A week after Election Day, three Republican governors mentioned as 2016 presidential candidates — Bobby Jindal, John Kasich and Bob McDonnell — each stopped by the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino to meet privately with its owner Sheldon Adelson, a man who could single-handedly underwrite their White House ambitions. 
 
 Planning a presidential campaign used to mean having coffee with county party chairs in their Iowa or New Hampshire living rooms. The courting of Adelson, a full four years out from 2016, demonstrates how super PAC sugar daddies have become the new must-have feature for White House wannabes. 
 
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 reset Allen on 2016, donors Video: POLITICO on Super PACs 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Megadonors seek low profiles) 
 
 And prospective candidates from both parties are wasting little time schmoozing potential super PAC funders. 
 
 Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is meeting with big donors in Los Angeles this week and has a fundraiser scheduled for next Monday in the Washington suburbs. Vice President Joe Biden, Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) have been meeting with big donors, leaving the impression that they’re ready to run. 
 
 “A group of five people could contribute $10 million each and finance a substantial primary campaign for a candidate,” said former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges. “So there is probably more of an effort right now focused on trying to look at those people who are capable of being very large donors, rather than soliciting or developing the network of bundlers that were out there in the past.” 
 
 (PHOTOS: Republicans, 2016: In full swing) 
 
 Hodges, a Democrat, is co-hosting the fundraiser for O’Malley’s leadership PAC in Chevy Chase, Md., on Monday. He also raised money earlier this year for the PAC fronted by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and said he’d probably help other Democrats “who want to get out there and test the waters” by meeting with donors. “It’s an important part of a process.” 
 
 And it’s becoming more important, as demonstrated by the 2012 Republican primaries — the first since federal court decisions allowed super PACs to accept unlimited cash — which proved that a single super-rich supporter can essentially float an entire campaign. While the GOP establishment desperately tried to rally around eventual nominee Mitt Romney, super PACs funded by Adelson, Foster Friess and Jon Huntsman Sr. extended the challenges of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman Jr. respectively, before a pro-Romney super PAC obliterated the field. 
 
 And in 2016 — with open primaries in both parties and the power of super PACs firmly established — the biggest donors are being courted earlier than ever. Not only are entreaties coming before most of the donors are anywhere close to choosing sides, none of the suitors are willing to discuss their plans publicly. 
 
 (See also: Dem super PACs jump on 2014, 2016) 
 
 Santorum is privately telling friends that he’s running again, POLITICO has learned. Friess, a retired mutual fund guru who donated $2.2 million to a pair of super PACs credited with helping lift Santorum to a surprise win over Romney in the Iowa caucuses, said, “Right now, I’m certainly still in his camp, but four years is a long way away.” 
 
 Adelson — a Las Vegas casino billionaire whose family donated a record $84 million or more to GOP outside groups, including $20 million each to the super PACs devoted to Romney and Gingrich — has signaled that he is undeterred from his weak 2012 return on investment and plans to continue giving big. ||||| Annie Leibovitz is reportedly set to shoot the story. 
 
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 Two days of sniping over real-estate regulations. ||||| Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, are considering forming their own super PAC to direct their campaign contributions. (John Locher/Associated Press) 
 
 Efforts by potential Republican presidential candidates to win over wealthy donors have set off a series of contests for their support that could stall the GOP race for months. 
 
 In Florida, allies of former governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio are tussling over many of the same donors. In Texas, bundlers are feeling pulled by Bush, Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Ted Cruz. Perry and Cruz are also competing for the backing of wealthy evangelical Christians, as are Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. 
 
 Despite the appeals, which have stepped up in recent weeks, many top donors have committed to being noncommittal, wary of fueling the kind of costly and politically damaging battle that dominated the 2012 primaries. Senior party fundraisers believe that most campaigns will not be able to fully set up their fundraising operations until at least the spring. 
 
 A telling sign of the mood can be seen in the attitude of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, one of the GOP’s biggest donors, who has expressed reluctance about engaging in the early primary fight. Instead, he and his wife, Miriam, are likely to set up their own super PAC to influence 2016 congressional campaigns as well as the White House race. 
 
