Virginia Democrat in 2016 race, sees long odds

In this June 30, 2015 file photo, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb speaks in Baltimore. On Thursday, Webb announced his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In this June 30, 2015 file photo, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb speaks in Baltimore. On Thursday, Webb announced his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia became the fifth Democrat to enter the 2016 presidential contest, acknowledging in his announcement Thursday that he would be a long shot against former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"After many months of thought, deliberation and discussion, I have decided to seek the office of the Presidency of the United States," Webb said in a statement on his website.

"I understand the odds, particularly in today's political climate where fair debate is so often drowned out by huge sums of money," he wrote.

He said he knew that "more than one candidate in this process intends to raise at least a billion dollars -- some estimates run as high as two billion dollars -- in direct and indirect financial support," presumably referring to Clinton. "But our country needs a fresh approach to solving the problems that confront us and too often unnecessarily divide us."

Webb, 69, served as secretary of the Navy under Republican President Ronald Reagan but won his Senate seat with a harsh attack on Republican President George W. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq.

The former Marine, who upset Republican Sen. George Allen in 2006, has said he's "the only person ever elected to statewide office in Virginia with a union card, two Purple Hearts, and three tattoos."

He has embraced strong labor organizations, a position that often resonates with moderate Democrats, including the working-class white men the party has been trying to recapture. That could help him attract some Democrats who have concerns about Clinton's ties to Wall Street.

The veteran also could put more pressure the former secretary of state's foreign-policy record. In the statement announcing his candidacy, he emphasized his military service and his belief that "there is no greater responsibility for our president than the vital role of commander in chief."

He called the Iraq war, which Clinton supported while a senator, "a strategic blunder of historic proportions."

He also criticized the Obama administration's conduct during the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East, including the use of military force in Libya that the GOP has repeatedly tied to Clinton. He insisted that the terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans was indirectly due in part to the U.S. effort to oust dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

"The attack in Benghazi was inevitable in some form or another, as was the continuing chaos and the dissemination of large numbers of weapons from Gadhafi's armories to terrorist units throughout the region," Webb wrote.

In an April speech at the University of Chicago, he said the U.S. lost its direction in foreign policy in "about 1993," when Clinton's husband, Bill, entered the White House. Webb did not mention either Clinton by name in that speech and has generally refrained from attacking her.

Webb has outlined a seven-point foreign policy agenda that included maintaining strategic superiority, strengthening support for allies, and abandoning the concept of "humanitarian intervention," according to his campaign issues site.

Webb also said Thursday that he would work to "clean out the manure-filled stables of a political system that has become characterized by greed."

Webb grew up in Missouri and attended the Naval Academy, graduating in 1968. He served as a company commander in Vietnam and received the Navy Cross, Silver Star, and two Bronze Stars in addition to his two Purple Hearts.

A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, he worked as counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs for four years beginning in 1977. In 1984, Reagan appointed him as the first assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. He became secretary of the Navy in 1987, resigning a year later after a dispute with Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci over cutbacks in the Navy fleet.

Born fighting

In the Senate, Webb advocated for issues that he said "don't really ring up the cash registers of the big campaign donors," such as reducing incarceration rates and increasing access to adult education.

His Born Fighting political action committee took in less than $160,000 in 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign donations.

He has acknowledged his discomfort with fundraising, saying in April that he is "very bad" at it and labeling the Clinton campaign's financial strength as "the great intimidator."

Clinton said Wednesday that her campaign had taken in a record $45 million in primary money during its first quarter.

In addition, Priorities USA Action, the super-political action committee expected to be the biggest outside force for Clinton's campaign, reported Thursday that it pulled in $15.6 million during the first half of 2015.

American Bridge 21st Century, an opposition research PAC founded by longtime Clinton supporter David Brock, and Correct the Record, which was part of American Bridge until earlier this year, raised $7.7 million more, while an associated nonprofit took in $1 million, according to a source familiar with the groups' fundraising who asked not to be identified.

In addition to Clinton, the Democratic field also includes Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

Sanders' campaign said Thursday that it has raised $15 million since he joined the race in late April. The campaign said it had received nearly 400,000 contributions for an average donation of $33.51.

Sanders has drawn large crowds, including about 10,000 in Madison, Wis., on Wednesday night.

"I am more than aware that my opponents will be able to outspend us," Sanders said in Wisconsin. "They may have the money but we have the people. And when the people stand together, we can win."

O'Malley and Chafee have yet to release their fundraising amounts.

Walker's in, aides say

As Webb announced his entrance into the race Thursday, aides for Scott Walker said the Wisconsin governor is joining the crowded race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Having spent the past several months traveling the country, speaking to conservatives, courting voters and scoring well in some early polls, Walker will officially enter the race with a campaign announcement in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha on July 13, the aides said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the campaign launch.

Walker rose to national prominence soon after his election as governor by pushing for a law in 2011 that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers in the state. Four years later, he pressed to make Wisconsin a right-to-work state where employers and unions are barred from requiring all workers to pay union dues.

