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Tuesday night, May 17, Democratic party nominees Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton battled it out in the Oregon and Kentucky primaries. While Clinton barely won Kentucky, Sanders comfortably won in Oregon with a 53% to 47% victory against Clinton.

Leading up to yesterday’s voting in Kentucky and Oregon, a disorderly scene erupted at the Nevada State Democratic Convention on Saturday, May 14, after 58 of Sanders’ state delegates were disqualified due to rule violations, a move that meant the could not vote for the state’s actual delegates who will go to the party’s national convention in Philadelphia, July 25-28.

In order to continue chugging along, Sanders must win by wide margins the rest of the way to stand a chance to catch up to Clinton. Next stop, California.

Here are five things to take away from Tuesday’s primaries and how Saturday’s melee could effect the DNC.

Sanders is over the Democratic leadership.

Though he’s made it clear he is “in it ‘til the last ballot is cast,” Sanders has had it with the leadership of his party. After what unfolded last weekend, Sanders finds it crucial that the leadership of the Democratic Party understand that the political world is changing. The junior United States senator from Vermont continued his tone on Tuesday during a rally in Carson, Calif.  and urged that the Democratic party do the right thing and “open its doors and welcome into the party people who are prepared to fight for real economic and social change…”

Further Eruptions Possible at the DNC

It’s possible. Sander supporters are absolutely fed up and if it weren’t made evident last Saturday, prepare for more uprising in Philadelphia come July. The party rules have frustrated Sander supporters and they believe it has pushed Sanders to the wayside. The way things concluded last Saturday is something that has been simmering for quite some time in the Democratic Party. We’ve seen it throughout the Republican race with many personal insults. Now it may ooze its way over to the Democratic National Convention.

The Kentucky race was close

Though Clinton declared victory, the Associated Press declined to project a winner.

No word from the Clinton campaign.

Mum’s the word over in the Clinton camp, but she sent out a very interesting tweet after her win in Kentucky that might have eluded to Saturday night’s brawl. The Nevada state party’s count gave Clinton a 33-delegate advantage out of 3,400 who attended Saturday. A “minority report” of 64 Sanders supporters were reportedly wrongly denied delegate status.

We just won Kentucky! Thanks to everyone who turned out. We’re always stronger united. https://t.co/8qYPHIje8I pic.twitter.com/elNUP4nFoO

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 18, 2016

California primary odds for Clinton

Right now, with the California primaries weeks away, Clinton is ahead of Sanders with a 50.6% to 40.8% lead. At this point, Clinton could snatch the the Democratic nomination by the June 7 primary.

Photo Credit: lifenews.com

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JULIE BYKOWICZ
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – Four of America’s wealthiest businessmen laid the foundation for Ted Cruz’s now-surging Republican presidential campaign and have redefined the role of political donors.

With just over a week until voters get their first say, the 45-year-old Texas senator known as a conservative warrior has been ascendant. The $36 million committed last year by these donor families is now going toward television, radio and online advertisements, along with direct mailings and get-out-the-vote efforts in early primary states.

The donors’ super political action committees sponsored two weekend rallies in Iowa featuring Cruz and conservative personality Glenn Beck. The state holds the leadoff caucuses on Feb. 1.

The long-believing benefactors are New York hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, Texas natural gas billionaires Farris and Dan Wilks, and private-equity partner Toby Neugebauer. They honed their plan to help Cruz before he began his steady rise in polls – even before he announced his presidential bid in March.

“No one wants to lose,” Neugebauer told The Associated Press when asked why he and others bet big on Cruz. “We didn’t miss that an outsider would win. I think we’ve nailed it.”

Voters will soon start determining whether he is right.

The groundwork laid by Neugebauer and other major donors began roughly two years ago, first in a casual conversation with Cruz at a donor’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, and then in a more formal way over the 2014 Labor Day weekend at Neugebauer’s ranch in East Texas.

That October, big-data firm Cambridge Analytica – in which Mercer is an investor – began working to identify potential Cruz voters and develop messages that would motivate them. Alexander Nix, the company’s chief executive officer, said the importance of this early work cannot be overstated. He credits Cruz for understanding this.

