podesta_email_00268.txt

podesta-emails 7,049 words email

V15 P18 D6 V11 P21

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*​**Correct The Record Tuesday January 27, 2015 Morning Roundup:* *Articles:* *MSNBC: “In Iowa, GOP women take aim at Hillary” <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/iowa-gop-women-carly-fiorina-sarah-palin-take-aim-hillary>* “For their part, Clinton allies say the attacks are a sign Republicans may feel threatened. ‘Republicans are rattled by the energy and excitement shown by Americans across the country for Hillary Clinton’s potential candidacy and her vision for our future,’ communications director Adrienne Elrod of Correct The Record said in statement. ‘It is clear Republicans have nothing of substance to say and that they’d like nothing more than to distract from the GOP’s disunity.’” *The Hill: “Pelosi: With Hillary Clinton, Democrats can win the House” <http://thehill.com/homenews/house/230812-pelosi-with-hillary-dems-can-win-the-house>* “Rep. Nancy Pelosi says Democrats can recapture control of the House in 2016 by riding Hillary Clinton’s coattails.” *Politico: “Democrats criticize GOP handling of Benghazi committee” <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/benghazi-committee-democrats-114618.html>* “The issue is expected to come to a head on Tuesday during a hearing reviewing the committee’s outstanding document requests where Neal Higgins, the CIA’s director of congressional affairs, and Joel Rubin, deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, will testify.” *Mother Jones: “Democrats Accuse Republicans of a Benghazi Cover-Up” <http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/dems-accuse-republicans-benghazi-cover-up>* [Subtitle:] “And they say GOPers on the Benghazi committee are holding secret meetings with witnesses.” *Politico: IT'S ON! Hillary Clinton rival ramps up in Iowa <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/martin-omalley-2016-iowa-114608.html>* "And Jake Oeth, who until recently served as political director to former Rep. Bruce Braley’s failed Iowa Senate campaign, was brought on board as a consultant to O’Malley’s O’Say Can You See PAC after the November midterm elections." *New York Times: “Koch Brothers’ Budget of $889 Million for 2016 Is on Par With Both Parties’ Spending” <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/politics/kochs-plan-to-spend-900-million-on-2016-campaign.html>* “Allies of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who appears to be preparing for a likely presidential campaign in 2016, expect that she will need to bring in more money than President Obama, the most successful fund-raiser in presidential history, and a ‘super PAC’ supporting her is seeking to raise as much as $300 million in the coming months.” *Los Angeles Times column: Robin Abcarian: “Hey, GOP: Using Carly Fiorina to attack Hillary Clinton could backfire” <http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-ra-using-fiorina-to-attack-clinton-20150126-column.html>* “If Fiorina plans to use her business record to bash Clinton, let alone as a rationale for a presidential campaign, expect to hear more about her stormy tenure at Hewlett-Packard.” *The Hill: “Sanders heading to Iowa, NH” <http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/230785-bernie-sanders-heading-to-iowa-new-hampshire>* “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is heading to a pair of key early-primary states as he ramps up consideration of a potential presidential run.” *Articles:* *MSNBC: “In Iowa, GOP women take aim at Hillary” <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/iowa-gop-women-carly-fiorina-sarah-palin-take-aim-hillary>* By Anna Brand January 26, 2015, 12:10 p.m. EST At Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit, the men in the ever-widening pool of potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates used their speeches to call for the best ways to crush Obamacare and immigration reform. But the women focused on one target: the likely 2016 Democratic standard bearer, Hillary Clinton. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, though relatively unknown in a field of thunderous voices, is actively exploring a 2016 run – and in Iowa she made it clear she’d be running as the anti-Hillary. “Like Hillary Clinton, I too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe,” Fiorina said of the former secretary of state, drawing cheers. “But unlike her, I have actually accomplished something. Mrs. Clinton, flying is an activity not an accomplishment.” Only six of 24 speakers at the event were women – and none of them have made waves as big as their male counterparts like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. (Missing from the event were notable 2016ers former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.) Fiorina lost the only political campaign she’s run so far when she challenged Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California in 2010. But she made headlines last summer when she launched a Super PAC, Unlocking Potential Project, aimed at teaching her male Republican counterparts how best to speak to women. But in her speech at Iowa’s crowded Hoyt Sherman Place, it wasn’t about raising women, it was about tearing one woman down. Sneaking Benghazi into her address (another topic glazed over by the male candidates who took the stage) Fiorina said: “Unlike Hillary Clinton, I know what difference it makes that our ambassador to Libya and three other brave Americans were killed in a deliberate terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11.” Sarah Palin joined Fiorina in the Hillary-hating. The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, who