Campaign News

Romney Scores "Decisive Victory" In Illinois Primary Adding to his delegate lead, Mitt Romney on Wednesday scored what the Chicago Tribune called "a decisive victory " in Illinois' GOP presidential primary. Romney captured 47% of the vote, followed by Rick Santorum with 35%, Ron Paul with 9%, and Newt Gingrich with 8%. Reports and analyses this morning generally cast the win as a crucial one for Romney that moves him closer to his goal of winning the GOP nod. Despite the outcome, analysts say that the Republican race still appears likely to drag on for some time, possibly until late June.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the former Massachusetts Governor trounced Santorum "in what amounted to the first big-state head-to-head contest among the front-runners for the GOP nomination. ... Even more important for Romney, he swamped Santorum by winning 39 of the 54 elected delegates up for grabs in the state. Santorum had only five, though votes were still being counted in several Downstate congressional districts where he ran strongest."
CNN's current delegate count (including Illinois) has Romney with 562, Santorum with 249, Gingrich with 137, and Paul with 69.
The AP says Romney "took a major stride toward the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, routing...Santorum in the Illinois primary for his third big-state win in a row and padding his already-formidable lead in the race for convention delegates. ... Looking beyond his GOP rivals, he said he had a simple message for President Barack Obama, the man Republicans hope to defeat next fall: 'Enough. We've had enough.'"
The Chicago Sun-Times reports, "Illinois Republicans gave...Romney the bragging rights he has sought for so long, handing him a big win in a Midwestern state." The former Massachusetts Governor "has been waiting for a decisive win in a Midwestern state after the narrow victories he eked out in Michigan and Ohio."
On its front page, the New York Times reports that Romney "swept to victory in" yesterday's contest, "using the full force of his campaign and an argument that he has the best chance of defeating President Obama to overcome doubts among the more conservative voters at the heart of his party."
The Washington Post reports, "After squeaker victories over Santorum in Michigan and Ohio," Romney "needed to show that he could kindle enough voter enthusiasm for a big win outside his Northeastern power base. On Tuesday, he got it. For the first time since long-ago Florida," Romney "demonstrated that he could win as big as he spends."
USA Today notes that in Illinois, Romney's "campaign and the super political action committee that supports him, Restore Our Future, spent about $3.5 million during the campaign. Santorum and his super PAC spent about $500,000."
FreedomWorks Dropping Its Opposition To Romney The Washington Times reports, "The organization that ignited the tea party as a national mass movement gave Mitt Romney perhaps his biggest victory yet, deciding to drop its opposition to his candidacy, a top executive in the group told The Washington Times. FreedomWorks...says that while it will not give an explicit endorsement, the time has come for Republicans to unite around" Romney "and focus on defeating President Obama."

Romney Leads Santorum By Four Points In Gallup Tracker The latest Gallup daily GOP primary tracking poll shows Mitt Romney's lead over Rick Santorum continuing to shrink. Romney draws 34%, followed by Santorum with 30%, Newt Gingrich with 13%, and Ron Paul with 10%. Romney led 35%-29% the previous day. The poll surveyed about 1,200 GOP primary voters from March 15-March 19.

Obama Campaign Had $85 Million On Hand At the End Of Last Month Bloomberg News reports President Obama's campaign brought in $21 million last month and has raised a total of $161 million and has $85 million in the bank, while Romney's campaign took in $12 million in February and has raised a total of $75.6 million. Politico says he finished February with $7.3 million in the bank.
However, super PACs even up the numbers a bit, as USA Today , reports that Obama's super PAC, Priorities USA Action, brought in only $2 million last month, half of it from TV host Bill Maher. The New York Times reports the Romney-allied Super PAC Restore Our Future, brought in $6.5 million but "spent more than $12 million in February, most of it on advertisements attacking his rivals as he battled in seven primaries and caucuses that month."

