Hillary Clinton VP search focus is Tim Kaine, Tom Vilsack, Tom Perez
Hillary Clinton‘s vice presidential search is centering on three main contenders, with an announcement expected as soon as Friday as the Democrat prepares for her party’s national convention next week in Philadelphia. Clinton’s campaign has focused in recent days on Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a former governor, mayor and one-time Catholic missionary fluent in Spanish; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, an ex-Iowa governor and longtime Clinton ally; and Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a progressive champion who would be the first Hispanic on a major-party ticket, according to the Associated Press, which cites Democrats familiar with the search. The Democrats cautioned that Clinton had not yet reached a final decision and was weighing a number of factors, including the person’s readiness to be president, personal compatibility and ability to help her administration govern. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of liberals, remains in the mix and offers the campaign a fundraising juggernaut and the tantalizing prospect of an all-female ticket. But Warren is not expected to be the final choice, the AP reported, citing Democrats familiar with the process. They spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions about the search process. Clinton’s choice will be the culmination of a closely held search for a running mate, run by a small group of longtime advisers and confidantes. Preparing for a showdown with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Clinton has sought to project an inclusive campaign aimed at “breaking down barriers and building bridges” to mobilize the diverse coalition of voters who twice elected President Barack Obama. Clinton is expected to announce her decision during a two-day campaign swing in Florida later this week. The vice presidential rollout could come at either a Friday rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa or at a Saturday rally at Florida International University in Miami, where two-thirds of the student body is Hispanic. Following next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the newly minted ticket is expected to embark on a campaign bus tour, reminiscent of the “First 1,000 Miles” convoy that took Bill Clinton, Al Gore and their spouses across eight states after the party’s 1992 convention. Trump’s choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a conservative former congressman, for the GOP ticket was not viewed as requiring her to choose a specific running mate in response, according to the AP, citing Democrats familiar with the process. Campaign officials declined to comment. Kaine has been considered a leading contender for weeks based on his broad experience in Virginia, a presidential battleground state, as governor, senator and mayor of Richmond. He also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee and as a lawyer working on fair housing and civil rights issues. Vilsack, the longest-serving member of Obama’s Cabinet, has known Clinton for many years — his late brother-in-law worked with her in the early 1970s — and she was among his most prominent surrogates in his come-from-behind gubernatorial victory in 1998. Perez, meanwhile, is highly regarded by the White House for his policy chops and could potentially galvanize Latinos who have been turned off by Trump’s harsh rhetoric about Hispanics. The son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Perez played a behind-the-scenes role as a federal prosecutor, a top aide to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Both Vilsack and Kaine have been through the process before. Vilsack was among the final group considered by John Kerry in 2004 and Kaine was vetted by Obama’s team four years later. If either Vilsack or Perez were selected, they would be required to resign from Obama’s Cabinet. Clinton’s decision will be steeped in her personal experience. She was involved in her husband’s selection of Gore in 1992 and has the unique vantage point of having seen up close the various roles played by the vice president. In an interview this week with Charlie Rose of CBS News, Clinton said her main criterion was “would this person be a good president? You know, I am afflicted with the responsibility gene and I know what it’s like being president.” Quizzed on potential running mates, Clinton noted that Kaine had “never lost an election” and was a “world-class mayor, governor and senator.” She said Warren had “put the agenda of inequality front and center.” Clinton also praised retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander, calling him “exceptional.” Other possible choices include Housing Secretary Julian Castro, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Clinton met with Castro, Hickenlooper and Warren at her Washington home on Friday. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Jeff Sessions certainly makes Donald Trump’s slightly-less-short VP list
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich make up Donald Trump’s short list for the VP nod, but Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions certainly makes the slightly less-short list. Sessions was the first senator to back Trump’s White House bid, and in many ways he has been on board the Trump platform since before Trump decided what it was. Long before he donned a “Make America Great Again” hat at a February rally in Alabama, Sessions espoused some of the same outsider views that Trump’s candidacy have turned into the new normal in the GOP. When it comes to immigration, possibly Trump’s biggest selling point to voters, Sessions made it clear long ago he wouldn’t support any bill with amnesty for illegal immigrants. When it comes to trade, Trump’s foothold with Rust Belt voters, Sessions was one of the first lawmakers to speak out against the Trade Promotion Authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, though the four-term senator has voted for other trade deals in the past. Christie can’t say the same about his immigration stance, and Gingrich certainly isn’t as pure when it comes to Trump’s anti-trade platform — the former House Speaker just change his position in July. Whether he would add anything to the Trump ticket, however, appears to be the biggest argument against Sessions as VP. He’s Trump’s ideological doppelgänger, sure, but it’s not like the GOP nominee needs a lot of help in Alabama, and the 69-year-old wouldn’t exactly drive any youth to the voting booth. Still, Sessions seems to be on the bleeding edge of the shift in GOP politics toward Trump and has said he would be “honored” to run with Trump in the fall.