 The hesitancy among the party’s financial patrons about jumping into the White House race right away could hamstring the ability of some candidates to ramp up their campaign operations and quickly break out of a pack of hopefuls that could number as many as two dozen. 
 
 From left, GOP backer Sheldon Adelson, Israeli American Council chairman Shawn Evenhaim and Hillary Clinton supporter Haim Saban attend the Israeli American Council Conference on Nov. 7 in Washington. (Shahar Azran) 
 
 Veteran fundraisers said there is a widespread desire among donors to pool their funds with other like-minded contributors, so as not to undercut their impact. Many are holding back from picking a candidate until Bush signals whether he will run. 
 
 With so many potential candidates — but no clear front-runner — the early maneuvering has had the effect of “just freezing” many donors, who are meeting with candidates but not making an early commitment, said Dan Senor, who advised GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. 
 
 “You would be hard pressed to find any invisible primary going back decades that was this fluid,” Senor said. “This is going to be chaotic and cluttered for some time.” 
 
 Establishment Republicans contemplating bids by figures such as Bush, Perry, Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are pondering how to whittle the field to one of them, worried that a drawn-out primary process could produce a weakened GOP nominee. 
 
 “It’s really important for those donors who share the center-right philosophy to try to clear the field,” said Bobbie Kilberg, a longtime Republican fundraiser in Virginia who, with her husband, raised more than $4 million for Romney’s 2012 campaign. “We have to have one candidate we can all get behind.” 
 
 Doing their homework 
 
 The discussions are not just about rallying around a single candidate but also about how to pick the strongest one. 
 
 “There is a heightened awareness of the need for further and deeper homework on candidates and how they are going to win,” said one major GOP fundraiser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks. 
 
 The upheaval on the right stands in stark contrast with the coalescing of major Democratic financiers behind the expected candidacy of former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton. Operatives running a network of independent groups poised to flank her campaign began soliciting financial commitments the day after last month’s elections. Billionaire media mogul Haim Saban, a longtime Clinton backer, recently said he would spend “what­ever it takes” to get her into the White House. 
 
 The prospect of Clinton’s financial might has spurred anxious conversations among GOP donors about identifying early funding for the opposition-research group America Rising and others to take aim at Clinton while the Republican primaries are underway. 
 
 “There will be a coalition of people who are going to really focus on making sure the Democratic candidate is not able to take a huge advantage over the Republican, as happened in 2012,” said Ron Weiser, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman. “If Hillary is the Democratic candidate, she will be in a position of being able to define the leading Republican candidate long before it’s clear who has won. The same must be done to Hillary in order to be sure she doesn’t gain an advantage.” 
 
 The prospective 2016 candidates face more intense pressure than ever to raise substantial sums of money, with GOP strategists predicting that the winner will need at least $75 million to get through the first three primaries — and $1 billion by Election Day. 
 
 In a field of as many as 23 Republican candidates, raising that kind of money will not be easy. 
 
 “It’s a very large field of very competent candidates, and there’s just so much money to go around,” Kilberg said. 
 
 GOP White House hopefuls began reaching out to party donors in earnest as soon as this year’s midterm elections were over. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) held strategy sessions in Washington with advisers and supporters last month. Perry is inviting hundreds of wealthy Republicans to dinners he is holding in a tent outside the Austin governor’s mansion this month. Aides to Christie and Bush, among others, have individually contacted wealthy party backers. 
 
 The perennial discussions about assembling a national finance team have been accompanied by conversations about which billionaires will fund candidate-specific super PACs. 
 
 The Adelson effect 
 
 Wealthy donors such as Adelson “have an amazing ability to affect an outcome,” said one party fundraiser. “What if one of them plops $50 million into one of the primary candidates?” 
 
 At a gathering of major donors to the Republican Governors Association last month in Boca Raton, Fla., aides to some of the prospective candidates hinted to contributors that Adelson was behind them as a way to signal momentum, according to people in attendance. 
 
