Thursday, January 31, 2008

Governor Schwarzenegger Endorses John McCain

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his endorsement of Senator John McCain this afternoon, a coveted endorsement that may help deliver the delegate-rich state of California to McCain.

To watch the full endorsement, click here.

RMC Issues Statement on Giuliani Exit




Republican Majority for Choice Statement on Mayor Giuliani’s Exit from Presidential Race

“Today we applaud Mayor Rudy Giuliani for his strong effort in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination. Mayor Giuliani ran a campaign of ideas and real solutions that tried to bridge the gap in a broken GOP.

“For the first time in years the debate was focused on real issues that all Republicans care strongly about. Issues like keeping Americans safe at home and abroad, solving the dilemma of sky rocking costs for entitlement programs and promoting real solutions to the illegal immigration debacle that seems to be beyond resolution.

“Mayor Giuliani stayed true to his convictions and made it clear that he would work with common sense and common ground as his guide. We have no doubt his candidacy restored the faith of many centrist Republicans who had lost confidence that the GOP could once again lead with common sense. We urge the eventual Republican nominee to take a page from this playbook, keep the rhetoric limited, the real solutions plentiful and the message broad enough to welcome all Republicans into a Republican Big Tent and encourage Independent voters to join us.”

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

McCain Wins Florida; Giuliani Expected to Drop Out of Race

Senator John McCain won the GOP presidential primary in Florida yesterday, coming in with 36% of the vote. Governor Mitt Romney placed second with 31%. Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee placed 3rd and 4th with 15% and 13% respectively.

It appears that Florida will be the end of the line for the Giuliani campaign. Reports from late Tuesday revealed that Giuliani would drop out of the race and endorse Senator McCain. This development is huge for the McCain campaign. The next major contest- Super Tuesday on February 5th- includes a host of states that Giuliani at one time had wrapped up. States such as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California would then pledge their delegates to Senator McCain. Governor Romney alledges he plans to campaign in several of these states, but there is still a question of whether he will be able to really play a strong role.

On the Democratic side, Senator John Edwards is also expected to drop out of the presidential race today. There are no reports of whether he will make an endorsement today.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Florida Primary Today

57 delegates are up for grabs in today's Florida presidential primary. Candidates have been campaigning hard in the state for the past 10 days. This primary is the first where every candidate has spent significant time and resources clamoring for votes.

Final polls heading into today's election show Senator John McCain with a 4 point lead over Governor Mitt Romney. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul are also competing for votes. This state was expected to go strong for Giuliani, but in recent weeks he has fallen in the polls both in-state and nationally. In fact, there are rumors that he could withdraw his presidential bid as early as Wednesday. The candidate, however, believes he will have a strong showing and expects to continue his bid into the Super Tuesday states.

How will the election change after Florida's primary? Will a clear front-runner emerge, or will we still have a contentious battle as February 5th approaches?

For more, click here.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Bush Gives Final SOTU Address Tonight

President Bush will deliver his final State of the Union Address tonight. The economy is expected to be at the forefront of his address as our nation faces a potential recession. Last week, Democratic and Republican Members of the U.S. House came together to support a bill that would give individuals earning up to $50,000 a year rebates in the amount of up to $600 and couples earning up to $150,000, up to $1200 rebates.

Bush is also expected to talk about hte war in Iraq and the troop surge that seems to have been working as the violence in that region is down. Bush's address comes just one day before the Florida GOP presidential primary.

For more, click here.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Candidates Participate in Final Debate Before Florida Primary

Last night, the remaining GOP Presidential candidates gathered at Florida Atlantic University in their final debate before Tuesday's primary election. Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul answered questions from NBC's Tim Russert and Brian Williams along with the President and Editor in Chief of the St. Petersburg Times.

Overall, the debate was friendly and had virtually no attacks from one candidate to another. The major issue addressed was the economy and thoughts on the economic stimulus package that gained bi-partisan support this week in Congress. Romney and Giuliani announced their support for the bill but said it did not go far enough.

Latest polls that the election in Florida is still anyone's game, but Romney and McCain are currently the leaders of the pack. Yet, as we saw on the Democratic side in New Hampshire, polls can prove to be very wrong in the end, as Clinton's landslide was not predicted by a single poll.