In 2011, protests at the Statehouse grew as large as 100,000 people at times, and Democrats in the state Senate fled Wisconsin for three weeks hoping to undermine Walker's efforts.

In 2012, Democrats and union leaders tried to recall Walker in a special election. Walker beat back the effort, winning by a larger margin than in 2010 and becoming the first governor in U.S. history to survive such an effort.

Walker on Thursday started a countdown of sorts to his kickoff by posting a slice of his presidential campaign logo on Instagram, with eight more pieces to come in the days ahead. He also posted on Twitter an image of himself waving next to an American flag with the message "It begins."

Immigration debate

The Republican race already has attracted 14 candidates, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joining this week.

Christie, on his second full day of campaigning, chimed in on the immigration debate. He reiterated his opposition Thursday to building a fence that spans the southern border with Mexico.

That position puts him at odds with a number of his rivals, most notably Donald Trump, the outspoken billionaire who recently has made incendiary remarks about America's southern neighbor. Among other things, Trump has vowed to build a wall between the two nations and to make Mexico pay for it.

"Please be careful about anybody who's running for president who is going to tell you that they're going to build a wall across the entire southern border. It's not going to happen; it's the wrong message to send and it's not going to be effective," Christie told 50 people who attended a town hall meeting at the Pink Cadillac Diner in Rochester, N.H. "Always beware of of the candidate for public office who has the quick and easy answer to a complicated problem."

Afterward, Samantha Smith, Christie's campaign spokesman, said the governor was outlining long-held positions and not reacting to Trump's statements.

Others have reacted to Trump's comments, causing him to lose contracts with Macy's and with the networks NBC and Univision, briefly leaving his Miss USA pageant without a TV home.

But on Thursday, Reelz channel Chief Executive Officer Stan Hubbard said in a statement that the cable and satellite channel acquired the rights because of a belief that the pageant and the women who compete in it "are an integral part of American tradition."

Reelz said it considered the interests of Miss USA contestants, the host city of Baton Rouge and viewers in making its decision. It made no mention of Trump or the contention since he announced his presidential bid in June, when he said some Mexicans that come to the U.S. bring drugs and crime and some are rapists.

Perry on racial divide

Another Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry, on Thursday urged his party to fight for the black vote and said black families should hold Democrats accountable for what he called decades of unsuccessful anti-poverty programs.

"I am here to tell you that it is Republicans, not Democrats, who are truly offering black Americans the hope of a better life for themselves and their children," the former Texas governor said in a speech focused largely on race.

Perry is the latest White House hopeful to weigh in on the racial divide, an emerging theme in the 2016 presidential contest.

President Barack Obama last week addressed race when he eulogized a South Carolina state senator who was among nine blacks shot to death in a Charleston church.

Perry did not echo the president's call for South Carolina to take down the Confederate flag flying on the Statehouse grounds, saying that was a decision for the people of South Carolina.

He did promote policies such as education overhaul, Medicaid grants to give states more control over health care programs and sentencing laws that keep nonviolent drug offenders out of prison.

"I am proud to live in a country with an African-American president. But President Obama cannot be proud of the fact that the prevalence of black poverty has actually increased under his leadership," Perry said.

Catholics weigh in

In Iowa, where the presidential candidates will face their first votes of the primary season, Roman Catholic leaders implored them to take up Pope Francis' call for "profound political courage" by focusing their campaigns as much on improving the environment and income inequality as they have on opposing gay marriage and abortion in past elections.

The vocal pivot from such traditional social issues marks the first time U.S. Catholic bishops have publicly asked those seeking the White House to heed the admonitions of Francis' June encyclical, said Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines.

In Francis' major teaching document, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics called for a "sweeping revolution" to correct a "structurally perverse" economic system that allows the rich to exploit the poor and has turned the Earth into an "immense pile of filth."

"These are going to be difficult decisions that have to be made," said the Rev. Bud Grant of Davenport, joined at a news conference by bishops from central and eastern Iowa. "Politicians have to have the courage to do the right thing, and not necessarily the politically expedient thing."

The GOP candidates vary marginally in their approach to the issues Francis addressed in the encyclical, in which he criticized deregulated free-market economics and argued that climate change was predominantly caused by humans.

To date, most have taken the approach that Francis crossed beyond spiritual matters and into public policy.

Jeb Bush, for example, said he agrees with Francis that human activity has contributed to global warming, but does not go as far as the pope, who holds people, not nature, mainly responsible.

"I don't go to Mass for economic policy or for things in politics," Bush added.

Information for this article was contributed by by Noah Bierman of the Tribune News Service; by Ben Brody, Jennifer Epstein and Terrence Dopp of Bloomberg News; and by Scott Bauer, Lynn Elber, David Bauder, Frazier Moore, Michael Balsamo, Mesfin Fekadu, Mae Anderson, Russell Contreras, Steve Peoples, Thomas Beaumont and Rachel Zoll of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/03/2015

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