“Money never buys you time,” Nix said, drawing from his experiences with campaigns worldwide. “Too often clients will come to you just before an election and expect you to work miracles. But you cannot roll back the clock.”

Key donors soon came up with a novel arrangement: Each family would control its own super PAC, but the groups would work together as a single entity called Keep the Promise. They keep in touch through weekly strategy phone calls.

That’s not how super PACs usually work. More typically, multiple donors turn over their money and leave the political decisions to professional strategists. For example, Jeb Bush’s super PAC counts more than two dozen million-dollar donors.

For Cruz, the pool of really big donors is far more concentrated: Mercer gave $11 million, Neugebauer gave $10 million, and the Wilks brothers and their wives together gave $15 million.

That level of support has opened Cruz to criticism that donors are influencing his policies, whether on abortion, energy or the gold standard.

Ethanol advocates point to his oil and gas donors as the reason he wants to discontinue that government subsidy for the corn-based fuel. Cruz and the donors have dismissed that as nonsense. His campaign cites as evidence Cruz’s desire to end handouts to all parts of the energy industry.

A GOLDMAN SACHS INTRODUCTION

Neugebauer said his belief in the candidate is both personal and pragmatic. “My heart and my mind told me he’s the one,” he said.

Mercer and the Wilks brothers declined to be interviewed.

Neugebauer, 45, said he met Cruz years ago through Cruz’s wife Heidi, then a manager at Goldman Sachs. He said he wants nothing in return if Cruz wins the presidency.

“I don’t need. Bob Mercer doesn’t need. The Wilkses don’t need,” he said. “That’s not what this is about. We do not want our children and grandchildren to grow up in a bankrupt country.”

Neugebauer co-founded Quantum Energy Partners, a private equity firm based in Houston. It invested heavily in shale development, which became lucrative with the advent of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.

His father, Randy, is a Republican congressman from Texas.

In 2014, the younger Neugebauer moved his legal residency to Puerto Rico, saying he had done so primarily to expose his children to Spanish and become more worldly. The U.S. territory also provides key tax breaks that the mainland does not.

FATHER AND DAUGHTER

The Mercer family has followed Cruz’s rise in politics for years.

Fundraising records show that Mercer’s daughter, Rebekah Mercer, took an early interest in Cruz’s 2012 underdog campaign for the Senate. Her money arrived as Cruz was preparing to take on the state’s lieutenant governor and well-funded Republican Party favorite, David Dewhurst, in the May primary.

The elder Mercer, 69, is a former computer programmer and co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, one of the country’s largest hedge funds. Mercer, who lives on New York’s Long Island, is intensely private. A review of his political investments provides some clues as to his policy interests.

He is a major donor to Republican groups, according to fundraising records, including entities run by the billionaire Koch brothers and Club for Growth, a Washington conservative economic group that backed Cruz’s 2012 campaign. Mercer has attended conferences promoting a return to the gold standard in monetary policy, which Cruz advocates.

THE BROTHERS

The Wilkses met and became fond of Cruz after his election to the Senate, and Neugebauer persuaded them over barbecue in the first months of 2015 to participate in the Keep the Promise plan.

Farris and Dan Wilks made their fortune in fracking, producing drilling equipment when few were in that business. They sold their company in 2011 and have since become the country’s 15th biggest land owners, according to The Land Report magazine.

Farris Wilks is a pastor at a small church called Assembly of Yahweh, 7th Day, where his parents were founding members. Both brothers are fervently against abortion rights and gay marriage and say the country needs to embrace Christianity.

Cruz has pledged “outlaw” abortion and said the Supreme Court erred last year in making gay marriage the law of the land. The candidate and hundreds of religious leaders gathered last month at Farris Wilks’ central Texas ranch, an event hosted by Keep the Promise.

Farris Wilks has said his investment in the Cruz super PAC is helping “educate” voters.

“He’s not afraid to stand against some of his own party even and say things that need to be said,” he said in a November interview with KTXS, a television station near their tiny hometown of Cisco, Texas.

THE MONEY FLOW

Although these donors set aside their millions for Cruz 10 months ago, it’s only now that the money is flowing into the 2016 race in a major way.