Jackson Romps Over Halvorson In Democratic Primary IL2 Rep. Jesse Jackson (D) easily defeated ex-US Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D) in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. The AP reports, "With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Jackson had 71 percent of the votes, while...Halvorson...had around 29 percent." Of Halvorson's bid to knock him off in the Democratic primary, Jackson said, "I had to take it very seriously. I never take an opponent lightly. She put up a very, very strong challenge."

Duckworth Defeats Krishnamoorthi, Will Now Take On Walsh Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth (D) cruised to victory over Raja Krishnamoorthi (D) 66%-34% in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, and will now take on IL8 Rep. Joe Walsh (R) in November. The Chicago Sun-Times reports, "The outspoken Walsh is a favorite of national Tea Party activists, but Duckworth - who lost her legs in a combat helicopter crash in Iraq - long has been a rising star among the state's powerful Democrats. Her status grew Tuesday with her victory" over "Krishnamoorthi, a former deputy state treasurer.

Kinzinger Defeats Manzullo In GOP Primary In a closely-watched contest, freshman IL11 Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R) defeated veteran IL16 Rep. Donald Manzullo (R) on Tuesday in a GOP primary showdown. The AP reports Kinzinger "had 56 percent of the vote compared with about 44 percent for Manzullo." Kinzinger opted to run for reelection in the IL16 CD after he was drawn into IL2 Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s district during redistricting. The New York Times reports, "The contest between Mr. Kinzinger and Mr. Manzullo was the most high-profile test to date of the durability of outside 'new' conservatives versus older incumbents. It was also a test for Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, who took the unusual step of endorsing Mr. Kinzinger against Mr. Manzullo, his long-serving 67-year-old colleague."

Washington News

New Ryan Plan Reignites Political Debate Over Spending, Medicare House Republicans offered a budget plan yesterday which they said would reduce federal spending by over $5 trillion over the next ten years. The plan is getting a great deal of coverage in today's newspapers – though it was not mentioned on the network newscasts last night. Most of the coverage portrays the plan as an election-year tactic by Republicans to contrasts themselves to Democrats on fiscal issues. Many stories also report on the fierce criticism of the plan from the White House and congressional Democrats who say the proposal would bring an end to Medicare and punish the poor and the middle-class while protecting the wealthiest Americans.
Fox News' Special Report reported Rep. Paul Ryan, "the Republicans' point man on money matters...unveiled his latest plan to try to make the federal books a little less unbalanced." Ryan "proposed a sweeping reform of everything from taxes to Medicare today as part of the new Republican budget plan. And he began with a GOP favorite." Ryan: "First, we propose that we repeal the President's disastrous healthcare law."
Also on Fox News' Special Report, Ed Henry reported that the White House is "again charging, as they did last year, that the Ryan budget would end Medicare as we know it, even though it's gone through some changes. Last year, it was a full privatization of Medicare, this year it's just a partial privatization. Despite that tweak, White House officials like [NEC director] Gene Sperling today, basically said, 'this will wipe out traditional Medicare.'"
The New York Times reports that the proposal reflects Republicans' "vision of a smaller government, a flatter tax code and a free-market Medicare system." The Times says Republicans are "banking that fears over surging federal deficits will trump longstanding voter allegiances to popular government programs." The plan would "reshape Medicare into a system of private insurance plans, shrink programs for the poor and turn them over to state governments, and try to simplify the tax code for individuals and businesses."
The Washington Times reports that the proposal is "the third such GOP plan in the past month to try to change Medicare, and it runs smack into the White House and congressional Democrats, who say the GOP is tangling with an issue that will cost them votes in November." The Times notes that while all sides agree that Medicare needs changes, "Republicans and Democrats are struggling to find any common ground over how to make it sustainable."
The Washington Post calls the plan a "bold but risky election-year marker," and says that congressional Republicans "plan to use the document to demonstrate their willingness to tackle the nation's difficult fiscal problems head-on." The Post adds that the plan, which would cut federal spending by $5.3 trillion over the next decade, "provided new fodder for Democrats, who argued that Republicans would slash the social safety net while protecting the rich."
USA Today reports that Ryan said the plan is "philosophically rooted in reducing Americans' reliance on the federal government." He "acknowledged and dismissed the political risks of voting on a non-binding proposal for sweeping changes to popular programs in an election year," saying, "If we simply operate based on political fear, nothing is ever going to get done."
The Christian Science Monitor says the plan "aims to 'sharpen the contrast' with President Obama on debt." The proposal "offers a Republican touchstone for spending, taxes, and debt likely to resonate in the national dialogue through November elections." Meanwhile, Democrats "believe the proposal will help them paint Republicans as out of touch with middle America, particularly on the issue of Medicare."

