, who collectively have contributed tens of millions of dollars to shape the presidential race, are tightening their purse strings out of frustration with their inability to boost their favored candidates, or to slow Donald Trump. Rather than continuing to write huge checks to support the cluster of establishment candidates jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, a billionaire real estate showman roundly despised by the GOP elite, these donors have mostly retreated to the sidelines. They're watching anxiously, hoping that the field sorts itself out, according to interviews with a half dozen...

The bipartisan Open Secrets blog reported that a small number of Americans, led by George Soros, donated $100 million to Presidential Super PACs in the second half of 2015. Federal Election Commission filings of 21 different Super PACs supporting the top 13 major party candidates show "29 individuals or organizations who gave $1 million or more" for a total of $99.4 million collected in a six-month period. Adding in the 13 campaign committees, to total raised in the second half of 2015 was $260 million. Democrat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pocketed the largest individual single Super PAC donation...

Ted Cruz sounded despondent at the possibility that same-sex marriage could become legal when he called into the radio show of Tony Perkins, a vehement opponent of gay rights, in February 2014. "Our heart weeps for the damage to traditional marriage that has been done," Mr. Cruz said, urging conservatives to pray but also to fight back. "Be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves," he said, quoting Scripture. But seven months later, when Mr. Cruz visited the Midtown Manhattan office of a major Republican supporter of same-sex marriage, he sounded almost indifferent: If New York politicians wanted to...

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Donald Trump is so fiercely opposed by the Koch brothers network that some donors believe the powerful group will intervene to stop the billionaire if it looks like he could win the Republican presidential nomination. "They are always very hesitant to get involved in a primary, but I think if they were going to do it, this would be the time because they just hate the guy,” said a donor who attended the Koch network’s winter retreat, held over the weekend at a luxury resort on the edge of Coachella Valley. Both officials and donors within...