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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says the RNC has begun “focusing in” on Hillary Clinton as a candidate for 2016 and will continue to do so. Priebus was asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday whether the RNC would work to attack Clinton as the presumed Democratic nominee for president in 2016, according to a show transcript. “We have. So our research shop, along with America Rising, has been focusing in on Hillary Clinton.

The head of the Republican National Committee waved off any suggestion he might not rally behind Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in his bid for reelection. "Of course I'm going to support the leader of the Republican Party," Reince Priebus told the panel on CNN's "Crossfire" on Tuesday.

In response to the news that Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS is funding Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) to the tune of $26 million in 2012, Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Jenny Beth Martin told Breitbart News that Rove cannot buy his way into the conservative movement. “The old adage 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer' is more relevant in today’s political arena than ever before,” Martin said. “It is not surprising that there are groups we thought were in this fight with us have been shown to have ulterior motives."

The national Republican Party is considering a number of major changes to its presidential nominating process to avoid a repeat of the debacles of 2012, according to several party officials. Most significantly, the party is considering holding a “Midwestern primary” featuring Great Lakes states such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin that would come immediately after the votes in the traditional early primary states. Also being weighed and thought likely to be approved when the Republican National Committee meets in early 2014 is a plan to shorten the primary season considerably by holding the party’s convention in July, almost...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday there still is a possibility of immigration reform this year. “I think that, in fact, the idea that either a comprehensive approach or a multi-tiered approach is not going to happen by the end of the year, I don’t think that that’s necessarily true,” Priebus told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt. “I think it can happen and I think people like Paul Ryan and others still want something like that to happen,” Priebus said. -snip- Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who helped craft the Senate’s immigration bill, said Thursday the window for passing immigration reform...

TAMPA, Fla. — What the heck happened to Chris Christie? Everyone eagerly anticipating his signature New Jersey-style smackdown on the first night of the Republican convention walked away scratching his head wondering who or what muted the famously uncontainable, confrontational, loud-mouthed governor. His speech was so tame and devoid of red meat, it could have been delivered by George H.W. Bush at a United Nations convention. Once it was clear how toothless a speech it would be, it became almost painful to watch him. It was like watching an episode of “Jersey Shore” with Snooki sober and fully dressed in...

In an attorney general’s race that remains too close to call, Republican Mark D. Obenshain began today with a 17-vote edge over Democrat Mark R. Herring. But by afternoon, the pendulum had swung the other way when the numbers in four Richmond precincts were updated, putting Herring ahead by 115 votes out of more than 2 million cast statewide.

Don’t count Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus among those who believe comprehensive immigration reform is dead this Congress. Despite exasperation among reform advocates that the House has refused to vote on any major immigration bill — particularly the Senate-passed legislation — Priebus said that his “gut” feeling is that the House will indeed pass an immigration overhaul in the next 14 months. “Something significant is going to happen because obviously mass deportation is not an option. I don’t think doing nothing is an option. And I believe most people would agree that something significant needs to take place. Now...

Senate Republicans are spoiling for a fight this primary season as they try to take back control of the party from conservative activists. -snip- “If super PACs are going to get involved in primaries, there has to be some other people involved in primaries who are interested in actually winning the election in November — and not just purifying the party in the primary,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the past two cycles and faces reelection next year. With the blessing of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the hardball plan is already...

The far right, feeling the sting of Ken Cuccinelli’s defeat in the Virginia gubernatorial race, have decided to blame the Republican National Committee. Understand it was the Virginia right wing that insisted on a closed convention and chased Bill Bolling out of the race. Understand that right-wing talk show hosts often implore their listeners not to give money to the RNC. And further understand that no poll before the final couple of days showed the race close. So why exactly is the RNC to blame?

Leaders of the Republican establishment, alarmed by the emergence of far-right and often unpredictable Tea Party candidates, are pushing their party to rethink how it chooses nominees and advocating changes they say would result in the selection of less extreme contenders. The push comes as the national Republican Party is grappling with vexing divisions over its identity and image, and mainstream leaders complain that more ideologically-driven conservatives are damaging the party with tactics like the government shutdown. The debate intensified on Wednesday after Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the deeply conservative Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, lost a close race...

