An ABC News analysis of several of Mitt Romney’s top donors in 2012 revealed that they have so far declined to donate to Donald Trump’s campaign, joint victory fund, or super PACs backing him, instead shifting their contributions to congressional re-election campaigns.
Landslides Don’t Really Happen Any More
New York Times: “It has been 32 years since a president won the popular vote by a double-digit percentage. That was when Mr. Mondale suffered an 18-point defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1984. It was also the last time there was a landslide among states, with Mr. Mondale winning only Minnesota and the District of Columbia.”
“There are a variety of factors that are likely to prevent a candidate today from rallying the huge, 60-plus-point majorities that swept Franklin D. Roosevelt into office in 1936, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and Richard M. Nixon in 1972.”
“The country is too fragmented and its political temperature too overheated for any single person to emerge as a consensus choice for anything nearing two-thirds of the electorate. And that climate has led the political parties to become far more ideologically uniform than they used to be.”
For members: How Newt Gingrich Changed Presidential Politics
State Poll Roundup: Tuesday
Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:
Virginia: Clinton 55%, Trump 36% (Roanoke)
Utah: Trump 53%, Clinton 33% (PPP)
Florida: Clinton 52%, Trump 38% (Saint Leo University)
Missouri: Trump 44%, Clinton 43% (Monmouth)
Individual Races Can Tell Us If a Wave Is Coming
Stuart Rothenberg: “Following changes in the ‘generic ballot’ poll question is one way to track the fight for the House, but an alternate way is to look at key races at various levels of competitiveness that should indicate whether a wave is developing and, if it is, how big it might be.”
“Here is a scorecard of a few tiers of GOP-held House seats to watch over the next 2 1/2 months. They run from near certain Democratic takeovers to Democratic long-shot opportunities.”
Quote of the Day
“It’s been an exciting and unprecedented kind of campaign this year, and unfortunately, the way it’s turned out, both choices in the major parties are quite unpopular.”
— Former President Jimmy Carter, quoted by the Associated Press.
Trump’s Campaign Prefers Trump Brands
Through July, Donald Trump’s campaign has spent just shy of $7.7 million on Trump-branded products, including reimbursements to Trump-named surrogates, the Washington Post reports.
Trump Calls for Special Prosecutor
Donald Trump “called for a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, as questions emerge over whether foreign donations to the non-profit Clinton Foundation influenced her decision-making while in office,” NBC News reports.
“The comment was Trump’s first explicit call for direct legal action against his Democratic rival beyond his common stump-speech claim that Clinton should be jailed for her use of a private email server while secretary of state. The Justice Department declined to bring charges against Clinton over her email server.”
First Read: “Down in the polls, it’s trying to change the subject back to Clinton.”
In Trump We Trust
Just published: In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! by Ann Coulter.
Tweets Trump: “People are saying it’s terrific.”
Trump Insists He’s Not Waffling on Immigration
“Despite signs that Donald Trump may be softening his rhetoric on the issue that catapulted him to political prominence—cracking down on illegal immigrants—the Republican presidential nominee said Monday that he wasn’t waffling and reiterated his commitment to strict anti-immigration measures,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Trump: “I’m not flip flopping.”
He added at a rally last night: “We’re going to build a wall folks, don’t worry, we’re going to build a wall. That wall will go up so fast your head will spin.”
Democrats Face Long Odds In Retaking House
Nate Cohn: “The Democrats of 2006 did well in Republican-leaning districts with help from scandals that brought down members of Congress who otherwise would have been unlikely to lose re-election. The list is not short: Tom DeLay, Mark Foley, Bob Ney, Don Sherwood — for starters. Democrats can’t count on the same thing this year, and Republicans in 2010 did not do as well in Democratic-leaning areas.”
“With these underlying advantages, it would not be surprising if the Republican House majority lasted for at least a decade. The structural advantages underpinning it are that strong. The odds of a Clinton presidency are strong, too — and a Democratic White House would probably strengthen the Republican hold on the House, given the tendency for the president’s party to struggle down-ballot. If Democrats are going to retake the House anytime soon, November would probably be their best shot, and as of now it’s not happening.”
Related for members: Clinton Could Face Even Worse Gridlock
Clinton Facing Hardly Any Negative Ads
“Hillary Clinton has endured fewer TV attack ads so far in the 2016 campaign than Marco Rubio,” Politico reports.
“That remarkable fact underscores how virtually unchallenged Clinton has been on the advertising airwaves, as Democratic and Republican strategists alike say she has gone deeper into the election calendar than any non-incumbent president they can remember in the modern era without sustained, paid opposition on television.”
Trump Jacked Up Rent Now That Donors Are Paying
“Trump nearly quintupled the monthly rent his presidential campaign pays for its headquarters at Trump Tower to $169,758 in July, when he was raising funds from donors, compared with March, when he was self-funding his campaign, according to a Huffington Post review of Federal Election Commission filings. The rent jumped even though he was paying fewer staff in July than he did in March.”
New Sanders Group Already Facing Turmoil
“Less than a week before its official launch on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders’ new political group is working its way through an internal war that led to the departure of digital director Kenneth Pennington and at least four others from a team of 15, and the return of presidential campaign manager Jeff Weaver as the group’s new president,” Politico reports.
“People familiar with what occurred say that the board, which is chaired by the Vermont senator’s wife Jane, was growing increasingly concerned about campaign finance questions being raised over the last week. Their concern reached a breaking point, one person deeply involved with the Sanders world said, with a story last Friday from ABC News about how the group would handle the particular tax questions raised by having a senator so closely associated with a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization that has strict restrictions on its political work.”
FBI Recovers 15,000 More Clinton Emails
“The dispute over Hillary Clinton’s email practices now threatens to shadow her for the rest of the presidential campaign after the disclosure on Monday that the F.B.I. collected nearly 15,000 new emails in its investigation of her and a federal judge’s order that the State Department accelerate the documents’ release,” the New York Times reports.
“As a result, thousands of emails that Mrs. Clinton did not voluntarily turn over to the State Department last year could be released just weeks before the election in November.”
Washington Post: “The disclosures also cast new doubts on Clinton’s past claim that she turned over all her work-related email from her private server to the State Department for eventual release to the public.”
Clinton Still Way Ahead Nationally
The latest new NBC News/SurveyMonkey tracking poll shows Hillary Clinton continues to hold a large national lead over Donald Trump, 50% to 42%.
Clinton’s 8-point advantage is virtually unchanged from her 9-point lead last week, and she has seen similar margins since the end of July.
Priebus Favored for Another Term as RNC Chief
“Donald Trump is teetering on the brink of a historic defeat, but Republican National Committee officials are poised to reward the party’s chairman Reince Priebus with another term,” Politico reports.
“Priebus is soliciting support for January’s chairmanship election — leaving some insiders with the impression that he is preparing for a future with the party after a Trump loss.”
12-Year Old Running Trump Campaign In Key County
“In one of the most important counties in swing state Colorado, Donald Trump is relying on 12-year-old Weston Imer, who runs the Jefferson County operation for the Trump campaign,” KDVR-TV reports.
The Best Trump Quotes
Just published: Quotations from Chairman Trump edited by Carol Pogash.
