Jumbled GOP field hopes for survival in South Carolina
Hoping for survival in the South, a muddled field of Republican presidential contenders descended Wednesday on South Carolina, no closer to clarity about who can stand between Donald Trump and their party’s nomination. Not me, Carly Fiorina announced, dropping out of the campaign. A Chris Christie spokeswoman said his race was over, too. But a sizeable field remained. To the dismay of party leaders, all signs point to a drawn-out battle for delegates following Trump’s resounding victory in New Hampshire. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, under immense pressure to prove himself after a devastating fifth-place finish, was looking for a fight that could last for months or even spill into the first contested GOP national convention since 1976. “We very easily could be looking at May — or the convention,” Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan told The Associated Press. If Trump had Republicans on edge, Democrats were feeling no less queasy. Rejected in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton sought redemption in Nevada, where a more diverse group of voters awaited her and Bernie Sanders. Sanders, a Vermont senator and self-proclaimed democratic socialist, raised $5 million-plus in less than a day after his New Hampshire triumph. The contributions came mostly in small-dollar amounts, his campaign said, illustrating the resources he’ll have to fight Clinton to a bitter end. Both Clinton and Sanders — the first Jew to win a presidential primary — worked to undercut each other among African-Americans and Hispanics with less than two weeks until the Democratic contests in Nevada and South Carolina. Sanders met for breakfast in Harlem with the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist. Clinton, meanwhile, announced plans to campaign with the mother of Sandra Bland, whose death while in police custody became a symbol of racial tensions. And Clinton’s campaign deployed South Carolina state Rep. Todd Rutherford to vouch for her support for minorities. “Secretary Clinton has been involved in South Carolina for the last 40 years,” Rutherford said. “Bernie Sanders has talked about these issues for the last 40 days.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the conservative firebrand and victor in the leadoff Iowa caucuses, returned to the center of the fracas after largely sitting out New Hampshire. He drew contrasts with Trump as he told a crowd of 500 in Myrtle Beach that Texans and South Carolinians are more alike than not. “We love God, we’re gun owners, military veterans and we’re fed up with what’s happening in Washington,” Cruz said. Almost all the Republicans have spent months building complex campaigns and blanketing airwaves in South Carolina, which heralds the start of the GOP campaign’s foray into the South. After that primary on Feb. 20, seven Southern states including Georgia and Virginia will anchor the Super Tuesday primaries on March 1, with oodles of delegates at stake. The state, with its array of conservative GOP voters, will test Trump and the others in new ways. Having courted social conservatives in Iowa and moderates in New Hampshire, the candidates face an electorate infused with evangelical, pro-business and military-minded flavors. Rubio’s campaign has looked forward to the state. Yet his path grew far trickier after a fifth-place New Hampshire letdown, which terminated talk of Republican leaders quickly uniting behind him as the strongest alternative to “outsiders” Trump and Cruz. His campaign’s suggestion that the race could veer a contested convention seemed to signal to mainstream Republicans that the party would be ill-served by allowing the Trump phenomenon to last much longer. GOP officials have already had early discussions about such a July scenario, which could be triggered if no candidate secures a majority of delegates by convention time. For Gov. John Kasich, whose second-place showing was New Hampshire’s primary stunner, the task was to convert newfound interest into support in a state ideologically distant from his native Ohio. With a minimal South Carolina operation compared to his rivals, Kasich must work quickly. Seeking votes at a local business in Charleston, Kasich worked to burnish his reputation as a results-oriented leader. “If you don’t go to the gym, you get flabby,” Kasich said. “And if the country doesn’t solve its problems, it gets flabby.” Heading into the final two-week sprint, Trump was leading in South Carolina among all demographic groups, an NBC/Marist/Wall Street Journal poll showed, with Cruz and Rubio a distant second and third. Already, more than $32 million has been spent on TV ads here, according to CMAG/Kantar Media data — much of it by Right to Rise, the PAC backing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Though he placed fourth on Tuesday, Bush was hoping that Rubio’s slump would forestall his own ouster from the race. After a rally in Bluffton, he said voters in New Hampshire “pushed the pause button” on anointing any candidate — and turned to his brother, George W. Bush, for help. His campaign debuted a new ad featuring the former president, who plans to campaign in the Palmetto State. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Bernie Sanders, John Kasich win 1st votes in tiny NH community
