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Presidential hopefuls are making strategic forays into South Florida, hoping to prevent the state's favorite son Republicans from locking up all the money and support and position themselves if Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio falter.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who's generating intense national media interest and tops most recent polls of Republicans, will be in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday for a meet-and-greet session with leaders in the business, political and legal communities.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be in Palm Beach on Friday, where he'll be the marquee speaker at a Republican dinner that will put him before a high-caliber audience, many of whom are in position to write checks to help finance a presidential campaign.

To insiders, even prominent figures like Walker and Christie and South Florida residents Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who formed a presidential exploratory committee on Tuesday, are all overshadowed by Bush, who served as governor from 1999 to 2007 and is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush.

"I've got to believe that Jeb is getting everybody [in Florida] locked down and committed," said Bill Scherer, a prominent Fort Lauderdale lawyer who's been a fundraiser for both Bush presidents. "This is Jeb territory. Not just South Florida, but Florida."

Ed Pozzuoli, a former Broward Republican chairman who served as South Florida or Broward campaign chairman for presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani, George W. Bush and Bob Dole, said "ultimately, in my view Florida is Jeb Bush country."

But Florida is too important for the other potential Republicans to cede to Bush. Recent presidential candidate-visitors include U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich and former business executive Carly Fiorina.

One factor motivating candidate interest is Florida's position as the largest swing state in the country, awarding 29 electoral votes, more than 10 percent of the total needed to win the presidency. "If you don't win Florida, you're probably not going to win the presidency," said Michael Barnett, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party.

Pozzuoli said it is "a long way from where we are today to the nomination. And so candidates who ignore Florida [do so] at their own peril. Because no matter whose math you look at, ultimately in order to become president of the United States, particularly for a Republican, you must win Florida."

Money is a huge factor.

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Republican presidential hopefuls seek Florida support

Rich DiFolco, one of two candidates endorsed last month by the Burlington County Republican Committee for two open seats on the county freeholder board, has dropped out of the race.

DiFolco, elected to the Mount Holly Township Council in 2012, released a statement Tuesday that he had changed his mind about running.

"I swore an oath to spend the next four years making our community a safer, more economically vibrant, and affordable place in which to live," he said. "That's why, despite earning the endorsement of the Burlington County Republican Committee last week to run for freeholder this year, I have decided to turn down that opportunity and commit myself to serving out my full term in Mount Holly."

An information-technology manager at Conner Strong & Buckelew in Marlton, DiFolco, 37, was appointed by the council to a second term as mayor in January. He was one of 14 candidates interviewed by the GOP committee, according to Chairman Bill Layton.

The committee also endorsed Katie Gibbs for freeholder in November. Gibbs, 28, of Maple Shade, was executive director and fund-raising director for the GOP committee for four years before she became an administrator with Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative 825 in Springfield Township a year ago.

Layton said he expects a replacement for DiFolco to be named this week. "I was surprised and disappointed that Rich decided not to run because I though he was a great candidate," Layton said.

Democrats are expected to endorse incumbents Aimee Belgard and Joanne Schwartz, who are up for reelection in November after serving three years on the board. Belgard, a lawyer from Edgewater Park and a former councilwoman there, ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Republican Tom MacArthur last November. Schultz is a nursing-home administrator from Southampton Township.

Republicans have dominated the five-member freeholder board for more than three decades, often exclusively. The board currently includes three Republicans and two Democrats.

The filing deadline to run in the June 2 primary is March 30.

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Republican Rich DiFolco drops out of Burlco freeholder race

TIME Politics Congress J. Scott ApplewhiteAP House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio returns to his office on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 3, 2015.

The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives clipped the wings of conservatives Tuesday, passing a bill on the backs of Democrats to keep the Department of Homeland Security open through September.

Its our only choice left, said Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a member of the whip team. We exhausted every other.

In a surreal meeting Tuesday morning, House Speaker John Boehner laid out the plan to silent members, according to New York GOP Rep. Peter King.

Nobody says a word, said King. It seemed like two hours, it was probably a minute, but thats a long time when the Speaker is up there saying Any questions any questions any questions?