Since mid-December, the Keep the Promise super PACs have documented about $4 million in independent expenditures to help Cruz or attack other candidates – most often Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, federal election records show.

The super PACs have been identifying and connecting with Cruz voters through digital ads and door-knocking, and recently began a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign. A Keep the Promise van tailed the Cruz campaign bus as it made its way through Iowa last week. Super PAC workers handed out thousands of “Choose Cruz” yard signs.

For the megadonors, it’s no surprise that Cruz seems to be well-positioned heading into the primaries. In mid-July, Keep the Promise posted on its website a slide-show presentation called “Can He Win?” The document predicted it would be “very difficult for Establishment to destroy the conservative challenger.”

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DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) – Rival factions yelling at one another amid angry pushing. Tirades about condoms, and claims of misinformation. A parent declaring that children are being force-fed course material “straight from the pits of hell.”

Such has been the tenor of recent school board meetings in Omaha as board members contemplate the first update in three decades of the school district’s sex education curriculum.

A public meeting in October ended in chaos after shouting and shoving broke out between supporters and opponents of the update who had packed by the hundreds into an auditorium. This month, as board members sat in stoic silence, activists from both sides vented their feelings during three hours of public comment – reflecting divisions that have bedeviled school boards nationwide, as well as state legislatures and even Congress.

Kathryn Russell, a grandmother who formerly worked for the Omaha school district, said the proposed curriculum “rapes children of their innocence.” It was another critic in Omaha, Jesse Martinez, who used the “pits of hell” reference, calling elements of the course material “garbage. ”

Supporters of the update – ranging from the president of the city council to students who spoke – exhorted the school board to equip students with reliable information that would help the Omaha region lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases that are above the national average.

“I have a right to this information,” said Ryleigh Welsh, a sophomore at Omaha’s Central High School. “Sexual health is more than just sex. It’s about understanding and taking care of your body and being prepared for a healthy future.”

In Omaha, as in many U.S. communities, some parents and conservative activists insist that any school-based sex education emphasize sexual abstinence as the wisest course. Yet as more young people turn to social media and online resources – including pornography- for sex-related information, there’s pressure on schools from other quarters to offer accurate, candid information that can compete with and correct what’s available beyond the classroom.

“The notion that sex education is limited to what happens in school is an antiquated one,” said Bill Albert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. It is one of several organizations that’s developing online sex education to supplement school-based programs.

Quality online programming “is not buffeted by political fights over what teens can and should learn,” Albert said. “It allows for real-time modifications and updates, it offers anonymity, and it meets teens where they are, which increasingly is in front of screens.”

In Omaha, school board president Lou Ann Goding said one of the motivations for updating the sex-ed curriculum is to counter misinformation that students might encounter outside of school.

“There’s so much social media and other sources that they can go to that are not always reliable,” Goding said.

Several of the update supporters who spoke at the Jan. 4 public meeting echoed this concern. Among them were fourth graders Samantha Bourne and Hadley Forsen, who said they already were getting “nonfactual” information from their friends on sex-related topics.

“We need help to learn this curriculum at this age,” said the girls, reading their statement in unison. “This will be way too embarrassing for us to ask our parents when we’re older.”

___

Sex education in America has a long and checkered history, winning the backing of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1940, gaining traction in the 1980s during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but generating steady opposition from social conservatives.

Omaha Public Schools, which serves about 52,000 students in its district, has taught sex education since 1986 as part of a course called Human Growth and Development. The process that’s been underway since early last year marks the first comprehensive review of the course.

Abstinence is encouraged in the curriculum, which also covers such topics as reproductive anatomy, pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted diseases.

As initially proposed, the updates would add discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in 7th and 8th grades, and discussion of abortion and emergency contraception in 10th-grade lessons on birth control.

The school district conducted a telephone survey of about 1,500 parents last year, and reported that a sizable majority supported adding those topics to the curriculum. But the margins of support for the abortion and emergency contraception components were smaller than for other topics, and school officials now plan to omit them.

Over the course of 2015, some churches and other groups began to circulate criticisms and warnings about the district’s plans. Spearheading the opposition is a conservative Christian group, Nebraskans for Founders’ Values, which has held briefings at local churches and encouraged skeptical citizens – whether public school parents or not – to attend school board meetings to vent their displeasure.

