The 2016 Endorsement Primary | FiveThirtyEight

Writing for Nat Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, Aaron Bycoffe explainsThe Endorsement Primary.

In presidential primaries, endorsements have been among the best predictors of which candidates will succeed and which will fail. So we’re keeping track.
Before any votes are cast, presidential candidates compete for the support of influential members of their party, especially elected officials like U.S. representatives, senators and governors. During the period known as the “invisible primary,” these “party elites” seek to coalesce around the candidates they find most acceptable as their party’s nominee. Over the past few decades, when these elites have reached a consensus on the best candidate, rank-and-file voters have usually followed.
Of course, not all endorsements are equally valuable. We use a simple weighting system: 10 points for governors, 5 points for U.S. senators and 1 point for U.S. representatives (there are roughly five times as many representatives as senators and 10 times as many representatives as governors).

Hillary Powers Forward Daily

Bernie Who? Hillary Steams Ahead on Endorsements @ Bloomberg View

Do you think enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton is fading within the Democratic Party? Here’s a list of new endorsements she has gathered just in August:

U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman, Donald Payne Jr., Xavier Becerra and Scott Peters
Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson
Former South Carolina Governors Dick Riley and Jim Hodges
Former North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan
From Iowa: former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, state Attorney General Tom Miller and state Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald
Twenty of 21 of New Jersey’s county Democratic chairmen and a bunch of N.J. state legislators
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey
California Assemblyman David Chiu
In New Hampshire, State Senator David Watters
In Connecticut, Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch
The Cook County (Chicago) Democratic Party

Clinton Endorsements Cont

Quote: “This month’s haul swamps anything Bernie Sanders or the draft-Joe-Biden effort has rolled out over the entire campaign. And Clinton already had an intimidating number of endorsements, leaving few available for her to add.

Yes, Sanders has now moved ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire polls, and her national polling lead is down from enormous to merely very large. But as long as the party is with her, she isn’t in trouble.

Here’s why we pay so much attention to endorsements.”

Happy Birthday Ann Richards

Gov Ann Richards Keynote Address 1988 Democratic National Convention AOC Hillary Women

Texas governor Ann Richards knew how to inspire a crowd when she went prime time in her 1988 Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention. Richards had it all: moxie, blunt, clever andwitty, and posessed with a believable unpretentiousness that went far with Democratic voters. Listen up!

Sept 1 2015 Hillary Headlines

What Hillary Clinton Needs To Do To Win Labor @ Bloomberg

Democrats to Win in a Landslide in 2016, According to Moody’s Election Model @ The Street

Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden’s ackward friendship @ Politico

We Got Berned @ FiveThirtyEight

Hillary Clinton to sit down with Ellen DeGeneres @ CNN

Hillary Clinton’s Iowa Campaign Fueled By Female Activists @ Iowa Starting Line

Quote: “While Bernie Sanders has brought out many college-aged students to his rallies, the number of volunteers in their 20’s, particularly young women, who have been activated by Clinton’s candidacy is one of the more under-reported stories of 2016.

The Iowa campaign released the full list of their Women For Hillary organization about two weeks ago, which contained leaders and activists from all 99 counties. It also had numerous names that were with Barack Obama in the 2008 Iowa Caucus.”