The Winston Group

The Winston Group’s Stephanie Slade writes for US News and World Report, addressing the constant speculation surrounding the 2016 elections. Slade writes:

The idea that polls taken 18 months before the midterm elections could reliably tell us much of anything about where the electorate will be next November is almost a farce. Just one-twelfth of Obama’s second term is in the books so far; spending time worrying about who might choose to run in an election 42 months away suggests we’re working with a set of seriously misplaced priorities.

To read the full editorial, turn to usnews.com.

David Winston appeared on MSNBC’s Jansing & Co. to discuss the future of the Senate in 2014:

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On Thursday’s Politico, the WG’s David Winston commented on effective message communication, in light of Paul Ryan unveiling a new budget plan:

David Winston, a GOP pollster who has long advised House Speaker John Boehner, said that Republicans have to overcome Mitt Romney’s failure to combat Obama’s message, which complicates their efforts to cast themselves as the party of fiscal zen.

“The opportunity is clearly there, it’s just made a lot more difficult given the nature of the 2012 campaign,” Winston said.

He said using the word “balanced” is a good way to get voters’ attention. But, he cautioned, it’s the first step in a politician’s persuasion effort, not the last one.

“They’re going to say ‘What does he mean by balanced approach?’” Winston said. “They are going to want to understand what that represents. The communications element to this is coming up with a clearly and easily consumable way of describing what you mean in terms of that idea.”

Read more on politico.com.

In today’s Politico, Maggie Haberman writes about the Republican party’s inability to figure out what went wrong in the 2012 elections, as well as how to bounce back from it. The WG’s David Winston states where the GOP needs to start:

“If you’ve at least defined and everybody’s accepted the reasons why the election went so poorly, that’s just a critical starting point,” said David Winston, a veteran Republican pollster who does survey-taking for the House GOP caucus.

Read more: politico.com

In an op-ed for Sunday’s LA Times, Doyle McManus addresses the looming sequester and the failure of both political parties to reach a compromise. McManus turned to David Winston for some insight on the GOP side of the debate:

“Most people agree [with Republicans] that the deficit is one of the reasons the economy can’t get back on track,” said David Winston, a GOP pollster who advises House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “So let’s get to work cutting the deficit. And then we can ask a second question: Do you really want your taxes to go up?”

To read the full op-ed, click to latimes.com.

Today’s LA Times released a story on the looming federal spending cuts, and how neither Republicans nor the White House backed down on their solutions to address the nation’s budget problem. The Winston Group’s David Winston commented in the story:

“Republicans are saying: We need to put the cuts on the board,” said GOP strategist David Winston, who is close to the House Republican leadership. “We need to start talking about how we deal with this spending problem.”

To read the full article, turn to latimes.com.

The budget debate continues, this time touching on the possibility cuts affecting civilian employees of the Pentagon, who face a sequester that would force them to take one day off a week without pay. The WG’s David Winston commented in the story:

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