Today in Politics: A Billionaire’s Deep Pockets Come With a Big Catch
Good Friday morning from Washington, where inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Hillary Rodham Clinton mishandled sensitive information on a private email account. And while candidates typically approach donors to make their pitch, one billionaire has a single litmus test to earn his support: climate change.
Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist who emerged as the single biggest individual political donor in the 2014 midterm elections, is ramping up his efforts to make climate change a major issue for candidates in 2016.
On Friday, Mr. Steyer’s advocacy group, NextGen Climate Action, will announce that for a 2016 candidate to receive its financial backing, he or she must pledge to enact an energy policy that would lead to the generation of half the nation’s electricity from renewable or zero-carbon sources by 2030 – more than tripling the current use of such sources – and 100 percent from clean sources by 2050.
“We will call on candidates to lay out policies that will get us to this goal,” Mr. Steyer said in an interview. “That’s the hurdle candidates have to get over to win our support.”
Mr. Steyer declined to say how much he planned to spend in the 2016 campaign, but a spokeswoman for NextGen Climate Action said he intended to “double down.” Mr. Steyer spent $74 million in the 2014 midterm elections, donating $67 million to NextGen Climate Action, on a campaign intended to reward candidates who embrace climate change as a major issue, and to punish those who question or deny the established science of human-caused climate change.
He also declined to lay out a specific strategy for pushing candidates to make the energy commitments, but his campaign appears aimed at urging Mrs. Clinton to embrace them. Among Democrats, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Martin O’Malley have already cited ambitious climate-change agendas. While Mrs. Clinton has said that she intends to focus on climate change as a central issue, she has yet to lay out a specific policy. Most of the Republican contenders do question or deny the established science.
Mr. Steyer’s 2014 campaign had mixed results: Of the seven Senate and governors’ races in which NextGen Climate spent money on candidates, three of them won.
The group has field operations in Iowa, Florida and New Hampshire, and plans to begin running television, radio and digital ads and conduct outreach campaigns in those states in the coming weeks.
— Coral Davenport
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What We’re Watching
Mr. Sanders, who continues to draw large crowds and who called this week for setting a national minimum wage of $15, will participate in a round-table discussion in Iowa on children’s issues, The Des Moines Register reports.
Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, and George E. Pataki, the former New York governor, will be in New Hampshire, a state that figures prominently in the strategies of several candidates including Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio.
Iowa will continue to bustle with candidates on Friday, including Carly Fiorina, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mr. Christie, Mr. Kasich, and on the Democratic side, Mr. Sanders and Mr. O’Malley. Many of the events are meet-and-greets and town-hall-style gatherings as the candidates seek a more intimate pitch to Iowans, who cast their first in the nation votes via the comparatively intimate caucus system.
Clinton to Add to Economic Platform in Manhattan Speech
Mrs. Clinton will deliver the latest in a series of policy speeches on Friday in Manhattan, building on her call for an economy that emphasizes both growth and fairness with initiatives that create corporate community. The proposals are aimed at giving incentives to companies to put less emphasis on quarterly earnings, freeing them to invest in their employees — and they are concepts that are viewed favorably by many corporate executives.
Among the proposals will be a change in the capital-gains tax rate to reward longer-term investments, a “first step” she sees as a potential turning point, according to an aide to Mrs. Clinton. She is also going to call for changes to executive compensation and for more transparency in stock buybacks.
— Maggie Haberman
An Immigration Bill Is Snagged Between Houses of Congress
The House passed legislation on Thursday to withhold money from so-called sanctuary cities, but the Senate is in no rush to follow suit.
The House passed a bill on Thursday that would block the Justice Department from giving certain grants to the sanctuary cities, jurisdictions that shield illegal immigrants, and Republican senators offered their own proposals this week. Among them was Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, who pulled his amendment attaching the issue to the Senate’s revamped version of the No Child Left Behind education law after being promised that the Senate Judiciary Committee would consider it as a separate bill.