recently said that she’s “seriously interested” in running for president in 2016, delivered a bizarre and often incoherent speech, but one aspect was clear: she’s got her sights on Hillary. “I’m ready for Hillary, are you? Are you coming?” Palin said, raising a Time magazine from last year with a headline “Can Anyone Stop Hillary.” Palin said she doesn’t feel there’s a rush to make a decision about 2016. Fiorina might have an opinion about whether Palin runs too, whether they compete for the party’s 2016 nomination or not. Back in 2008 as one of John McCain’s economic advisers, Fiorina said that Palin, McCain’s VP pick, would not be qualified to be CEO of a corporation like Hewlett-Packard. She tried to salvage her comments on msnbc. Longtime Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway also dug into Hillary Clinton at the Freedom Summit. “Don’t worry about being called mean. Let’s talk about Hillary Clinton,” she said. “Hillary Clinton is the second most influential person in her own household. I would say Hillary Clinton has the wrong vision for America, but I don’t know what it is.” Tennessee GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn also jumped on the bandwagon, mocking several TV networks for their coverage of Clinton. “ABC: All About Clinton network; NBC: Nothing But Clinton; CNN: Clinton News Network; CBS - - just think about it!” Translation: Clinton b.s.,” she said. For their part, Clinton allies say the attacks are a sign Republicans may feel threatened. “Republicans are rattled by the energy and excitement shown by Americans across the country for Hillary Clinton’s potential candidacy and her vision for our future,” communications director Adrienne Elrod of Correct The Record said in statement. ”It is clear Republicans have nothing of substance to say and that they’d like nothing more than to distract from the GOP’s disunity.” *The Hill: “Pelosi: With Hillary Clinton, Democrats can win the House” <http://thehill.com/homenews/house/230812-pelosi-with-hillary-dems-can-win-the-house>* By Mike Lillis January 27, 2015, 6:00 a.m. EST Rep. Nancy Pelosi says Democrats can recapture control of the House in 2016 by riding Hillary Clinton’s coattails. “Yes, we can win the House,” the California Democrat said during a sit-down interview in her Capitol office. “If she runs, she will win the nomination. And if she’s our nominee, she clearly — I mean, the campaign, the joint effort — would be one that could not only take her into office but would [pull Democrats to victory],” Pelosi said. “There’s opportunity, all kinds of statistics now about if the Democrats have a presidential candidate who … wins by 52 percent — that’s over 20 [House] seats,” Pelosi added. “And so 53 [percent] is a victory [for House Democrats].” The minority leader acknowledged the headwinds facing House Democrats, who would need to pick up a whopping 30 seats to win the chamber, and she emphasized that the party’s presidential nominee is a long way from being decided. Bold predictions are nothing new for Pelosi, who, among many other duties, has a responsibility to appear unwavering about the party’s election odds in order not to dissuade donors. In 2010, Pelosi predicted the Democrats would keep the House, only to see the Republicans pick up 63 seats and seize the chamber. She also made rosy forecasts in 2012 and 2014 that proved inaccurate — a dynamic that hasn’t been overlooked by GOP operatives, who are scoffing at Pelosi’s latest prophesies. “Needless to say, we get the distinct feeling that Nancy Pelosi literally has no idea what it actually takes to win back the House and is living in Fantasyland,” Ian Prior, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Monday in an email. Pelosi pointed out that Democratic turnout tends to spike in presidential years and has repeatedly said the GOP’s refusal to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill will doom its chances of winning the White House next year and beyond. The 2016 posturing arrives just a few days before the Democrats will huddle in Philadelphia for their annual issues retreat, where the party’s messaging strategy — and its failure to excite voters in recent cycles — will surely be discussed in depth. Pelosi is in the middle of that storm. The San Francisco liberal has led House Democrats since 2003, the longest run since Sam Rayburn’s tenure more than 50 years ago. After Republicans picked up 13 seats in the 2014 midterm election cycle, there was open grumbling within the caucus that it might be time for some new faces atop the leadership ranks. “This party has to look internally as to where the hell it’s going,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said in the aftermath of the elections. Since then, however, Pelosi has attracted praise from her colleagues for taking on both Republicans and President Obama in her staunch opposition to December’s government spending package. She’s been hailed for launching several new Democratic panels designed to get the party’s message to voters. And she’s been buoyed by the struggles of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Republicans, whose start to the 114th Congress has been plagued by highly public infighting on issues like deportations, abortion and border security — issues that have largely united the Democrats. “Bless their hearts, they act upon their beliefs,” Pelosi tells reporters, almost weekly. The Hill’s interview touched on a wide range of topics. Other highlights include: Gay marriage Pelosi said she is “very confident” the Supreme Court will uphold the constitutionality of state laws allowing same-sex couples to wed. The court may lean to the right, she acknowledged, but its 2013 