 In fact, while the casino mogul has been meeting privately with the top prospective candidates for months, he is holding off on making any commitments, his associates said. “He is meeting with everybody,” says Andy Abboud, his top political adviser. “But any decision about 2016 candidates is a long ways down the pike.” 
 
 This week, Adelson was scheduled to host a dinner in Las Vegas with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and top Republican donors. The event follows private conversations he has had in recent weeks with Christie, Huckabee, Cruz and Jindal. 
 
 While Adelson and his wife assess the field, they are taking steps to dramatically change the way they spend their political money. After contributing nearly $100 million in 2012, largely to independent groups that backed GOP candidates, the couple are leaning toward setting up their own super PAC, as the New York Times first reported. 
 
 The decision to create an independent political operation follows an informal study by Adelson’s staff of spending in the 2012 and 2014 federal elections. 
 
 “We found a lot of inefficient and wasteful spending,” said a person close to Adelson,who asked not to be identified by name. 
 
 Adelson has become convinced that a shift to direct giving would permit the couple “to participate more directly in individual congressional campaigns without going through” the committees controlled by party leaders, the Adelson associate said. 
 
 Adelson is not alone in his cautious posture toward the 2016 White House race. 
 
 “The adage of jumping on the bandwagon early doesn’t apply this presidential cycle,” said Richard Hohlt, a Washington lobbyist who has served on the finance committees of GOP candidates since the days of Ronald Reagan. Hohlt has been attending meetings with potential 2016 candidates since the fall and says that he senses a noticeable hesitancy in the donor community. 
 
 “What most of us have learned in the last two cycles is that you need to verify the effectiveness of the campaign organization and the ability of the candidate to get across the finish line,” he said. “With so many candidates potentially running, most of us are thinking, ‘It is better to keep our powder dry.’ ” 
 
 Philip Rucker in Austin contributed to this report. ||||| Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersPro-Clinton Super-PAC launches 2 ads against Trump Reid blames Sanders supporters for disruptions at Nev. convention Overnight Finance: House unveils 2M Zika bill | GOP hasn't given up on budget | New phase in Puerto Rico fight MORE told a screaming crowd at his New Hampshire headquarters that his victory over Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham ClintonPro-Clinton Super-PAC launches 2 ads against Trump Overnight Healthcare: Zika fight enters new phase Democrats’ promises same as past utopian efforts — they will fail MORE in the state's primary was the result of excited voters he said could be mobilized in a general election. 
 
 "What happened here in New Hampshire in terms of the enthusiastic and aroused electorate ... that is what will happen all over this country," Sanders said. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT Surrounded by supporters chanting "we don't need no super-PAC," the Vermont Independent declared, "It is just too late for the same old same old establishment ... the American people want real change." 
 
 "The government of our great country belongs to all the people and not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors and their super-PACS." 
 
 Sanders began speaking to the crowd a little more than an hour after The Associated Press called the race in his favor immediately after polls closed in New Hampshire. 
 
 Sanders reminded the crowd that just nine months ago they had no campaign organization and no money, "and we were taking on the most powerful political organization in the United States of America" — referring to the Clintons. 
 
 Sanders said he was going to New York City tonight and tomorrow but not to hold a fundraiser on Wall Street. He said he was instead going to hold a fundraiser "right here, right now, right across America," asking his supporters to go to his website and contribute. 
 
 The crowd cheered loudest when Sanders talked about a "yuge" voter turnout. "And I say 'yuuuge,'" he said, riffing on a line he used on Saturday Night Live with comedian Larry David. 
 
 "Yuge!" the Sanders supporters yelled. ||||| CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrats have grumbled that President Barack Obama hasn’t done enough to help them raise cash, and so some of the party’s biggest names are taking matters into their own hands at this week’s Democratic National Convention. 
 
 Unlimited-money Democratic outside groups striving to keep within in shouting distance of big GOP outfits like the Karl Rove-conceived Crossroads groups are banking on help from a A-list liberal pols and celebrities like Jessica Alba and culinary legend Alice Waters. 
 
