A curious situation has presented itself within the FEC reports and required filings of 2016 election Super-PACS. A direct phone inquiry confirms a noted decrease in the number of required 24-hour expenditure reports from “some” Super-PAC’s currently active and engaged in the 2016 presidential election.
Perhaps the decrease in filing activity is just coincidental to several recent revelations which have been discovered and discussed relating to the payments to media groups and various media-created LLC’s who are beneficiaries of Super-PAC funding.
They could just be spending less, and being less involved in the last 10 days. A key deadline for monthly summary filings is only five days away.
However, it could also be that THIS SUNLIGHT is expanding exponentially.
Super-PACS are required to file a detailed monthly list of donors (contributions) and expenditures (payments) for the preceding month on/before the 20th day of the current reporting period. Meaning contributions and expenditures for “March 2016” are due by April 20th.
It would appear that contact, from ordinary researchers who dig through the sometimes overwhelming reporting, with the FEC, can actually deliver results. Since our initial research into Katie Packer’s group “Our Principles”, the FEC has requested clarification of expenditures for media payments made in opposition to candidate Donald J Trump.
(more…)
The latest Maryland Poll (full pdf below) shows candidate Donald Trump leading in all congressional districts and well positioned for a clean sweep of the state’s 38 republican delegates. Maryland Primary April 26th.
Donald Trump with 47% support, Governor John Kasich 27%, and the polarizing Senator Ted Cruz rejected by 81% of Maryland voters holding a mere 19% support.
(Via Politico) […] Trump leads in all congressional districts, though by larger margins in the two eastern districts bordering the Chesapeake Bay, where he leads Kasich 54 percent to 24 percent and just 11 percent for Cruz, and in two western districts, where he holds a 44 percent to 25 percent advantage over the Ohio governor and 23 percent for Cruz. In the remaining districts along the Baltimore-Washington corridor, Trump’s lead is smaller, with 43 percent to Kasich’s 31 percent and Cruz’s 20 percent. (more…)
The latest polling (full pdf below) released today positions candidate Donald Trump for a full delegate sweep of all congressional districts:
“It’s not just the statewide results that offer bad news for Cruz. Even outside of New York City and its suburbs, he’s running way behind Trump and even a tad behind Kasich. That means Trump could sweep nearly all of the state’s delegates.” (link)
There are 95 total delegates at stake. 14 delegates awarded to the state winner, and 81 district delegates (27 districts x 3 delegates each). Any candidate who gets 50% +1 of the vote in each of the congressional districts wins all three of the district’s delegates. In addition, there is a minimum threshold of 20% for any 2nd place candidate to gain one delegate (if winner below 50%).
Candidate Donald Trump is currently positioned to win all 95 of the state delegates in New York. In addition, candidate Trump is leading in every demo.
(more…)
An interesting article within the Washington Post outlines some of the challenges with unbound delegates and delegates available for purchase…
(Washington Post) West Virginia looks perfect for Donald Trump: a struggling working-class state filled with the types of voters who have backed him elsewhere and could deliver one of his biggest victories.
But a sweep there might not matter. That’s because as many as 34 delegates — the entire contingent — may be free to back whomever they want at the Republican National Convention.
Much the same is true in Pennsylvania, home to a hotly contested April 26 primary, where there are 54 uncommitted delegates. Other states and territories, from Colorado to Wyoming to Guam, will also send squads of unbound representatives.
These are the swing voters of the GOP nominating contest, nearly 200 activists and elected leaders beholden to nothing except their personal judgment and empowered to make or break candidacies. (more…)
Mr. Giuliani, who will be a delegate from Manhattan at the Republican National Convention, said he would have more sway on the floor as someone who had not endorsed anyone. (link)
(New York) Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he’s voting for fellow New Yorker Donald Trump for president in the April 19 Republican primary.
“I support Trump. I’m gonna vote for Trump,” Giuliani told The Post Thursday.
Giuliani said he expects Trump will get more than 50 percent of the statewide vote and amass a lion’s share of New York’s 95 delegates.
