Tag: Jeb Bush

Paul Characterizes GOP as ‘Same Old’ Same Old

Buck Banks

You need a candidate who reaches out to new constituencies and is able to bring new people into the party. Because if we do the same old, same old candidates, we are going to get the same old result.

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), “back in insurgent mode, lobbing bombs at his potential Republican presidential rivals and looking to take back a political spotlight that Bush and Romney have been hogging lately,” Politico reports. “Paul is also heading to New Hampshire and Nevada this week, hoping to strike a fire with voters who want a new voice to carry the GOP’s message to the White House.”

Bush Campaign Seeks to Limit GOP Field Through Fundraising

Buck Banks

$100 million

Fundraising goal of Jeb Bush’s allies for the first three months of this year — including a whopping $25 million haul in Florida — “in an effort to winnow the potential Republican presidential primary field with an audacious display of financial strength,” Bloomberg reports. “The targets were confirmed by multiple Republican sources involved in finance meetings with Bush’s team. They requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. One said the point is to persuade some establishment candidates to stay on the sidelines in the 2016 race.”

GOP Frontrunner Jeb Bush Fumbles Position on Marriage Equality

Jon Ponder

Bush
Bush
Supporters of marriage equality celebrated a milestone yesterday when county clerks in Florida began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. With the expansion of marriage rights into the third largest state, marriage equality is now the law of the land in 70 percent of the United States, a remarkable turnaround on an issue that was considered political poison just a few years ago.

The victory was not welcomed unanimously, of course. Among the first to speak for the dyspeptic was Jeb Bush, Florida’s former governor and the GOP’s putative 2016 presidential frontrunner. It was Bush’s first campaign-related statement this year — and it did not go smoothly.

[…]

Jeb Bush’s Electability is Far from Inevitable

Buck Banks

In two solid years of being pitted against Hillary Clinton in polls, Bush has not led a single one, and trails her in the latest RealClearPolitics average by over 9%. That’s a poorer margin than for Ryan (6%), Christie (7%), and Huckabee (8%), and about the same as for Paul. Ted Cruz is the only regularly polled putative GOP candidate running significantly worse than Bush against HRC (an RCP average gap of 13%), and that’s largely because he’s far less well-known.

— Ed Kilgore, writing in Talking Points Memo.