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 (Photos: 10 star-studded fundraisers) 
 
 Donors who give a combined $100,000 to the super PACs backing Obama and Democratic congressional candidates get 50 tickets to a party on Thursday after Obama’s acceptance speech featuring Alba and musical entertainment by the Miami rapper Pitbull and the New York pop band Scissor Sisters. 
 
 They also are entitled to 20 tickets to a Cocktails and Political Briefing featuring Paul Begala and six tickets to an intimate Political Leaders Brunch at the home of billionaire mega-donor Jim Simons featuring Sens. Harry Reid, Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer, and Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Steve Israel. 
 
 Waters will prepare cuisine for guests of Wednesday’s Celebration of Truthiness, at the Mint Museum that’s being thrown by American Bridge 21st Century, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO. It boasts a host committee full of lefty all-stars: Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, consultant/pundits Begala and James Carville, and David Brock, founder of Media Matters for America and American Bridge. 
 
 Charlotte could be a pivotal moment for Democrats in the big money chase. Some top operatives view it as perhaps the last, best chance to try to motivate a big donor base that has thus far failed to embrace unlimited outside spending through super PACs and so-called 501(c)4 nonprofit groups to the same extent as wealthy Republicans. 
 
 Conservative mega-donors have been showered with affection, including at last week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, from top party officials and surrogates to Mitt Romney. The GOP nominee has personally appeared at fundraisers for a supportive super PAC called Restore Our Future. 
 
 Obama, meanwhile, has vowed not to appear at fundraisers for Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting his reelection campaign. But he has cleared aides to attend on his behalf, and the buzz around Democratic finance circles is that an Obama surrogate may do a Priorities event this week in Charlotte. 
 
 The convention presents Democrats a golden opportunity, said Doug Thornell, a former spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who now works as a strategist for a firm that represents one of the Democratic super PACs. 
 
 “It’s probably one of the best times to ask them for money. This is when the purses are more likely to be open because people are coming in, they are jazzed about the upcoming elections and they are motivated,” said Thornell, who does not work with the super PACs. “If it’s a super PAC doing a donor maintenance event, this is where you use this as an opportunity to brief them on what you are doing, how what you have been doing up to this point has been successful and have them at a point where they are most likely to give more.” ||||| Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersWe might end up with single-payer healthcare, whether we like it or not Sanders: Single-payer isn't a litmus test for Dems OPINION | The real threat to our republic is the Orwellian Antifa MORE’s campaign lashed out at Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSpecial counsel probing if Trump tried to hide purpose of Russian meeting: report Ten notable departures from Team Trump Is Trump responsible for violent rallies? Law says probably not MORE on Friday for a lavish fundraising dinner her campaign has planned with actor George Clooney. 
 
 Clooney and his wife, Amal, are poised to host a pair of dinners with donors next month in California. Clinton’s campaign is also promoting a contest for supporters to win a ticket, no matter what amount they donate, to the exclusive event with the “Hail, Caesar!” star. 
 
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 “In the movie Oceans 11, a gang of lovable thieves successfully heist $150 million from a vault in the basement of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas,” Sanders’s campaign manager Jeff Weaver said in an email to supporters. 
 
 “Fueled primarily from high-dollar donations, Hillary Clinton has raised more than that in this campaign, and is now enlisting the support of George Clooney (Danny Ocean) to pad that total at a dinner event that will cost people up to $353,400 to attend.” 
 
 Weaver added that the price of admission an “obscene amount of money.” 
 
 “It’s a sum that would require an employee making the federal minimum wage to work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for more than 5 years,” he said. 
 
 Weaver included a fundraising pitch, saying that the Sanders campaign was relying on small donations from “working Americans.” 
 
 “Here is the truth: while tens of millions of Americans are struggling to put dinner on the table, the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good,” he said. “And the great question of this campaign is will we restore a vibrant democracy in this country, or will we slide into an oligarchy in which the economic and political life is controlled by a handful of billionaires?” 
 
 Clooney, who is an outspoken supporter of Clinton, is hosting events with his wife Amal Clooney next month in Los Angeles and San Francisco in support of the Democratic presidential front-runner. 
 
 - Judy Kurtz contributed ||||| Hedge fund operator Robert Mercer almost never talks about himself, and neither do the people who know him. Yet Mercer's money is sure making a lot of noise on the campaign trail. 
 
