Free Republic

A former Republican strategist has hit out at party leaders who have “enabled” Donald Trump’s behavior, stating they “deserve the reckoning that will eventually come for the GOP.” Sally Bradshaw, strategist and one of the authors of the Republican National Committee’s Growth and Opportunity Project, slammed Trump’s leadership as divisive and spoke about her disappointment with the party as rumors circulated that the president was preparing to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “Donald Trump is anti-woman, anti-Hispanic, anti-black, anti-anything that would bring the country together,” Bradshaw told Buzzfeed in an interview....

Jeb Bush, the Republican establishment’s last, best hope, began his 2016 campaign rationally enough, with a painstakingly collated operational blueprint his team called, with NFL swagger, “The Playbook.” On page after page kept safe in a binder, the playbook laid out a strategy for a race his advisors were certain would be played on Bush’s terms – an updated, if familiar version of previous Bush family campaigns where cash, organization and a Republican electorate ultimately committed to an electable center-right candidate would prevail. Story Continued Below The playbook, hatched by Sally Bradshaw, Mike Murphy and a handful of other Bush...

Jeb Bush's backers have watched as Mr. Bush debuted his White House bid amid chatter of inevitability, then plummeted in polls. They have seen him bungle a debate performance, losing a pivotal exchange to his one-time protege, Senator Marco Rubio. And they have observed as Mr. Bush, in small towns and big cities, has proved a much less gifted campaigner than they ever anticipated. So on Saturday, as many of the Bush faithful descended on the Biltmore Hotel near Miami to hear from Mr. Bush and his team, his aides tried to put their most optimistic spin on a campaign...

Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign is trying to trim back its spending as the Republican primary race heats up, according to The New York Times. “We have continued to look at how to make every department more efficient with the goal of being resourced well enough to win primaries and caucuses,” communications director Tim Miller said. Miller said the campaign has tried to run “as lean and efficient an effort as possible with one goal: winning the Republican nomination." Two people briefed on the matter also said some staff members took pay cuts as a part of the belt-tightening.

Remember when Jeb Bush was on top of the polls? Or Scott Walker? Both have now fallen to the point where they are fighting for table scraps, tied for fourth place in New Hampshire. Bush has 7%, while Trump has 35%. A new national poll is no better for Bush, showing Trump with a 30-point lead (40% to 10%) over Bush. And now Bush is apparently having trouble raising money and, incredibly, paying staffers: A prominent Florida donor backing Bush said the former Sunshine State governor and his supporting super PAC are having to work even harder to keep up...

After raising a stunning $120 million, Bush’s fundraising operations are finding it difficult to keep pace. There are signs that Jeb Bush’s fundraising juggernaut is losing some momentum, after banking a stunning $120 million for his campaign and super PAC in the first half of the year. A prominent Florida donor backing Bush said the former Sunshine State governor and his supporting super PAC are having to work even harder to keep up the pace, as hard-money contributions have been harder to come by in recent weeks. “The debate performance scared a few people,” said Brian Ballard, a Tallahassee lobbyist...

Jeb Bush on Monday returned to the Florida capital to deliver a speech slamming lobbyists as a corrosive influence on public policy, and railing on the practice of public officials becoming professional influence peddlers. The jeremiad may have come as a shock to Tallahassee's government officials-turned-lobbyists whom Bush enlisted to help him sculpt his gubernatorial agenda, and who are now helping bankroll his Republican presidential campaign. In his speech, the former Florida governor said that as president he will push to ban lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for six years after they leave government. He decried the fact that before he...

There's been a lot of political buzz about Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's 2008 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and now I know why: In one swoop, his Commonwealth PAC this week hired what could be the A-team of political consultants. "Mitt Romney means business," says media guru Alex Castellanos. The proof: Romney picked one of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's longtime advisers, Sally Bradshaw, who has worked for both President Bushes and was Jeb Bush's chief of staff for a while. What does her hiring mean? "Where Sally Bradshaw goes, a lot of Jeb Bush's people will follow," says Castellanos,...

WASHINGTON — With the Republican Party's conservatives lacking a favorite candidate for the 2008 presidential race, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has hired a strategist who might help him win their favor. Sally Bradshaw, a longtime political advisor and confidante to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, confirmed Thursday that she has signed on as a consultant to Romney's political action committee. Known in Florida circles as Jeb Bush's equivalent to President Bush's Karl Rove, Bradshaw will advise the Romney campaign on navigating the complicated political contours of the most populous battleground state. But more important in the context of what is likely...