decision striking down key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act foreshadows a similar ruling this summer on state-passed gay marriage laws. “Why would they take this up? In order to reverse the decisions in the states and stop … that progress toward equality?” she asked. “I don’t see that happening.” Trade Pelosi downplayed long-standing Democratic divisions over whether to grant the administration “fast-track” authority to approve trade pacts, as Obama has requested. She emphasized that liberals’ concerns about food safety, currency manipulation and worker protections must be addressed, but said those hurdles are not insurmountable. “I’m trying to say to the members, ‘Let’s turn a page on trade; let’s try to find a path to yes,’ ” she said. Pelosi said she was recently asked if 50 Democrats would support Obama on trade and responded it could be as high as 150 — if handled the right and “transparent” way. The debt limit In the wake of large Republican gains in the Senate and House, Pelosi is once again pushing for a “clean” hike to the debt ceiling later this year. In 2014, only 28 House Republicans voted for such a measure. Immigration Pelosi hammered Republicans for including “juvenile” language undoing Obama’s executive actions halting deportations as part of legislation funding the Homeland Security Department. But she also suggested GOP leaders, having made a statement to their base, would cave before the department is threatened with a shutdown. “The Speaker probably figured, ‘Let them do their stuff; the Senate’s going to reject it; and then we’ll come to some place that the president will sign,’ ” Pelosi said. The 74-year-old is notoriously evasive about her future. But she did open up a bit to suggest that the number of retiring liberal Californians — including former Reps. George Miller and Henry Waxman, who retired this year, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, who won’t run for reelection in 2016 — have made it more important that she stay. “When George was leaving and Henry was leaving, people were saying, ‘Oh, now you’re going to leave.’ But actually, their supporters and our supporters for the agendas that we care about were saying, ‘Now you can’t leave,’ ” Pelosi said, laughing at the thought. “And now with Barbara Boxer, and our community is like, ‘Oh my gosh, Barbara Boxer.’ ” The congresswoman, who is serving her 15th term, says she comes to work with as much energy as ever. As Speaker, she said she slept about four hours a night. Now, it’s more like five-and-a-half hours, but no more than that. “I don’t know how my family or staff would cope if I ever got eight hours,” Pelosi said with a laugh. Pelosi stopped short of committing to another term if Clinton were to win the White House in 2016, saying she takes life “one day at a time.” But the first female Speaker didn’t disguise her marvel at the thought of serving in Congress alongside the nation’s first female president. “It would be a wonderful thing,” she said. *Politico: “Democrats criticize GOP handling of Benghazi committee” <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/benghazi-committee-democrats-114618.html>* By Lauren French January 26, 2015, 8:09 p.m. EST Democrats on the House committee tasked with investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, are harshly criticizing the panel’s chairman, South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, accusing the GOP lawmaker of locking them out of interviews with witnesses. The discord is unusual for the select committee. Gowdy and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the panel, have enjoyed a cordial relationship since the committee was created last May, with the two often meeting off the House floor to discuss the investigation. The issue is expected to come to a head on Tuesday during a hearing reviewing the committee’s outstanding document requests where Neal Higgins, the CIA’s director of congressional affairs, and Joel Rubin, deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, will testify. Ahead of the hearing, Cummings released three letters complaining about Gowdy’s handling of the committee, including a December letter signed by all five Democrats investigating the attacks. The lawmakers are charging that Republicans have interviewed at least five witnesses without a Democrat in attendance, including Ray Maxwell, a former State Department deputy who alleged he was told to scrub documents relating to the 2012 attacks. “You have had different standards for Republicans and Democrats participating in this investigation, secret meetings with witnesses, and — perhaps most importantly — withheld or downplayed information when it undermines the allegations we are investigating,” Cummings wrote. Gowdy’s office dismissed the Democrats’ concern in a statement late Monday as an attempt to politicize the investigation. Select Committee on Benghazi Communications Director Jamal Ware said Democrats are allowed to interview witnesses without Republican staffers present. “Chairman Gowdy will talk to Benghazi sources with or without the Democrats present just as they are welcome to talk to sources with or without Republicans present,” Ware said. “[N]o congressional select committee has ever had a requirement that sources meet with both sides at the same time, and the Benghazi Committee is no exception.” Ware added, “[T]he Democrats have released correspondence that attempts to politically characterize sources’ private discussions with the committee without proper context goes to the exact heart of why the chairman will not require sources to talk to both sides.” When he was tapped to lead the probe, however, Gowdy repeatedly stressed that the bulk