“It’s a question of how much he gets over 50 percent. If he wins 70 to 80 delegates, Donald has a good shot of securing the 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination before the convention,” Giuliani said. (more…)
A few days ago someone posted a link to an official campaign event being held by Senator Ted Cruz. The link was in relationship to the Super-PAC “Keep the Promise” setting up the entire event, promoting the event, paying for the event, and coordinating the campaign activity culminating in Ted Cruz giving a speech at the event.
Unfortunately, given the thousands of comments daily we can’t find the link.
Despite rather outdated FEC rules -which are supposed to block such coordination- Carly Fiorina ran her entire campaign almost exclusively through Super-PAC financing. We noted a few weeks ago that Senator Ted Cruz had shifted to a similar financial model as Fiorina.
Essentially both Fiorina, now Cruz, are pushing the boundaries on what is allowable in a post Citizens United campaign operation. While it is against federal campaign laws for Super-PACS to fund or coordinate with candidates’ campaigns, the rules are very ambiguous as to what constitutes “coordination“. (more…)
We anticipate more than one possible Wisconsin results thread, hence the numbering as above.
Wisconsin Votes Today
Currently Trump is ahead 752 to 469 in delegates.
Popular vote so far:
- Donald Trump – 7,863,052
- Ted Cruz – 5,782,142
Wisconsin is a modified ‘Winner Take All’ delegate distribution – By State and By Congressional District:
♦ 24 district delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based on the primary results in each of the 8 congressional districts: each congressional district is assigned 3 National Convention delegates and the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes in that district will receive all 3 of that district’s National Convention delegates.
♦ 18 at-large delegates (10 base at-large delegates plus 5 bonus delegates plus 3 RNC delegates) are to be bound to the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes in the primary statewide.
Total = 42 Delegates Available. Wisconsin Polls close at 9:00pm Eastern.
- CNN Election HQ – Results Available HERE
- Politico Election HQ – Results available HERE
- New York Times Election HQ – Results Available HERE
- The Green Papers – Election Results and Delegate Tracking HERE
Wise Up and Rise Up Wisconsin
♦ Governor Scott Walker likes to display his rebel side (although it’s an illusion intended to solidify Tea-Party bona fides in optics only) by riding around on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. After all, Harley Davidson is headquartered in Wisconsin.
Well, for now at least.
♦ Wisconsin representative, now Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, also likes to tout his form of fiscal conservatism. However, as the former Chairman of the budgetary ways and means committee, a federal budget is also an optical illusion (hasn’t been one since ’07).
♦ Representative Paul Ryan and Governor Scott Walker along with RNC Chairman Reince Preibus promote themselves as proud Wisconsin cheese-heads; “conservatives” they say.
Well, given Paul Ryan’s full-throated endorsement and promotion for the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal (TPP), perhaps the Wisconsin working voter would like to see exactly what they have in mind for you. Remember, each of the aforementioned has also endorsed Senator Ted Cruz – who, not coincidentally, was the co-author of the Trade Promotion Authority bill (TPA) which was the vehicle to insure TPP’s passage.
Rather than go through all of the tentacles, and difficult to understand TPP construct, let’s instead use that wonderful Scott Walker (Harley Davidson motorcycle) example to show Wisconsin voters what’s really going on. (more…)
For decades as the UniParty ranks have swollen – and with them the advanced political machinations to retain power and keep control over the electorate….
Depending on the battle-space, national, regional or state voters have historically been viewed by those within the Machiavellian consort as sheeple masses, pawns to be shifted from here to there depending on need. The professional political class and the professional corporate media class working hand-in-hand to further their own self-interested agenda.
However, with the advent of rapid, engaging and transportable communication their grip on information has diminished severely. It is no longer necessary to take to the streets just to identify there are more of us than them.
Understandably, this is a source of much consternation – and as a direct consequence the owners of the social media communication platforms have been enlisted, many corrupted, to aid the modern usurp. (more…)
Tonight CNN is airing a GOP Presidential Candidate Town Hall at 8:00pm EDT in Wisconsin.
