Jeb again leads Rubio in latest Florida poll

By Lynn R. Mitchell

There is more good news for the Jeb Bush camp today as the latest poll in his home state shows he has a commanding lead over fellow Floridian Marco Rubio (see Florida poll: Jeb Bush takes big lead over Marco Rubio by Marc Caputo in Politico):

Jeb Bush holds a commanding lead over Sen. Marco Rubio among registered Florida Republicans, who have soured on the senator since he announced his presidential bid in April, a new poll shows.

In the crowded GOP field, Bush leads the second-place Rubio 28 to 16 percent in their home state, according to Mason Dixon Polling & Research’s survey. In Mason-Dixon’s poll three months ago, Rubio was essentially tied with Bush 31 to 30 percent.

Jeb! campaign announces staggering $114 million raised in six months

By Lynn R. Mitchell

The goal: $100 million. Final tally: $103 million. Final tally of PAC and campaign: $114 million in six months.

That’s the report Thursday from Right to Rise USA, the PAC lined up with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (see Eli Stokol’s Jeb’s haul: $114 million in Politico). It’s an historic goal in presidential campaigns — an aggressive, optimistic goal that was exceeded. That’s good news for Jeb Bush and his supporters.

An email from Right to Rise USA’s Finance Director Mason Fink announced the news:

Right to Rise USA is happy to announce we have raised a historic $103,000,000. This success would not have been possible without you and we thank you for your generous support. You can read more about Right to Rise USA’s strong financial support on our website. Thank you again for everything you’ve done to help our team. We look forward to continuing to work with you to support Governor Jeb Bush.

News outlets picked up on the haul Thursday afternoon (see Jeb Bush’s Money Juggenaut: $114 million and counting):

Jeb continues to lead in the polls, enjoys summer surge

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to quietly chisel away at the opposition, distancing himself from the pack of Republican 2016 presidential candidates that now numbers seventeen. In this summer of 2015, Jeb continues to lead in the polls (see Jeb Bush’s summer surge by Eli Stokols in Politico):

Bush has jumped from 10.8 percent on June 15, the day he announced, to 16.3 percent Wednesday in the Real Clear Politics polling average, almost 6 points ahead of his nearest rival, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. In New Hampshire, he’s taken a similar lead.
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Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz said he believes the surge is no fluke.

Christie goes after Rand Paul’s soft stance on terrorism

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Chris Christie speaks the truth (see reporter Daniel Straus’ Chris Christie rips Rand Paul on Patriot Act). Rand Paul may have been elected as a Republican but he is a Libertarian especially when it comes to national security.

Referring to Paul’s filibuster on the floor of Congress that allowed parts of the Patriot Act to expire, Christie said:

“These types of actions, I’m telling you from experience, are shortsighted. And these same people who give these long speeches up on Capitol Hill if, God forbid, there is some kind of other attack in this country, will be the first ones to [drag] the CIA director and the FBI director up to Capitol Hill, put them under oath and excoriate them for not connecting the dots and not preventing the attacks,” Christie said.

True. It happened after 9/11. The Patriot Act was put into place after the devastatingly tragic terrorist attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, as radical Muslims attacked New York City’s Twin Towers, Arlington’s Pentagon, and caused the airplane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, of United Flight 93 that was thought to be headed to the U.S. Capitol or the White House.

Christie added, “This is about life and death for our country, and I stand for keeping America safe and making America strong and not giving political speeches on the floor of the Senate to raise money for a political campaign.”

Chris Christie gets it. Never forget.

OPM security breach hits Va Congresswoman Barbara Comstock

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-10th) revealed Wednesday that her personal information had been compromised in the security hack, thought to be perpetrated by China, that affected the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

As noted by reporter Tal Kopan in Politico, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) was also affected. Both had worked on the Hill before elected office.

Comstock, whose northern Virginia district includes a large number of federal employees, wrote a letter to the director of OPM that that all are justifiably alarmed. The White House, meanwhile, stood behind the OPM director amid calls for her removal.

Comstock’s letter:

Jeb to make it official on June 15

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Coming soon…http://t.co/t9HbLSu2ve

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) June 4, 2015

Early this morning former Florida Governor Jeb Bush tweeted in English and Spanish that June 15 will be his official announcement date to become a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

The official launch will take place at 3:00 pm on the campus of Miami Dade College in his home state of Florida. It’s good to see he will announce from his home state.

Read more at Politico.

