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The two Republican lieutenant governor candidates, David Dewhurst and Dan Patrick, faced off Friday night in a runoff debate. The debate took place at the studios of Houston Public Media. The runoff is May 27. The latest polls show Dewhurst, the current lieutenant governor, far behind Patrick, a state senator. Here’s a look at the race from KUHF, Houston’s public radio station: It's unusual for the incumbent to be unseated, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is as many as 20 points behind state Sen. Dan Patrick in the polls.

And yet just when the news is getting good, Rove is calling Silver's whole methodology into doubt. On Wednesday, he tweeted a link to a National Journal column titled "Why I Don't Agree With Nate Silver: Number-crunching Senate prediction models are fun to follow but are not very useful." "Smart piece: may disagree w/ some specifics, but major point is correct," Rove wrote. The major point is that the methodology behind Silver's projections is flawed: "Unlike baseball, where the sample size runs in the thousands of at-bats or innings pitched, these models overemphasize a handful of early polls at the...

Caught on a flight from Washington to Texas Sunday, Karl Rove, the guru of the GOP political establishment, was not pleased with a statement by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, a member of the House Republican leadership team, which sounded like a surrender in the fight to overturn Obamacare. Asked if the comment by Republican leadership acquiescing to the continuation of the Affordable Care Act was helpful to GOP chances in November, Rove said, “It doesn’t. It absolutely doesn’t.” Rove had not had a chance to read the article in the Spokane Spokesman-Review that quoted McMorris Rodgers as saying...

Oh, good grief! Karl Rove believes Jeb Bush is “the biggest thinker” in the Republican party today. Rove was asked today if Jeb Bush was going to run for president. “If I were betting I’d say yes. But, here’s the thing. He’s a very deliberate thoughtful guy. He’s the biggest thinker on our side. I’m glad he’s thinking about doing it.” Via FOX News Sunday: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Here are a few examples of Jeb Bush’s big thinking ideas: ** Illegal immigrants come to US in an “act of love” ** Illegal immigrants are “risk takers” ** Ted Cruz needs to have...

You've seen him on Fox News or read his seasoned opinions in The Wall Street Journal. He's one of the most prominent GOP strategists and a powerful voice for conservatives across the country.

Months away from Election Day, the Democrats are already cutting and running away from Obamacare. Clinton is the man to help them embrace it, attack obsessed Republicans—and win.Let Bill do it. With Democrats facing a daunting midterm season, it’s time to bring in the Big Dawg, not just as a campaigner but as a strategic driving force with the resources to deploy and dominate the message wars from coast to coast. Put him in charge of one of the existing super PACs—which would instantly multiply its fundraising—or form a new one that can operate on a genuinely super scale, with...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Friday responded to contentious remarks made by Jeb Bush last weekend, in which the potential 2016 Republican presidential rival said that illegal immigrants who come to the United States seeking a better life for their families often do so as "an act of love." “I think it wasn’t the most artful way of saying something, but I think he was well-intentioned,” Paul said in an interview with RealClearPolitics. “If I were to make the same point, I would say that people who seek the American dream are not bad people, but that doesn’t mean you...

North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) leads a crowded Republican field for the right to face Sen. Kay Hagan (D) in November, according to a new survey conducted for a super PAC backing his campaign. Tillis scored 27 percent of the vote, compared with 16 percent for physician Greg Brannon and 10 percent for state Baptist Convention President Mark Harris. A handful of other candidates received only single-digit support.

Democratic San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, both expressed optimism on Tuesday that Congress could pass comprehensive immigration reform this year. Speaking at the Civil Rights Summit in Austin, Barbour said such reform is in the country's best interest, and told reporters it was too early to count the federal legislation out.

Via BuzzFeed, a vignette from the big Bushworld confab over the weekend to honor Bush 41. Imagine if the “tea-party era” in Republican politics, which began after eight years of Dubya and the nomination of John McCain, produced Mitt Romney and then Jeb Bush as presidential nominees. I’m treating the prospect of another Bush nomination as a test of whether the Republican grassroots, realistically, has any influence at all over who their party chooses. Say what you will about O but his win over Hillary six years ago proved that it’s still possible for the establishment favorite to be beaten...

