Free Republic

MAJOR GARRETT CBS NEWS March 9, 2016 Marco Rubio's Future In The 2016 Race Looks Cloudy Marco Rubio's presidential campaign and those close to the Florida senator are engaged in deep conversations about the future of his presidential bid. The topic of dropping out before next Tuesday's Florida primary has been raised and was not summarily dismissed. It is an option being weighed, but it is unknown how seriously. That it is even on the table speaks to the depth of existential angst within Rubio's camp after a night of demoralizing setbacks in Michigan, Mississippi and Idaho. Rubio did not...

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is projected to win the Idaho primary. NBC News called the race for Cruz just before midnight Eastern — less than an hour after polls closed in the state. Fox News called it moments later. The state’s result was in great doubt leading into Tuesday's primary because of a lack of polling in the state. Most pundits had shied away from making a prediction. The Texas senator was endorsed by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), an influential member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Idaho awards 32 delegates on a proportional basis.

The man suspected of shooting a prominent Idaho evangelical pastor was arrested Tuesday outside the White House hours after claiming his victim was a Martian. Kyle Odom, 30, was arrested in Washington, D.C., two days after the attack on Tim Remington outside Altar Church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after Sunday services.

First results coming in... link

First exit poll results out at 5:00 PM EST.

This should be the perfect contest to judge the influence of the Romney Campaign, and yes, it is a Campaign. Romney took over 62% of the vote in the 2012 primary. Idaho has a 23% Mormon population and a 22% Evangelical population. Idaho is a closed primary. Donald Trump has a 13 to 19 point lead in current polls.

Hawaii · 19 delegates Last poll closes at 11:00 PM CT Idaho · 32 delegates Last poll closes at 10:00 PM CT Michigan · 59 delegates Last poll closes at 8:00 PM CT Mississippi · 40 delegates Last poll closes at 7:00 PM CT

Tuesday March 8, 2016150 of 2,472 delegates at stake

Rep. Eric Redman, (R-Post Falls), introduced his first bill on Wednesday: A measure seeking to ban recognition of Sharia, or Islamic, law in Idaho courts, despite the fact that Idaho could lose $46 million in (Obama) government funding because of it. Idaho Spokesman Redman distributed stacks of handouts to the Idaho House Ways and Means Committee including a photo of a severed hand and printouts from websites critical of Islam (Gee, I wonder which ones?). The committee voted 4-3 along party lines to introduce the bill. The bill follows model legislation developed by the American Public Policy Alliance, a nonprofit...

Donald Trump will likely win Tuesday’s Idaho Republican presidential vote, a new Idaho Politics Weekly poll finds. The polls are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Only registered Republicans can vote in the closed contest, but political independents can register as Republicans at the polls and vote. IPW’s pollster, Dan Jones & Associates, finds in a survey completed before last week’s Super Tuesday presidential results, that Trump has 30 percent support among Republicans, and 24 percent of political independents favor Trump. Among all Idahoans, Trump is favored by 23 percent of adults. However, that sample includes Democrats and members...

An Idaho pastor was shot and critically wounded in the parking lot of his church just a day after he prayed with Ted Cruz and delivered the invocation at one of his campaign rallies this weekend. Tim Remington, 55, was shot six times - including in the head, lung, hip and shoulder - in front of the nondenominational Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene. Police said Kyle Andrew Odom, 30, is the suspected shooter. He remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous. John Padula, an associate pastor at the church, said surveillance footage captured the shooter attending the morning...

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Just before 2:00 p.m. Coeur d'Alene police responded to the parking lot of the Altar Church at 9th and Best in Coeur d'Alene, for a shooting. The male victim was transported to Kootenai Medical Center with multiple gunshot wounds. His condition is unknown at this time. Parishioners of the Church tell KXLY that the pastor is Tim Remington and that he was shot in the back seven times. That has NOT been confirmed with police. Coeur d'Alene Police say the suspect in the shooting ran away before they arrived and has not been located.

The pastor of a prominent Idaho church was shot and critically wounded in the church's parking lot Sunday, a day after he delivered the invocation at a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, authorities told NBC News. Tim Remington, 55, senior pastor of the nondenominational Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene was in critical condition at Kootenai Health and Medical Center late Sunday afternoon, the hospital told NBC News. Police told NBC station KHQ of Spokane, Washington that when officers arrived shortly before 2 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), they found a man with several gunshot wounds. The gunman fled...

Ted Cruz, celebrating a big win in Kansas, said on Saturday that it's time for Marco Rubio and John Kasich to drop out and for their supporters to rally behind him. "We’ll continue to amass delegates but what needs to happen is the field needs to continue to narrow," Cruz said during a press conference Saturday night, adding that he hopes the remaining candidates who are underperforming will ask themselves, “Do I have a path coming forward?” "If we’re divided, Donald wins," he said. The Texas senator has been advertising himself as the candidate best placed to beat Donald Trump,...

Thirteen states hold primaries or caucuses over the next two weeks. Of them, Trump is leading polls in nine, according to the RealClearPolitics average, including some of the most important, winner-take-all states. The other states — Hawaii, Maine, Idaho, and Missouri — don't have any recent polls listed on the site. They're also the three states with the fewest delegates to award. And in Maine, Trump has the endorsement of Gov. Paul LePage.

Image from boiseweekly.com A large crowd of 700 people demonstrated for Constitutional carry at the Idaho Capitol on  February 20th.  Constitutional carry has been introduced for this session of the Idaho legislature.  The current version of the bills are HO422 and HO423.  Statement of purpose of HO422: This legislation would make Idaho a permitless carry state. Currently, permitless carry applies to all areas outside of city limits. This legislation specifies who may carry a concealed weapon without a permit. The bill also adds an age restriction for permitless carry to those 21 years or older. The concealed carry permitting statutes...

Looks like my old stomping grounds in Montana are heating up. People there are not taking Obama’s plan to force refugees on them lying down. There was a protest in Missoula, Montana at 10 a.m. this morning over that very issue. It is just one of many battles brewing out there in small town America.Small towns in the sparsely populated parts of America are the perfect place to relocate these refugees. Especially if your agenda includes politically terraforming the country. The West is historically conservative in their politics. Many are Republicans and Libertarians. Even the Democrats hearken back to...

Why are small towns in conservative states being specifically targeted for refugee resettlement? Of course the Obama administration will never publicly admit that this is happening, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on. Just look at the uproar that refugee resettlement is now causing in small communities in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Kansas. The Obama administration has deemed large cities such as Washington D.C. to be “too expensive” for the refugees, and so large numbers of them are being dispersed throughout smaller communities all over the nation. If you drop a few hundred...

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a commanding lead among Idaho Republicans; a new Idaho Politics Weekly poll shows. As the GOP race tightens in early-voting states, like Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump has few concerns in Idaho, where Republicans hold a closed primary on March 8. The Dan Jones & Associates poll finds Trump is preferred by 30 percent of Idaho Republicans. Retired doctor Ben Carson – who has been fading fast in other states – comes in second with 19 percent support; followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 16 percent; and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 10...

The Idaho Republican Party held its annual Winter Meeting over the weekend and held a presidential candidate reception and straw poll as part of the festivities. It was great news for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who received 40 percent of the vote, followed by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at 18 percent. Donald Trump came in third at 13 percent, while Ben Carson and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) received 11 and 8 percent, respectively. No other candidate received more than 3 percent in the Friday evening straw poll vote. The next morning, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Idaho...