Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:
Nevada: Clinton 47%, Trump 40%, Johnson 7% (Monmouth)
Wisconsin: Clinton 47%, Trump 39%, Johnson 1% (St. Norbert)
Texas: Trump 41%, Clinton 38%, Johnson 4% (University of Houston)
Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:
Nevada: Clinton 47%, Trump 40%, Johnson 7% (Monmouth)
Wisconsin: Clinton 47%, Trump 39%, Johnson 1% (St. Norbert)
Texas: Trump 41%, Clinton 38%, Johnson 4% (University of Houston)
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) claimed that elections in his state and in the United States as a whole couldn’t be considered legitimate until voter ID laws are passed, CNN reports.
Said LePage: “No. I am not confident we’re going to have a clean election in Maine and I’ll tell you why. The left, the Democratic party, insists on not having IDs. And will people from the cemetery be voting? Yes. All around the country. The media and the Democratic party want everybody to vote whether they’re citizens or not.”
Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling told WPRO that that he’s planning to run against Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018.
Said Schilling: “I’ve made my decision. I’m going to run. But I haven’t talked to Shonda, my wife. And ultimately it’s going to come down to how her and I feel this would affect our marriage and our kids.”
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A new Washington Post/SurveyMonkey poll in 15 battleground states shows Hillary Clinton holds a decisive advantage over Donald Trump, leading in enough states to put her comfortably over the 270 majority needed to win the presidential election in November.
Of those states surveyed, Trump leads in Nevada and Iowa. Clinton leads in New Hampshire, Virginia, Michigan, New Mexico, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia.
The only remaining toss ups are Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Texas.
National Journal: “Of the seven most competitive Senate races, Republicans are clinging to leads in six (Pennsylvania, Missouri, New Hampshire, Florida, Indiana and North Carolina), and barely trailing in a seventh (Nevada).”
“The internal data, shared with National Journal by a senior Republican operative, show six Republican candidates holding narrow 1-3 point leads against their Democratic challengers, with a seventh candidate trailing by two points. Different races are trending in different directions: Republican candidates have momentum but statistically insignificant leads in Indiana and North Carolina, while GOP candidates in Missouri and Nevada have lost ground in the last few weeks but still remain in contention.”
Fro members: The Senate Races Most Impacted by Ticket Splitting
Rick Klein: “The damage Donald Trump is doing to the Republican Party – assuming polls hold and he loses big, perhaps taking the Senate down with him – can’t be fully measured Nov. 8. (And that has nothing to do with claims of a ‘rigged election.’) Just three weeks out, Trump is somehow finding new battles to fight with his fellow Republicans, including those whose endorsements of him still stand.”
“Trump on Monday put House Speaker Paul Ryan in his crosshairs, telling ABC’s Tom Llamas that Ryan may not want him to even win: ‘Maybe he wants to run in four years, or maybe he doesn’t know how to win.’ That sentiment virtually assures a post-election for Ryan, who at best will have a diminished majority to try to lead in the next Congress, amid suspicions of his own motives and true agenda. Should Trump lose, the potential justifications for his backers to offer are multiplying daily.”
“Sen. Marco Rubio used his first Senate debate to describe the choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton as ‘horrifying’ and called on Trump to stop saying the election is rigged. That plea will go unheard, as will pleas that Trump limit his shots at fellow GOPers over the final stretch.”
“Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that the election is rigged against him because of a corrupt political system may have the effect of lowering turnout among his own supporters,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Political science research into the topic suggests that both the perception of corruption as well as negative messages about political empowerment may limit voters’ desire to participate in the political process.”
“This election is not rigged.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted by CNN.
Playbook: “There’s been a lot of chatter over the last few days about whether Ryan did the right thing by speaking out against Trump. Why is he always the scold, people have asked? His handling of Trump will be dissected plenty over the next few months. Ryan has an incredibly complicated job and has to balance the needs of 245 other Republicans, many of whom wanted cover to break with Trump. But there’s no question he’s now bearing the brunt of the decision.”
“We’re not going to play the can-he-win-the-speakership-again game. There are far too many variables at play, like a) how much Trump loses by and b) what the margin is in the House. But Trump and his allies are signaling a long fight against Ryan. Put it all together, and you come up with a pretty simple question: Why would Ryan want to become speaker again?”
Stuart Rothenberg: “It would be a mistake to call Trump’s current path to an electoral college victory narrow. It is nonexistent. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, once part of the Trump scenario, have never been ‘in play,’ and he is not competitive in 2012 states Obama won only narrowly, such as Virginia and Colorado. Trump is more likely to lose North Carolina than win it, which would put him under 200 electoral votes.”
“Frankly, the writing has been on the wall for months about this race. You simply needed to look at the candidates, their campaign teams, the map and the voters.”

“Polls conducted since the first presidential debate last month put Donald Trump on a pace to earn a smaller percentage of the vote than any major-party nominee in at least 20 years,” Politico reports.
“In matchups that include third-party candidates, Trump is winning, on average, 39.6 percent of the vote compared to 46.2 percent for Hillary Clinton in the dozen national polls using live-telephone interviewers conducted since September 26.”
A new USA TODAY/Rock the Vote Poll of young voters, conducted by Ipsos, finds Hillary Clinton is continuing to build a lead over Donald Trump among Millennials, 68% to 20%, followed by Gary Johnson at 8%.
A new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump nationally by six points, 46% to 40%.
Donald Trump told ABC News that Speaker Paul Ryan does not want a President Trump because of his own political ambitions in 2020.
Said Trump: “Well, maybe not, because maybe he wants to run in four years or maybe he doesn’t know how to win.”
He added: “Well, I don’t want to be knocking Paul Ryan. I think he could be more supportive to the Republican nominee.”
“Oscar nominee Gary Busey allegedly sexually assaulted a female Apprentice employee during his time on the show, five Apprentice employees tell The Daily Beast.”
“Donald Trump knew about the incident, laughed it off, and kept Busey on his TV series, these staffers said.”
“The Michigan Republican Party ousted one of its state leaders Monday for her refusal to support presidential candidate Donald Trump, in a move that shone a brighter spotlight on party divisions over the controversial nominee,” the Detroit Free Press reports.
President Obama wants you to vote early.
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.
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