Sanders, Rubio and Cruz also score wins as a dozen states hold primaries or caucuses

By Miriam Raftery

March 2, 2016 (San Diego) –Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and businessman Donald Trump strengthened their positions as frontrunners in the Democratic and Republican presidential race, each scoring wins in seven out of twelve states that held primaries or caucuses yesterday.

 Vermont Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders also picked up four key wins (Colorado, Minnesota, his home state of Vermont and Oklahoma, a conservative state) , leaving the door open for an upset on the Democratic side-- but only if he can produce landslides across the west and  populous states that have not yet cast ballots.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz picked up three wins to continue his challenge to Trump, while Florida Senator Marco Rubio, also a Republican, won his first primary victory to keep his candidacy tenuously alive.

East County News Service

Update: With all precincts counted, Clinton received 699.57 delegates and Sanders received 697.77 delegates, the Des Moines Register reports. The Register has called for a recount due to numerous irregularities, but thus far the Iowa Democratic Party has not complied.

February 2, 2016 (San Diego) – Last night’s Iowa caucus, the opening of the presidential primary season, has made clear that the competition is fierce on both sides of the political aisle.  On the Republican side, Texas Senator Ted Cruz won an upset victory over frontrunner and business mogul Donald Trump by a 28% to 24% margin, with Florida Senator Marco Rubio at 23% --just 1 point behind Trump, emerging as a viable candidate. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson got 9.3%, followed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul at 4.5%.  All other candidates had less than 3% .

On the Democratic side, as of this morning the Iowa Democratic Party reports that New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton has 699.57 state delegate equivalents, while Vermont Senator Sanders was awarded 695.49,  a statistical 50-50 virtual tie, with a handful of votes still to be counted.  Six county delegates were  awarded by a coin toss after tie votes--making this the closest Iowa caucus in history-and the first that may be won by a coin toss, under Iowa's quirky procedures. 

Part III:  Latino contenders Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz

A series by Miriam Raftery, Devoreo Bell and Juwan Armstrong

August 23, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) –Winning the general election would be a daunting task for Republicans without support from the growing number of Latino voters across the U.S.  Two of the Republican contenders have Hispanic roots that could be a draw among Latinos, though their stances on immigration and deportation issues are largely at odds with the views of the major immigrant rights groups.  But there are key differences in their positions on core Latino issues, as well as a wide range of other topics.