Obama Set To Tout His "All-Of-The-Above" Energy Strategy The President's tour in support of his energy policy did not receive a great deal of national coverage last night or this morning. USA Today , in an article titled, "Obama Takes Alternative Energy Strategy On The Road," reports, "As public angst grows over gas prices," the President "hits the road today in hopes of reinvigorating his argument that the USA must embrace a broad strategy to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil." According to USA Today, "The two-day trip...is an opportunity for the president to highlight his 'all-of-the-above' energy strategy, which calls for investment in clean energy and expanding domestic oil and gas production."
Fox News' Special Report reported White House officials are "charging that the Ryan budget will decimate federal funding for various research into alternative energy. They also say that tomorrow, as the President embarks on a two-day tour out west to deal with rising gas prices, he will double down on solar and other alternative sources of energy, this despite some high-profile failures, of course, like Solyndra."
Obama Will Seek Expedited Construction Of Keystone Pipeline's Southern Leg Aamer Madhani, in a post for USA Today , reports the President "will call for expediting construction of the southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline, according to a White House official. ... While visiting Cushing on Thursday as part of a trip to promote his energy policy, Obama will reiterate the administration stance that expediting construction of the southern segment will help relieve a 'bottleneck of oil' and bring domestic resources to market, said the official."
Chu Says He Deserves An "A" Grade On Gas Prices The Hill reports that in a "tense" House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Energy Secretary Chu "stood firmly behind his department's efforts to address volatile gas prices and invest in clean-energy projects Tuesday amid aggressive attacks from House Republicans." Chu "defended the Energy Department's embattled loan program and gave the agency high marks for working to develop a long-term plan to protect consumers from soaring pump prices."
DeMint: Obama Is "Doing Everything He Can To Raise The Price Of Gasoline" Sen. Jim DeMint, on CNBC's The Kudlow Report, said the President is "going around the country talking about the issue" of gas prices, "but I think this is one of the promises from his campaign that he is actually keeping. Apparently he and his energy secretary want the cost of gasoline to go up. I think they're trying to deal with it politically, but they're certainly not doing anything that would actually increase the supply and lower the prices of gasoline."

Allen Testifies US Will Stick With 2014 Withdrawal Plan Despite Turmoil The CBS Evening News reported that in congressional testimony, Marine Gen. John Allen "said despite Afghan anger over the killings and over the burning of copies of the Koran there are no plans to speed up the US withdrawal." ABC showed Allen saying, "We're going to have combat forces in Afghanistan...to the end of 2014."
According to the Washington Post , Allen told the House Armed Services committee that the US is "on track" to achieving goals in Afghanistan, and that local security forces are doing "better" than expected in their run up to full control in 2014. In "measured remarks," Allen did concede that the "last couple of months have been trying" while assuring that the "relationship between the coalition and Afghan security forces remains strong." The Post says that "lawmakers showed little appetite to press Allen on larger issues of the overall war and growing public calls to end it."
The New York Times characterizes Allen's testimony as "optimistic about eventual success" but mindful "that it was too early to begin shifting forces from battles in the south to the country's turbulent eastern provinces." The Times says the hearing's "questions and comments...showed a deep exhaustion with overseas conflict." Regarding the controversial issue of night raids, Allen "said the Afghans would be taking control of them...eventually. Twelve Afghan strike teams are being trained for that purpose, he testified."