 The third most generous Republican donor this cycle, Mercer has cut checks for a total of $37 million in the past six years, supporting pro-life candidates, those who deny man-made global warming, as well as helping fund the effort to block construction of a mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks in New York. In fact, this year he gave more to the Koch brothers' organization, $2.5 million, than the Kansas founders, David and Charles, who each chipped in just $2 million to Freedom Partners Action Fund. 
 
 Bloomberg Visual Data 
 
 Yet the man who first made his mark by upending the field of computer linguistics and is now seeking to bend the national political debate in his conservative direction, is a stranger to the electorate he seeks to sway and the public that would be affected should he succeed. He is the ultimate behind-the-scenes kingmaker in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate who almost never talks—publicly or otherwise. An address to computer scientists at an awards ceremony in Baltimore this summer was a rare exception, and he admitted to finding it daunting. 
 
 It was only after he agreed to accept a lifetime achievement award that it dawned on him that he'd have to address attendees for about an hour. "Which, by the way, is more than I typically talk in a month," he said. About 10 minutes into the lecture, he paused, and took a sip of water. "I've just reached one week of speaking," he said, "so I have to take a little drink." 
 
 Asked to share their impressions about Mercer, people who have met him at conservative gatherings said they could recall little about about the man behind the checkbook. "I've only talked to him one time," said James Bopp, a normally outspoken campaign finance attorney who runs the USA Super PAC, a boutique political group backing Republican Pete Ricketts' gubernatorial bid in Nebraska. Bopp's super-PAC has just seven donors, including Mercer. Senator Rob Portman, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's finance chair and a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate simply said, "I don't have any insights" about the man who is one of two people who've donated to the Portman Victory Committee. The other contributor is Mercer's wife of more than 40 years, Diana. "The conversation I had with him was about the direction of the country. His focus with me was on the economic issues and the fiscal issues," Portman said. 
 
 Mercer declined to comment for this story via his a spokesman, Jonathan Gasthalter. Mercer's daughter Rebekah, who runs the $37.6 million Mercer Family Foundation and sits on the board of at least one conservative non-profit that the family funds, didn't respond to messages seeking comment. Along with her two sisters Jenji and Heather Sue, she operates a pastry store in mid-town Manhattan. (The business, unlike the vast majority of Mercer's projects, has bipartisan support. The shop's website includes rave reviews from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.) Rebekah Mercer is also a budding political donor, and among the recipients of her largess is Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican. 
 
 In addition to a broader desire to shape national policy, Mercer has business interests in the midterms. His company, Renaissance Technologies, which runs the Medallion fund and has produced 35 percent returns annualized over two decades, was hauled before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in July and quizzed over how the firm calculates its taxes. According to the committee, RenTech has used sophisticated financial maneuvers to lower the amount it's investors paid to the Internal Revenue Service by $6 billion over 14 years. 
 
 “It meant enormous profit for both the banks and the hedge funds,” said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, a Democrat who chairs the panel. “Ordinary Americans had to shoulder a tax burden of billions of dollars, a burden that was shrugged off by those hedge funds.” 
 
 Gasthalter, also a spokesman for RenTech, said in a statement at the time that the IRS has been reviewing the hedge funds transactions for the past six years. “We believe that the tax treatment for the option transactions being reviewed by the [Senate committee] is appropriate under current law," he said. 
 
 With RenTech's outsized profits, Mercer is earning more than enough to fund political campaigns, and so far this cycle, he's contributed $8.8 million. 
 
 The beneficiaries of that money have been, across the board, Republicans—House candidates, Senate candidates, institutional super-PACs that give to lots of candidates and smaller super-PACs focused on individual candidates and conservative non-profits. Mercer has dipped into state races, including Ken Cuccinelli's 2013 gubernatorial contest in Virginia to which he gave a $600,000 contribution to an outside group. Cuccinelli recalled asking Mercer for support just after Mitt Romney had lost his 2012 presidential bid, when Republican money people were in what he referred to as deep donor depression. "He's very solid and understated," said Cuccinelli, who met with him on a fundraising trip to New York. "You wouldn't know you were talking to someone with that kind of force." Pet causes such as gun rights and charter schools don't seem to be the primary motivator for Mercer, unlike some donors, Cuccinelli said. "He just thinks our country is off track and he's in a position to do something to get it back on track," he said. 
 