Click here for the full transcript from last night's debate. Be sure to check out the presidential spotlight section for more stories on the debate plus updated polls.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Results from Nevada and South Carolina

Mitt Romney won the non-binding caucuses in Nevada over the weekend with 51% of the vote. Also on Saturday, John McCain pulled out a win in South Carolina with 33% of the vote. Mike Huckabee finished second there with 27%.

Duncan Hunter, a Congressman from California, dropped out of the race because of his low numbers in the early battleground states.

Up next for the Republican Party is Florida on January 29th. Florida will be an interesting state to watch because it is the first state that Rudy Giuliani is expected to play a serious role in. Giuliani has dumped much of his resources into the state and has already had supporters participating in early voting.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Romney Takes MI

In an expected and unsurprising result, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has been declared the winner of the Michigan primary held yesterday. With 100% of the precincts reporting the final results are:

Mitt Romney: 39%
John McCain: 30%
Mike Huckabee: 16%

The results illustrates the fact that there is no clear front-runner thus far into the primary season. With Mike Huckabee's Iowa win, John McCain's win in New Hampshire, and now Romney's win in Michigan, the field is wide open and candidates who expect to come into play in Florida and the February 5th 'Super Tuesday' states still have a strong opportunity to win the GOP nomination.The Romney campaign poured millions of dollars into the state of Michigan and ran more ads than any other candidate. He also made a special point to ensure that voters knew of his family's history in Michigan, as his father was Governor there in the 1960s.

In the largely uncontested Democratic race, Senator Clinton easily won with 55% of the vote. The other major candidates did not participate in this primary. Some question how much of a victory this really was with 40% primary goers voting as uncommitted.

Up next is South Carolina and Nevada, who head to the polls on Saturday, January 19th. Stay tuned to this website for more on the Presidential Primaries.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Michigan Primary Day

Today marks the 3rd presidential primary of 2008 as Michigan voters head to the polls to choose their candidates. Though this is Romney's home turf, today's updated polling shows him trailing Senator John McCain by a small margin, 27%-26% with Mike Huckabee in third at 15%.

If Romney loses today's election, this could be the end-all of his campaign. He recently pulled ads from South Carolina and Florida (January 19th and 29th, respectively) to focus solely on winning Michigan. He has vowed to stay in the race through February, but a loss today will hinder his fundraising success as voters will look to other frontrunners to support.

RealRepublicanMajority.org will make more election coverage as today goes on.

Monday, January 14, 2008

New Presidential Polls

Michiganders will vote tomorrow in the GOP presidential primary- the 3rd state to do so in the 2008 election.

New polls released over the weekend show John McCain leading Mitt Romney in Michigan by a margin of 27%-24%. Michigan is Romney's home turf-- his father was Governor of the state in the 1960s. The future of his campaign is riding on his success there. New national polls show McCain leading Mike Huckabee 28%-20% (ABC News/Washington Post). A CBS News/New York Times poll shows McCain leading Huckabee 33%-18%.

This presidential race is very close and any of the candidates still have a chance to win. Michigan will be an interesting state to watch, but what happens on February 5th, Super Tuesday, will really set the stage for the 2008 general election.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

McCain, Clinton Win in New Hampshire

Senator John McCain revived his presidential campaign in a major victory over former Governor Mitt Romney in New Hampshire yesterday. The vote tallies were:

McCain: 37%
Romney: 32%
Huckabee: 11%
Giuliani: 9%
Paul: 8%
Thompson: 1%

Romney's strategy completely failed him. His entire plan was to win in Iowa and New Hampshire and use momentum to carry him through to the GOP nomination. His campaign is not on its last legs, and if he loses one more, his campaign will be over. Next up is Michigan on January 15th. Romney's father was once of the Governor of that state, and he has many other relatives who have run unsuccessfully for public office there.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been laying low in these early primaries, waiting to come into play in Florida on January 29th and compete heavily in the states that will vote on Super Tuesday, February 5th.

On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton staged a huge comeback, beating Senator Obama 39%-36%. All of the polls and political pundits got New Hampshire wrong here as Obama was up as much as 30 points in the final polls.

Stay tuned to this website for more on the presidential primaries.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

New Hampshre Primary Today

Polls opened as early as midnight in some places in New Hampshire, the site of the nation's first primary. Some results have already come in, showing McCain leading in Dixville Notch and also leading Mike Huckabee in Hart's Location. These numbers will continue to change as the day goes on.