Comprehensive sex education “is pornography under the guise of education,” the group contends. “The values that it promotes are ones that most parents would never agree with.”

Many of the opponents’ allegations have been categorically denied by the school district, including claims that the new curriculum was designed by Planned Parenthood, would authorize school staff to take students to get abortions, and would provide them with birth control.

Goding, the board president, said countering inaccurate criticisms has been a challenge.

“Once the misinformation has been disseminated, it’s hard to gather it back up,” she said.

Board members stress that none of the sex-ed courses will be mandatory – parents must opt their children into the classes offered in 4th, 5th and 6th grade, and can keep them out of the classes in middle school and high school. Topics for 4th graders include puberty and how to stay safe from sexual abuse; by middle school students are learning about methods of contraception.

The board plans to vote on new standards for the sex-ed program on Jan. 20, then work on details of a new curriculum in time for any changes to be implemented next fall. Some opponents have urged the board to hold off on implementation until parents can review the final version of the proposed curriculum.

Sex education is taught in varied forms and under different rules across the 50 states.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 22 states and the District of Columbia require public schools to teach sex education. In other states, including Nebraska, it’s generally up to individual school districts to decide what form of sex education, if any, is offered. In 35 states, parents are allowed to keep their children out of sex-ed classes.

In some states, there have been recent steps to ensure that the sex-ed curriculum includes positive instruction about different sexual orientations and gender identities, and to address sexual harassment and violence.

There’s no detailed nationwide breakdown of how the 13,500 school districts in the U.S. handle sex education, although the Centers for Disease Control compiles partial data. Its latest report, with data from 2014, suggests that programs in a substantial majority of school districts stress the benefits of sexual abstinence, while a smaller portion offer instruction in high school about usage of specific contraceptive methods, including condoms and emergency contraception.

In most of the U.S., fewer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools teach all 16 topics recommended by the CDC as essential components of sex education.

“Lack of effective sex education can have very real, very serious health consequences,” said Dr. Stephanie Zaza, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. “Young people who have multiple sex partners, don’t use condoms, and use drugs or alcohol before sex are at higher risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.”

Leslie Kantor, vice president of education for Planned Parenthood, said the statewide policies are not a good barometer for what’s happening school by school. Whether or not there was a statewide mandate, an individual district might do a good job or bad job with its course, she said.

Dr. John Santelli, an adolescent medicine specialist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, says there has been a slight decline in the teaching of comprehensive sex education, including instruction on condom use. He finds that worrisome, citing research that casts doubt on the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs.

“There’s been a decline in support for sex education at the political level,” Santelli said. “People are getting fed up – they’d rather avoid the whole issue.”

While the federal government has no direct role in dictating sex-education curriculum, it has influence in the form of federal funding for various programs. From 1981, the start of Ronald Reagan’s administration, through 2009, such funds went predominantly to abstinence-only programs; since 2010, under President Barack Obama, abstinence funding has been reduced and larger sums appropriated for comprehensive sex-ed programs.

Rival advocacy groups lobbied hard in Congress last year to get a favorable outcome for their approach. The end result – a compromise between Democrats and Republicans – maintained annual spending at about $100 million for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which incorporates comprehensive sex education, and doubled spending from $5 million to $10 million to abstinence-oriented programs.

Valerie Huber of Ascend – formerly the National Abstinence Education Association – would like to see Congress move toward equal funding earmarked for comprehensive and abstinence approaches.

In the meantime, Ascend and its allies are working to scrap the term “abstinence-only,” which they felt was a detriment. They now describe their approach as “sexual risk avoidance” and contrast it with what they call a “sexual risk reduction” (SRR) approach in comprehensive sex-ed programs.

“There’s room for both, but we have to be clear they are different,” Huber said. “Our approach sends a cultural message that it’s better if teens don’t have sex; the SRR message is normalizing teen sex if the risks can be mitigated.”

According to the CDC’s latest figures, from 2013, 44 percent of female teens and 47 percent of male teens between 15 and 19 have had sexual intercourse – significantly lower than 25 years earlier, but up slightly from 2011.

Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of education and history at New York University, worries that many adolescents are learning about sex via pornography on the Internet. Online porn and misinformation can best be countered by accurate online information, said Zimmerman, who praised initiatives that enable teens to ask questions and get answers from health educators via text message.

“It isn’t that schools shouldn’t try, but historically they’re incredibly limited in what they can do,” Zimmerman said. “We’re so divided about sexuality – so they come to the lowest common denominator.”

Planned Parenthood – a longtime advocate of comprehensive and candid sex education for adolescents – has recently developed a set of digital tools to provide sex education on mobile phones. One app is designed to help young women identify what methods of birth control would best meet their needs; two other apps emphasize the importance of using both condoms and a more effective form of birth control.

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CONNIE CASS
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – There’s an angry young man who matured into an eternally mellow surgeon and politician. A Hispanic firebrand who is most at home in English, and an Anglo who speaks fluent Spanish at home. And that given-to-preening reality show guy.

Some birds of a different feather will flock to the Republican presidential debate stage in Boulder, Colorado.

Here’s a field guide to candidates in Wednesday night’s main event on CNBC:

DONALD TRUMP

Key features: Billionaire real estate developer, author and reality TV star with the catchphrase, “You’re fired!”

A quick sketch:

-Son of wealthy builder in the New York City borough of Queens

-Prospered in family business while studying economics at the University of Pennsylvania

-“The Donald” gained fame as splashy Manhattan developer of hotels, skyscrapers and golf courses around the world

-Considered Reform Party presidential run in 2000; flirted with GOP bid in 2012

-Starred in reality TV shows “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice”

Also of note:

The front-runner is rich enough to pay for his own campaign – and brags about that – but 74,000 donors showered him with nearly $4 million in small-dollar contributions, July through September.

Might Trump be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you want a president who says what he thinks even if people take offense

Perhaps no, if you want a president with experience as an elected official.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Build a wall along the Mexican border to stop illegal immigration

-Deport all immigrants in the U.S. illegally; allow what he calls ‘the good ones’ to return legally

-Impose high tariffs on imports from China and Mexico to demand better treatment of the U.S.

In a nutshell:

Political outsider. Celebrity. Billionaire.

___

BEN CARSON

Key features: Famed pediatric neurosurgeon whose life story was made into a TV movie.

A quick sketch:

-Raised in Detroit by a divorced, impoverished mother

-29 years as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, now retired

-First surgeon to successfully separate twins joined at the head

-Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

-Enhanced his conservative cred with political remarks at 2013 National Prayer Breakfast

Also of note:

Carson has said that the scientific theory of evolution is based on “incredible fairy tales.” He’s a creationist who espouses beliefs based on his Seventh-day Adventist faith. The strikingly soft-spoken Carson says he was a hot-tempered teen who tried to stab a friend but woke up to his volatility and changed.

Might Carson be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you want a doctor to fix the nation’s health care policy.

Perhaps no, if you’re looking for someone with political experience and seasoned rhetoric. Carson once compared President Barack Obama’s health care law to slavery.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Impose the same flat income tax on everyone

-Ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

-Add a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution

In a nutshell:

Christian conservative. Doctor. Only African-American contender.

___

MARCO RUBIO

Key features: Florida senator who teamed with Democrats on an immigration overhaul that would have given immigrants in the U.S. illegally a way to become citizens; now says fixing border security comes first.

A quick sketch:

-His Cuban immigrant parents worked as a bartender and a maid

-Won a college football scholarship; University of Miami law degree

-Elected to Florida House in 2000, rose to speaker

-Beat a popular governor to win his U.S. Senate seat

-Speaks fluent Spanish, as does his Colombian-American wife

Also of note:

Rubio got famous on the Internet in 2013 when he paused several times in his televised response to the State of the Union address to make an awkward reach for bottled water while staring into the camera, like a Poland Spring-swilling deer in the headlights.

Might Rubio be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you think it’s time for a younger generation (Generation X in this case) to lead.

Perhaps no, if you believe human actions cause global warming.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Reverse President Barack Obama’s diplomatic outreach to Cuba

-Stop taxing investment income, give parents a bigger tax break

-Freeze federal spending except on the military

In a nutshell:

Tea party roots. Hispanic. Youthful.

