“Former Mayor Buddy Cianci’s face beams from the label of his Mayor’s Own Marinara Sauce, which also promises that sales are ‘Benefiting Providence School Children’ and have helped hundreds of students attend college,” the AP reports.
“But in recent years, no money from the sauce’s sales has been donated to Cianci’s charity scholarship fund… From 2009 to 2012, the sauce made a total of $3 in income.”
Iowa state Rep. Henry Rayhons (R) was charged with sexual abuse “after being accused of having sex with his wife despite being told she lacked the mental capacity to consent,” the Des Moines Register reports.
“A criminal complaint filed Friday by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said Rayhons admitted having sexual activity with his wife, who reportedly had Alzheimer’s disease.”
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is engaged to be married, the Fairbanks News Miner reports.
“The 81-year-old introduced Anne Garland Walton as his fiancee, to applause, during ‘Candidate Sunday’ at an Anchorage mega-church on Sunday.”
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A new Cherry Communications poll for the Florida Chamber of Commerce finds Gov. Rick Scott (R) leading challenger Charlie Crist (D) in the race for governor, 44% to 41%.
In a three way race with Libertarian Adrian Wyllie, Scott leads 41% to 35%.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) told a large crowd in Reno that he was confident the Democrats would keep the majority in the Senate after the 2014 Election Day, the Reno Gazette Journal reports.
He also had harsh words for the Koch brothers.
Said Reid: “They think they have enough money to buy America. Not only with the U.S. Senate, not only with the House of Representatives but with the constitutional offices as well. They are even involved with the state senate races here as well.”
In an unusual arrangement, embattled former Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) did not appear in the television studio with his GOP primary rivals for a debate, the Miami Herald reports.
“Instead, as he requested, he was patched in from outside the West Dade Regional Library early-voting site — purportedly because he was there meeting voters. As a result, the other contenders in the studio could not hear his responses. After the show, co-host Glenna Milberg wrote on Twitter that Rivera didn’t end up campaigning at the site at all, despite the TV station’s agreeing to his request in good faith.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) duties as chairman of the Republican Governors Association will mean focusing more on the “top six” gubernatorial races as the November election nears, the Newark Star Ledger reports.
The top six: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, and Maine.
A new Albuquerque Journal Poll in New Mexico finds Gov. Susana Martinez (R) leading Gary King (D) in the race for governor by 9 points, 50% to 41%.
Said pollster Brian Sanderoff: “It’s a comfortable lead, especially when you take into consideration the tremendous financial advantage the governor has.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) indictment, “initially seen as a political dagger in his 2016 presidential aspirations, could turn into an asset — especially if he beats the abuse-of-power charges,” Bloomberg reports.
A must-read piece over at Wonk Wire.
A GOP lawmaker in Alabama “wants to erect a monument at the courthouse that would feature the Ten Commandments alongside other historical documents,” the Birmingham News reports.
Said Tim Guffey (R): “What I’m trying to do is erect a monument of historical documents. It’s the Constitution, the Ten Commandments and the Declaration of Independence. I feel like that’s what this country was founded on. These documents helped America become the greatest country in history.”
House Speaker John Boehner’s fundraising skills “put him in a class with few others. He has scooped up more than $43 million for accounts under his direct control and helped amass tens of millions more for Republican allies,” the AP reports.
“The Ohio lawmaker accounts for about one-fifth of the cash collected by House Republicans’ campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee. Boehner has written almost $18 million in checks to the group, which has raised $101 million this campaign cycle.”
A new Gallup poll finds just 19% of registered voters think most members of Congress deserve re-election — on pace to be the lowest such “re-elect” sentiment in a midterm election year since the question was first asked in 1992.
Kyle Kondik: If Congress is so unpopular, why do so many incumbents keep getting re-elected?
Hillary Clinton “usually requires those who pay her six-figure fees for speeches to also provide a private jet for transportation,” the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.
“And she doesn’t travel alone, relying on an entourage of a couple of ‘travel aides,’ and a couple of advance staffers who check out her speech site in the days leading up to her appearance, much like a White House trip, according to her contract and supporting documents concerning her Oct. 13 speech at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas Foundation fundraiser.”
A new poll from McClatchy/Marist poll finds that 68% of Republicans say they would be no less likely to support a well-qualified gay candidate.
At the same time, 63% of Republicans still personally oppose same-sex marriage and 60% say they would be upset if one of their children were gay.
“Just moments after Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson announced early today that new security steps were planned in Ferguson that would not include National Guard troops, Gov. Jay Nixon (D) announced that he was activating those forces,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Politico: “The Democratic governor’s announcement came after arguably the most violent night in the Missouri city since unarmed African-American 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer more than a week ago.”
Wonk Wire: Should police wear body cameras?
The Upshot: “The most frequent guest on Meet the Press, the venerable Sunday morning political talk show on NBC, isn’t John McCain or John Kerry. It’s the show’s new host, Chuck Todd. Mr. Todd has been a guest more often than anyone during the past 19 months.”
Montana Democrats selected a little-known state lawmaker named Amanda Curtis (D) as their candidate for U.S. Senate after Sen. John Walsh (D) dropped out amid plagiarism allegations from his time at the U.S. Army War College, the AP 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.
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