What effect will the New Hampshire results have on the rest of the primary season? If McCain wins, will he have staying power, seeing that his campaign is already low on funding and infrastructure, or will Giuliani have an opening as there won't be a clear front-runner heading towards February 5th?

Stay tuned to RealRepublicanMajority.org for the latest news and updates.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Latest NH Polls; Weekend Debates

Today is the last full day the GOP candidates have to make the case of why voters should choose them before Tuesday's primary election contest takes place.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogy poll shows John McCain leading Mitt Romney 34%-29%. A CNN/WMUR/UNH polling of likely voters in the state showes McCain over Romney 32%-26%. And finally, McCain leads Romney 34%-30% in the latest USA Today/Gallup poll.

The outlook is not good for the Romney campaign. If he loses tomorrow, his run for president is essentially over. For months, Romney has led in both Iowa and New Hampshire and his campaign strategy was dependent upon his success in thoses two states. On Saturday, Romney won the Wyoming caucus; however, no other candidate made an effort in that state, so his win means virtually nothing.

The candidates also participated in two debates, one hosted by ABC, the other by FoxNews. Romney was targeted the most in both debates, largely for his flip-flopping on major issues. Romney himslef admitted to changing his positions. For a link to the ABC debate, click here. Stay tuned for a link to the full FoxNews debate.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Huckabee and Obama Win Iowa

In two decisive wins, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Senator Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses last night.

Republican Huckabee surged in the poll over the last month, defeating former MA Governor Mitt Romney who outspent Huckabee in a 20 to 1 margin. 60% of voters who turned out to vote in the Iowa election described themsevles as Evangelical Christians. This demographic certainly played to Huckabee's advantage. The question now is, will Huckabee be able to ride this wave of momentum? Likely not, as the next primary will be next Tuesday, January 8th in New Hampshire, where voters have a long history of supporting individual freedom and where Huckabee will not find such a base of religious voters.

In order to remain in the race, Romney MUST win New Hampshire. His entire campaign has focused on being able to win Iowa and New Hampshire and buidling momentum from there. With Iowa out of the picture, all eyes are on New Hampshire. If he fails to come in first, it's all but certain his campaign is over.

The full results for the night were:
Mike Huckabee: 34%
Mitt Romney: 25%
Fred Thompson: 13%
John McCain: 13%
Ron Paul: 10%
Rudy Giuliani: 3%
Duncan Hunter: 0%

For complete coverage, click here.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

'08 Elections Begin Today

The caucuses in Iowa are underway as voters there decide who they want their Republican and Democratic nominees to be in November 2008.

There is much hype that surrounds the Iowa caucuses, however, what is rarely mentioned is the actual impact that Iowa election holds: Republican voters in Iowa have only 40 Delegates available to them to send to the GOP Convention in St. Paul which has the power to officially nominate the person who will represent our Party in the November general election. Iowa, being one of the smaller states in the U.S. in terms of population, carries little weight in the overall number of delegates needed to win the nomination. More populous states, such as Florida which has 129 delegates availble, will have a greater impact on the nominating process.

While most of the GOP nominees have put all their eggs in one, or two, baskets-- Iowa and New Hampshire-- other candidates have examined the delegate selection process and have seen the importance of doing well in other, more populous states, many of whom head to the polls for primary day on February 5th.

No doubt, the momentum of past elections has propelled candidates from Iowa straight to the general election, but this year will prove to be much different. Never before have we seen so many states holding primaries in early February and with so little time between the states' elections. It is imperative to watch how the importance of these Iowa caucuses change the ultimate outcome of the election.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Countdown to Iowa Caucuses

Tomorrow, voters in Iowa will participate in caucuses to vote for both the Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates. All eyes are on this state as it is the first to partake in the 2008 elections. Governor Mitt Romney and Governor Mike Huckabee are the leading contenders for the GOP, and the race is a virtual dead heat as the margins of error are considered in polling numbers.

Earlier this week Governor Huckabee called a press conference to unveil a new ad attacking Romney, but at the last moment at the press conference, announced that he would not air the ad on television. However, he still showed the ad to the press which enabled reporters to record the video in the room and air the ad themselves on their respective networks. Clearly, Huckabee knew what he was doing by allowing press to see the ad-- he could still call himself the 'good guy' because he did not participate in an attack of him main opponent in the state, yet was able to get the message across that he wanted voters to know about Romney's record. Hopefully voters will be able to see through this tactic.

For more on polling in Iowa and the other early primary states, click here.