181 days until AL Presidential Primary

435 days until Election Day

Convention Dates: Republican July 18-21 2016, Democratic July 25-28 2016

Weekly Headlines:

• Hillary Clinton summons top campaign bundlers to New York
• Poll: Biden outperforms Hillary in general election; Trump leads GOP field
• Rick Perry presidential run on death watch

Press Clips:

Scott Walker to outline foreign policy blueprint (NBC News 8/28/15) 

After a week of calling on the White House to cancel next month’s state visit for the Chinese president, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will lay out his own foreign policy blueprint, laying out a plan to take on terrorism and saying “America will not be intimidated.” During a speech to cadets at the Citadel in South Carolina, Walker will continue his attacks against what he has called the “Obama-­‐Clinton” foreign policy, calling it filled with “delusion and wishful thinking,” according to excerpts released by his campaign.

Huckabee lands Aaron Trost as Iowa director (Politico 8/27/15)

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will announce Thursday that Aaron Trost, who managed the insurgent campaign of Sen. Deb Fischer (R-­‐Neb.), will be his Iowa state director. Trost comes to Iowa after making his name in neighboring Nebraska, where he engineered a come-­‐from-­‐behind primary victory for Fischer in 2012, then managed her general-­‐election victory over former Sen. Bob Kerrey.

Gov. Dan Malloy questions Sanders’ stance on guns (Politico 8/26/15)

Connecticut Gov. Dannell Malloy questioned Bernie Sanders’ record on gun control during a meeting Tuesday with New Hampshire organizers for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Campaigning for Clinton in the Granite State, the Democratic governor contrasted the former secretary of state’s record on guns with that of the independent Vermont senator, according to a report from Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

Carly Fiorina’s camp cries foul in attempt to get on debate main stage (Politico 8/26/15) 

Faced with the very real possibility that she will again be relegated to a lower-­‐tier debate, GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s campaign is going after the Republican National Committee and the news organization the RNC picked to host the next debate, CNN. Fiorina has surged in the polls since a widely praised performance in the “happy hour” debate earlier this month. But she has a problem: There haven’t been enough polls to catapult Fiorina from 14th place, where she stood going into that debate, into the top 10 ranking for CNN’s Sept. 16 debate.

Donald Trump’s newest media brawl (Politico 8/26/15) 

The Univision anchor in the front row of Donald Trump’s pre-­‐rally news conference in Iowa on Tuesday night piped up to ask a question as the Q&A began. Then Jorge Ramos quickly became the surprise star of the news cycle, the latest to present itself in Trump’s unapologetic, take-­‐no-­‐prisoners spectacle of a campaign. “Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump!” said Ramos, one of the country’s most influential Hispanic journalists. “Sit down, sit down. You weren’t called,” Trump responded gruffly.

As stock market drops, so do Hillary’s chances (Politico 8/25/15)

U.S. stocks continued their sharp decline on Tuesday, fueling talk of a worst-­‐case scenario for both Wall Street and the broader U.S. economy heading into 2016. And it is one that could make it all but impossible for Hillary Clinton or any other Democrat to win the White House. Under this scenario, a further collapse in China reignites fear in U.S. markets. A strengthening dollar hurts exports while job growth, which is already slowing, stalls out completely. Meanwhile, Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve make a huge policy mistake and raise interest rates too soon, choking off what little growth we have.

Tom Vilsack endorses Hillary Clinton (Politico 8/25/15)

Hillary Clinton scooped up a key endorsement from the Obama administration’s agriculture secretary on Tuesday. Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who had a brief run in the 2008 campaign, endorsed the Democratic front-­‐runner in an op-­‐ed in the Cedar Rapids-­‐based Gazette. Vilsack said he will proudly caucus for Clinton and praised her record on the economy, energy and education.