OFF TO THE RACES: Dead-heat races
The big numbers from over the weekend: Dead-heat races for the GOP in Iowa, and a close race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
NBC's Leigh Ann Caldwell reports on the weekend's anti-poverty forum, moderated by Paul Ryan in South Carolina on Saturday.
ABC is dumping the Union Leader as a partner for an upcoming GOP debate, and Donald Trump is claiming credit.
Six presidential hopefuls are getting a nod from "No Labels."
BUSH: NBC's Jordan Frasier reports that Bush addressed Donald Trump's charge that he is "low energy."
CARSON: WMUR: "All five paid New Hampshire staffers at the pro-Ben Carson 2016 Committee super PAC quit their posts on Sunday to become volunteers for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas."
CHRISTIE: He's standing by backer Gov. Paul LePage after the Maine Republican suggested that out-of-state drug dealers named "D-Money" frequently impregnate "young white girls."
CLINTON: She said on CBS that Donald Trump's attacks on Bill Clinton's past are a "dead end."
CRUZ: One of the super PACs backing him is up with a new ad painting him as "the people's president."
KASICH: A pro-Kasich super PAC says that Trump's immigration plan could cost $935 billion.
RUBIO: He and Ted Cruz certainly could lose the Latino vote in a general election. Here's why.
TRUMP: Politico suggests that his presidential run is damaging his brand.
He took his sharpest aim yet at Cruz in Nevada on Sunday.
Economic experts are weighing in on his fiscal plans, and the results aren't pretty.
He says the NFL has gone "soft."
Miss Meet the Press this weekend? Catch up on all you missed here.
OBAMA AGENDA: Supreme Court takes up consequential case
From NBC's Pete Williams: "The U.S. Supreme Court takes up a case Monday that could deal a crippling blow to unions representing millions of the nation's public employees. The justices are asked to decide whether state government workers who choose not to join a union can nonetheless be required to pay a share of union dues to cover the cost of negotiating contracts."
A big global story, via the NYT: "Starving Syrians in Madaya Are Denied Aid Amid Political Jockeying"
PROGRAMMING NOTES.
*** Monday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: Andrea Mitchell interviews at 12p ET -- Hillary Clinton presidential campaign chair John Podesta, Bernie Sanders presidential campaign manager Jeff Weaver, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), Republican strategist Doug Heye on why he won’t support Donald Trump if he is the nominee, NBC’s Jacob Rascon and Gen. Barry McCaffrey on the capture of El Chapo, the Washington Post’s Anne Gearan and Chris Cillizza, plus NBC’s Katy Tur out on the 2016 trail at Trump’s rally in New Hampshire.