of the committee’s work would be done privately, as he questioned the effectiveness of public hearings on controversial topics. Cummings first wrote to Gowdy in November, with another letter sent earlier this month, but the private correspondence between the two lawmakers was first released Monday. In the letters, Cummings accuses Gowdy’s staff of barring Democrats from key interviews with witnesses and deemphasizing information that disproved some of the lingering theories on Benghazi, including the allegation that the State Department purposefully destroyed documents to protect then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Maxwell, according to Cummings’ letters, repeated the claims about State Department documents during interviews with Republican staff and offered up a second witnesses to corroborate his allegation. But that unnamed witness refuted Maxwell’s story, Cummings wrote. Democrats were left out of both interviews, despite willingness ny Maxwell and the second source to be interviewed by representatives from both parties, according to Cummings. “In some of our conversations in the past, you have suggested that whistleblowers might be willing to come forward to provide information only to you. That was simply not the case here,” Cummings wrote. “When my staff spoke with Mr. Maxwell and the additional witness he identified, both were willing to talk to Democrats, but your staff excluded them nonetheless.” The criticism is notable as Gowdy and Cummings have worked hard to be respectful of one another in public. Cummings gave Gowdy high praise late last year for running a thorough investigation, and Gowdy even help convinced Democrats to participate in the committee after taking the Maryland Democrat to dinner shortly after the committee was first announced. But that relationship has soured in the months since, with Democrats accusing Republicans of not agreeing to subpoena rules that would allow for a public vote if there is disagreement. “We have spent months trying to resolve these problems privately, but they’ve exhausted our patience and we can no longer remain silent,” said California Rep. Linda Sanchez. “This isn’t the fact-based or fair investigation that Gowdy promised it would be and that the American people deserve.” Now Democrats are complaining that the investigation has devolved into a partisan fight reminiscent of how Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) probed the terrorist attacks when he was chairman of the House Oversight Committee. The five Democrats on the committee are also complaining that despite a multimillion budget, the panel is moving slowly, with only a handful of public hearings. Staff for the South Carolina Republican said earlier this month that the committee has met with officials from the State and Justice departments on embassy security and document production. *Mother Jones: “Democrats Accuse Republicans of a Benghazi Cover-Up” <http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/dems-accuse-republicans-benghazi-cover-up>* By David Corn January 26, 2015, 8:02 p.m. EST [Subtitle:] And they say GOPers on the Benghazi committee are holding secret meetings with witnesses. It's back. Actually, it never left. Benghazi. That is, the GOP's never-ending Benghazi crusade. Last year, after Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) was tapped by House Speaker John Boehner to lead yet another Benghazi probe, he promised to helm an inquiry that would "transcend politics." But now, eight months into this latest investigation, Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi have hit Gowdy with a sharp charge: that he and his Republican investigators have conducted secret meetings with witnesses without informing their Democratic colleagues on the committee. And they say that some of these interviews have yielded information that undercuts anti-Obama Benghazi allegations promoted by conservatives. In other words, the Democrats are suggesting that Gowdy has been mounting a Benghazi cover-up of his own. In November, Rep. Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the Benghazi committee, sent Gowdy a private letter noting that though Gowdy had assured him that the committee's work would be conducted in a bipartisan manner, the five Democratic members of the panel and their staffer had been excluded from at least five witness interviews. Moreover, Cummings said these interviews had produced testimony that failed to corroborate key allegations. Cummings' letter pointed out that in September conservative media outlets had promoted the supposed revelation that Hillary Clinton loyalists at the State Department had vetted documents to prevent material damaging to senior State Department officials from being handed to an independent investigation of the Benghazi tragedy. According to Cummings, Gowdy's Republican staff interviewed the source of this allegation, a former State Department official named Raymond Maxwell, without notifying the Democrats on the committee or inviting them to be part of the interview, and Maxwell identified a person who could confirm his account. In Cummings' telling, Gowdy's GOP gumshoes interviewed this person, again without telling the Dems, and this supposed witness did not back up Maxwell's story. This second witness said he was not aware of an effort to hide or destroy Benghazi-related documents. "I did not discover any of this information from you or your staff but from the witnesses themselves," Cummings wrote Gowdy. Cummings accused Gowdy and his staff of essentially smothering information that undermined an allegation aimed at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: “Although your staff stated [to the Democrats] that