Super Saturday: John Kasich 4th in 3 states; third in Maine

Kasich also released his tax returns Saturday.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich had a poor performance on Super Saturday, but that was expected as he is putting his efforts into winning Michigan Tuesday and Ohio on March 15.

Kasich came in last Saturday in Kansas, Louisiana and Kentucky. He was third in Maine.

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Special report from Dayton Daily News political team

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Also on Saturday Kasich released his partial tax returns for the past several years, joining Sen. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz among the GOP candidates to make public such personal financial records.

The Ohio governor posted tax returns from 2008 to 2014 on his campaign website on Saturday.

The records show that in the past seven years, Kasich has paid roughly 31 percent of his income in federal taxes.

Like Rubio and Cruz, Kasich only released the first two pages of his federal 1040 form. Not included in the disclosure are other parts of his returns, including the documents that detail his deductions.

Those records would shed additional light on Kasich’s charitable contributions, for example.

GOP front-runner Donald Trump has not release his personal tax records, citing an ongoing IRS audit of his returns dating back a dozen years.

RESULTS FROM SATURDAY’S ELECTIONS

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz each won two states Saturday, while Sen. Bernie Sanders also had two wins and Hillary Clinton had one.

Trump won Republican races in Kentucky and Louisiana. Cruz won Republican caucuses in Maine and Kansas.

Sanders won the Democratic races in Nebraska and Kansas. Clinton won Louisiana.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s numbers are low in the four Republican contests in Kansas, Maine, Louisiana and Kentucky.

Currently, here’s how the states tonight are shaping up:

Ted Cruz wins GOP Caucus in Kansas: Cruz has 48%, Trump 23%, Marco Rubio 17%, Kasich 11%. (100% of vote counted)

Bernie Sanders wins Democratic Caucus in Kansas: Sanders 68%, Clinton 32%. (100% of vote counted)

Donald Trump wins Louisiana primary: Trump 42%, Cruz 38%, Rubio 11%, Kasich 6%. (96% of vote counted)

Hillary Clinton wins Louisiana primary: Clinton 70%, Sanders 24%. (96% of vote counted)

Donald Trump wins in Kentucky: Trump 36%, Cruz 32%, Rubio, 16%, Kasich 14%. (99% of vote counted)

Ted Cruz wins Maine Caucus: Cruz 46%, Trump 33%, Kasich 12%, Rubio 8%. (100% of vote counted)

Bernie Sanders wins Nebraska Caucus: Sanders 56%, Clinton 44%. (82% of vote counted)

Here’s the latest from the campaign trail today from the AP:

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Cruz makes dent in delegate count

Ted Cruz is making a small dent in Donald Trump’s lead in the race for delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer.

Cruz picked up at least 60 delegates Saturday, winning Republican caucuses in Kansas and Maine. Donald Trump collected at least 46 delegates, winning in Louisiana and Kentucky.

Marco Rubio added at least 13 delegates and John Kasich won at least eight.

There are a total of 155 Republican delegates at stake Saturday in Kansas, Maine, Kentucky and Louisiana. There are still 28 delegates to be allocated, in Louisiana and Kentucky.

In the overall race for delegates, Trump has 375 and Cruz has 291. Rubio has 123 delegates and Kasich has 33.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

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Trump says Rubio needs to drop out

After postings wins in Louisiana and Kentucky’s presidential nominating contests, Republican front-runner Donald Trump says it is “probably time” for rival Marco Rubio to drop out of Republican race for president.

The Florida senator finished no better than third in any of Saturday’s primary elections and caucuses. Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won in Maine and Kansas.

Trump congratulated Cruz for his victories. But he joked that it’s natural that Cruz won Maine because, “it’s very close to Canada, let’s face it.”

Trump has questioned Cruz’s eligibility to be president, because the Texas lawmaker was born on Canadian soil. Many legal experts have said that Cruz is a natural born citizen who is eligible to serve as president.

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How is delegate count shaping up on Democratic side

Bernie Sanders has won two out of the three states where Democrats voted on Saturday. But that isn't translating into any gains for him in The Associated Press delegate count.

