5 Stories You'll Care About in Politics This Week
What sounds most promising, taking the bridge to where Chris Christie is, or taking the train to where Rand Paul isn't? Dancing with Bernie Sanders, or debating with Tom Cotton? Trying to fill Michael Grimm's shoes on Staten Island, or trying to fill the silence of an empty stadium in Baltimore?
Announcements are flying, roadways are open and cities are, too. Here's a glimpse at some of the stories the ABC News political team will be tracking in the week ahead:
NEW LOOKSThe Republican presidential field is set to double in size over the next week, with three separate presidential announcements expected in the coming days. A 2016 field that already includes two Latinos is set to get its first (and probably only) African-American, with Dr. Ben Carson slated to announce his candidacy in Detroit Monday. Also that day, Carly Fiorina is expected to become the first woman seeking the Republican presidential nod, with a new book, a corporate resume and a strongly anti-Hillary Clinton message that she's bringing to the trail. And on Tuesday, the town of Hope, Arkansas, will host a presidential announcement from a familiar face. No, not that one. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is expected to launch his second White House run, two cycles after winning the Iowa caucuses and not much else.
BRIDGE PLAYIf the Christie comeback can happen, now would make a nice time. The lane-closing scandal is finally reaching its legal denouement, but it's a doozy: a guilty plea and a pair of indictments that leave open the possibility of further revelations that damage Chris Christie's standing. That damage is already considerable, with Christie going from front-runner to middle-of-the-packer as the scandal matured. Most troubling for his prospects is his favorability rating, which has taken a hit so bad that, according to our partners at FiveThirtyEight.com, "There's no precedent for a nominee who's this well-known and this disliked." If anyone has the personality to fight back, though, it's Christie. He'll test that ability with a two-day swing through New Hampshire at the end of the week. Get ready to see the Garden Stater all but become a Granite Stater.
AFRICAN TIESWhat might be the last foreign trip for a while of the Clinton Global Initiative begins on Tuesday, with Bill and Chelsea Clinton in Morocco to headline three days of focus on the Middle East and Africa. The event is going forward despite, if not directly because of, a million-dollar donation by a business controlled by the government of Morocco. The meeting begins the day that the much-hyped "Clinton Cash" book is published, and as Hillary Clinton is expected to resume campaign-trail activities, in Nevada. For the Clintons, it's a chance to highlight the considerable good work done by the umbrella of groups started by their family in the post-presidential years. To their critics, it's a tangible example of the tangled web of business and personal relationships that always seems to surround the Clintons.
BALTIMORE CHOPSA chaotic and tense week in Baltimore and beyond revived issues of criminal justice and policing inside the emerging presidential race. Hillary Clinton moved up her first policy address of the campaign to react to the news, calling for new policies that at least implicitly stand as rebukes to those championed by her husband. Martin O'Malley worked the streets of his hometown, after 15 years in high-ranking elected posts in Maryland, to confront criticism of tactics he has long hoped to ride to another political stop. Speaking of stops, Sen. Rand Paul's joke about being glad his train didn't stop in Baltimore threatened to undo some of the work he has put into building ties in minority communities. The uneasy politics of race and justice have come up with alarming regularity during the Obama years, and the 2016 campaign is bringing a tighter focus.
BERNIE'S BLASTSHillary Clinton now has her first Democratic primary challenger, even though he's not actually, you know, a Democrat. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will make things interesting for Clinton and other Democrats, giving a voice to liberal angst over President Obama and the Clintons, in this non-Elizabeth Warren field. Whether Sanders does more than that might depend on how he casts himself - the self-described "democratic socialist" is left of left, even among progressives - and how he chooses to couch his critiques of Clinton. Sanders is showing early online buzz and fundraising success, but he has never played at this level before. He comes to the race at a point of particular tension between the president and a big slice of his base, focused on trade issues.