McDonnell bipartisan supporters in appeal include Harvard legal scholars

Governor Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling at Executive Mansion, 2011. (Photo by Lynn R. Mitchell)

By Lynn R. Mitchell

As former Governor Bob McDonnell’s appeal continues in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, bipartisan legal voices from around the country have voiced support for the reversal of his unjust conviction. The unprecedented support has come from some of the nation’s most recognized legal scholars, former federal judges, former state Attorneys General, and Virginia business leaders (see Strange bedfellows defend Bob McDonnell):

Signers of the briefs include a number of former government officials with skin in the game — 44 former state attorneys general (23 of whom are Democrats), two former U.S. attorneys general, attorneys for the past five presidents, and the Republican Governors Association — as well as conservative and liberal scholars united around a separate idea that states should be allowed to determine their own corruption laws.

Allen: ‘Terry McAuliffe stole the show at Gridiron Club dinner’

Governor Terry McAuliffe

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Politico’s Mike Allen highlighted Virginia’s the performance of Virginia’s governor at Saturday night’s Gridiron Club dinner in D.C. in his morning Playbook:

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe stole the show last night at the 130th Gridiron Club dinner – D.C.’s only white-tie-and-tails event, and one of the few big dinners that’s off-camera. The dinner, known for elaborate skits featuring top reporters, started as a gathering of the then-powerful newspaper bureaus, but over time added TV personalities.
…
“Good evening, everybody. I’m Terry McAuliffe, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Terry McAuliffe, the Governor of Virginia. Who saw that coming? … I see so many familiar faces. Vernon Jordan, Madeleine Albright, Donna Brazile, and Mike McCurry are here. The New York Times is trying to screw the Clintons every chance it gets. If the middle class were doing better, I’d swear it was the nineties. You all remember the middle class. Those are the people who walk by you to get to their seats further back in the plane.

Hillary Clinton and her lack of ‘likeability’ factor is polar opposite of Bob McDonnell

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Monica Crowley has a piece over at The Washington Times about Hillary Clinton and email-gate (see The real reason Hillary is in trouble). In it, Crowley notes all the issues swirling about Hillary but boils her troubles down to one thing: “No one likes her.”

Crowley goes on to say:

This is the hard truth that has popped up like a vicious migraine: No one — not even many of her fellow Democrats and leftists in the mainstream media — likes her very much. Her negative poll numbers (particularly on issues of honesty and trustworthiness) have always been high, except during much of her tenure as secretary of state. But her negatives are now back with a vengeance.

Jeb headlined RVA fundraiser

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Jeb Bush was in Richmond Monday even as snow fell on Virginia’s capital city. The former Florida governor was headlining a fundraiser at the Jefferson Hotel for the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that has raised tens of millions of dollars for down-ballot candidates (see Jeb Bush aids down-ballot Republicans by Tarina Parti with Politico):

Ted Cruz alienates his colleagues with latest government shutdown effort

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Ted Cruz did it again. He tried to shut down the government just like the disastrous shutdown he orchestrated in October of 2013 (see Ted Cruz does it again by Manu Raju in Politico). Right here at Christmas! Think how well that would have gone over with the American people. Not only that, Cruz blindsided his colleagues while on his self-absorbed mission, demanding on Friday that senators stay in Washington over the weekend, just 10 days before Christmas, causing cancellations of family plans.

They did it to Bill Bolling, now they’re doing it to Jeb Bush

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Jeb Bush. Not conservative enough. Try as I might, it remains impossible to see these two concepts as even remotely related. John Ellis Bush, the second son of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Bush, who during his first run for Florida governor in 1994 cheerfully called himself a head-banging conservative, a hang-’em-by-the-neck conservative … who during his second run for Florida governor in 1998 had to craft for himself a more compassionate persona so as not to scare off independent voters … that Jeb Bush has come to be viewed with suspicion by the uber-conservative, Tea Party wing of his Republican Party?

They did it to former Virginia Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling who was considered by some to be too conservative when he ran for lieutenant governor in 2005 only to turn around a few years later and be labeled not conservative enough by the newly-arrived “uber-conservative, Tea Party wing” of the Republican Party, as Politico calls it. Reinventing, that is (see Reinventing Jeb Bush: How America misremembers the family’s true conservative).

Politico’s Guide to Election Night 2014

By Lynn R. Mitchell

I realize not everyone is a political junkie but for those who are interested in the results beyond Virginia, Politico has a guide to Election Night (see Viewer’s guide to election night). Closing times are staggered — a number of states extend voting beyond Virginia’s 7:00 p.m. closing. Watch for updates not only from Politico but other news outlets across the board. This is the day political junkies live for….

NBC-12’s Ryan Nobles heading to D.C. to join CNN

By Lynn R. Mitchell

On Monday afternoon Richmond-based WWBT NBC-12 reporter Ryan Nobles posted to his Facebook page (on the day that coincidentally happened to be his birthday):

Scott Brown wins NH primary

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Scott Brown is back. In a three-way primary Tuesday night, he won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. From reporter Joshua Brown with the Boston Globe (see In N.H., Scott Brown wins Senate bid):