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There’s quite a 45th birthday present for Ted Cruz in today’s Quinnipiac University national poll of Republican primary voters. The Texas Senator is up 8 points since last month’s survey and has closed the gap on frontrunner Donald Trump to just 4 points. The poll, the first reliable national survey taken since last week’s GOP debate, shows the race substantially closer than a round of pre-debate surveys. It also reinforces that Cruz has been the major beneficiary of the deflation of Ben Carson’s brief poll surge. And it’s no mystery why. Forty percent of Republican voters said Cruz did the...

Link only: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/12/12/big-shakeup-iowa-poll-cruz-soars-lead/77199800/?hootPostID=4eea3f7c0afaf2ae98aa0004f90b8761

Donald Trump says he’s been nice to Gov. Christie, but that time is up. The billionaire presidential candidate, whose name was displayed atop Atlantic City casino skyscrapers he once owned, lasted out at the governor for criticizing his call for barring Muslim immigrants from entering the country (see video below). Trump ripped Christie primarily for the ”Bridgegate” controvery that led to a guilty plea and two indictments, a political payback scandal involving the closing of George Washington Bridge lanes...

IOWA FALLS — Add Chris Christie to the list of Republicans suddenly ready to engage Donald Trump. The New Jersey governor, whose 2016 bid is getting fresh consideration by voters increasingly concerned about terrorism, spent Saturday warning Iowans against “shiny,” “new” candidates with little security experience. "We do not need reality TV in the Oval Office right now," Christie said at one stop. "President of the United States is not a place for an entertainer," he said at another....

A new poll has Donald Trump way ahead. Polling at 36%, Trump is 20 points in front of his closest competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz. Ben Carson is polling at 14% and Sen. Marco Rubio is at 12%. Nobody else is even close. A few months is a long time in American politics, although for now it appears that either Trump, Carson, Rubio or Cruz will take the Republican nomination. To some extent, it's hard to be any more precise than that. We'll have to wait and see how things unfold once the primaries get going in February. If Trump were...

Former Bogota mayor and longtime Bergen County politician Steve Lonegan is expected to head up Ted Cruz’s New Jersey leadership team. Cruz will announce Lonegan’s appointment at a press conference in Rahway Thursday at 4:30 p.m., Savejersey.com reported. Lonegan, a Teaneck native, was mayor of Bogota from 1995 to 2007. He is director of Monetary Policy for the American Principles Project and is the organization’s national spokesman on the Federal Reserve System’s monetary policies. In 2006, Lonegan filed paperwork for a public referendum in Bogota that would’ve made English the official language of the municipality. The County Clerk’s Office rejected...

For all of the candidates, all of the debates and all of the unpredictability, the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 has taken a clear shape over the past month or so. There is a four-candidate top tier that has separated itself from the rest of the pack. There is then a trio of “if/then” candidates who would need a major mistake or collapse from one of the top four to have a realistic chance at winning. Everyone else running has a puncher’s chance — at best — at being relevant in the nomination fight. Below are my...

After my last two columns on Donald Trump, several people have written to ask what I think about some of the other Republican presidential candidates. So I thought I’d address that question this week. Hey, I’m nothing if not responsive to my readers. Please excuse me if I don’t mention everyone. I’ve only got 500 words. Ben Carson. No question, Dr. Carson is manifestly the smartest person in the race, on either side. His slogan should be, “It’s just politics, folks. Not brain surgery.” I don’t necessarily agree with him on every issue, but I believe he’s a man of...

The Fox News Channel’s efforts to promote the presidential candidacy of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are not working out so well, according to the Fox News Channel’s own polling. Rubio is at just nine percent, according to the latest Fox News poll, trailing GOP frontrunner billionaire Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson by a significant margin. Trump has 26 percent according to the new Fox News poll, and Carson has 18 percent. Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is tied with the struggling Rubio’s nine percent, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) comes in next with eight percent. Former Florida Gov....

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/09/17/fiorina-rubio-christie-cruz-debate-winners-column/32514709/

Tonight's GOP debate, to be broadcast on CNN, will almost certainly enjoy the type of record ratings generated by the previous debate on the Fox News Channel. The 11 candidates on the main stage will again have a potent opportunity to change how they are perceived by the Republican electorate -- one of the main purposes of these media events. What follows are my nominations for challenges faced by specific candidates on a number of dimensions leading into the debate. Most to Gain in Terms of Name Identification The first debate worked significantly to the advantage of Ben Carson, Carly...

