Tonight, South Carolina’s Republicans chose Donald Trump, while Hillary Clinton won a crucial victory in Nevada’s Democratic caucus. What impact(s) do these victories have on the upcoming Presidential contests? Republicans The Republican race is slowly but surely becoming a three person race; Jeb Bush’s withdrawal tonight has narrowed the GOP field to five candidates. However, each of […]
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RSS feed for this sectionDecision 2016: Democrats go to Nevada; Republicans go to South Carolina
The contests this Saturday have the potential to end one or more Republican candidacies, while Hillary Clinton is faced with a stronger than expected challenge from Bernie Sanders, who proudly describes himself as a “Democratic socialist.” However, Saturday’s contests are unique in that Democrats and Republicans are not competing in the same states on the same days. […]
Decision 2016: New Hampshire has spoken
Now that the New Hampshire primary has concluded, with (as this article is being written) 89% of the vote counted, what are the takeaways? Republicans (1) Essentially, the deck has been reshuffled, as New Hampshire once again has contradicted Iowa’s results; (2) After Iowa, we had noted the existence of three candidate “tracks”: the “Trump […]
Decision 2016: The day before the New Hampshire primary
Tomorrow, the Presidential contest moves to New Hampshire for its “first in the nation” primary. Three things that are important to understand about New Hampshire: (1) Independents are 44% of the electorate (30% are Republican, and 26% are Democrat), and can vote in (and influence) either party’s primary, (2) New Hampshire voters are less ideological and religious than Iowa, and (3) the […]
Decision 2016: The Iowa caucuses
The Iowa caucuses have concluded, with (as this article is being written) 99% of the Republican vote and 95% of the Democratic vote counted. What are the takeaways ? Republicans (1) Ted Cruz’s w 28-24% win over Donald Trump proves once again that the grass roots matters – quite simply, Ted Cruz had a ground game that […]
Decision 2016: Iowa and New Hampshire “Pre game analysis”
It’s countdown time: the Iowa caucus is eight days away on February 1, followed by the New Hampshire primary on February 9. And while a numerical majority of the individual Presidential contests will be held throughout the month of March, it is the Iowa and New Hampshire contests that will winnow down the field and […]
Decision 2014 – Behind the defeat of Mary Landrieu
After three terms of service, Senator Mary Landrieu was defeated in the December runoff 56-44%. While pundits attributed her defeat to the unpopularity of President Obama in Louisiana, the seeds of her defeat were sown long before that.
Decision 2014 – JMCEL scorecard as of November 2
Election Day is two days away, and this looks like a Republican year. How Republican of a year it will be is the question on table, as there are some “trouble spots” for the Republicans which haven’t entirely gone away in the closing days of the 2014 election cycle.
Decision 2014 – JMCEL scorecard as of October 25
We are now just over a week away from Election Day, and early voting is in full swing across the country (Louisiana has been early voting for four days, with some interesting results). The climate thus far has remained generally favorable towards the Republicans, despite “trouble spots” popping up here and there. Scorecard Criteria Given […]
Decision 2014 – JMCEL scorecard as of October 18
At this stage in the game, Election Day is in sight, and early voting is in full swing (early voting in Louisiana starts in three days). There were mixed messages sent by the voters, and several candidates received unfavorable publicity which may or may not sink their campaigns.