Bernie Sanders and John Kasich picked up the most votes as the first ballots of the first-in-the-nation primary were cast early Tuesday. Sanders won over all four Democratic voters in the tiny town of Dixville, while Kasich sneaked past Donald Trump, 3-2, among Republicans. Under New Hampshire state law, communities with fewer than 100 voters can get permission to open their polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots. While that happened in three locations, Dixville traditionally gets most of the spotlight due to its media-friendly setup at the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel. Located about 20 miles from the Canadian border, Dixville exists as a town only for voting purposes. Almost all of its nine voters are employees of the hotel, which closed in 2011 but is currently undergoing a major overhaul under new owners. Former owner Neil Tillotson started the midnight voting tradition in 1960, likely at the suggestion of a news photographer looking for an advantage in getting his pictures out to newspapers ahead of his rivals. For many years, voters cast their ballots in individual booths in the hotel’s posh ballot room. Because of the renovations, the nine current residents voted in another building on the property, the Hale House. In 2012, there was a tie for first place on the Republican side, with Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman getting two votes apiece. All three Democrats voted for Obama. Hart’s Location, about 80 miles south of Dixville, first hosted midnight voting in 1948 but gave it up after the 1964 election when residents grew weary of the late hours and media frenzy every four years. Energized with new blood, town residents revived the tradition in 1996, and this year, the town has 41 registered voters. Millsfield is also making a comeback this year, though it’s unclear just when the town last voted at midnight or when its tradition started. According to a 1952 article in Time magazine, eight residents voted at midnight during the general election that year. This year, there are 22 registered voters. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Debate night: Donald Trump to rejoin rivals, Marco Rubio may feel heat
An aggrieved Donald Trump was rejoining his Republican presidential rivals on the debate stage and hoping for a winning formula in New Hampshire, while the challenge for surging Marco Rubio was fending off attacks from other candidates. The debate Saturday night comes three days before New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, a contest that will likely determine whether some contenders in an already shrinking field will move on or abandon their White House hopes. The billionaire Trump has enough money to stay in the race, but anything short of a first-place finish in New Hampshire would damage his White House bid. He has held a comfortable lead in national polls, as well as surveys in Iowa and New Hampshire for months, but had to settle for second in last Monday’s opening caucuses. “I think we should have come in first, to be honest with you, a lot of things happened there. A lot of things happened,” Trump said Friday during a rally in South Carolina. The real estate mogul skipped the final debate before the Iowa caucuses, but has committed to more traditional campaign activities in the days before the New Hampshire’s vote. Chris Christie told a campaign rally in Bedford on Saturday that Trump would be welcomed back to the stage “with open arms,” and the New Jersey governor was thrilled that “none of you people made enough fun of Donald Trump to make him not come tonight.” Rubio’s third-place finish in Iowa gave him the edge among those candidates viewed as more mainstream alternatives to Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the fiery conservative who won Iowa. As a result, the Florida senator has faced a flurry of criticism in recent days, with his rivals questioning his experience and casting him as overly scripted. “He’s a great guy, but he’s not a leader,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly derided Rubio as a “bubble boy” whose staff protects him from having to answer tough questions about his record and what he would do as president. Bush, Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have largely staked their presidential hopes on New Hampshire. Those falling short of a standout finish in New Hampshire will face party pressure to quit. Also fighting to stay relevant is retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. After a disappointing showing in Iowa, he took time off from campaigning. He hasn’t been a major presence in New Hampshire. Cruz carried Iowa with the support of the evangelical voters who hold significant sway in the state. In New Hampshire, he was making an appeal for support from libertarian voters. The Iowa caucuses helped trim the GOP field, allowing debate host ABC News to scrap an undercard event for low-polling candidates. The debate rules left Carly Fiorina as the only candidate without a spot on stage. Fiorina has protested her exclusion, and Republicans such as 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney have come to her defense. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Jeb Bush rises to 2nd place in New Hampshire, poll says
Donald Trump continues to lead the Republican field in New Hampshire, but a new poll of likely Republican primary voters shows Jeb Bush in second place. Trump maintains a strong lead over his Republican opponents with 31 percent, according to a Harper Polling survey of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire. Bush comes in second with 14 percent, followed by John Kasich at 12 percent. Marco Rubio is at 10 percent, while Ted Cruz is at 9 percent. The polling position comes as welcome news to the Bush campaign, which has struggled in the polls in recent weeks. The Harper Polling survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday. It polled 425 likely Republican primary voters and has a margin of error of 4.75 percent. Brock McCleary, president of Harper Polling, wrote in a memo that the results from Tuesday, the second night of the poll, were “were largely unchanged from pre-Iowa Caucus results on Monday night.” Cruz came out on top in Monday’s Iowa caucus, with 28 percent. Trump came in second with 24 percent, while Rubio rounded out the Top 3 with 23 percent. Bush had a poor showing in Iowa, receiving 5,238 votes, or 2.8 percent. The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday.
