Here are ten things you need to know today.
- Sunday shows line-up: Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Peter King (R-NY) will be on NBC’s Meet the Press; Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) will be on Fox News Sunday; David Axelrod, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Elijiah Cummings (D-MD) will be on CNN’s State of the Union; Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) will be on ABC’s This Week; Joe Lieberman and former Secret Service Director Ralph Basham will be on CBS’s Face the Nation.
- Hollywood pitching in for Obama: The number of top tier bundlers bringing in over $500,000 for the Obama campaign doubled during the first quarter of 2012, showing big donors are starting to come off the sidelines and support the president, reports the Washington Post. And a large number of these big bundlers come from Hollywood. Included in his top fundraisers are Tyler Perry, film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein.
- Jeb Bush takes himself out of veepstakes, recommends Rubio: Jeb Bush is trying to douse speculation that Mitt Romney may pick him as his running mate. After saying he would “consider it” if asked, he’s now saying that those words were taken out of context. “I am not going to be the veep nominee…Lay that to rest,” he told Bloomberg in an email Friday. Instead, Bush says Florida Sen. Marco Rubio would be an excellent pick.
- Rubio recommends Jeb Bush for VP: Now that Jeb Bush has said he thinks Marco Rubio would be a great pick, the Florida Senator has returned the compliment, telling CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday that Bush would be a great VP pick. “Well that’s very nice of Jeb. I hope he’ll say yes if future President Romney asks him,” he said. “I think he’d be a fantastic vice president.”
- Obama to campaign on student loan debt: Over the next few weeks, President Obama is planning to mount a campaign over federal student loan interest rates, which are set to double on July 1 without intervention from Congress. The White House says an estimated 7.4 million students would see their debt grow by $1,000 per year. Obama is also pushing this as an election-year issue to contrast himself with Republicans. Obama’s first stop is at the University of Iowa on Wednesday.
- Romney hires openly gay spokesperson: Mitt Romney has hired Richard Grenell to serve as the campaign’s national security and foreign policy spokesman. Grenell, a former George W. Bush official, is openly gay.
- Obama will clinch the nomination Tuesday: After Tuesday’s primary, Barack Obama will have clinched the Democratic nomination for president, reports the AP. While the GOP primary took everyone’s attention, Obama has quietly been winning the delegates necessary to be on the ballot too. Obama needs 2,778 delegates.
- Sen. Orrin Hatch will face a primary in June: Sen. Orrin Hatch failed to secure his party’s nomination at the Utah GOP convention on Saturday. He will now face his Republican challenger, former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist, in a primary on June 26. Hatch got 59.2 percent on the second ballot, bringing him within .8 percentage points of getting the 60 percent of delegates needed to secure the nomination. This is the first time Hatch has had to face a primary since 1976.
- Santorum’s finances were in bad shape: In March, Santorum’s finances were not looking good. He had more debt ($2 million) than cash on hand ($1.8 million).
- All quiet on the campaign trail: Neither Mitt Romney nor President Obama have a public schedule out Sunday.
