Saturday, October 24, 2015

I'm starting to think...."this boy is not right"

Donald Trump Skids for First Time in Republican Presidential Race 

Candidate falls behind Ben Carson in Iowa and faces questions about super PACs; Jeb Bush slashes payroll costs

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Burlington, Iowa, on Wednesday.ENLARGE
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Burlington, Iowa, on Wednesday. PHOTO: SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERS
WASHINGTON— Donald Trump is dropping in the polls. Cable-TV networks are no longer taking his rallies live. His assertion he was funding his campaign with his own cash turns out to be more complicated. He blamed an unsavory retweet about Iowa voters on an intern.
It has been the first truly bad week for the longtime Republican presidential front-runner, with a slide in the polls that is the first evidence evangelical voters are leaving him for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
The New York real-estate developer and reality-television star, who rode a series of controversial, at times offensive, comments to the front of the GOP primary race for months, fell eight points behind Mr. Carson in a Quinnipiac University poll of Iowa Republicans released Thursday. He was nine points behind Mr. Carson in a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll released Friday.
For a candidate whose message for months has been that he is the polling leader, the drop to second place in Iowa cuts to the heart of the rationale for his candidacy. Mr. Trump, who talks up his poll standing in every interview and campaign speech, said in a radio interview Thursday that he doesn’t believe he has fallen to second place in Iowa.
“I have a feeling we’re doing much better in Iowa than the polls are showing, if you want to know the truth,” he said on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Mr. Trump’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's polls and fundraising efforts have been slipping. He's now hoping to better capitalize on his family's vaunted political donor network. Photo: AP
Mr. Trump, who still maintains a lead in national polling, wasn’t the only Republican candidate struggling this week. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced Friday he is slashing campaign payroll costs by 40% and cutting 45% from the parts of his budget that don’t include media buys and voter contact. The Iowa polls that show Mr. Trump fallen to second place have Mr. Bush with just 5% support.
“We are in this campaign to win,” said a Bush campaign memo. “We are unapologetic about adjusting our game plan to meet the evolving dynamics of this race to ensure that outcome.”
On Thursday, Mr. Trump’s account retweeted a supporter’s suggestion that Iowa voters have “issues in the brain” that push them to support Mr. Carson. Mr. Trump later deleted the tweet and blamed it on a “young intern.”
Last Sunday, the Washington Post reported on the emergence of a high-dollar super PAC with close ties to Mr. Trump’s campaign and top campaign aides.
Dozens of independent groups have cropped up to support Mr. Trump’s run for president, some of them showing little activity while others actively solicit contributions. Each is problematic for a candidate who loudly condemns super PACs.
On Thursday night, Mr. Trump reiterated his call for super PACs backing him to disband. “I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
“I have disavowed all super PACs, requested the return of all donations made to said PACs, and I am calling on all presidential candidates to do the same,” he said.
Despite Mr. Trump’s insistence that he is funding his bid on his own, his own campaign website, not to mention federal campaign-finance records, show he is indeed raising campaign cash.
His campaign’s website features a large “DONATE” button, and Mr. Trump’s Federal Election Commission report shows that in the quarter ended Sept. 30, he spent only $100,800 of his own money, while raising $3.8 million from what his campaign called “unsolicited” donors, 119 of whom gave the maximum $2,700 contribution. He received 317 checks for $1,000 or more.
The biggest recipient of Trump campaign funds was Mr. Trump himself, according to Trump’s campaign-finance filing. The Trump-owned private aircraft company that flies his 747 was paid $723,400. The next-largest vendor was the company that produces Trump-branded hats and T-shirts, which was paid more than $500,000.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10/24/2015

    Iowa polls aren't much of a barometer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10/25/2015

    I think Mr. Carson, in the long run, will be dogged by those who remember Obama's initial foray into national politics. He was eloquent and well spoken, unpretentious and came off as just a regular guy. However, once elected, he appeared to have forgotten anything but leftist values. And even those concerned with political correctness and fairness may hesitate to go down the road again with Ben Carson. Granted, Dr. Carson's pre-political career has more accomplishment than Obama's, but just the same, the country is in tough times, and only the reluctance to elect an elitist pathological liar may be the key for Ben Carson.

    ReplyDelete