Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Sen. Rand Paul introduces his father, Republican presidential candidate Rep Ron Paul on January 2, 2012 in Davenport, Iowa.

Like father, like son?

Not if he knows what’s good for him, some are saying of Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — suggesting that, for all the popularity his father enjoyed in his bids for a presidential nomination, he’ll need to find his own way to the Republican Party’s nod if he seeks it in 2016.

And look who’s spreading that news: Dad.

A Rand Paul White House Path Complicated By Dad’s Legacy – NPR (blog) bit.ly/13NomBk #RonPaul #tlot #tcot

— Ron Paul (@RonPaul_2012) April 22, 2013.

It makes for an interesting father-son chat about these political facts of life.

As Liz Halloran reports in the NPR dispatch that retired Rep. Ron Paul of Texas has shared on Twitter:

“Though many state-level Republicans who disdained his father, largely over his non-interventionist foreign policy stance and a demeanor they believed stopped short of presidential, are indicating a willingness to give the younger Paul a listen, they say he has work to do.”

“Ron Paul and his supporters have left a very bad taste in the mouth of many Republicans,” says Jeff Jorgensen, a Republican county chairman in Christian conservative western Iowa. “I don’t want anyone out there to get the impression that we’re throwing in with Rand Paul.”

And this:

“We are in turmoil at the state level,” says Jorgensen, the Pottawattamie County chairman, and a member of the state Central Committee. “But it appears that Ron Paul’s support in Iowa is trending down, and will continue to do so going into 2014.”

To do well in the Hawkeye State, he says, the younger Paul “has to distance himself from his dad’s people.”

Of course, as the younger Paul notes, simply saying you’re thinking about 2016 has the benefit of keeping you in the chatter about 2016. Just spell the name right.

Original post is Rand Paul’s Ron Paul Advice by Political Capital.

Photograph by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), center, and Sen. John Isakson (R-GA) depart from a Senate subway car as Senate Republicans and Democrats head to their weekly policy luncheon on March 19, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky with a libertarian outlook and son of the retired congressman from Texas who ran for president with an appeal to libertarian instincts, says there is a goal for government.

Protecting your property.

“If you look at lawless parts of the world where there is no protection of property – where you can’t protect your property… you can’t borrow against that property, so no capital develops and there is no capitalism and there is no marketplace,” Paul says in an interview with National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More” airing today.

“So the government does have a role; they are an arbiter,” Paul says. “They are they the one who protects property, protects the sanctity and the name that goes and attaches to the house. They protect transactions. They protect commerce. There is a role for government.”

Paul, son of Texan Ron Paul, is setting out on his own quest for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. He is taking his pitch to Iowa, addressing party activists there in May. And he is taking his pitch to places where Republicans haven’t fared well — he spoke this week on the campus of Howard University in Washington, one of the nation’s pre-eminent black colleges.

“I think, in some ways, they (Republicana) have sort of given up, and I’m here to say that the Republican Party, to be a national party, can’t give up on any ethnic group and can’t say to any ethnic group, ‘We don’t care about your vote.’ ” Paul says in his interview with NPR’s Michele Martin. “We need to be out there competing for the African-American vote.”

It’s not a reach, he suggests.

“I believe that our drug laws are too harsh, too long and unfair to minorities,” he says. “These aren’t things I say just because they might be popular at Howard, but I say them because I truly believe in them. And think these are issues that if it got out that not all Republicans weren’t the same, that there were Republicans who were interested in issues like this, I think all of a sudden you will see some of the African-American vote saying, ‘You know what, we believe in economic opportunity, we think high taxes are not good for the economy, we just thought Republicans didn’t like us for some other reason.”’

And while he’s at it, Paul promises to protect everyone’s property.

Original post is Rand Paul: Role of Government by Political Capital.

Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Sen. Rand Paul during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

Sen. Rand Paul is laying down some fire lines.

The Kentucky Republican and son of former Texas congressman Ron Paul, said to be considering a presidential campaign of his own,  has revealed a take-no-hostages approach to his questioning of departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her likely successor, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, in hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week.

