Thread: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to suspend GOP presidential campaign

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to suspend GOP presidential campaign

WISCONSIN GOV. SCOTT WALKER, once a leading candidate in the Republican presidential race, will announce Monday that he is suspending his campaign, Fox News confirms.

• VIDEO: Fox News confirms Scott Walker to drop out of 2016 race

- Programming Alert -

WISCONSIN GOV. SCOTT WALKER TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE ON SUSPENSION OF GOP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN AT 6 PM ET

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POLITICS

Gov. Walker to suspend 2016 campaign, Fox News confirms

Published September 21, 2015 FoxNews.com




Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, once a leading candidate in the Republican presidential race, will announce Monday that he is suspending his campaign, Fox News confirms.

The decision marks a swift reversal in fortunes for Walker, who over the summer was seen as the candidate to beat in the key state of Iowa. But the governor who forged a national reputation on his record battling union power in his home state saw his position slide in recent months.

Walker was plagued by a series of missteps, including a week in August in which he appeared to flip-flop on his stance on birthright citizenship. He was seen as performing poorly in the two primary debates, and generally struggled to stand out amid a crowded and boisterous 2016 field.

The 47-year-old had told Fox News before last Wednesday's debate at the Reagan Library that he planned to "be aggressive" and show the kind of "passion" that brought him to victory in the past.

Walker did have a few notable moments -- including telling front-runner Donald Trump "we don't need an apprentice in the White House ... we have one right now.” But he was arguably outshined not only by Trump but Carly Fiorina and others. A CNN/ORC poll released Sunday showed Walker polling nationally at just 1.8 percent.

Immediately after the decision to suspend the campaign was reported, fellow 2016 candidate Ben Carson praised Walker as "an outstanding leader with a strong record of fighting for conservative principles."

"I wish him the very best," Carson said.

Walker becomes to second GOP candidate to suspend his campaign, following former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The decision is expected to be announced at a press conference at 6 p.m. ET.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015.../?intcmp=hpbt1

http://www.alipac.us/f9/sc-republica...se-run-323085/

Whew, I'm not heart broken.

I hope the dropout conservatives will still keep their sleeves rolled up to help the front runner.
GO TRUMP!!

NEXT ?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

NEXT ?

The next ones to go will probably be these:

Five other candidates received less than one-half of 1 percentage point support: former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former New York Gov. George Pataki and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/20/politi...oll/index.html

That gets rid of the Happy Hour Debate crew and with Walker out, reduces the prime time debate to 10. There might be more of those drop out before the next debate, but this at least gets it to the original 10 it should have been all along.

What Happens To All That SuperPAC Money When A Candidate Drops Out

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 2:44 PM ET
PETER OVERBY


Rick Perry ended his presidential campaign Sept. 11, but there was $13 million left in the bank of a superPAC supporting him. The superPAC says it's given donors their money back.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Opportunity and Freedom PAC, and its two siblings, Opportunity and Freedom PAC numbers 1 and 2, were meant to be heavyweight sluggers for Republican Rick Perry, providing big-budget support for his second presidential bid.

But Perry himself turned out to be a welterweight at best. The former Texas governor entered the race late, raised a skimpy $1.1 million by June 30 and "suspended" his campaign barely two months later.

"We had a plan," political consultant Austin Barbour, senior advisor to the superPACs, told NPR.

"To me it also represents the peak of spending absolutely foolish money. It's not rational, but I love it."

Darwin Deason, a Texas billionaire about his 205-foot mega-yacht. He donated $5 million to a superPAC supporting Rick Perry. He wanted it back after Perry dropped out and got it

The plan began with more than a month of TV ads in Iowa, starting when Perry announced. It took a new course when Perry's campaign coffers emptied out and the superPACs poured money into Iowa field operations. Finally, Perry's withdrawal in the early rounds of the primary season left the superPACs with the plan mostly unimplemented and $13 million unspent.

So what happened to that $13 million?
It's gone back to the donors – mainly Dallas businessmen Darwin Deason and Kelcy Warren.

"The wire transfers have already been processed," Barbour said Friday evening.

Deason, who lives part-time in Dallas, is reportedly worth $1.38 billion. He founded a company that handles processing for companies like E-ZPass. He sold it in 2010 to Xerox for $6.4 billion. He's gained attention for how he spends some of that money, including on his 205-foot yacht, Apogee.

"Apogee means pinnacle in Greek," Deason told ForbesLife magazine in 2012. "To me it also represents the peak of spending absolutely foolish money. It's not rational, but I love it."

What are the rules?
Congress long ago passed a law limiting what candidates can do with unused campaign cash — in particular, they can't take it home with them.

But that law doesn't apply to superPACs.

This is only the second presidential contest since superPACs were created, and there is no law regarding left over money for the groups given their relative infancy.

Is there any precedent for this?
Yes. In 2012, the presidential superPACs generally wound down at the same rate as the candidate's hopes, with one exception. When former House speaker Newt Gingrich dropped out of the GOP primaries, the superPAC Winning Our Future returned $5 million to Miriam Adelson.

She and her husband, casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, had been the major underwriters of Winning Our Future. Their money had kept Gingrich in the race weeks longer than he could otherwise have managed.

But the superPAC alone wasn't enough, as Perry realized this month.

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpo...date-drops-out

Scott Walker’s presidential bid was the shortest in two decades

By Philip Bump September 22 at 1:30 PM

The complete and utter collapse of Scott Walker's presidential bid appears to bring to an end the shortest presidential campaign since at least 2000.

Walker's bid began with his announcement on July 13 before a fancy backdrop and in front of an energetic crowd in Waukesha, Wisconsin. It ended in Wisconsin on Monday, in front of a drab background and with only a few reporters listening in. From start to end, it lasted 70 days -- a shorter campaign than even Rick Perry's, since Perry started earlier.

Looking back at major candidate campaigns since 2000, 70 days appears to be the shortest, by at least a week. Jim Gilmore's 2008 bid lasted 79 days. Tim Pawlenty hung on for 83 days in 2012.



We've excluded the winners from that graphic for the obvious reason that the winners didn't end their campaigns early. The longest non-winning campaign was the sorta-campaign of Mike Gravel in 2008. There's often no relation to the length of the bid and its success; in 2000, John McCain had the shortest non-winning campaign on the Republican side, but he still did fairly well.

In most cases, you'll notice, candidates didn't start dropping out in large numbers until the year of the election -- in other words, after they'd lost a few actual contests. That's part of the reason why Walker's race is exceptional: He didn't even make it to Election Day.

This is not set in stone. Walker could still be passed as having the shortest presidential campaign in recent history. All he needs is for John Kasich to drop out within the next six days.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t...n-two-decades/