But with a week left and a Highway Trust Fund to extend before the August recess, the committee has not scheduled markups of any of the proposals that have been made since the father of Kathryn Steinle, who was killed, the authorities say, by an illegal immigrant with a criminal record, testified at a hearing on Tuesday.
Democrats, for their part, made sure everyone remembered who had reignited this particular political brush fire. One by one, they took to the House floor before Thursday’s vote to denounce what they called “the Donald Trump Act.” Mr. Trump has cited Ms. Steinle’s killing in San Francisco, a city that broadly restricts the police from cooperating with immigration agents, as evidence of the nation’s insecure borders.
“Don’t take the Donald Trump bait,” said Representative Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat.
— Emmarie Huetteman
Our Favorites From Today’s Times
In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said, among other things, that he did not identify with Darth Vader and preferred Spider-Man, and he offered some “psychoanalysis” on the differences between Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard. “I actually have a strong opinion on it,” he said.
Facing growing anger from commuters over systemic delays on New Jersey Transit trains, Mr. Christie declined to answer a question on Thursday about the state’s rail service before he left for Iowa.
And as the congressional debate over the nuclear deal with Iran begins, the vast majority of Republicans appear to have made up their minds before a single classified briefing, hearing or visit with administration officials.
A Washington Insider Prepares the Day’s Most Important Meal
As the chairman of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, an architect of the Affordable Care Act, and a longtime physician, Ezekiel J. Emanuel has no need to pad his résumé.
But this weekend, he is adding another line: breakfast cook.
Mr. Emanuel, a former White House adviser and the brother of Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, is temporarily taking over the chef Nick Stefanelli’s new restaurant, Masseria, at Union Market in Northeast D.C. to serve up his favorite morning delicacies for charity.
The menu will include a Gruyère omelet, challah French toast, blueberry pancakes and other favorites that Mr. Emanuel said he served his children when they were growing up.
Diners can also expect, as the invitation notes, “tips on how to start a healthy day.”
Mr. Emanuel, who calls himself “a big believer in breakfast,” said he’s harbored dreams of opening his own weekend breakfast spot for years, motivated by what he called Washington’s meager offerings.
Mr. Emanuel said he expected a “fair number of recognizable Washington faces,” to turn out, including friends from his days at the White House.
He and a team from Masseria will be serving from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day and again next weekend. Proceeds will go to Martha’s Table, Good Food Awards and D.C. Central Kitchen.
— Nicholas Fandos
What We’re Reading Elsewhere
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is expected to be one of those who fail to meet the criteria set down by Fox News to qualify for its 10-person debate on Aug. 6. He appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss his feelings on that and other matters.
Jeb Bush and Mrs. Clinton each took questions on the Black Lives Matter movement that has tripped up the Democratic candidates in the eyes of some voters.
And The Huffington Post looks at which candidates Wall Street is giving the most money to, finding that Mr. Bush, Mrs. Clinton and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida are at the top of the list.
Mr. Trump says Hispanics love him. The Washington Post says polling shows the opposite is true. And Politico says Republican insiders believe Trump-mania has peaked.
16th Hole Could Be an Obstacle to Trump’s Border Plan
During a visit to the United States border with Mexico, Mr. Trump promised that part of his plan to secure the border would involve a wall.
“In certain sections, you have to have a wall,” he said. “By the way, the wall will save you a tremendous amount of money. But absolutely, there are areas where you have to have the wall.”
One of the sections Mr. Trump might want to rethink is just a few miles down the road along the Rio Grande from where he spoke. The stretch includes something that he has strongly tied his wealth and identity to: a luscious, green golf course.
The Max A. Mandel Municipal Golf Course, a public golf course with no affiliation to Mr. Trump, hugs the border so tightly that an errant drive off the 16th tee might send a ball into Mexican territory.
But along that hole, and many others on the course, there is no fence, wall or anything. Just a river and some brush. Any kind of physical border would have to be made at the expense of the course.
There is, however, a fence on the north side: Feral hogs can be quite the nuisance to groundskeepers.
— Nick Corasaniti
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