Jeb Bush goes after Donald Trump in 2-minute ad airing in New Hampshire
New Hampshire residents better get comfortable. The newest Jeb Bush advertisement hitting the airwaves is a 2-minute spot taking aim at Donald Trump. According to the campaign, the spot, which was first seen on WMUR in New Hampshire, is meant to draw a contrast between Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric with Bush’s record. “I am sick and tired of politicians that find ways to disparage people to make themselves look strong. It is not strong to insult women,” Bush is shown saying during the advertisement, called “Turn off Trump.” “It is not a sign of strength, it is not a sign strength, when you say a POW is a loser because they got caught; John McCain is a hero. It is not a sign of strength to disparage the disabled in this country. It is a sign of deep insecurity and weakness.” The advertisement continues, with Bush telling voters he hopes they want a candidate “who has a heart for the people.” “You all have this incredible opportunity. You have the responsibility of reshaping this race. I have total confidence and belief that you will make the right choice,” he says in the advertisement. “Should I be our party’s nominee I will unite around common purpose and the conservative cause. I will defeat Hillary Clinton and we will restore America’s greatness.” The advertisement will rotate into the campaign’s current New Hampshire ad buy. The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday. Bush is fourth place in New Hampshire, according to recent polling averages.
Quinnipiac poll: First-time voters help boost Donald Trump’s lead
With hours to go before the first votes are cast, a new poll shows Donald Trump’s lead widening, due in large part to support from likely first-time caucus goers. Trump holds a 7 point lead over Ted Cruz, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday morning. Trump is at 31 percent, followed by Cruz at 24 percent. Marco Rubio holds his third place position with 17 percent, followed by Ben Carson at 8 percent. Trump leads Cruz 40 percent to 22 percent among first-time Republican caucus goers. Cruz leads Trump 26 percent to 25 percent among those Republicans who have attended a caucus before. Eighty-one percent of people who picked Trump as their first choice said their mind were made up. While Trump holds a significant lead over the Republican field, many Iowa Republicans said they would not support the New York businessman if he were the Republican nominee. The poll found 35 percent of likely Republican caucus goers said they would not support Trump as the nominee; while 21 percent said they would not support Jeb Bush if he were the nominee. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton 49 percent to 46 percent among likely Democratic caucus goers. Among first time caucus goers, Sanders leads Clinton 62 percent to 35 percent. Eighty-five percent of likely Democratic caucus goers said their mind was already made up. The Quinnipiac University poll took place between Jan. 25 and Jan. 31. The Republican survey has a margin of error of 3.3 percent; while the Democratic survey has a margin of error of 3.2 percent.The Iowa caucuses start at 7 p.m. Central time.
Donald Trump promises to make United States “greater than ever before” in new ad
Donald Trump is out with a new advertisement, promising to fix the country’s problems. The 30-second spot — dubbed “Our Country” — features a clip of the New York businessman at a rally. “We are going to take our country and we’re going to fix it. We’re going to make it great again,” he is shown saying in the advertisement. “We are going to take care of our vets. We are going to fix our military. We are going to strengthen our borders. We are going to build a wall, but we are going to strengthen our borders. We are going to make it great again. We are going to make it greater than ever before.” The advertisement will air in Iowa and New Hampshire, reported Mark Halperin, managing editor of Bloomberg Politics. On Wednesday, NBC News reported Trump placed a new ad buy in Iowa and New Hampshire for Friday through Thursday. Trump continues to lead in national polls, according to a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of Republican primary voters.