they learned nothing ‘of note,’ in fact they learned that this claim was not substantiated by a key witness. If our goal is the truth and not a preconceived political narrative, these interviews should have been conducted jointly, with both Democrats and Republicans present.” In his letter to Gowdy, Cummings contended this Republican effort to keep the Dems in the dark was part of a pattern. He noted that when he shared his concerns with Gowdy, the chairman informed him that he had spoken to at least three other witnesses without the participation of Democrats and that two of them had provided information that helped debunk other allegations of Benghazi wrongdoing. As a remedy, Cummings proposed in his letter that the committee adopt rules ensuring that all members of the panel are allowed to participate in witness meetings and interviews. According to a subsequent letter all five Democratic members on the Benghazi committee sent Gowdy in December, Gowdy rejected Cummings' demand for Democratic participation in all witness interviews and meetings. In that missive, the Democrats also dissed the committee's work, noting that it was proceeding at a snail's pace and was plowing over much of the same territory previously examined by other congressional committees. Last week, Cummings sent Gowdy another letter reiterating his complaints: "Democrats have repeatedly been excluded from core components of the investigation, and we have been proceeding with no rules to prevent this from occurring in the future. You have…withheld or downplayed information when it undermines the allegations we are investigating." And Cummings provided another example: The GOP staff interviewed a witness who confirmed there was no illegal transfer of weapons from Libya to Syria (one of the many Benghazi conspiracy theories). Cummings wrote, "Instead of crediting her testimony to help put this previously investigated and debunked allegation to rest, you followed up your private, Republican-only interview of this witness by requesting a broad set of documents from the State Department on this debunked allegation. In addition, your staff has now informed us that they do not intend to use this individual as a factual witness in the Committee's investigation." A spokesman for the Benghazi committee did not respond to a request for comment. When Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was overseeing the main Benghazi investigation in the House as chair of the House government oversight committee, his inquiry became as politicized as it could be, with Issa often acting unilaterally and frequently making claims and charges unsupported by the information the committee had gathered. Meanwhile, other House committees led by Republicans conducted and completed serious investigations—without any internal partisan discord—and discredited the wild theories of the right. But to undo the damage done by Issa and to placate the party's conservative base, Boehner set up a special committee on Benghazi and appointed Gowdy, a more temperate fellow, to take another stab at it. Yet the newest Benghazi inquiry now appears to be heading down a similar path, as the GOP appears no closer to giving the right's Benghazi truthers what they seek: proof that Obama or Clinton can be blamed for the horrible murders that happened that night. UPDATE: After Republicans on the committee learned that reporters had obtained copies of the letters sent by Cummings and the Democrats to Gowdy, Gowdy on Monday evening released a statement noting he was "disappointed by the minority's decision to release their letters." His statement also noted: “Chairman Gowdy will talk to Benghazi sources with or without the Democrats present just as they are welcome to talk to sources with or without Republicans present…Further, that the Democrats have released correspondence that attempts to politically characterize sources’ private discussions with the committee without proper context goes to the exact heart of why the Chairman will not require sources to talk to both sides. “Chairman Gowdy has operated the Benghazi Committee in a more-than-fair and fact-based manner, going so far as to allow Democrats absent due to personal matters to participate in Committee hearings via conference call and allowing the minority to claim time not utilized by their absent Members. “The Chairman has worked over the last several months to accommodate the minority with regard to their concerns, including offering a rules package that is much more generous than current standing committee rules and that of rules adopted by previous select committees.” After Gowdy's statement was issued, a Democratic staffer on the committee countered: “[Gowdy’s] response confirms that he has in the past and will continue to exclude Democrats from discussions with material witnesses. “We have never asked the Chairman to ‘require’ witnesses to meet with Democrats. Our request was that when witnesses are willing to meet with Democrats that the Republicans include us. They have not done that—even with witnesses who were willing all along to speak with Democrats. “Chairman Gowdy claims that our letters ‘politically characterize sources private discussions with the Committee without proper context.’ This is incorrect. Democratic members tried to resolve these issues privately for months before we were forced to go public. None of the witnesses told us that they wanted their information to be confidential or private, and we only released the portions of their statements that were necessary to explain our concerns….. “Chairman Gowdy’s rules package does not fix the problems we have identified with excluding Democrats from witness interviews. He has also refused to permit a Committee vote on any rules unless Democrats agree to vote for his language – thereby denying Democrats a public debate and vote on the issue.” This bitter and partisan back-and-forth suggests that this committee could go the full Issa. *Politico: IT'S ON! Hillary Clinton rival ramps up in Iowa* <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/martin-omalley-2016-iowa-114608.html> By Ben Schreckinger January 27, 2015, 5:39 AM EST The first rustlings of a Martin O’Malley presidential campaign can be heard faintly in Iowa. Surrogates for the former Maryland governor, who is publicly mulling a presidential run, have begun talking up O’Malley and scheduling meetings with officials and activists, according to several Iowa Democrats. And Jake Oeth, who until recently served as political director to former Rep. Bruce Braley’s failed Iowa Senate campaign, was brought on board as a consultant to O’Malley’s O’Say Can You See PAC after the November midterm elections. He is doing political outreach for the former governor in the state, according to the PAC’s spokeswoman, Lis Smith. “Obviously [Braley’s] wasn’t a successful campaign, but they’re people who’ve been traveling around the state for two years,” said one Iowa state Democratic official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, adding that multiple former Braley campaign staffers were maneuvering on O’Malley’s behalf. “They are doing some organizing and contacting,” said Jack Hatch, the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor. “I will be meeting with them [this] week. It’s all under the radar.” O’Malley is considered one of the most credible potential opponents to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination. But the low-key tone of early efforts on his behalf marks a contrast with previous presidential cycles, when numerous Iowa Democrats said there was significantly more activity a year out from the Iowa caucuses. Ready for Hillary, the super PAC laying the groundwork for a Clinton run, has two staffers in Iowa and says it has begun organizing in every county. The liberal group MoveOn.org, has hired five staffers in Iowa and is planning to open an office in Des Moines as part of its campaign to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren to enter the race, though Warren has said repeatedly that she is not running. Last year, O’Malley devoted significant resources to the campaigns of Iowa Democrats and visited the state several times. His PAC sent Hatch’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign $10,000 and three staffers. O’Malley campaigned for Braley last year in the former congressman’s failed bid for Iowa’s open Senate seat, and his PAC gave Braley’s campaign $7,500. O’Malley also attended more than 20 fundraisers and political events in the state in 2014, according to information provided by his PAC, which sent a total of 14 staffers to aid Iowa Democrats during the midterms. O’Malley left office Jan. 21 and said recently that he would spend the next couple months resettling his family in Baltimore as he contemplates a presidential run, making any announcement of a run before early spring unlikely. In November, the Washington Post reported that O’Malley’s PAC had hired Sarah Miller, a veteran of Clinton’s 2008 campaign, as policy director, and Megan Adams, formerly of the Center for American Progress, as a communications staffer. The PAC also hired Bill DeBlasio’s campaign manager Bill Hyers late last year. Many observers believe O’Malley is hoping to use a presidential run to raise his profile and secure a spot as Clinton’s running mate or a cabinet secretary. “He’s seriously considering running for president, and that’s his only focus,” said Smith. The former governor currently has no plans to travel to Iowa, according to Smith, who said he will appear March 7 at a Democratic event in Topeka, Kanasas. She said no one is working on his behalf in New Hampshire. *New York Times: “Koch Brothers’ Budget of $889 Million for 2016 Is on Par With Both Parties’ Spending” <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/politics/kochs-plan-to-spend-900-million-on-2016-campaign.html>* By Nicholas Confessore January 26, 2015 The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history. The spending goal, revealed Monday at the Kochs’ annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, Calif., would allow their political organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican Parties. It would require a significant financial commitment from the Kochs and roughly 300 other donors they have recruited over the years, and covers both the presidential and congressional races. In the last presidential election, the Republican National Committee and the party’s two congressional campaign committees spent a total of $657 million. Hundreds of conservative donors recruited by the Kochs gathered over the weekend for three days of issue seminars, strategy sessions and mingling with rising elected officials. These donors represent the largest concentration of political money outside the party establishment, one that has achieved enormous power in Republican circles in recent years. Now the Kochs’ network will embark on its largest drive ever to influence legislation and campaigns across the country, leveraging Republican control of Congress and the party’s dominance of state capitols to push for deregulation, tax cuts and smaller government. In 2012, the Kochs’ network spent just under $400 million, an astonishing sum at the time. The $889 million spending goal for 2016 would put it on track to spend nearly as much as the campaigns of each party’s presidential nominee. The Kochs’ efforts will put enormous fund-raising