Rand bluntly told Clinton yesterday that, “I would have relieved you of your post”  had he been her boss in the aftermath of the attacks on the American diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. And today, in questioning of Kerry for his confirmation as President Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of state, Paul pressed Kerry on how far presidents can go without congressional authority for war and why the U.S. should be providing aid to nations such as Egypt and Pakistan.

Sometimes, Kerry said, a president must act — noting that he supported President Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada. He supports the War Powers Act, he said, yet presidents sometimes cannot wait for congressional approval in the midst of emergencies.

“You can be absolutist and apply it to every circumstance,,” Kerry told Rand. “It just doesn’t work in some circumstances…. You certainly can’t rely on a Congress that has proven itself unwilling to move sometimes.”

Rand reminded him that Kerry had opposed American intervention in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, which he also opposed, and ask if that was any different from what the U.S. did in Libya. “Yeah, it is,” Kerry said of Cambodia, “because it was an extension of a war that was being prosecuted without the involvement of Congress.”

Pressed about incendiary remarks that the president of Egypt has made about Jews, Rand asked Kerry how the U.S. can continue to provide aid to Cairo.

“This is always the complication in dealings in the international sector,” Kerry replied. “Not everything lends itself to a simple clarity, black-white every time… We have critical interests with Egypt… The fact that countries elect someone that you don’t always agree with doesn’t (mean) you walk away from them.”

Pressed in a similar vein about Pakistan, Kerry said: “We need to build our relationship with the Pakistanis, not diminish it.”

For Paul, the absolutism of black and white foreign policy serves as an instant connection with the Tea Party forces who supported him, with the supporters who lighted to his father’s opposition to U.S. intervention in virtually any foreign theater and who may well respond to any 2016 bid he makes. And his confrontation with Clinton has lighted up the Internet today, the Internet that made Ron Paul a brand name.

The brand has been renewed, and it’s a firebrand.

Original post is Rand Paul vs. Kerry-Clinton Democrats by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ed Reinke/AP Photo

Rand Paul, left, enjoys a light moment with his father Ron Paul during a campaign event in Erlanger, Kentucky.

Another CPAC, another Paul.

The American Conservative Union, which has provided a friendly forum for the likes of Texas Rep. Ron Paul and other candidates for national office, will hear from the former congressman’s son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, at its CPAC conference in March.

Paul will be the featured speaker at CPAC 2013, American Conservative Union ACU Chairman Al Cardenas says. “In just two years, Rand Paul has already established himself as a strong, independent voice for conservatives in the U.S. Senate.”

A voice whom, like his father, may be ready for a hand at Republican presidential primary politics.

Paul was a practicing ophthalmologist in Kentucky for many years, his father an obstetrician for many more in Texas. The father wowed the straw-poll crowd at CPAC’s last presidential campaign gathering. The son hopes to do the same.

The 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference will be held March 14-16, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center near Washington.

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Original post is Paul: Son Also Rises, Ready for CPAC by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A supporter of Rep. Ron Paul holds a poster in front of a sign that reads 'We Can Do Better' during the start of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

The Ron Paul Revolution will soon have a going rate of $50,000 an hour.

The retiring Republican congressman from Texas and erstwhile candidate for president “will follow the well-trod path of hitting the paid speaking circuit after his retirement from Congress — and will charge $50,000 per appearance,” BuzzFeed reports.

That’s after expenses — hotel, meals, transportation for two.

Represented by the Greater Talent Network Speaker’s Bureau, Paul will collect more than Jon Huntsman, Mike Huckabee or Joe Scarborough, Buzzfeed notes, yet less than Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger, both in the six-figure fee-range.

Original post is Ron Paul Revolution: $50,000 a Pop by Political Capital.

Photograph by Paul Taggart/Bloomberg

A private jet in New York.

There was that night at the Four Seasons in Seattle.

And a couple of check-ins at the W Hotel in San Francisco.

There were dozens of flights on United — even a chartered plane.

