Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:
Ohio: Clinton 43%, Trump 43% (Emerson)
Michigan: Clinton 45%, Trump 40% (Emerson)
Pennsylvania: Clinton 46%, Trump 43% (Emerson)
Arizona: Clinton 40%, Trump 39% (OH Predictive Insights)
South Carolina: Clinton 39%, Trump 39% (Feldman)
A new robocall from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke:
“We’re losing our country. Look at the Super Bowl salute to the Black Panther cop killers. It’s time to stand up and vote for Donald Trump for president and vote for me, David Duke for the U.S. Senate.”
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports the Republican Party of Louisiana “deferred voting on new rules Saturday that would make it more difficult for David Duke and other convicted felons to run as Republicans in elections held after November.”
A new Monmouth poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump nationally by seven points, 46% to 39%, followed by Gary Johnson at 7% and Jill Stein at 2%.
Last month’s poll showed Clinton ahead by 13 points.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “is preparing a post-Labor Day blitz of campaign activity… offering what Democratic leaders hope will be a late-in-the-race boost from the liberal icon to the party’s slate of Senate candidates, ” Roll Call reports.
“In addition to attending campaign rallies, Sanders is also expected to raise money for individual candidates — including through the use of his vaunted list of small donors, according to one source close to the senator.”
“After long and careful consideration and work on my marriage, I’ve made the decision to separate from my husband.”
— Huma Abedin, quoted by ABC News, after husband and ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was caught in yet another sexting scandal.
Earlier for members: What Weiner Tells Us About Politicians
Sen. John McCain’s pollster, Bill McInturff, tells the Washington Post: “Trump and Clinton are essentially running even in Arizona.”
The HuffPost Pollster average shows Trump leading Clinton 50% to 48%.
Politico: “The Clinton de-legitimization project is now central to Donald Trump’s campaign and such a prime component of right-wing media that it’s already seeped beyond extremist chatrooms into ‘lock her up’ chants on the convention floor, national news stories debating whether polls actually can be rigged, and voters puzzling over that photo they think they saw of her needing to be carried up the stairs.”
Donald Trump is out with a new 30-second spot that will run in Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Virginia and Colorado.
Playbook: “Mitt Romney lost eight of nine of these states where the $10 million campaign is running, but the Trump campaign says they are aiming to change that — despite the gap with Clinton in most statewide polls.”
Nate Silver: “Last week, Politico reported that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was set to employ a ‘run out the clock’ strategy, declining to respond to recurring controversies even at the risk of seeming nonresponsive. In the abstract, such a strategy could make sense. Clinton has a fairly clear lead in the polls. There are only 10 weeks to go until the Nov. 8 election — and less than that until early voting, which begins in late September in some states.”
“But Clinton shouldn’t get too complacent. After mixed evidence before, it’s become clearer, at least according to our forecast models, that Donald Trump has regained some ground on her. Clinton’s national lead in our polls-only forecast has gone from a peak of about 8.5 percentage points two weeks ago to 6.5 percentage points as of Sunday evening — that is, a 2-point gain for Trump over two weeks. Correspondingly, Trump’s chances of winning the election have improved from a low of 11 percent to 19 percent.”
“The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems,” Yahoo News reports.
“The FBI warning, contained in a ‘flash’ alert from the FBI’s Cyber Division, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News, comes amid heightened concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections.”
“This is baby-sitting — Anthony Weiner-style.”
“While his wife, Huma Abedin, travels the country campaigning for Hillary Clinton, the disgraced ex-congressman has been sexting with a busty brunette out West — and even sent her a lurid crotch shot with his toddler son in the picture,” the New York Post reports.
The Hill reports Weiner has apparently deleted his Twitter account.
Maine state Rep. Drew Gattine (D) is not looking for an apology from Gov. Paul LePage (R) after the governor left him a profanity-laced tirade on voicemail and later challenged the Democratic lawmaker to a duel, Politico reports.
He just wants him to seek professional help.
Said Gattine: “I think Maine people are getting extremely concerned after six years and these kind of escalating events with respect to our governor that he is now at the point where he isn’t fit to be governor, that he really probably needs to get some sort of professional help and that as a state, we’re not going to be able to solve our problems, including this very serious problem we have with heroin under the leadership of this governor. And you know, we’re just concerned that we can’t move our state forward with this man as our governor.”
“Emboldened by Donald Trump’s struggles in the presidential race, Democrats in Congress are laying the groundwork to expand the list of House Republicans they will target for defeat as part of an effort to slash the Republicans’ 30-seat majority and even reclaim control if Mr. Trump falls further,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s unpopularity, which has already undermined the party’s grip on the Senate, now threatens to imperil Republican lawmakers even in traditionally conservative districts… Democrats are particularly enticed by Mr. Trump’s dwindling support in affluent suburban areas — including those near Kansas City, Kan.; San Diego; Orlando, Fla.; and Minneapolis — where Republicans ordinarily win with ease. Mr. Trump is so disliked among college-educated voters, especially white women, that he is at risk of losing by double digits in several districts that the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, carried comfortably.”
Jimmy Kimmel addresses the conspiracy theory about the allegedly rigged jar of pickles that Hillary Clinton opened on his show.
The Guardian: “Trump’s strong position is in part due to the fact that unlike in other swing states, the Iowan Republican establishment has rallied conclusively behind him.”
Donald Trump’s new campaign manager moved to clarify his new immigration policy, focusing on “being fair and humane” instead of deporting all undocumented immigrants, Politico reports.
Kellyanne Conway said the new plan is, “if you want to be here legally, you have to apply to be here legally. He is not talking about a deportation force, but he is talking about being fair and humane.”
Key takeaway: “That’s a clear break from Trump’s earlier position, which emphasized removing everyone who was in the country illegally, regardless of their individual circumstances.”
Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson said it’s “game over” on any chance of winning the White House if he does not make it to the debate stage, Politico reports.
“Johnson would need to be at a 15 percent threshold to join Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the debate stage. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced that the five polls it would use to determine that threshold are ABC-Washington Post, CBS-New York Times, CNN-Opinion Research Corporation, Fox News and NBC-Wall Street Journal.”
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.