160 days until AL Presidential Primary
414 days until Election Day

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

Weekly Headlines:

• Clinton, DNC face pressure to add debates
• Fiorina surges, Trump slips in CNN poll
• Joe Biden moves closer to joining presidential race

Press Clips:

Ben Carson: U.S. shouldn’t elect a Muslim president (CNN 9/20/15)

Ben Carson says the United States should not elect a Muslim president. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,” the retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Carson’s comment comes on the heels of GOP front-­‐runner Donald Trump taking a question from an campaign rally attendee who said, “We have a problem in this country; it’s called Muslims.”

Black Lives Matter movement refuses to endorse any 2016 presidential candidate (The Guardian 9/19/15)

The Black Lives Matter network will not give a presidential endorsement and will instead keep up its political activism by confronting candidates about the treatment of African Americans in the US, one of the group’s founders says. In an interview, Alicia Garza discussed the organization’s refusal to settle on a preferred candidate in the 2016 race to succeed President Obama and pledged to press ahead with protests and interruptions during the campaign season. “Sometimes you have to put a wrench in the gears to get people to listen,” said Garza, who spoke at the seventh annual Black Women’s Roundtable Policy Forum last week.

Kasich urges Senate to take ‘nuclear option’ on Iran deal (Dayton Daily News 9/20/15)

Gov. John Kasich urged Senate republicans to thwart Democratic delaying tactics and clear the way for GOP lawmakers to vote against the Iranian nuclear deal with a simple majority of 51. In an appearance Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Kasich said Senate Republicans “ought to say that we are not going to permit this to be blocked because of a filibuster,” referring to a traditional Senate tactic which allows 41 lawmakers to prevent the majority from voting on bills. “There ought to be a vote and there ought to be extreme measures taken in the United States Senate to achieve it,” said Kasich, who is seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Bernie Sanders NYC fundraiser draws campaign supporters who are ‘Feelin’ the Bern’ (IB Times 9/18/15)

Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-­‐way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support. “We don’t have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins,” Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brows.

Jeb Bush’s rush through the revolving door (Politico 9/19/15)

Jeb Bush stood before supporters in Tallahassee, the Florida capital over which he presided for eight years, and vowed in his first policy speech as a presidential candidate last June to halt the “revolving door” between Congress and K Street. “We need a president willing to challenge the whole culture in our nation’s capital — and I mean to do it,” Bush vowed at that June event.

Sanders’ rhetoric full of money, not his bank account (Politico 9/18/15)

In 1981, less than six months after he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Bernie Sanders was asked about money. “Accumulating money and material possessions aren’t my interests,” the self-­‐described socialist told a freelance writer, according to a transcript of the interview filed in Sanders’ papers at the University of Vermont. “Having money is the freedom of not having to worry about paying off debts. I’d like to travel, but I have no great desire to be rich.”