pressure on Democrats and liberal outside groups. Allies of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who appears to be preparing for a likely presidential campaign in 2016, expect that she will need to bring in more money than President Obama, the most successful fund-raiser in presidential history, and a “super PAC” supporting her is seeking to raise as much as $300 million in the coming months. “It’s no wonder the candidates show up when the Koch brothers call,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “That’s exponentially more money than any party organization will spend. In many ways, they have superseded the party.” The group’s budget, disclosed by a conference attendee, reflects the rising ambition and expanded reach of the Koch operation, which has sought to distinguish itself from other outside groups by emphasizing the role of donors over consultants and political operatives. While the Koch’s expansive network houses groups with discretely political functions — a data and analytics firm, a state-focused issue-advocacy group and affinity groups aimed at young voters and Hispanics — it also includes groups like Freedom Partners, a trade organization overseen by Koch advisers that plans the retreat and helps corral contributions; Americans for Prosperity, a national grass-roots group; and Concerned Veterans for America, which organizes conservative veterans While almost no Republican Party leaders were invited to the Koch event, it has become a coveted invitation for the party’s rising stars, for whom the gathered billionaires and multimillionaires are a potential source of financing for campaigns and super PACs. Officials said this year’s conference was the largest ever. At least five potential presidential candidates were invited this year, and four attended, including Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. On Sunday evening, three of them — Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas — took part in a candidate forum on economic issues. The Kochs are longtime opponents of campaign disclosure laws. Unlike the parties, their network is constructed chiefly of nonprofit groups that are not required to reveal donors. That makes it almost impossible to tell how much of the money is provided by the Kochs — among the wealthiest men in the country — and how much by other donors. The two brothers and their aides have begun to take steps to relax the strict secrecy that has long surrounded much of their political efforts. After spending the 2012 campaign as the Democrats’ favored punching bags, Charles and David Koch have each granted a series of interviews to explain their views and philosophy. Their privately held firm, Koch Industries, has mounted a soft-focus advertising campaign called “We Are Koch,” featuring the company’s employees. Last summer, Freedom Partners established the network’s first super PAC, allowing it to run more openly political advertising in the run-up to the 2014 midterm election. The move also required disclosing some of the network’s other donors. Trusts controlled by the Kochs provided about $4 million of the super PAC’s $25 million budget. This year, Koch aides also provided — for the first time — limited access to the winter conference events and allowed reporters to view live video of the candidate forum on Sunday night. As the three senators addressed the audience of rich donors — effectively an audition for the 2016 primary — they dismissed a question about whether the wealthy had too much influence in politics. At times they seemed to be addressing an audience of two: the Kochs themselves, now among the country’s most influential conservative power brokers. Mr. Cruz gave an impassioned defense of his hosts as job creators and the victims of unfair attacks by Democrats, while Mr. Rubio suggested that only liberals supported campaign finance restrictions, so as to empower what he said were their allies in Hollywood and the news media. *Los Angeles Times column: Robin Abcarian: “Hey, GOP: Using Carly Fiorina to attack Hillary Clinton could backfire” <http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-ra-using-fiorina-to-attack-clinton-20150126-column.html>* By Robin Abcarian January 26, 2015, 5:57 p.m. EST After watching some of the speeches delivered by would-be Republican presidential contenders over the weekend at Iowa Rep. Steve King’s conservative confab in Des Moines, I got to wondering how long it will take Republicans to field a female presidential candidate who actually has a shot at winning. Women seem to be tokens in the GOP presidential stakes, serving the party's strategic needs more than anything else. For 2016, it’s become an article of faith that the GOP needs a woman to immunize the party against charges that attacks on presumed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton are sexist. (“The most effective way to criticize a woman is to have another woman do it,” a California GOP strategist told Time’s Jay Newton-Small in November.) So who can help? Not Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate trekked to King's inaugural Freedom Summit to deliver a disjointed speech that focused mainly on settling scores with people who have attacked her for, among other things, letting her son step on his service dog. Her rambling remarks were entertaining -- she is always that -- but hardly presidential. (Even her longtime fans were turned off. One conservative columnist called her speech “barely coherent.”) It seems that the job is falling to Carly Fiorina, who gave a well-received speech noteworthy mainly for its broadsides against Clinton. Fiorina has never held political office, but the former Hewlett-Packard chief has been toiling away