132 days until AL Presidential Primary
386 days until Election Day

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

Weekly Headlines:

• Democratic debate: Fact-checking the candidates
• Poll: Donald Trump still leads, Ben Carson in second
• Joe Biden camp to allies: Be ready

Press Clips:

Everyone but Jim Webb says Black Lives Matter (The Daily Beast 10/14/15)

At Tuesday’s CNN debate, the Democrats all endorsed the movement, with Sanders invoking Sandra Bland and Clinton pushing for criminal justice reform. Only Jim Webb refused to go along. Every Democratic candidate on the CNN debate stage Tuesday night made it clear they support the Black Lives Matter movement—except rogue militaristic outsider Jim Webb. Bernie Sanders, a noted supporter of the group’s message who has met with its activists, got the question first. “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter? Let’s put that question to Senator Sanders,” a bespectacled Anderson Cooper asked.

Clinton and Sanders seriously out-­‐fundraised GOP candidates, minus super PACs (The Week 10/16/15)

Thursday night was the deadline for 2016 presidential candidates to file their Federal Election Commission Financial reports for the last quarter, and the big takeaway is that the two leading Democrats are crushing the Republican field in direct campaign contributions. The six Democrats who filed raised a combined $123.2 million from July 1 through Sept. 30, while the 15 Republican candidates raised a combined $143.5 million. Amid overall high spending, the cash-on-hand numbers are even more telling: Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) start the fall with $60.1 million in their coffers, only slightly less than the

$61.2 million for all 15 Republicans.

Averse to fundraising, Donald Trump still rakes in millions (CBS News 10/16/15)

Can it be simultaneously true that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump swears off traditional campaign fundraising while still raking in a substantial sum of money from private contributions? The answer appears to be a resounding yes: on Thursday, Trump’s campaign announced that it raised $3.9 million between July and September this year. The figure came as a surprise to some, given Trump’s oft-expressed aversion to the kind of donor-courting in which other candidates engage.

RNC Chair: GOP ‘Cooked as a party’ if we don’t win 2016 election (TPM 10/16/15)

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus said on Thursday that the 2016 presidential election will make or break the party. In an interview published early Friday morning, he told the Washington Examiner that even during a presidential election year, the RNC is still responsible for supporting House and Senate candidates. “However, I think that we have become, unfortunately, a midterm party that doesn’t lose and a presidential party that’s had a really hard time winning,” Priebus told the Examiner. “We’re seeing more and more that if you don’t hold the White House, it’s very difficult to govern in this country — especially in Washington D.C.”

John Kasich outlines broad economic agenda in New Hampshire (NBC News 10/15/15)

Presidential hopeful John Kasich outlined his economic agenda in front of a crowd of students at Nashua Community College, pledging to balance the federal budget in eight years and transfer many responsibilities of the Department of Education and Department of Transportation to the states. The underlying message: Believe him because he has done it before. Standing to the side of a giant ticking clock showing the pace of the rising national debt, the Republican governor of Ohio proposed that as president, he would “immediately” put the nation on a path to a balanced budget, and would accomplish it within eight years. And he promised to work with Congress and the states to pass a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.

Jeb Bush weighs in on Afghan strategy, Donald Trump (CBS News 10/16/15)

A day after President Obama announced that he would slow U.S. plans to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush announced his support for the strategy. “I would take the recommendation of the general that was responsible for it, who’s now the chairman of the joint chiefs: 10,000 troops,” Bush said. “I think that’s the proper place to be-without a timeline. Because the minute you create a timeline… your opponents, your enemies are organizing for, waiting you out. And I think that’s the proper thing to do.” Mr. Obama announced Thursday that the U.S. would continue to keep its 9,800 troops in the country through the majority of 2016, reducing that number to about 6,000 forces after 2016.

How Ben Carson transformed from doctor to 2016 presidential candidate (USA Today 10/12/15)

In early 2013, Ben Carson was largely known as a best-selling author, a celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon and subject of a television movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr. It was a compelling narrative: a boy brought up in poverty on the southwest side of Detroit by a single mother; a lousy student with a bad temper who turned it around to graduate from Yale, get a medical degree from the University of Michigan and become the youngest doctor, at the age of 33, to head a surgical division at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Hundreds of Obama bundlers missing from Clinton’s elite fundraising ranks (USA Today 10/18/15)

Hundreds of wealthy Democrats who raised money for President Obama’s re-election have not yet joined the top fundraising ranks of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, raising hopes among some of Vice President Joe Biden’s supporters that there remains a path for his late entry into the race. Just 76, or less than 10 percent, of the 833 individuals who collected political cash for the 2012 Obama-Biden campaign are listed among Clinton’s “Hillblazers,” her campaign’s designation for people who already have bundled together at least $100,000 on her behalf, a USA TODAY analysis of Clinton’s newly updated fundraiser list shows.

When Donald Trump quits (Politico 10/18/15)

After sending mixed signals about what might drive him to withdraw from the presidential race, Donald Trump settled on a definitive answer last month: “I’m never dropping out.” The next day, he tweeted, “I’m leading big in every poll and we are going to WIN!

Remember, Trump NEVER gives up!” But, like many successful businessmen, the real estate developer and GOP pack leader – who often espouses his disdain for “losers”  – does not see every venture and contest through to the bitter end.

Throughout his career, Trump has demonstrated wild enthusiasm at the start of big projects, and ruthlessly pursued a profit agenda that, in many cases, has led him to ditch the deal when the risks, whether financial or reputational, start to outweigh the prospective reward.