Ken Cuccinelli lost the governor's race in Virginia, but here's the thing — he didn't lose by that much. Only 3 points. Because the race came so close, far right Republicans blame the GOP establishment for not doing more to give Cuccinelli a boost. The Republican National Committee put $9 million into Gov. Bob McDonnell's campaign in 2009. This year, Cuccinelli got $3 million. Cuccinelli "was betrayed by his own party," Rush Limbaugh told listeners on Wednesday afternoon, but the betrayal was not a surprise. Limbaugh said: "In Virginia the GOP simply didn't want a Tea Party candidate winning there....

Shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the AP and other media outlets easily called the New Jersey governor's race for Republican incumbent Chris Christie, based on exit polls. He defeated Sen. Barbara Buono, a Democrat, by taking a third of the Democratic votes in the state, and two-thirds of independents. The win for the GOP in New Jersey will likely be in contrast to the expected results of a handful of other big races this Tuesday, including the New York City Mayor's race, and the Virginia governor's race. That could be, in part, why the national...

How the heck did that happen? Most public polls leading up to Election Day had Democrat Terry McAuliffe coasting to victory, some by double digits, in the Virginia governor’s race. Instead he squeaked by, beating Republican Ken Cuccinelli by less than 3 percentage points. -snip- McAuliffe outraised Cuccinelli by almost $15 million, and he used the cash advantage to pummel him on the airwaves. A lack of resources forced the Republican to go dark in the D.C. media market during the final two weeks. The Republican National Committee spent about $3 million on Virginia this year, compared to $9 million...

Tuesday’s special primary runoff for an Alabama congressional seat is heading toward a photo finish — and emerging as a potential black eye for the Republican establishment forces that have converged on the race. Despite a fierce, last-minute push from House GOP leaders and the business community to supply cash and endorsements to Bradley Byrne, public polling shows the former state senator in a tight race with Dean Young, a flame-throwing tea party contender with a penchant for controversial remarks. -snip- Should Young win, it would come as a shock to the business and Washington power brokers who’ve rushed to...

A prominent figure in the Republican party and one to watch as 2016 approaches, Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Monday night offered a fiscal and social blueprint for the conservative movement, pushing for economic freedom and a repeal of Obamacare. Speaking before a crowd of who's-who in the Republican Party, Bush decried Washington's current fiscal path as bogged down with unnecessary bureaucratic regulations and laden with policies that benefit the rich while disenfranchising the working-class. "Our current policy awards portfolio Americans at the expense of pay check America while enabling the greatest sustained deficits in American history," -snip- "Much of...

The only remaining Republican in what had begun as a bipartisan House group working on immigration says that he is crafting legislation that would provide a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, a move likely not to sit well with some of his GOP colleagues. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, of Florida, said he and several other Republicans are working on a measure that offers some of the nation’s estimated 11 undocumented immigrants a way to “get right with the law,” according to the Wall Street Journal. -snip- Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, is working on his own bill to...

The Democratic National Committee has narrowly edged its Republican rival in fundraising for the first time all year. In a Sunday release, the Republican National Committee reported raising $7.1 million in September. Democrats on Friday reported a cash haul of nearly $7.4 million in September, while finishing the month with more than $5 million on hand.

A Tea Party group has dropped its endorsement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), citing criticism he reportedly made of conservative groups that has put him in their crosshairs for 2014. [big snip] "While endorsing Mitch McConnell seemed like the right thing to do at the time, Mitch McConnell has proven he is not worthy of conservative support. Glenn Beck is right. It is time to defund the GOP until the GOP pushes people like Mitch McConnell out of leadership," Phillips wrote in a post on the group's website. McConnell has clashed with conservatives in recent weeks over the...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is an advocate of the big-tent approach to grow the GOP, but apparently he isn’t above grabbing onto Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s coattails if it can help fundraising. An RNC fundraising email dated today at 4:06 p.m., titled “I Stand with Ted” and coming from Priebus, invokes Cruz’s name and his “fight to defund ObamaCare.” Cruz was on the floor at the time advocating the repeal of the president’s key legislative accomplishment.