Jeb Bush is only candidate NH voters view unfavorably, Monmouth U. poll finds
For Jeb Bush and supporters, it’s probably wise not to rise or fall on the basis of a single poll. Case in point? New Hampshire. The Bush camp rallied this weekend around a poll that showed him moving up to second place in New Hampshire, getting 11.9 percent support. Flash forward to Monday, where a Monmouth University poll just released has him tied for 7th place, with just 4 percent of the vote. The story in this poll is that Donald Trump is rising in the Granite State, getting 32 percent support. That’s up from 26 percent when Monmouth pollsters asked the same question in November. Trump’s 6-point gain is the largest for any candidate in the GOP field. His favorability rating has also ticked up and now sits at 52 percent positive and 40 percent negative. Tied for second is Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, well behind Trump with 14 percent each. Marco Rubio is in fourth place in the survey with 12 percent, and Chris Christie is fifth at 8 percent. “As Granite State voters start to firm up their decision, it’s looking more and more unlikely that Trump will be toppled from his perch,” said Monmouth polling director Patrick Murray. “The real fight is for second place.” Rounding out the field are businesswoman Carly Fiorina, at 5 percent, and Rand Paul and Bush, both tied at 4 percent. And Bush has the distinction of being the only Republican candidate in the survey who GOP voters view negatively. Only 39 percent of Republicans voters in New Hampshire have a positive view of Bush, compared to 47 percent who view him negatively. And remember Ben Carson? In the November version of the Monmouth poll, the retired neurosurgeon was in second place, with 16 percent support. Now? He’s in ninth place, with just 3 percent. Carson once had the highest favorability rating of any candidate in the field, but now he sits at 46 percent positive and 34 percent negative.
A Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio battle over undecided Iowans intensifies
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are fighting for the favor of many of the same undecided voters across Iowa, where even some of the most attentive Republicans say they can’t make up their minds less than four weeks before voting begins. That was so among Iowans who gathered before sunrise to hear Rubio at a town-hall-style meeting in Cedar Rapids. The Florida senator impressed the crowd but few left having decided if he would get their vote. “I haven’t settled on one candidate 100 percent,” said Mike Grover, a 65-year-old Cedar Rapids man who is among the thousands of “persuadable voters” still up for grabs. In small towns from Cherokee to Sioux Center, an overwhelming number of would-be voters said both Cruz and Rubio are in contention for their support. Their policies, personalities and presumed ability to defeat the Democratic nominee in the fall are all under close examination. Donald Trump comes up often as well, as do retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. At 44 and 45, respectively, Rubio and Cruz are the youngest candidates in the 2016 field and the only Hispanics. “I’ve seen Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz,” Connie Peterson, a retired 74-year-old Republican, said Wednesday at a Rubio event in Marshalltown. “In ways they seem similar, and I can’t make up my mind there.” She added: “It’s going to be a hard decision.” A day earlier, at a Cruz rally along Iowa’s western border, Mondamin real estate agent Lary Clark said he was also torn between the Texas senator, a sharp-tongued combatant in Washington, and the smoother Rubio — both conservatives with tea party roots but divergent paths. “I want somebody who’s going to be able to win the general election,” Clark said. By his calculation, Cruz or Rubio, with their Cuban-American heritage, may be best positioned to capture Latino votes in November. Cruz is working to build on his strong Iowa polling this week with a 28-stop, six day bus tour focused largely on small towns and farm communities. Rubio is making four stops over two days, having spent nine days in the state over the past month, his campaign said. Rubio, who is lagging behind Cruz in the polls, has been more forceful in criticizing Cruz while they’ve crisscrossed Iowa. Rubio is bluntly challenging Cruz’s commitment to national security, while Cruz casts Rubio as an establishment favorite who supports “amnesty” for immigrants in the country illegally. Undecided voters say they need more time to sort through the big pack of contenders. “There’s been so many,” said Iowa corn farmer Jim Nelson of Cherokee. “We’re trying to go through them all. Give them all a chance.” People in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire are notoriously late deciders and the fact they have a dozen contenders to choose from is making their decision all the more difficult. A Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll conducted last month found that only 33 percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers had made up their minds, with two-thirds saying they could still be persuaded by any candidate. That’s in line with voters nationwide, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, which found in late December that nearly 6 in 10 Republicans could change their mind before casting their primary vote. Cruz is banking on a win Feb. 1 caucus to generate momentum to sustain him well beyond the following contest in New Hampshire, where he’s not expected to do as well. His team is more optimistic about his chances in South Carolina and the bulk of Super Tuesday states voting on March 1, several of which are in the South where his core support among evangelical conservatives is strong. Rubio’s path to the nomination is less clear. He’s barely in the top-tier of many early state polls, often trailing both Cruz and Trump. The Florida senator’s team is betting on a series of strong showings in the early states — if not wins — that would allow him to stay alive and inherit support from other candidates as they drop out. Karl Palmberg, a 39-year-old farmer from Larchwood, Iowa, came with his wife and two young children to see Cruz on Wednesday morning at a diner in Rock Rapids. But Palmberg said Cruz is his second choice behind Rubio, citing issues like global warming, immigration and the flat tax that are making him lean toward Rubio because he’s more to the center on them. Becky Waters and her husband came from nearby Ogden to hear Cruz speak at a Christian bookstore in Boone on Monday. While her husband was on board for Cruz, Becky Waters said she came into the event torn between him and Rubio. But after hearing Cruz, her mind was made up. “That was a powerful speech,” she said. “He’s the guy.” But Nelson, the corn grower, wasn’t so sure after a Cruz event in Cherokee. “I’ll sleep on it,” he said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Marco Rubio super PAC goes after Chris Christie in 2 new ads