Boehner did receive a standing ovation in the meeting after Colorado GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn changed the topic, praising his leadership in the face of White House criticism for inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress. The White House was not consulted before the invitation and Susan Rice, the White House National Security Advisor, has said that the speech would be destructive to U.S.-Israel relations.

Conservatives had led the DHS strategy since mid-December, when Congress passed a short-term funding plan to appease Republicans who wanted to protest Obamas executive actions on immigration when they controlled the Senate majority. Faced with a midnight deadline on Friday, Republicans kicked the can another week to avert a partial government shutdown that would have put 30,000 employees on furlough.

House Republicans passed a bill over a month ago that would have stripped funding for Obamas November action deferring deportation for up to five million immigrants who came to the country illegally and for another program that granted deportation relief to hundreds of thousands of young undocumented workers who came to the country as children. Over the past several weeks, it became abundantly clear if it ever was in doubt that the bill never had a chance in the Senate to get the necessary 60 votes to send the bill to Obama.

But with conservatives still furious at what they call the presidents executive overreach, and a recent federal court injunction in their favor, the House Republican leadership decided to pass a so-called clean bill that did not protest Obamas actions and hope for the courts to accomplish their mission. Netanyahus speech to Congress Tuesday provided the perfect media cover for the Republican leadership to announce the change in strategy.

Some conservatives are now talking about overthrowing the current House Republican leadership, although that situation is very unlikely.

Continued here:
How House Conservatives Lost the Homeland Security Fight

(CNN) It's a rite of passage for most Republican presidential candidates.

On Thursday, GOP presidential hopefuls spoke at the Conservative Political Action Committee in Washington and the stakes couldn't be higher as they vie for a chance at the nominations.

It is essential for any Republican who is considering running for president to do very well on the CPAC stage.

It essentially turns into a great big interview for potential presidential contenders and that's what they came to do, to talk up and prove their conservative credentials in front of the most conservative part of the Republican Party.

All of the potential contenders who came out, they all one thing on their mind, Hillary Clinton.

Candidate after candidate came out and criticized Clinton from everything from the Clinton Foundation for accepting foreign money. Some even said her credentials on women's issues aren't' strong enough. They even criticized her for using too many hashtags on Twitter.

Here's just a taste of the Republican fire you can expect to see on the campaign trail against Clinton.

"Hillary Clinton embodies the corruption of Washington," Sen. Ted Cruz said.

"How do you beat Hillary Clinton?" Laura Ingram said.

"I think you make sure, very directly, that you talk about your different vision for the United States," NJ Gov. Chris Christie said. "Different than Obama/Clinton vision of the United States."

The rest is here:
Republican presidential hopefuls gather at CPAC

GIVE CREDIT to Joe DeFelice, the executive director of the city's Republican Party. With the blessing of the party chairman, state Rep. John Taylor, he is leading a youth movement within the GOP and has recruited a gaggle of under-40 candidates to run for City Council and mayor.

The move makes tactical sense, partly because it stands in sharp contrast to the Democratic organization's approach to recruiting candidates, which seems to require AARP membership before it will back you as a candidate. (The only bow to youth in the ruling party is when a ward leader's or elected official's son or daughter wants to run for office.)

But, this emphasis on youth also carries the scent of desperation. The Republican Party's numbers in the city have been declining for years, and something has to be done lest it totally sink from view.

In 1999, when then-Republican Sam Katz made a serious run for mayor, there were 198,000 registered Republicans in the city. Today, there are 119,000.

On the surface, those are dismal numbers. Dig a little deeper, though, and the picture is even worse.

In reality, there are only 81,000 Republicans who are active voters - meaning they have voted at least once in the past five years. The other 38,000 haven't shown up at the polls for years.

Then there is geography. In effect, the party has ceased to exist as a citywide entity. About one in four Republicans are clustered in four wards in the Far Northeast (Wards 58, 63, 64 and 66).

It's all downhill from there. Only 11 percent of active voters are Republican and there are wards - mostly in African-American areas - where the number drops to 2 percent. For instance, of the 14,779 active voters in the 10th Ward, which is centered in West Oak Lane, only 237 are Republican.

There are 15 wards in the city where active Republicans number 300 or less. (No wonder there were divisions in Philadelphia where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney got zero votes in 2012.)

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Ferrick: Republicans an endangered species in Philly