Free Republic

John McCain's troubles with conservatives have him in a whole lot of trouble for reelection next year. Even among Republican primary voters just 41% approve of the job he's doing to 50% who disapprove. Only 37% of primary voters say they generally support him for renomination, compared to 51% who say they would prefer someone 'more conservative.' It's his struggles on the right that have McCain imperiled. He gets narrowly positive reviews from both 'somewhat conservative' (51/37) and moderate (50/44) Republicans. But among those who identify themselves as 'very conservative,' just 21% approve of the job McCain is doing to...

With one well-received January speech in Iowa, Scott Walker shot to the top of the polls. After a successful campaign launch, Marco Rubio is slowly gaining ground with donors and with conservatives who see a candidate with an inspiring biography and exceptional skills as a communicator. Yet it’s Jeb Bush who’s frequently described as the front-runner in a crowded field of more than a dozen Republican candidates. The reality is that he’s not — at this stage in the nominating contest, no one is. “The Republican nomination is wide open,” said Ana Navarro, a Miami-based strategist who is close to...

A resolution to close the Republican Primary will take center stage at the upcoming Arizona Republican Party Committee meeting, Saturday, April 18, 2015 at the state GOP headquarters. The rift over this issue centers on McCain-aligned state chairman Robert Graham wanting to allow registered Independents to continue to vote in Republican primary elections and the grassroots conservative base of the party who view this intrusion through the prism of teams allowing their adversaries to choose their players preceding the opening season. (SNIP) Of course McCain got that wrong. This is what Reagan actually said: “A political party cannot be all...

Persisting in a war with those who don’t pledge allegiance to the five-term U.S. Senator, John McCain and his loyalists are stomping on efforts to return the Arizona primary election to a pure party primary election. Just days ago, McCain announced a bid for what would be his sixth term in the U.S. Senate, extending his tenure in Washington D.C. to four decades, having served in the House of Representative prior to election to the Senate. Conservatives promptly came out in revolt against a sustained McCain Senate reign in a campaign highlighting the senator’s liberal history. A 1998 Arizona ballot...

The Iowa caucuses are still 284 days away, but Republicans now have a second candidate for President, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Labeling himself a conservative, Paul is primarily known as being the son of former Congressman Ron Paul, an ardent libertarian with a history of making many controversial statements and endorsements. Sen. Paul has retained many of his father’s followers, but it seems that Sen. Paul has also tried to distance himself from the elder Paul. It’s become a delicate balancing act for Sen. Paul, as he has to grow his base by appealing to more traditional conservatives while...

Can Ted Cruz mathematically win the Republican Nomination? In order to answer this question, it’s important to look at the current rules that are being set in place in each state and territory for the Republican nominating contest. With help from the information presented on the Green Papers, it appears the magic number to win the GOP nomination in 2016 is 1,235 delegates. As we all know, many states have their own rules in how they award delegates, whether they are bound/unbound, whether there is a binding primary or caucus, and whether the Party leader “super-delegates” in each state/territory are...

HOUSTON, Texas – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) will cap off a star-studded evening with a keynote address at the Harris County GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner on March 28. The event is expected to be the largest in the history of the Harris County GOP and will be attended by many statewide elected officials, Harris County officials, and grassroots activists. For the third year in a row, the keynote address will be delivered by a 2016 Republican presidential hopeful. Governor Walker will deliver this year’s keynote address to what is expected to be a crowd of at least eight hundred people,...

For the second straight election cycle, Republicans in Virginia may face a limited choice when picking their party’s candidate for president. After a much-derided 2012 primary that offered voters a ballot with only two candidates to choose from, the state GOP is now contemplating scrapping the primary system entirely in favor of a nominating convention.

On the day after Hillary Clinton went on “60 Minutes” to hide the lies of her husband — 21 years ago — I rode knee-to-knee with her in a small plane and listened to her rehearse her war strategy: “Pound the Republican attack machine and blame the press.” The events of the past week have confirmed a nagging fear: Those of us who’d hoped the controlling, deceptive, defensive Clinton of years past had grown into a more mature kind of leader are wrong. She has reacted to a series of legitimate press reports raising serious questions about her use of...

The Department of Justice is preparing to charge New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez with corruption. Menendez, a Democrat, may not leave office quietly — his term isn’t up until 2018 — but if he does resign, it could present Republican Gov. Chris Christie with an opportunity to get back in the good graces of conservatives statewide and around the country. That’s because Christie would get to choose both the temporary replacement for Menendez and the date of a special election to fill the seat. Christie could choose a moderate Republican such as state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. or former Rep....

