119 days until AL Presidential Primary
322 days until Election Day

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

Weekly Headlines:

• 5 takeaways from the Democratic debate
• GOP debate drew 18 million, making it third most-watched ever
• CBS Poll: Cruz still ahead in Iowa

Press Clips:

Insiders: DNC data flap is overblown (Politico 12/20/15)

The clash between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over a voter data breach? “Who cares? An issue that’s forgotten in 48 hours,” said one Iowa Democrat. That dismissive opinion is widely shared among Democrats and Republicans surveyed for the POLITICO Caucus, our panel of the top activists, strategists and operatives in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The revelations that a senior Sanders campaign staffer — and potentially several others — had breached Clinton’s proprietary voter files set Washington abuzz Friday, with the Democratic National Committee cutting off Sanders’ access to his entire voter database in response.

Could Federal Reserve help decide who wins the White House in 2016? (The Street 12/16/15)

Republicans seem to hate the Federal Reserve while Democrats are hesitant to publicly criticize it these days — is it because the nation’s central bank could play a pivotal role in the 2016 election? On the campaign trail in Iowa in 2011, presidential candidate and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry made a not-so-thinly-veiled threat to then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke over the policy of quantitative easing. “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas,” he said.

Sanders camp suspends two more staffers over data breach (Politico 12/20/15)

Bernie Sanders’ campaign suspended two more staffers directly involved in the data breach that has roiled the party, a Sanders aide confirmed to POLITICO after the Democratic debate on Saturday night. Pending an investigation, the two aides join data director Josh Uretsky in leaving the campaign following the revelation that they accessed and downloaded voter information from Hillary Clinton’s team during a technology glitch on Wednesday.

Obama ends 2015 with rare praise for GOP, vows to campaign aggressively for Dems in 2016 (US News and World Report 12/18/15)

President Barack Obama closed his next-to-last year in office with rare praise for congressional Republican leaders who helped orchestrate a bipartisan budget deal Friday, then vowed to work hard to beat the GOP and get a fellow Democrat elected to succeed him in the White House. “I do want to thank Congress for ending the year on a high note,” Obama said in his annual year-end news conference. He singled out former House Speaker John Boehner for kick-starting the budget process shortly before leaving Congress and gave current Speaker Paul Ryan “kudos” for seeing the effort through. The budget package, which staved off a government shutdown and extended tax cuts for families and businesses, was finalized shortly before Obama addressed reporters in the White House briefing room Friday afternoon. The president quickly signed the measure into law.

Rubio fundraises off Sanders data breach (Politico 12/19/15)

Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign has latched onto the still-unfolding Democratic data breach to reel in cash. In a fundraising email sent Saturday evening, less than an hour before the start of the third Democratic presidential debate, Rubio lumped questions about Hillary Clinton’s private email with new revelations that her chief rival Bernie Sanders had stolen some of Clinton’s proprietary voter files. Supporters were then asked to decide whether they considered the Democratic candidates trustworthy. Either answer directs users to Rubio’s fundraising page.