 Only once during Mercer's talk in Baltimore did his conservative politics show. He recounted how he worked at a military base during college and he'd re-written an unwieldy computer program to make it faster. The bosses, to his surprise, added more to the program, slowing the computer back down. "The point of government-funded research was not to get answers but to consume the computer budget," he quipped to the crowd. "Which has left me with a jaundiced view of government research." 
 
 Mercer was born in July 1946 and grew up in New Mexico. He was obsessed with computers—writing code in high school even though he didn't have a machine to run it on. In graduate school he studied computer science. "I loved the solitude of the computer lab late at night," he said, during a 2013 talk to computer scientists. "I loved the air conditioned smell of the place. I loved the sound of the disks whirring and the printers clacking." 
 
 Later, he joined IBM and worked at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, focusing on the then-vexing problem of programming computers to recognize speech. He and his IBM colleague Peter Brown both joined RenTech in 1993, where the two men are now co-CEOs. The company's founder, James Simons, is the 54th richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He's also a hefty political donor—to Democrats. In March he wrote a $2 million check to the Senate Majority PAC, dedicated to keeping Democrats in power in the Senate. 
 
 The company was profiled in one chapter of Sebastian Mallaby's book "More Money Than God," which details the world's most successful hedge funds. In it, Mallaby shared only a few observations about Mercer. "He was an icy cold poker player; he never recalled having a nightmare; his IBM boss jokingly called him an automaton." Mallaby wrote. Last year, Mercer's household staff sued him, claiming their wages were improperly docked for failing to replacing shampoo bottles, closing doors improperly and not straightening pictures. 
 
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 Despite Mercer's material success, he political record is mixed. In 2010, he poured money into an Oregon House race to support a man—Republican Arthur Robinson, who was challenging incumbent Representative Peter DeFazio—who's skeptical work on climate change Mercer had funded. DeFazio's campaign put Mercer front and center that year, running radio ads saying Robinson was funded by a secretive donor with Wall Street ties. 
 
 "Oregon isn't a state that likes outside interference," DeFazio said. "Once we focused on who Mercer was we began to move our poll numbers." DeFazio won. This year, Robinson is running again to oust DeFazio, but Mercer hasn't dropped mega-dollars into the race. Robinson declined comment for this story.
– No modern candidate can run a legit campaign without help from a super PAC with deep pockets, yes? The New York Times reports that Bernie Sanders is providing a real test of that accepted wisdom. He's managed to build a "formidable" sum of $15.2 million while eschewing super PACs, with the average donation to his campaign at $31.30. The vast majority of that total comes from small donations routed through the ActBlue website, which handles donations for Democrats. Sanders knows he will still be widely outspent, but thinks he'll have plenty of money to run a smart, frugal, and "winning" campaign. Some other political stories from the wires today: 'Not himself': A Politico story on Joe Biden quotes a longtime friend as saying that "he's just not himself" as he considers a run. "He’s sort of all over the place. He’s engaged but not in that child-like, manic way he usually is. He’s taking it all in and soaking up information, but he’s hard to read. And Joe Biden isn’t usually that hard to read.” 'Out of line': After his run-in with Univision reporter Jorge Ramos last night, Donald Trump tells Today.com that Ramos was "totally out of line" when he began calling out questions and deserved to be ejected. "I would have gotten to him very quickly." Ramos tweets that it was Trump who was out of line. Unwanted endorsement: Former KKK grand wizard David Duke has weighed in on the 2016 race, and he thinks Trump is the only candidate who "understands the real sentiment of America," reports BuzzFeed. Trouble for the Ricks: The AP reports that Rick Perry and Rick Santorum are having serious trouble keeping the donors who supported them in the last presidential race. Most of those 2012 donors have defected to other candidates.