A bill that would set up run-off elections in Iowa when none of the candidates in a party’s primary election get 35 percent of the vote has cleared its first hurdle at the statehouse. Under current Iowa law, a political party holds a special nominating convention if none of its candidates reaches that 35 percent threashold in a primary election. Senator Jeff Danielson, a Democrat from Cedar Falls, says letting “party insiders” make the pick leads to questions about the “legitimacy” of the chosen candidate. “I believe this bill is necessary because I would like Iowa’s election processes from beginning...

WASHINGTON — Technically, no big-name Republican has formally declared his candidacy for president in 2016. There are as many as two dozen others still in the mix, ranging from those who are just talking about it to others with what amounts to campaigns-in-waiting. Here’s where they stand in the off-and-running race for campaign cash. Click the link to see the list......

"....While he ended 2012 a scorned member of the Republican family, he has spent the past year a virtual kingmaker. His endorsement carried weight in the 2014-midterm primaries and he was a sought-after surrogate on the campaign stump. This “failed” nominee was so important to the GOP that his “ideas” summit,held last summer in Utah, drew the whole field of party luminaries and presidential contenders, from former running mate Rep. Paul Ryan to Sen. Rand Paul, Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Rob Portman, and former Gov. Mike Huckabee.[SNIP]With all of that said, however, I’m not sure if Romney is actually running...

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today, asking her to halt deportations of immigrant students who could earn legal status under legislation they have introduced called the DREAM Act (S.729). The DREAM Act is a narrowly tailored, bipartisan measure which would permit undocumented students to become permanent legal residents if they came here as children, are long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character, and attend college or enlist in the military for at least two years. The DREAM Act would allow a generation of...

It has been a busy few weeks in Washington lately, from the president's executive order on immigration to the resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. (SNIP) Ayotte said she also believes the president's executive order on immigration last week was a mistake. "Right now, as someone who wants to solve this problem, I think it makes it more difficult to address the underlying immigration problem, and he should not have acted unilaterally," she said.

While it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of yesterday's victories, the only reason that we won so decisively yesterday was because a small group of DETERMINED REPUBLICANS in Virginia decided that the country couldn't take anymore of Eric Cantor, and somehow, beyond all expectations and all precedent, sent him packing to K-Street, on June 10, 2014. That set the stage for yesterday. Earlier, the US Senate had passed a horrendous Amnesty Bill (the prior summer, 2013), worse than anything than even Bush had pushed for. The House Leadership was ready to act on the advice of their...

One perk of sitting on the Senate Banking Committee, as Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby has for three decades, is that its regulated industries provide a deep-pocketed donor base. But to adapt scripture, to whom much is given, much should be required. Mr. Shelby has amassed $17.8 million in his war chest, according to his campaign committee's second-quarter filing with the Federal Election Commission. His committee has spent about $179,000 this cycle, which includes $4,400 at the Senate Gift Shop and $1,000 at Chick-fil-A. That's a lot of cole slaw and chicken nuggets. The Senate baron has also rung up $10,400...

State Treasurer and former CEO Doug Ducey won the Republican primary for Arizona governor Tuesday, riding to victory with a campaign that focused on his blend of government and business experience in serving as a state official and building an ice cream company into a national brand. […] The race to replace Republican Gov. Jan Brewer began as a fairly quiet contest focused on health care and jobs before shifting abruptly when thousands of immigrant children began pouring into the country and some settled in Arizona. …

BENNETT, KEN (REP) 10,806 10.46% DUCEY, DOUG (REP) 41,311 40.00% JONES, CHRISTINE (REP) 19,926 19.30% RIGGS, FRANK (REP) 6,076 5.88% SMITH, SCOTT (REP) 17,865 17.30% THOMAS, ANDREW P. (REP) 6,835 6.62%

MIAMI — Gov. Rick Scott and his chief opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, both handily defeated opponents in their parties’ primaries on Tuesday. Mr. Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, faced the tougher challenge, against Nan Rich, a former state senator who calls herself the “real Democrat” in the race. But he easily defeated her, The Associated Press reported. With little statewide name recognition, Ms. Rich did not gain much traction in her efforts to sideline Mr. Crist. But political analysts were keeping an eye on Democratic turnout to see how much enthusiasm Mr. Crist, a moderate, has engendered among Democrats, who once...