in Republican political trenches ever since she lost the U.S. Senate campaign against Barbara Boxer in 2010. Despite Fiorina’s lack of name recognition, Iowa conservatives liked what she had to say. “She came across as a highly intelligent woman and a strong leader,” one GOP party official told the Washington Times. “She did herself the most good.” Her biggest applause lines were the whacks she took at Clinton. “Like Hillary Clinton,” she said, “I too have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe. But unlike her, I have actually accomplished something…. Having done business in over 80 countries and having served as the chairman of the external advisory board at the CIA for several years, I know that China and Russia are state sponsors of cyberwarfare and have a strategy to steal our intellectual property. I know Bibi Netanyahu and know that when he warns us that Iran is a danger to this nation as well as his own, that we must listen.” Leaving aside the issue of what Clinton accomplished as secretary of state in the first Obama term, the problem for Fiorina, should she become a serious candidate, or even a high-profile surrogate, is the business record she accumulated while visiting all those countries. Her six-year tenure at Hewlett-Packard was marred by extensive domestic layoffs. She insisted that sending jobs to other countries was not offshoring but what she dubbed “right shoring.” (“There is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore,” she once told a congressional committee.) Also, she was forced to defend charges that Hewlett-Packard violated the spirit of a trade embargo against Iran on her watch. In 2010, I wrote about Fiorina’s business record during her campaign against Boxer. She was rightfully heralded as a pioneer when she became the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company in 1999. But a couple of years after she took the reins at HP, she engineered a controversial merger with Compaq Computer Corp. that sparked a corrosive fight with the families of HP’s founders, who accused her of ruining Hewlett-Packard’s famously collegial culture. “To be fair to Carly,” David Woodley Packard told me in 2010, “the HP board should have known better when it hired her. If you have a pet bunny and get a pet ferret, you can’t really blame the ferret for eating the bunny. That’s what ferrets do.” Fiorina has insisted that she created more jobs than she eliminated while running HP, a claim that is almost impossible to verify as the company merged with Compaq, acquired many smaller firms but laid off tens of thousands of workers. “I would say she has created a lot of jobs,” a Hewlett-Packard engineer named Dan Dove told me in 2010. “But they are not in the United States.” As for the trade embargo, Fiorina was accused during her Senate race of allowing Hewlett-Packard to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in printers to Iran at a time when American companies were forbidden to engage in such trade. Fiorina said the company did nothing illegal, which was technically true, as the sales were made by a Dutch subsidiary of the company, which HP owned but did not control. Trade experts said that HP did not break the law, but rather circumvented it using a loophole that other companies also exploited. Two years after Fiorina was fired by HP’s board of directors, however, the company amended its policy and announced it would prohibit its distributors from selling products in Iran. "Having recently examined the situation," the company announced, "we believe it's important to go beyond the letter of the law." If Fiorina plans to use her business record to bash Clinton, let alone as a rationale for a presidential campaign, expect to hear more about her stormy tenure at Hewlett-Packard. *The Hill: “Sanders heading to Iowa, NH” <http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/230785-bernie-sanders-heading-to-iowa-new-hampshire>* By Cameron Joseph January 26, 2015, 6:17 p.m. EST Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is heading to a pair of key early-primary states as he ramps up consideration of a potential presidential run. Sanders is heading to New Hampshire on Saturday for a house party, and has a three-day swing planned through Iowa in late February. He's also heading to Pennsylvania to keynote a local progressive event and meet with liberal activists in the state. Sanders has said he's giving a serious look to running for president as a Democrat and could emerge as the liberal alternative to challenge Hillary Clinton, though Clinton would start out as a heavy favorite against any of the candidates considering a run against her. *Calendar:* *Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official schedule.* · February 24 – Santa Clara, CA: Sec. Clinton to Keynote Address at Inaugural Watermark Conference for Women (PR Newswire <http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hillary-rodham-clinton-to-deliver-keynote-address-at-inaugural-watermark-conference-for-women-283200361.html> ) · March 4 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton to fundraise for the Clinton Foundation (WSJ <http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/01/15/carole-king-hillary-clinton-live-top-tickets-100000/> ) · March 19 – Atlantic City, NJ: Sec. Clinton keynotes American Camp Association conference (PR Newswire <http://www.sys-con.com/node/3254649>) · March 23 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton to keynote award ceremony for the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting (Syracuse <http://newhouse.syr.edu/news-events/news/former-secretary-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-deliver-keynote-newhouse-school-s> )