With 109 delegates at stake Saturday, Clinton is on track to win a majority of them, having gained at least 51 after her win in Louisiana. Sanders picked up at least 45.

Democratic contests award delegates in proportion to the vote, so even the loser gets some. Clinton's substantial margin of victory in the bigger state of Louisiana withstood Sanders' wins in Kansas and Nebraska.

That means Clinton will maintain her substantial delegate lead.

Including superdelegates, she now has a total of least 1,117 delegates, compared to at least 477 for Sanders. It takes 2,383 delegates to win.

Clinton has won 11 of the 18 states that have voted in primaries and caucuses up to now, compared to seven for Sanders. Maine holds its caucus on Sunday.

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Trump says he’ll win nomination if he wins Florida

Republican front-runner Donald Trump says he will clinch the GOP nomination if he wins Florida’s March 15 primary.

He tells thousands of supporters in Orlando on Saturday that “if we win Florida, believe me, it’s over.”

Cheers erupted from the capacity-crowd inside the University of Central Florida campus arena. At one point, Trump got the crowd to raise their right hands and pledge to vote for him.

He delivered his speech the same day early voting began statewide in Florida. GOP voters have already mailed in more than 457,000 absentee ballots.

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Rubio spends day in Puerto Rico

Republican Marco Rubio is telling supporters at a campaign stop in Puerto Rico that he knew this would be the toughest stretch of his campaign for president.

Having lost in several states in Saturday’s nominating contests, Rubio is looking to Puerto Rico for a victory on Sunday. So far, he has only one win out of 18 nominating contests.

Rubio says that the upcoming schedule of primaries is better for his campaign and that the states voting Saturday “have a certain profile” that benefits “other candidates.”

The Florida senator says he still picked up delegates as part of the GOP’s proportional distribution process and now looks forward to the winner-take-all phase of the race that begins March 15.

First up: His home state of Florida, where he again guaranteed victory — despite preference polls showing him trailing GOP front-runner Donald Trump. ———

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Could Jeb Bush endorse Rubio?

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio isn’t tipping his hand on the prospect he’ll get the endorsement of Jeb Bush before the March 15 primary in their home state of Florida.

Winning the state would be crucial for Rubio as he tries to chase down GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Florida will award all of its 99 delegates to the winner of its primary.

A former Florida governor, Bush remains an influential figure in state Republican circles. He’s also a face of the GOP establishment and an unsuccessful candidate for president this year, making his potential support tricky for Rubio given how primary voters have embraced outsiders such as Trump.

Rubio said Saturday at conservative gathering in suburban Washington that he believes Bush was “the greatest governor in Florida history.”

The Florida senator confirmed the two allies-turned-rivals have spoken since Bush ended his White House bid on Feb. 20, but he said he won’t discuss private conversations he has with anyone.

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Rubio discusses court nominee

Marco Rubio is promising he would not nominate a Supreme Court justice in the final year of any four-year term he serves in the White House.

The Florida senator made the promise Saturday in response to a question at a gathering of conservative activists in the Washington suburbs.

As have his fellow Republican presidential candidates and many GOP senators, Rubio has argued that President Barack Obama shouldn’t attempt to fill the seat vacated by the Feb. 13 death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Rubio says the Supreme Court can “function with eight justices.” He adds, “There’s no magic No. 9.”

Rubio did not discuss the practical effects of 4-4 rulings from the court, which result in leaving the decisions of lower courts in place.

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Kasich is not taking the bait

It can be a dilemma for Donald Trump’s rivals: Hit back or walk away.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich says a sure way to grab the spotlight for his campaign would be to hurl insults at the Republican presidential front-runner.

But Kasich won’t take the bait.

“I’m with Harry Potter - I’m not going to the dark side.” That’s what Kasich tells reporters after a rally in Traverse City, Michigan.

But Marco Rubio — who’s called Trump a “con artist” — takes a different approach:

“Where I grew up, if someone keeps punching people in the face, eventually someone’s going to have to stand up and punch them back.”

The Florida senator got loud cheers from an audience at a conference of conservatives outside Washington.

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