Hillary Clinton’s VP thinking: Don’t harm Dem chances to take U.S. Senate
As Hillary Clinton considers her choices for vice president, she’s seriously weighing the potential negative impact her decision could have on Democratic efforts to retake control of the Senate, according to party members familiar with her thinking. She’s also said to be worried about how her pick could affect congressional elections in 2018, at the midpoint of her presidency should she win the White House. Her political calculus underscores how closely linked she believes her success as president would be to having her party in power on Capitol Hill. Clinton’s concerns center on senators whose seats would be filled by a Republican governor if they move into the White House – including Cory Booker of New Jersey and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Examined by Clinton’s vetting team in an early stage of the vice presidential process, it’s unclear whether they have been moved onto her short list. The Democrats familiar with Clinton’s thinking all spoke on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to publicly discuss her search for a running mate. Clinton’s team is moving through the selection process quickly. Lawyers have already requested documents and questionnaire replies from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro of Texas. Interviews with Clinton will be scheduled for early next month. Top Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Harry Reid, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who will succeed the retiring Reid next year, and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have expressed concerns about Clinton’s vice presidential pick complicating their efforts to retake the majority. Democrats need to gain four seats in November to win control of the chamber if Clinton is president. “If we have a Republican governor in any of those states, the answer is not only no, but hell no,” Reid said last month. “I would do whatever I can, and I think most of my Democratic colleagues would say the same thing.” For Reid, there’s one exception: Warren. Reid and other Democrats have been reviewing Massachusetts rules for filing a Senate vacancy and are confident there are ways to speed up a special election they believe would return a Democrat to the seat before the next president takes office, despite GOP Gov. Charlie Baker’s power to tap a temporary replacement. Reid is actively pushing Clinton to tap the leading Senate progressive, who vigorously spoke up for her as they campaigned together in Cincinnati on Monday. He’s argued against picking Booker or Brown because of concerns about Senate control, according to Democratic officials. Both Booker and Brown have been active supporters of Clinton, frequently delivering impassioned introductions at events. But former Republican presidential candidates, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, would appoint their successors. “I’m a big Sherrod Brown fan,” Tester recently told Public Radio International. “It has a Republican governor in the state of Ohio, so it probably wouldn’t be good for the body, but I think he’d bring a nice mix to the ticket.” Clinton has made rebuilding state Democratic parties, which have languished under President Barack Obama, a key theme of her presidential run. “It’s not about me, it’s about us,” she told a meeting of House Democrats last week, stressing her focus on electing Democrats up and down the ticket. Democrats have a narrow but plausible path for retaking the Senate in November. Several seats are being contested in Democratic-leaning states, including Illinois, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Democrats are also hoping that if Clinton carries battlegrounds like Florida, Ohio and New Hampshire, the party could pick up Senate seats there as well. But a Democratic takeover of the Senate in November could be short-lived, deepening Clinton’s concerns about putting a safe seat in jeopardy. The election landscape for Senate Democrats in 2018 is grim, with their seats open in several Republican-leaning states. Campaign aides say Clinton is getting plenty of not-so-subtle suggestions from Democratic allies, donors and friends. “Whoever she picks is going to be the right person for her,” said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, an early Clinton backer. “But I’d pick somebody under 50. It’s time for a new generation to take power in Washington, especially in the Democratic Party.” But Clinton is skeptical of playing the role of party kingmaker, say people familiar with her thinking. She worries that by picking a younger running mate, she might appear to be selecting her successor – a responsibility she believes should rest with the next generation of Democrats. Clinton aides, who refused to comment on specific candidates under consideration, have hinted that she may be considering a far broader group that may include some non-traditional choices, including business leaders or even Republicans. “The list is probably bigger than people think,” said chief campaign strategist Joel Benenson on MSNBC recently. “It’s the first important choice the nominee has to make and it’s up to Hillary Clinton.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Ted Cruz to tap Carly Fiorina as running mate
Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz has tapped former technology executive Carly Fiorina to serve as his running mate. The Texas senator plans to unveil his pick for vice president Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis. That’s according to a Republican with direct knowledge of Fiorina’s selection, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized speak before the official announcement. “Carly is bright, knowledgeable, brings great financial expertise and she’s a woman,” said Gary Aminoff, the Los Angeles County co-chair of the Cruz campaign. Aminoff said he had also been told Fiorina was Cruz’s choice. The 61-year-old Fiorina, a former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, has been a prominent Cruz ally since shortly after abandoning her own presidential bid earlier in the year. She was the only woman in the Republican Party’s crowded 2016 field. “Of all the people who didn’t make it far in the race, she was one of the best about laying out her plan, talking about who she is and her accomplishments,” said Doug De Groote, a fundraiser for Cruz based near Los Angeles. It was an unusual move for a candidate who is far from becoming his party’s presumptive nominee, but Cruz is desperate to generate momentum for his struggling campaign. The fiery conservative was soundly defeated by GOP front-runner Donald Trump in all five primaries contests on Tuesday, and he’s been mathematically eliminated from winning the nomination before his party’s national convention in July. Some Cruz allies praised the selection of Fiorina, but privately questioned if it would change the trajectory of the race. Trump has won 77 percent of the delegates he needs to claim the nomination, and a win next week in Indiana will keep him on a firm path to do so. Cruz was to appear Wednesday afternoon with Fiorina in Indiana’s capital city, having staked his candidacy on a win in the state’s primary contest next Tuesday. Fiorina’s California ties could also give Cruz a big boost in that state’s high-stakes primary on June 7. “Carly has incredible appeal to so many people, especially in California,” De Groote said. “She can really help him here.” Her first major foray into politics was in 2010, when she ran for Senate in California and lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points. She has never held elected office. Trump criticized a Fiorina pick as “ridiculous” and “dumb” even before it was announced. “First of all, he shouldn’t be naming anybody because he doesn’t even have a chance,” the New York billionaire said in a Wednesday interview on Fox News. “Naming Carly’s dumb, because Carly didn’t do well. She had one good debate — not against me by the way, because I had an unblemished record of victories during debates — but she had one victory on the smaller stage and that was it,” Trump said. He added, “She’s a nice woman. I think that it’s not going to help him at all.” Throughout her presidential bid, Fiorina emphasized her meteoric rise in the business world. A Stanford University graduate, she started her career as a secretary, earned an MBA and worked her way up at AT&T to become a senior executive at the telecom leader. She was also dogged by questions about her record at Hewlett-Packard, where she was hired as CEO in 1999. She was fired six years later, after leading a major merger with Compaq and laying off 30,000 workers. Democrats quickly attacked the Cruz-Fiorina alliance. “The best way to describe that ticket is mean and meaner,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who beat Fiorina for Senate in 2010. “He wants to throw people out of the country and she threw thousands of jobs out of the country. Perfect match.” In an Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in December 2015, Republican voters were more likely to say they had a favorable than an unfavorable view of Fiorina by a 47 percent to 20 percent margin, with 32 percent unable to give a rating. Among all Americans, 45 percent didn’t know enough about Fiorina to rate her, while 22 percent rated her favorably and 32 percent unfavorably. By contrast, both Cruz and Trump have high negative ratings even within their own party, according to an April AP-GfK poll. Among Republican voters, 52 percent have a favorable and 41 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Cruz, while 53 percent have a favorable and 46 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Trump. Among all Americans, 59 percent had an unfavorable opinion of Cruz and 69 percent said that of Trump. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
