Sometimes when you find yourself in a disconcerting and unfamiliar place, it can be beneficial to stop, look back and understand just how we ended up in this terrain.  The professional DC consultant class are benefiting from the current climate of chaos, and they certainly don’t want anyone to review the consequential and intentional steps it took to get here.
When the Tea Party rose up in opposition to President Obama’s indulgent spending programs in 2009 many were under the mistaken assumption the opposing party, the republicans, were against the progressive agenda based on principle.

However, there were a few voices on our side saying be wary of the UniParty nature of DC, the republican party is not our friend.  Money always fuels their motives; so long as there are millions available to the ‘loyal opposition’, the republican political intentions should not be regarded as altruistic.
At the time those concerns were dispatched by a louder voices demanding strategic unity and instructions to work within the DC-based GOPe system.  However, ultimately what benefit lies within unity if the end result is just a destructive?   The awakened electorate was just as much a risk to the republican side of the UniParty as it was the Democrat side.
It was from this basic framework of acceptance the Conservative Tree House was born. A “last refuge” where common sense approaches still mattered.
(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…)

Senator Ted Cruz has at least eight Super-PAC’s assisting his presidential campaign; and according to a recording obtained by Politico a Cruz’s campaign bundler was directing large donors toward one PAC specifically.  The “Stand for Truth” PAC.

However, the campaign appears to have, yet again, gone into the land of illegality with the following statement (via audio recording):

“If you hit your max then we have a table for you that is the unlimited table,” Keet Lewis, a bundler for the campaign and co-host of a Dec. 30 fundraiser in Dallas, says on the recording provided to POLITICO. “It can take corporate dollars, it can take partnership dollars, and that’s the super PAC, Stand for Truth, so pick up some of that information.” (link)

The politico article goes on to share how and why the fundraising instructions are illegal – read here– but that’s not the part that might stick out to anyone who has been following the 2015/2016 shady campaign finances.
(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…)

Great job Wisconsin.  All the campaign staff and volunteers should be proud of their accomplishments.  Team Trump winning 44 counties in the state, and Team Cruz winning 24 counties in the state.  [*There was one tie]

Congratulations Team Cruz on the overall victory with 48% of popular vote.

First, The Math:

Going into last night the Delegate race was:

• Donald Trump 752 delegates
• Ted Cruz 469 delegates
• Trump ahead by 283 delegates

Last night Team Cruz won 36 and Team Trump won 6.  So, after last night:
(more…)

We anticipate more than one possible Wisconsin results thread, hence the numbering as above. Wisconsin Votes Today:

Race Called for Senator Ted Cruz

Current Delegate Count – Trump: 752, Cruz: 469

Popular vote so far (before today):

1. Donald Trump – 7,863,052
2. Ted Cruz – 5,782,142

Wisconsin is a modified ‘Winner Take All’ delegate distribution – By State and By Congressional District – 42 Delegates total: (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:

1. Donald Trump – 7,863,052
2. 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

We have actually been puzzled about why candidate Donald Trump was reluctant to present a very easy, factual and reasonable outline of how it is entirely possible for U.S. policy to incentivize Mexico to pay for the Southern Border Security Wall.
One of the reasons we’ve been puzzled, is simply because the process itself is very easy to initiate.  Personally I think Trump is sandbagging on many of these solutions, preferring to hold back the substance of the policy proposals for the General Election.
However, today Donald Trump presented the simple outline (pdf below) and the liberal media is apoplectic.

In addition, when President Obama received a question about it, Obama showed just how insufferably naïve he is regarding the economics of the proposal.
Here’s the basics.  Mexico takes in approximately $25 billion in money transfers to their economy, mostly from the U.S., per year.  These transfers of cash are called “remittances”.  Trump is proposing a Money Services Compliance action, via the U.S. Treasury (Banking Services and Secrecy Act), that would force a Western Union affidavit (or other institution) to be completed prior to the transfer.
(more…)

The amount of money Washington DC is spending to attack Donald Trump and support Senator Ted Cruz is astounding.

They’re not even trying to hide the money flow much any more.
We previously shared how Mitch McConnell’s attorney, Eric Lycan was heading a PAC called “Stand For Truth”. That PAC was spending money attacking Donald Trump and Supporting Ted Cruz in Jan/Feb, in Iowa and on National Radio Shows – SEE HERE
The eye opener was the revelation that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was supporting Ted Cruz all along.  Which, against current information, solidifies the basic principle the entire Cruz -vs- McConnell dust-up was a staged event for public consumption in order to hoodwink conservatives.  (more on that later)
However, in the most recent filing, Lycan sent Ted Cruz Super-PAC (KtP III) $100,000 which was part of a massive pro-Cruz campaign expenditure on Facebook and Google.

(Starter Link – just enter Keep The Promise, or Stand For Truth in FEC search box)
The Cruz people spent: (more…)