Apr 27, 2016 6 min read

Wake Up To Politics - April 27, 2016

Wednesday, April 27, 2016
6 Days Until the Indiana Primary
195 Days Until Election Day 2016I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
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2016 Central

Trump Sweeps Northeastern States, Clinton Wins Four out of Five Frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both surged ahead in their respective delegate counts Tuesday, as they dominated the Northeastern primary states, creeping one step closer to a general election matchup.
Trump won across the board, with blowout victories in all five states (he did not lose a single county or congressional district in any of the states voting Tuesday). Trump performed exactly as he needed, not only winning everywhere but also running up the score: he won by 29% in Connecticut, by 40% in Delaware, by 31% in Maryland, by 35% in Pennsylvania, and by 39% in Rhode Island.
As a result, Trump notched all 28 Connecticut delegates, all 16 Delaware delegates, at least 35 of Maryland’s 38 delegates, all 17 bound Pennsylvania delegates, and at least nine of Rhode Island’s 19 delegates. John Kasich won five Rhode Island delegates, while Ted Cruz won a single delegate from the state, and the rest remain to be allocated (along with the remainder of Maryland’s delegation).
With Tuesday’s results, Trump now stands at 950 delegates – 287 away from victory – to Cruz’s 560 and Kasich’s 153. Both Cruz and Kasich require more delegates than remain to be allocated in the 10 final contests.
The presidential race now heads to Indiana, which will be critical for Donald Trump’s hopes to clinch the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination – and a must-win for Ted Cruz’s campaign to stop Trump from getting to that number, as the state is now a one-on-one contest between him and the frontrunner.
Clinton, meanwhile, performed almost as triumphantly, receiving large wins, albeit by smaller margins than Trump and in only four states. Bernie Sanders was able to close the gap in states such as Connecticut, where Clinton won by only 5%, but Clinton’s victories were by double-digit margins everywhere else (21% in Delaware, 30% in Maryland, and 12% in Pennsylvania). Sanders was able to notch a single victory, but in the smallest prize offered Tuesday (Rhode Island) and by too small a margin (11%) to make any meaningful delegate lead over Clinton.
Although many delegates remain to be allocated on the Democratic side, Clinton’s totals so far put her 90% of the way to clinching the 2,383 delegates needed for the Democratic nomination, meaning Clinton could lose each of the 16 remaining primaries by “a wide margin,” and still be able to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press report.
Clinton now has 2,141 delegates – 242 away from clinching the Democratic nomination – to Sanders’ 1,321. Bernie Sanders’ winning the nomination would require receiving over 81% of the remaining delegates (he has only been winning 38%).
Both frontrunners spoke Tuesday night as if they were already the nominees. Trump declared the Republican race effectively over, calling Tuesday his “biggest night” and announcing that he “absolutely” considered himself the “presumptive nominee” in remarks to reporters.
Trump looked past the duo, instead aiming fire at Clinton, saying “she’ll be a horrible president” who “knows nothing about jobs, except jobs for herself.” In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Wednesday, Trump also said he would have to get used to Clinton now. “The way she shouted that message…I guess I’ll have to get used to a lot of that over the next four or five months,” he said about Clinton’s victory speech.
He also openly called for his rivals to end their campaigns: “Senator Cruz and Governor Kasich should really get out the race now,” Trump said. “Honestly, they have no path to victory.” While he is correct that neither Cruz nor Kasich can clinch the nomination, they are unlikely to heed his calls to drop out, as Cruz marches to Indiana and Kasich heads to Oregon and New Mexico (according to the details of their shaky alliance). “John Kasich’s fight will continue,” the Ohio governor’s campaign tweeted Tuesday; Cruz continued to attack Trump, saying he and Clinton are “both big government liberals,” listing 13 points on which the Republican and Democratic frontrunner agree.
Meanwhile, in her own remarks, Clinton was less overt in declaring the end of her race and calling her opponent to drop out, while still calling for party unity when addressing supporters from one of the venues of July’s Democratic convention. “With your help, we’re going to come back to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention,” she said. “We will unify our party to win this election.” Clinton also praised her opponent (“I applaud Senator Sanders and his millions of supporters”), and mentioned many of his pet issues (money in politics, climate change, etc.) to explain why she needed his supporters to join her in the elections’ next phase.
“In this election, we will have to stand together and work hard to prevail over candidates on the other side,” Clinton continued. “And I know together we will get that done.”
Sanders, however, didn’t seem as intent on ending the primary race, telling supporters: “This campaign is not just about electing a president, it is about transforming a nation. The fight that we are waging is not easy fight, but I know you are prepared to wage that fight against the one percent, against the billionaire class.”
In a statement after results came in Tuesday, Sanders maintained his plans to take the race to the convention.
However, Clinton responded to attacks from Trump, not Sanders, in her victory remarks: in his own speech, Trump accused Clinton of “playing the woman’s card,” to which Clinton responded “then deal me in!”
The message from both Trump and Clinton was clear: even if neither of them have quite clinched the nomination, they are already looking past their primary rivals. The general election started Tuesday night.
All primary result totals and delegate totals are according to the Associated Press, unless otherwise noted.
DOWNBALLOT A look at the results in the most contentious downballot races Tuesday:
Pennsylvania’s Ninth Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, triumphed over Tea Party challenger Art Halvorson by a slim margin, 50.5% to 49.5%.
Pennsylvania’s Second Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) became the first congressional incumbent of the 2016 cycle to lose a primary challenge Tuesday, taking just 35% of the vote to state Rep. Dwight Evans’ 42%. Fattah was indicted for corruption last year.
Maryland Senate and Pennsylvania Senate Democratic establishment candidates won in two heated Senate primaries, with Rep. Chris Van Hollen surging ahead of fellow Rep. Donna Edwards (52% to 41%) to contest Maryland’s open Senate seat and former Clinton White House official Katie McGinty winning over former Rep. Joe Sestak (42% to 30%) for the right to challenge Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) in November.
What’s In a Name? “No one seems to know what to call Tuesday's primary contests. The Northeast Primaries. Super Tuesday 4. The Bolt Bus Primary? But the moniker that's caught on the most is the Acela Primary, referring to the express Amtrak service between New York, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore. Newscasters have struggled to pronounce the name, though — Assella? Ace-la? Acelia? Ackela? Ace-L.A.? — while others have slammed it as the embodiment of everything that's wrong with East Coast elites.” (Politico)