___

JEB BUSH:

Key features: Son of a president, little brother of a president, and he’s a former Florida governor.

A quick sketch:

-Born in Texas as John Ellis Bush, shortened to the nickname Jeb

-Met his future wife Columba, a native of Mexico, during a high school exchange program, and speaks Spanish comfortably

-Worked for father George H.W. Bush’s 1980 and 1988 presidential campaigns.

-Was governor in 2000 when Florida recount gave his brother George W. Bush the presidency

-Made a name among religious conservatives by opposing removal of life support in the Terri Schiavo case

Also of note:

Bush would be the first brother of a president ever elected. If he wins, three of the five most recent White House residents would be named Bush. He says he’s not his father or his brother, however: “I am my own man, and my views are shaped by my own thinking and experience.”

Might Bush be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you want an immigration overhaul that gives people in the U.S. illegally a path to legal status

Perhaps no, if you think post-Sept. 11 surveillance programs violated civil liberties

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Wants states to adopt higher education standards; supports Common Core

-Assert U.S. military might more robustly in Iraq and to counter Russian moves in Eastern Europe

-Block tax increases, although he won’t sign a no-tax-increase pledge

In a nutshell:

Bush dynasty. Speaks Spanish. Establishment favorite.

___

CARLY FIORINA

Key features: She’s a businesswoman – a former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who’s run for Senate but never held public office.

A quick sketch:

-Daughter of a law professor turned federal appeals judge and an abstract painter

-Trailblazing female executive at AT&T, Lucent and Hewlett-Packard

-In over five years of running HP: led major merger, laid off 30,000 workers, ousted by board

-Made a name in politics as high-profile adviser to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign

-Ran for U.S. Senate seat from California, and lost, while being treated for breast cancer in 2010

Also of note:

She described secretly recorded footage in Planned Parenthood videos that does not exist and refused to acknowledge the mistake.

Might Fiorina be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you agree with her that a woman could best take on Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Perhaps no, if you want a president with experience serving in government.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Impose “zero-based budgeting” that evaluates each federal program’s spending annually

-Shrink the government work force and base federal workers’ pay on performance, not seniority

-Use innovation, not regulation, to address global warming

In a nutshell:

Fiscal conservative. Political newcomer. GOP’s only female contender.

___

TED CRUZ

Key features: He’s a Republican senator who pushed a government shutdown to fight “Obamacare.”

A quick sketch:

-Father is a Cuban immigrant who became a pastor

-Winning debater at Princeton and Harvard Law

-Argued nine cases before the Supreme Court

-Won Senate seat in 2012 upset, his first elected office

-A Texan partial to ostrich-leather boots

Also of note:

Cruz was born in Canada. His father was born in Cuba. But his mother was born in Nebraska, giving him U.S. citizenship. He’s formally renounced his dual Canadian citizenship. Cruz is the first Hispanic senator from Texas, where many residents are native Spanish speakers. He’s not fluent in the language, however, and nixed a proposal for a debate in Spanish in his 2012 Senate campaign.

Might Cruz be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you want to stop President Barack Obama’s health care law at all costs.

Perhaps no, if you’re looking for bipartisan compromise on immigration.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Amend the Constitution so that voters could oust Supreme Court justices

-Amend the Constitution to allow states to ban gay marriage

-Abolish the IRS, switch to a flat tax

In a nutshell:

Tea party. Christian conservative. Hispanic.

___

MIKE HUCKABEE

Key features: Former Arkansas governor whose 2008 bid for the Republican presidential nomination focused on social issues.

A quick sketch:

-Son of a firefighter, he was born in President Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Arkansas

-Pastor of Baptist churches in Arkansas for 12 years; president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention

-Governor of Arkansas, 1996-2007

-Hosted his own political talk show on Fox News

-A bass guitarist who occasionally plays with his classic rock cover band Capitol Offense

Also of note:

Huckabee’s numerous books include a diet guide called “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork,” published in 2006 after he shed more than 100 pounds. He still struggles with his weight.

