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$400 million
Amount “the network of pollsters, direct mail specialists, lawyers, consultants, signature gatherers and voting data whizzes were paid … for 85 statewide measures across the country in 2014” in the 26 states that have citizen-initiated ballot measures, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
The first thing we do, we’ve got to find this jackass and bring him to justice. It’s evil. He is evil.
— South Carolina state Sen. Larry Grooms (R), calling on police to catch the man who shot and killed his friend and colleague, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney (D), along with eight others during a Bible study last night in Charleston, TPM reports. “He was my colleague but he was also my brother in Christ, and the news of his death and the deaths of the others, made me physically ill.”
126
Number of pages in “My Story: Lindsey Graham,” an e-book published on the presidential candidate’s website this week, wherein “Graham — best known as a flame-thrower on immigration reform and an outspoken critic of President Obama’s foreign policy — has opened up about his lost loves and a near proposal to a Lufthansa flight attendant,” CNN reports.
$50
Amount his campaign paid actors to cheer at Donald Trump’s presidential announcement Tuesday, according to Hollywood Reporter. “New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list of background actors, seeking extras to beef up attendance at Trump’s event. … The pay was listed as $50 for fewer than three hours of work. According to the email, Extra Mile was reaching out to potential extras in partnership with Gotham Government Relations and Communications, a New York-Based political consulting group that has worked with Trump in the past.”
1
Number of the GOP’s 16 declared or likely presidential candidates who attended the 32nd annual convention of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. More than 1,200 Hispanic leaders gathered in Las Vegas “for, among other things, a presidential candidates forum. Yet … only one — retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — bothered to show up,” the Washington Post reports.
No, he won’t win the Republican nomination for president, and no, his rambling announcement-day speeches (Mexico? Free trade? China?) won’t help him get taken much more seriously. But there’s a slice of voters, not insignificant in the Republican primary race, who despise Washington and politicians more broadly. Every candidate likes to try to channel that, but none bring the bluster that Trump does. (Tuesday night in Des Moines, he blasted Jeb Bush as a poor dresser, and said he had better hair than Marco Rubio.) Trump is a sideshow, but one whose act will spill on to the main stage, particularly if he earns a debate invitation or three. His candidacy may be a giant joke. But don’t forget there are voters who want to laugh, and hard, at the entire political process.
— Rick Klein, on ABC News.
It’s tempting to feel a little sorry for the Republican Party. Here they were, trying to have a perfectly civil and sober primary campaign to determine their candidate for the presidency, when along comes Donald Trump. … Here’s the problem, though: Donald Trump is the essence of contemporary Republicanism. It’s a distilled essence, boiled down to a viscous and sour consistency. But if you want to know what Republicans believe and who they are, you don’t need to look much further. He’s a walking caricature, but it’s a caricature created from everything Republicans believe.
— Paul Waldman, in The Week.
17%
Scott Walker’s lead over the GOP presidential field, followed by Jeb Bus at 15%, Marco Rubio at 13%, Ben Carson at 12%, Mike Huckabee at 11%, Ted Cruz at 8%, Rand Paul at 8%, Carly Fiorina at 5%, and Chris Christie at 4%, a new Public Policy Polling survey finds. “Small though the lead may be, this is the fourth consecutive national survey we’ve done where we found Walker out in front.”
I’m really rich…that’s the kind of thinking you need for this country. It sounds crass, it’s not crass… We have the opposite thinking. We have losers. We have people that don’t have it. We have people that are morally corrupt.
— Donald Trump, quoted by Politico.
10 points
Hillary Clinton’s lead over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race is 41% to 31%, according to a new Suffolk University poll in New Hampshire. Said pollster David Paleologos: “Most political observers felt that Hillary Clinton’s large early lead among Democratic voters would eventually shrunk a bit over time. But in New Hampshire right now, the lead has shrunk a lot, and this is a much different Democratic primary race than we are seeing in other states so far.”
