A new Wason Center poll in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) leading Glenn Youngkin (R) in the race for governor, 49% to 45% among likely voters.
This represents a tightening in the race since our August when McAuliffe has a 9-point lead.
Key finding: Republican likely voters are more enthusiastic about voting in this election than Democratic likely voters (61% to 55% very enthusiastic).
The Pentagon says that climate change “poses a serious threat to U.S. military operations and will lead to new sources of global political conflict,” CNBC reports.
“Water shortages could become a primary source of friction or conflict between U.S. military overseas and the countries where troops are based, the Department warned. It also expects that political efforts to mitigate food and water shortages will result in more frequent physical and cyber terrorist attacks from unknown third parties.”
Grist: “Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, formally announced it was considering tighter regulations for pyrolysis and gasification — controversial processes that are associated with ‘chemical recycling.'”
“Industry advocates have named these processes as key steps toward building a circular economy — one that minimizes waste — but environmental groups have called them an ‘industry shell game’ meant to keep single-use plastics in production.”
Sara Goddard: What is chemical recycling?
“Former President Donald Trump racked up more than $70 million in losses over a four-year period from his Washington, DC, hotel, while publicly claiming that the hotel was making more than tens of millions of dollars, according to documents released by the House Oversight Committee,” CNN reports.
“It’s the first time that congressional investigators have reviewed and released details of the former president’s financial information.”
“Oklahoma’s two-term State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister announced on Thursday that she is switching her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and challenging Republican incumbent Gov. Kevin Stitt in next year’s gubernatorial election,” CNN reports.
“U.S. job growth fell to the slowest pace of the year in September, as the Delta variant and a persistent shortage of workers restrained the ability of companies to hire,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The economy added 194,000 jobs in September, the smallest gain since December 2020 and down from the upwardly revised 366,000 jobs added in August, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate fell to 4.8% from 5.2% a month earlier. The rate fell largely because many workers exited the labor force.”
A new University of Virginia poll finds 84% of Donald Trump voters say they either strongly or somewhat agree that discrimination against whites will increase in the U.S. in the next few years.
Of those who voted for Joe Biden, just 38% said they felt the same way.
On discrimination against racial minorities, the respondents were flipped, with 87% of Biden voters saying they believe white people have advantages over people of color while just 38% of Trump voters said the same.
“An effort to enact the biggest overhaul to the international tax system in a century gained further momentum on Friday when Hungary, one of the remaining holdouts in a group of more than 130 nations, said it would agree to adopt a 15 percent global minimum tax rate,” the New York Times reports.
“A deal, which is expected to be announced later Friday, would represent the culmination of years of fraught negotiations that were revived this year after President Biden took office and renewed America’s commitment to multilateralism.”
“The leaders of the Senate were happy Thursday with their deal to avoid a debt default. They were about the only ones,” Axios reports.
“The Band-Aid does nothing to solve the debt ceiling problem long term for Americans. Democrats fear it only kicks the can down the road to a very busy December. Republicans, meanwhile, are mad their party blinked.”
Ezra Klein: “Here’s the truly frightening thought for frustrated Democrats: This might be the high-water mark of power they’ll have for the next decade.”
“Democrats are on the precipice of an era without any hope of a governing majority. The coming year, while they still control the House, the Senate and the White House, is their last, best chance to alter course. To pass a package of democracy reforms that makes voting fairer and easier. To offer statehood to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. To overhaul how the party talks and acts and thinks to win back the working-class voters — white and nonwhite — who have left them behind the electoral eight ball. If they fail, they will not get another chance. Not anytime soon.”
Glenn Youngkin’s (R) “murky answers” on Donald Trump’s false election claims “underscore his dilemma,” the AP reports.
“False claims and misinformation about the results are so widely believed by Republican voters that disputing the lies can be politically risky. For months, while running for his party’s nomination, Youngkin declined to say whether Biden was legitimately elected.”
“Now, in a general election, vying for votes in a tight race in left-leaning Virginia, Youngkin has tried to resist being branded as an election denier or letting Democrats tie him to Trump’s false claims.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told the AP that she has “pushed Biden to hold the line and keep his ambitious social spending plan closer to $3 trillion instead of the $2 trillion range that he has floated to Democrats in recent days.”
Punchbowl News: “There was some last-minute drama, as well. Schumer went to the floor and harshly criticized Republicans for provoking the crisis. Schumer won this round of his never-ending battle with McConnell, and he made sure everyone knew it. But Republicans — and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — didn’t like the tone of Schumer’s remarks. Senate Minority Whip John Thune complained personally to Schumer on the floor, while Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) complained to reporters.”
“Manchin told Schumer the speech was ‘fucking stupid,’ according to four sources. Then Manchin complained to reporters too. The incident doesn’t really signify anything, except to show how tense everyone is in the Senate these days. And it’s only going to get worse.”
Washington Post: “The attacks reflect McConnell’s contradictory, difficult role in the Republican Party. He is its top elected leader, running its Senate wing and leading the charge against the Democratic agenda. Yet he is openly reviled by the former Republican president, who is also the party’s most influential figure, with millions of followers, and its potential 2024 presidential nominee.”
“The renewed barrage by Trump and his allies is part of a bid by the former president to turn Republicans against the senator from Kentucky and oust him as the party’s leader in the Senate. And it marks the latest effort by Trump to retaliate against his critics, since McConnell said after the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that Trump was ‘practically and morally responsible.’”
New York Times: “On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Trump heads to Iowa for a rally at the state fairgrounds, a perennial stop on the presidential campaign circuit. Joining him will be several of the state’s top Republicans, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, Senator Charles E. Grassley and the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, Jeff Kaufmann — a testament to the former president’s enduring dominance.”
“Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to cede the spotlight has cast doubt on the political futures of an entire group of Republican politicians who have suggested that they might someday want to run for president. And while they — like the rest of the country — can’t be sure what the notoriously fickle former president might do, some of them are trying to stake their claims as leaders in the party.”
Former President Donald Trump, who famously described Haiti as a “shithole” country while in office, told Fox News that many Haitians crossing the U.S. border “probably have AIDS” and letting them in “like a death wish.”
Idaho plans to bill MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for the cost of auditing three counties to disprove allegations of election fraud, the Idaho Statesman reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.