Might Huckabee be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you want a president to sign executive orders protecting the religious liberty of people and entities that oppose gay marriage.

Perhaps no, if you’re a fan of Beyonce and Jay Z. Huckabee has criticized their sexualized lyrics and writes that Jay Z is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp in exploiting his wife as a sex object.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Replace income tax with a national sales tax

-Amend the Constitution to outlaw abortion

-Import lower-priced medicines from Canada

In a nutshell:

Christian conservative. Folksy appeal. Second time around.

___

CHRIS CHRISTIE

Key features: The famously blunt governor of New Jersey saw his reputation badly damaged when several high-level aides were accused of purposely tying up traffic on a busy bridge for political payback.

A quick sketch:

-Newark-born, ancestors from Ireland and Sicily.

-Media-savvy U.S. attorney who won dozens of public corruption cases in New Jersey

-Defeated incumbent Democratic governor in a heavily Democratic state in 2009

-YouTube-famous for his readiness to call complaining citizens “idiots” or tell them to “shut up”

-Lost some presidential momentum when three former political allies were charged in “Bridgegate” case. One has pleaded guilty and two others are awaiting trial.

Also of note:

Christie isn’t shy about sharing the personal stuff. Things he’s talked about: his mother’s last words to him (“there’s nothing left unsaid between us”). The lap band surgery that helped him lose weight. His use of birth control, “and not just the rhythm method,” even though he’s Roman Catholic.

Might Christie be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you like letting students in struggling districts attend other public schools or charter schools.

Perhaps no, if you oppose raising the age when future retirees can qualify for Social Security and Medicare.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Toughen anti-terrorism and surveillance laws to help intelligence services do their job

-Lower the corporate tax rate, reduce the top tax rate for individuals

-For each new federal regulation added, remove a regulation of equal cost

In a nutshell:

Centrist appeal. Combative. Sitting governor.

___

JOHN KASICH

Key features: Former congressman now in his second term as Ohio governor.

A quick sketch:

-Son of a Pennsylvania mailman

-Graduated from Ohio State and became, at 26, the youngest person ever elected to Ohio’s Senate

-Found his Anglican faith in his 30s after his parents were killed by a drunk driver

-Served 18 years in Congress, working with lawmakers of both parties to cut spending, balance budget

-Ran for president in 2000 but dropped out early; elected governor in 2010

Also of note:

Kasich opposes President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, yet he accepted federal money under the law to expand Ohio’s Medicaid program. That angered many of his fellow Republicans. Kasich says “real flesh and blood, and real improvements in people’s lives” are more important than ideology.

Might Kasich be for you?

-Perhaps yes, if you want to protect the social safety net for the poor.

-Perhaps no, if you don’t want U.S. ground troops sent to battle Islamic State militants.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Allow some immigrants in the U.S. illegally for years to stay if they pay a fine

-Address the climate change problem without doing economic damage

-Use the Common Core standards to raise the bar in education

In a nutshell:

Fiscal conservative. Sitting governor. Second time around.

___

RAND PAUL:

Key features: He’s NOT Ron Paul. That’s his father, the former congressman who ran for president three times, once as a Libertarian.

A quick sketch:

-Helped in his father’s campaigns from age 11

-Raised in Texas, settled in his wife’s home state of Kentucky

-Ophthalmologist known for free eye clinics for the poor

-Won Senate seat in 2010 tea party wave, his first elected office

-Took over Senate floor for hours at a time to question U.S. drone policy and oppose collection of Americans’ phone records

Also of note:

Rumors aside, he wasn’t named for “Atlas Shrugged” author Ayn Rand. His given name is Randal, and his wife dubbed him ‘Rand.’ But he is a fan.

Might Paul be for you?

Perhaps yes, if you’re upset about the National Security Agency snooping into citizens’ private communications.

Perhaps no, if you want to see more aggressive use of U.S. military power in the world.

Some other distinguishing issues:

-Give Congress more power over the Federal Reserve

-End the right to abortion, protecting life from conception

-Reduce penalties for many drug crimes, let nonviolent felons vote

In a nutshell:

Libertarian-ish. Tea party. Young voter strategy.

Photo Credit: businessinsider.com

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