According to an average of polling in New Hampshire compiled by Real Clear Politics, Marco Rubio is now at 13.3 percent support in New Hampshire, putting him 13 percentage points behind Donald Trump. That second place status is relatively tenuous, however, with Ted Cruz trailing him with an average of 12 percent, and Chris Christie two points behind, averaging 11.3 percent. Conservative Solutions PAC, a super PAC supporting Rubio’s presidential candidacy, is now going after the New Jersey governor in two new ads that surfaced Monday. One of them goes after Christie regarding his management of the Garden State. Titled, “Look at Me,” the ad bashes Christie for mismanaging New Jersey, where he’s now beginning his third year of his second term in office. It lists a survey that says that New Jersey has the highest tax burden in the nation, last in job growth, and mentions the controversial incident known as “BridgeGate” that appeared at one point to doom Christie’s hopes for higher office. The other, called “Favorite,” blasts the Jersey governor for being a faux conservative. It begins by showing him with his infamous greeting of President Barack Obama just before the 2012 general election, when the president visited New Jersey shortly after Hurricane Sandy slammed the state. It goes on to attack Christie for supporting an Internet sales tax, Medicaid expansion, and Common Core. “One high-tax, Common Core, liberal energy loving, Obamacare Medicaid expanding president is enough,” the ad says at its conclusion. Christie did back Common Core standards back in 2013, but now says he “supports state educational standards over Common Core.” Conservative Solutions PAC spokesman Jeff Sadosky says the two ads are a “significant part of our multimillion dollar ongoing ad buy in New Hampshire, but yes, there is also a digital campaign that moves with the TV ads.”
In NH speech, Marco Rubio once again calls Hillary Clinton a liar over Benghazi
Marco Rubio blasted Hillary Clinton in a speech in New Hampshire early Monday, going as far as calling for the former secretary of state not only incompetent, but a liar. “While she was leading the public and the families of the fallen to believe the attack in Benghazi happened because of a YouTube video, we now know she was admitting in private emails that it was the result of terrorism,” Rubio said while addressing an American Legion audience in Hooksett, New Hampshire. “She lied to our faces. No one in the mainstream media has the courage to call her out for it. If I am our nominee, voters will be reminded of it time and time again.” It’s not the first time the Florida senator and GOP presidential candidate has gone as far as to bash Clinton with the “liar” label referring to her private comments on what happened at Benghazi vs. her public statements at the time. He did so back at a debate the CNBC hosted event in Colorado back in October, referring to her then recent appearance at a Benghazi Committee hearing. “She spent over a week telling the families of those victims and the American people that it was because of a video. And yet the mainstream media is going around saying it was the greatest week in Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” Rubio said at that debate. “It was the week she got exposed as a liar. It was the week that she got exposed as a liar.” Rubio spent the bulk of his speech on Monday in blasting Barack Obama. He began by referring to the fact that it was exactly eight years ago today that the world first learned of the then little-known Illinois senator, as it was the day after he stunningly had won the Iowa caucuses the night before. “There have always been voices in our country who say America’s not that different, that every country thinks they’re special – voices who question our role abroad, who think of America as a bully rather than as a leader. But in 2008, for the first time ever, one of these voices was elected president,” Rubio said. “A man was elected who condemned America for having “arrogance” and the audacity to “dictate our terms” to other nations. A man who apologized for America and bowed pitifully to foreign leaders. A man willing to abandon our allies, make concessions to our enemies, and worst of all, to make historic, devastating cuts to our military and intelligence capabilities. For a while, many thought all of this was the result of naivety. But it wasn’t. It’s now abundantly clear: Barack Obama has deliberately weakened America. He has made an intentional effort to humble us back to size. As if to say: We no longer need to be so powerful because our power has done more harm than good. “ Rubio went on to say that he is the only candidate in the race with a “detailed strategy” to roll back what he says is Obama’s failures. When you vote for me, you know exactly what you’ll get. You’ll get a president who will destroy terrorists overseas by authorizing whatever tools our commanders need. You’ll get a reversal of the defense cuts that Obama and Harry Reid have forced on our military. You’ll get a leader who upholds the promise we make to our men and women in uniform that we will never send them into a fair fight, but will always equip them with the upper hand. Anyone who supports Obama’s disastrous defense cuts cannot make that promise.” Following his speech to the American Legion, Rubio is scheduled to fly to Iowa later on Monday for an afternoon town hall in Burlington.