Super-political action committees spent more than $1 million on travel for their employees, consultants and associates, Federal Election Commission data show. Those expenses were part of the more than $88 million that super-PACs invested in overhead in the past two years.

A Bloomberg review of FEC data found that 167 of the 782 registered super-PACs — defined by the FEC as “independent expenditure-only committees” — spent nothing supporting candidates with IEs while burning through donor money to pay for things like rent, salaries and travel.

Revolution PAC spent 83 percent of the $1.2 million it raised on overhead, including $30,000 for hotel stays, plane tickets and car rentals. The group pitched itself as a booster of Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential bid — and spent less than $200,000 on independent expenditures to promote his candidacy.

The bigger super-PACs flew around the country pursuing donor dollars.

Priorities USA Action, a super-PAC that backed President Barack Obama’s reelection bid, was among the best-traveled during its quest to raise more than $63 million. One consultant alone — Paul Begala, a former aide to President Bill Clinton — was reimbursed $20,000 for travel expenses.

The aforementioned W and Four Seasons stays were billed to Priorities. The super-PAC also spent more than $70,000 on lodging, catering and other items during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

The chartered jet? Majority PAC, which spent its money helping Democrats retain their Senate majority, paid $12,245 to Pinnacle Aviation Charter of Scottsdale, Arizona, on Aug. 27. The reports don’t reveal a purpose for the charter — other than “travel.”

It wasn’t all 1 percent-style luxury for the super-PACs. The FEC data show dozens of payments to travel deal  Web-sites like hotels.com and hotwire.com. Even Priorities used both of those.

See the full story at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Have Super-PAC, Will Travel by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, at the Republican National Convention.

Rand Paul continues to be a loyal Republican soldier and come to the aid of the man who bested his father in the battle for the party’s presidential nomination. But as Paul stood with Mitt Romney at a rally in Ohio yesterday, some Republicans could be excused if their thoughts drifted toward what could be a different scene a few years from now.

Also at the gathering in Vandalia in southwest Ohio was Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate. The mission for the trio at the moment is to show their solidarity. Should Romney lose this year’s election, though, the venues Paul and Ryan share down the road may be as rivals for their party’s 2016 presidential nomination.

With no reason to think that Ryan won’t continue to acquit himself well on the campaign trail, he would emerge from a Romney defeat as one of the leading ’16 Republican White House contenders — if not the clear frontrunner. But plenty of others won’t be dissuaded from taking him on, a group that could include Paul, elected to the Senate from Kentucky two years ago.

In a Bloomberg News survey answered by 146 delegates to this year’s Republican National Convention from 10 swing states, Paul ran second to Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, as their choice for the party’s presidential nomination in 2016 should President Barack Obama win re-election. In what was admittedly a small sample, Paul’s backing was solid — he got 21 percent, to Ryan’s 25 percent.

Paul’s father, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, spent much of his swan-song bid for this year’s Republican nomination seeming to have an eye on his son’s standing within the party. During a number of debates and on the campaign trail, the elder Paul was notably restrained in taking on Romney. And  during one of the few times when Romney’s path to the nomination appeared threatened — in this case by a suddenly ascendent Newt Gingrich at the end of last year – Ron Paul helped out by training his ad-fire on the ex-House speaker from Georgia.

True, Ron Paul  decided to go rogue during last month’s convention in Tampa, refusing to provide Romney a full-throated endorsement.  But on the same night his dad got a video tribute (in lieu of a speaking slot) at the convention, Rand Paul came through with a speech praising Romney (and only indirectly referring to his father).

Rand Paul should prove valuable to the Romney campaign’s efforts to keep to a minimum the number of Ron Paul backers who decide to hang tough and vote for their guy in key states as a write-in. Ryan spoke to that concern on Monday in Lima, Ohio, when asked why libertarian-oriented voters should back the Republican ticket. ”Do you want Barack Obama to be re-elected?” Ryan responded. Assuming a no answer, he added: “Then don’t vote for Ron Paul.”

Still, if Romney falls short, for all Rand Paul’s loyalty to his party, his first challenge in gearing up for a presidential quest may be re-asserting his bona fides to his dad’s core supporters.