One of the most knowledgeable and respected political analysts in the country has changed his mind about Donald Trump, now believing the real estate tycoon is for real and is in it for the long haul. Stuart Rothenberg first thought that “once Iowa Republicans start to see the caucuses as an opportunity to select the next president, rather than an opportunity to express their frustration and anger, they will turn away from Trump (and other outsiders) and toward politically experienced, mainstream contenders.” But with the recent rise in Trump’s favorable rating, and after speaking with GOP strategists in Iowa, Rothenberg...

Tenth farking place. Three months ago, I would have told you that a midwestern evangelical governor with Scott Walker’s record could stay home in Wisconsin and never campaign and still do no worse than, say, third in Iowa. Remember, this is supposed to be Walker’s must-win early state. Donald Trump has the support of 27 percent of Iowa likely Republican Caucus participants, with 21 percent for Ben Carson and 9 percent for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This compares to the results of a July 1 survey by the independent Quinnipiac...

I think we can safely say that last week represented the point at which Chris Christie should ponder pulling the plug on his presidential campaign. I'm not talking about that poll in New Jersey showing most residents want him to resign his state job if he persists in running for president. I'm not even talking about the Iowa poll showing him registering a mere 2 percent among potential caucus-goers there. Or the New Hampshire poll putting him at just 3 percent. (This interactive chart at RealClearPolitics lets you track how each candidate has been doing.) I'm talking about John Kasich....

PITTSBURGH — Republican rivals are trying desperately to dent Donald Trump, as he leads in polls, dominates media coverage, and builds a campaign organization using his personal wealth. Not long ago, they came to him with hats in hand. Internal memos obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and public filings, show that officials courted the celebrity magnate for years, seeking and receiving ever-increasing donations, especially to GOP-related organizations trying to elect more governors and senators. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who recently criticized Mr. Trump, was notably successful at convincing the developer and beauty pageant owner to write checks. Now Mr....

Governor Christie spent the past week on the campaign trail hitting key issues that are popular with the conservative voters who likely hold the key to his success as a Republican candidate for president. His tour through the early voting states, which includes return trips to New Hampshire and Iowa this week, comes as his campaign and a super PAC supporting his candidacy are spending a combined $1 million to run political ads nationally on Fox News that show Christie criticizing President Obama over the Iran nuclear deal, just as the next round of horse-race polls are being conducted. The...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Bernie Sanders told veterans in Iowa Friday that unlike some other politicians, he doesn't pay lip service to their concerns. "It is very easy to raise the flag at a troop deployment, it is very easy for a politician to give a moving speech on Veterans Day," Sanders said. "But it is very hard to go down that long road with the men and women who served and make sure that they continue to get all the benefits, all the healthcare, that they are entitled to for the rest of their lives." The Vermont senator told...

If you had to vote in your state primary/caucus today, knowing what you know now about the various declared and probable candidates, who would you vote for? Why? Who would you like to see as the running mate for your preferred candidate? If you could help staff your candidates cabinet and other top appointments, who would you choose? If you could recommend different congressional leaders than we have now, who would they be? And who would you like to see on the Supreme Court and why? And finally, feel free to donate to Free Republic.

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Tuesday that fellow candidate Chris Christie’s “oppo research guys” got their facts wrong when the New Jersey governor attacked Cruz during a Fox News appearance. Christie, addressing comments Cruz made about not believing in “Republican-on Republican violence,” said on Fox News Monday that he didn’t “need to be lectured by Ted Cruz.” Cruz made those comments when asked to comment on Donald Trump’s controversial remarks on Mexican immigrants. “I find it ironic that Ted Cruz is giving lectures on Republican-on-Republican violence,” the New Jersey governor said on Fox News Monday. “The guy who put...

TRENTON — Last week, we asked NJ.com users to rank the crowded field of candidates vying for the 2016 Republican nomination for president in an informal straw poll — and they placed their own governor last. Gov. Chris Christie fell at the bottom of the 14 contenders who have officially declared their candidacy. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush finished first. See the full chart below. If you rank the candidates by up votes, Christie would be No. 6. But he received the most down votes by far of any candidate, dropping him to the bottom. This poll is unscientific, but...