There are as many ways to look at presidential nomination contests as there are political aficionados. A few weeks ago, I wrote about my preferred method for understanding the GOP race: treating it like the NCAA basketball tournament. According to this scheme, the Republican race consists of four brackets - the Establishment bracket; the Secular/Conventional Conservative bracket; the Tea Party/Populist Conservative bracket; and the Social, Cultural, and Evangelical Conservative bracket - with the winner of each heading to the Final Four. The state of play can always fluctuate, so it's worth taking a look at where things stand now and where they might be headed. What hasn't changed in the last few weeks and probably won't change anytime soon: Scott Walker still has a solid lead in the Secular/Conventional Conservative bracket. (This bracket would also include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, if they run.) In the Social, Cultural, and Evangelical bracket, the contestants are Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Louisiana Gov.
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.