One year ago, the Karl Rove-backed super PAC American Crossroads announced the creation of the Conservative Victory Project, an initiative it promised would torpedo Senate candidates who were too flawed to win a general election. The days of Todd Akins and Sharron Angles costing the party winnable Senate seats were over, so its backers said. But as activists ridiculed CVP as doomed to fail, it didn't raise any money from donors last year, and most activists forgot the once-ballyhooed project even existed

I have no objections to Jeb Bush running for president. He obviously has a wide appeal as a potential candidate. With a Mexican wife, and as a man who speaks fluent Spanish, he would be able to increase the Hispanic vote in the GOP column. On the other hand, many in the Republican base find his position on immigration untenable, and would fight him tooth and nail during primary season. He is also a serious advocate of education reform. His support of Common Core, however, will also find many who are in the conservative ranks objecting, since they fear that...

Is American Crossroads giving North Carolina Senate candidate Thom Tillis one last push before the state's Republican primary? The group has reserved $1.1 million in advertising in North Carolina for April, its political director, Carl Forti, confirmed Monday. The ads, the content of which Forti would not disclose, will air in the pricey Raleigh and Charlotte media markets. That influx of spending will hit just before Tillis, the Republican frontrunner, faces off May 6 against a field including Greg Brannon, a physician who has been endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mark Harris, a Baptist pastor who has received...

By nearly every metric, Democrats are finding that Obamacare is a millstone around their necks for the upcoming 2014 midterm elections. Yet so-called Republican Karl Rove is telling the GOP to stop attacking Obamacare? What is he thinking? Yet, even as Rove says Republicans shouldn’t Attack Obamacare, elections statistician Larry Sabato Says Obamacare is killing Democrats. What is Karl Rove thinking by telling Republicans not to attack Obamacare very hard while Larry Sabato is saying the Dems are extremely vulnerable on Obamacare? Rove made his comments in a new Wall Street Journal piece. “The only thing that could rescue Democrats...

Jeb Bush is casting a shadow over the entire field of potential Republican presidential candidates, as the former Florida governor continues to ponder a run in 2016 and keep his political options open. On one hand, the Bush name, a network of donors and his relatively conservative record as governor make Mr. Bush a force to be reckoned with. But the Bush name also could work against him. Even his mother waffled on whether the country is ready for another member of her family to run for the White House.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sees an opening in the 2016 field and is seriously considering an attempt to become the third member of his family to occupy the White House.

The 2016 presidential election is Jeb Bush’s now-or-never-moment. As other potential GOP standard-bearers have been hit by scandal or seen their luster fade, many Republicans desperately want the former Florida governor to get in the race. His allies say he is considering it more seriously than ever before. They believe he could be their Goldilocks candidate: Not too conservative, not too centrist; not too dull, not too unpredictable; not too inexperienced, and not too marred by scandal. In fact, just right. But many of his greatest potential advantages could also be liabilities. The Bush name gives him a deep and...

The man known as ‘Bush’s Brain’ and who Bob Woodward says will just ‘never go away’ is championing the perpetuation of a failed Republican strategy. During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Karl Rove actually asserted that if Hillary Clinton runs in 2016, Republicans should not attack her. ... Fighting the corruption of the Clintons and the Obama administration is what conservatives are for. Rove is clueless about this while simultaneously running interference for Hillary.

Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)... his connections to Muslim Brotherhood groups and individuals in the U.S. is irrefutable. One such individual is Abdurahman Alamoudi. Another is Suhail Khan, whose father helped found the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA). His mother sat on the board of a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter... Norquist helped Khan become the White House gatekeeper relative to selecting Muslim leaders who the Bush administration partnered with before and after 9/11. Those Muslim leaders belonged to Muslim Brotherhood front groups. ... Last year it was...

Read 'Here's The Republican Path To Taking Back The Senate' on Yahoo7 Finance Australia. American Crossroads, the Republican super PAC... Article Link: Here's The Republican Path To Taking Back The Senate - Yahoo7 Finance Australia (http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-republican-path-taking-back-182555056.html) Posted with Article Posting Assistant: (http://code-happy.bahits.com/?p=62)