New Hampshire GOP leaders fret over crowded 2016 field
The Republican establishment has flexed its muscle in New Hampshire’s presidential primaries for years. But in the unpredictable 2016 election, the state’s standard political playbook faces challenges on two fronts. Donald Trump‘s brash brand of populism is resonating with voters, and he’s sustained a commanding lead in statewide preference polls for months. While several experienced politicians are well-liked, some party elites fear none will emerge as a consensus choice in time for the Feb. 9 primary, allowing Trump to win a plurality. “If the center-right doesn’t coalesce here, it runs the risk of allowing a far-right, ideological candidate to go unchecked,” said Tom Rath, a New Hampshire-based Republican strategist backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Kasich is competing most directly for support with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Some centrist voters are fond of former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, but she is lagging behind the others. A decisive victory in New Hampshire could reset a race dominated by Trump’s unexpected durability. A weak showing would leave the establishment – generally understood to mean party leaders and insiders, mainstream donors and other influential figures who avoid the ideological extreme – with few options for a quick rebound. The primary is sandwiched between contests in Iowa and South Carolina that favor conservatives. Centrist candidates will have to survive the Southern states that vote in the delegate-rich contests March 1 – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia – before the race turns to more hospitable territory. With less than two months until voting begins, some in New Hampshire’s establishment see Christie as best-positioned to carry their presidential hopes out of New England. Christie has been a constant presence in New Hampshire for months, despite being largely ignored in national political circles, and has begun to pull in big endorsements. “The excitement is with Governor Christie,” said Jeb Bradley, the state Senate majority leader. Bradley endorsed Christie this month and said that among the experienced politicians running, “he represents the best chance to win.” Still, Bradley added, “Mr. Trump is pretty strong.” Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul and reality television star, has shown little sympathy for the establishment’s woes. “I’m sorry I did this to you, but you got to get used to it,” Trump said on “Fox News Sunday.” Republican leaders are worried about more than Trump. Some are equally wary of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, an uncompromising conservative deemed unelectable as president by some GOP leaders, ultimately siphoning off Trump’s support. Even if Christie’s standing strengthens, it’s unlikely he can clear the field before the primary. Kasich and Bush are largely staking their bids on New Hampshire, where they are spending significant time and money. Rubio has endeared himself to more mainstream Republicans despite being ushered into office as part of the 2010 tea party wave. His advisers believe he can pull support from a broader pool of voters than can the three governors. “People who have traditionally been active in the party are spread across a whole series of major candidates,” said Judd Gregg, a Bush supporter and former U.S. senator from New Hampshire. It’s not like 2012, Gregg said, when most officeholders past and present backed Mitt Romney, the eventual nominee. To Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire GOP chairman, the establishment candidates are “all so clustered that anyone can win that bracket.” So far, Republican operatives – some insisting on anonymity to discuss private conversations – say there is no organized effort to persuade one of those candidates to leave the race before the primary in order to narrow voters’ choices. But there have been preliminary discussions about what to do if four or five of those candidates finish within a few percentage points of each other in New Hampshire and all want to stay in the race. Republicans have discussed asking a party leader such as 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney or House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, to step in at that point and help broker exits for some candidates. These strategists said Romney and Ryan have not been approached about doing that and probably wouldn’t be until after the primary. Cullen said he hopes the whittling down happens “organically.” He suggested that even if the experienced politicians finished bunched together, those at the bottom may have no choice but to step aside. “A pretty good candidate is going to finish sixth or seventh in New Hampshire,” he said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