Original post is Rand Paul, Paul Ryan in Ohio — Thinking Ahead? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images

Delegates from the state of Maine and supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul chant 'As Maine goes, so goes the Nation' after they staged a walkout at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

Ron Paul delegate Betty Jackson didn’t join yesterday’s Republican National Convention walkout by her fellow Paul supporters but “I gave them a thumbs up” because “I do understand their grievances” with the party establishment.

The 100 or so Paul delegates who walked out were protesting the unseating of delegates, including 10 from Maine. The effort to unseat delegates “was rather underhanded,” Jackson said.

Jackson, 57, who hasn’t decided whom she’ll vote for in the November election, said she would “love to hear” Mitt Romney say “we need to audit the Federal Reserve” she said in an interview. “I’d love to hear him say we need to end the Fed and the central banking system” and take the U.S. “back to sound money” yet “I am not anticipating that.”

While Romney has talked about reducing government regulation and spending to give business a freer hand to produce wealth, “I haven’t seen any real plans he’s come up with to do that,” she said. “He has not talked about corporatism: the vicious triangle between corporatists, the lobbyists and the politicians,” said Jackson, who makes upholstery for customer-built furniture.

Jackson said she didn’t listen to Representative Paul Ryan’s speech last night accepting the vice presidential nomination because she was out in the hallway talking to fellow delegates. “I am here to plant and water seeds of liberty and have conversations about why I am a Ron Paul Republican,” she said.

Original post is Paul Delegate: ‘Thumbs Up’ to ‘Underhanded’ Unseating Walk-Out by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Delegates enter the Romney-Ryan official store at the Republican National Convention.

The 2012 Republican National Convention, which ends today, is notable for its absence of political buttons.

No vendors selling them to delegates as they approach the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

No campaign marketplace.

About the only place to buy buttons — five different varieties in all — is the official campaign store inside the arena, and anyone buying those buttons must give his or her name, address and occupation to the cashier because those purchases are considered donations to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

That’s not to say that the delegations are buttonless.

Romney buttons are available on his campaign Web site and at rallies. Many state delegations sport their own buttons. And supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s failed presidential campaign aren’t shy about continuing to express their preferences.

Original post is Romney, Ryan Not on the Buttons (Well, Just a Few of Them) by Political Capital.

Photograph by Brian Cahn/Zuma Press

Tim Pawlenty stumps for Mitt Romney at the opening of Romney's Las Vegas campaign headquarters.

Party unity?

Not in campaign contributions.

The Republican National Convention is a chance to bring together Republicans from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, and from Manhattan, New York, to Manhattan, Kansas, to gather around the party’s presidential nominee.

Also-rans have had some opportunities to address convention-goers, from Newt Gingrich hosting a series of seminars called Newt to Rick Santorum’s Tuesday evening address, and to exhort their supporters to rally around nominee Mitt Romney.

One place we  haven’t seen such unity is in campaign contributions.

Bloomberg Government made an analysis of itemized donors giving to all Republican candidates during the party’s primary election season.

Of the over quarter-million people who contributed amounts above the disclosure threshold — the $200-and-up contributions that require a donor’s identity — 56 percent donated to Romney. Which means more than four in 10 gave to someone else.

Romney has had varying levels of success among different groups of donors.

With Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out early in the process and quickly endorsed Romney,  20 percent of his donors gave to Romney. Texas Governor Rick Perry saw 16 percent of his donors give to Romney, Jon Huntsman 14 percent,  Gingrich just over 5 percent and Santorum 3 percent. Ron Paul’s supporters? Less than a quarter of one percent.

Specifically, the supports of other candidates who have money to Romney:

Santorum 3.47%

Perry 15.89%

Pawlenty 19.74%

Paul 0.25%

McCotter 9.46%

Huntsmen 13.68%

Gingrich 5.21%

Cain 9.41%

Bachmann 7.66%

Original post is Romney Draws Small Share of Money from Party Primary Rivals’ Donors by Political Capital.