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The most important day in Jeb Bush's presidential campaign is Feb. 9. That's when New Hampshire residents vote and Bush's precarious campaign finally fizzles out or when he resurfaces as a leading candidate after months of teetering on the brink of irrelevance. Even more than Iowa's caucuses in just over a week, the Granite State primary should provide clarity to a contest that has defied prediction and long-held assumptions about presidential politics. "It's the first real inflection point," said Al Cardenas, a top Republican fundraiser and Bush supporter from Miami. "For some people, it's the definitive last stand. For some...

Jeb Bush on Monday returned to the Florida capital to deliver a speech slamming lobbyists as a corrosive influence on public policy, and railing on the practice of public officials becoming professional influence peddlers. The jeremiad may have come as a shock to Tallahassee's government officials-turned-lobbyists whom Bush enlisted to help him sculpt his gubernatorial agenda, and who are now helping bankroll his Republican presidential campaign. In his speech, the former Florida governor said that as president he will push to ban lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for six years after they leave government. He decried the fact that before he...

Media Research Center Pres. Brent Bozell today denounced the CPAC conference, saying “no conservative should have anything to do with this conference” because it is giving voice to groups, such as American Atheists, that attack conservative principles. […] “American Atheists is an organization devoted to the hatred of God. How on earth could CPAC, or the ACU and its board of directors, and Al Cardenas condone such an atrocity?” …

WASHINGTON — With immigration re-emerging as the topic of focus in Washington, an unusual coalition of business executives, Republican Party activists and evangelical leaders will descend on Capitol Hill early next week to pressure House Republicans to pass their own legislation. The debate threatens to create another schism in the Republican Party and to further alienate a major source of campaign contributions; several corporate executives interviewed this week said they were considering withholding donations from lawmakers who get in the way. The push by conservatives will begin Tuesday morning with a news conference featuring, among others, Al Cardenas, the chairman...

The American Conservative Union has just released a statement in support of Sen. Marco Rubio’s bipartisan effort on immigration reform, suggesting that there was widespread conservative support for the bill. “It is an honor to bring together fellow conservatives who feel strongly that we need to act now to fix our broken immigration policies and our borders,” said ACU Chairman Al Cardenas in the statement. “I congratulate my friend Senator Marco Rubio for his leadership on this issue and believe that conservative support for his efforts is growing.” Cardenas clarified that the bill was “not perfect” but that Rubio was...

As the GOP struggles to broaden its appeal, the head of the American Conservative Union declared Thursday that the Republican Party is not a home for everyone, as prominent voices in Republican politics gather with thousands of conservatives and tea party activists outside Washington. The Conservative Political Action Conference offers Republican leaders—past and potential presidential contenders among them—a high-profile stage to court their party's most passionate voters. The three-day gathering also shines a spotlight on deep divisions within the Republican Party as it tries to recover from a painful 2012 election season. “I’m a firm believer that if the Republican...

American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas said he supported a bipartisan Senate effort at immigration reform, stressing that the proposal must include a way for an estimated 11 million illegal aliens to “come out of the shadows” and be given “a legal status where they can be secure in this country for their future and that of their children.” Cardenas made his remarks on the Spanish-language Telemundo show Enfoque on Sunday, noting that immigration is an issue he plans to stress at the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., which opens next week. … When asked what...

Jeb Bush Could Emerge As GOP Nominee At A Brokered Convention, Says Top Republican By TOBY HARNDEN 11th February 2012 Al Cardenas, head of the American Conservative Union, has said that Republican turmoil might lead to a brokered convention in which Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, would emerge as a 'possible alternative' party nominee. Mr Cardenas, who is running this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a gathering in Washington of some 10,000 conservatives, told MailOnline that it was not certain that one of the four current Republican candidates would emerge victorious. His comments came as Republicans fretted publicly about...

GOProud, the advocacy organization for homosexuals that also portrays itself as "conservative," reportedly will be left out of the annual summit for conservatives in the United States, the CPAC meetings, next year. Its inclusion last year and this year by David Keene, the outgoing chief of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the Conservative Political Action Conference, had prompted a long list of major players in the movement, including the Heritage Foundation, the Media Research Center, Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, to boycott. That left Al Cardenas, the new chairman, promising just days ago a "comprehensive vetting...

Take Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee out of the 2012 presidential mix, says Al Cardenas, new chair of the American Conservative Union: If they were serious about running, "they'd probably be here." Interviewed at the end of the second busy day of his organization's Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Cardenas dismissed the chances of the two high-profile no-shows. "Both Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin would be formidable contenders, but are unlikely to be nominees," he told On Calll. "But my sense I they're not serious about running because I would think they'd probably be here if they were."

There appears to be more fallout as a result of the recent remarks made by GoProud Chairman Chris Barron in which he referred to ACU Foundation Chairman Cleta Mitchell as a “nasty bigot.” Barron later apologized for the remark after raising the ire of newly selected ACU chair Al Cardenas who indicated the possibility that the organization may distance themselves from GoProud. Said Cardenas: “I have been disappointed with their website and their quotes in the media, taunting organizations that are respected in our movement and part of our movement, and that’s not acceptable. And that puts them in a...

The new chair of the American Conservative Union, Al Cardenas, today distanced his organization from GOProud, telling FrumForum in an exclusive interview that “it’s going to be difficult to continue the relationship” with the gay conservative organization. The ACU, which annually organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference, has faced some criticism for including GOProud as a co-sponsor for the second year in a row. Socially conservative organizations have denounced the move, and the Heritage Foundation claimed that GOProud’s inclusion was part of their decision to opt-out. Cardenas, who was selected yesterday to replace outgoing chairman David Keene, told FrumForum that...