“I have done my part to make sure men who hurt little girls go to jail and not the United States Senate.”
— Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones (D), quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
“I have done my part to make sure men who hurt little girls go to jail and not the United States Senate.”
— Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones (D), quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
A spokesman for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) said that the women who accused him of sexual misconduct are “criminals” who are “seeking revenge” — arguing that there were plenty of “non-accusers that did not accuse the judge of any sexual misconduct,” the New York Post reports.
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Ron Brownstein: “If Republican Roy Moore wins next week’s Senate special election in Alabama, it will be largely because of his support among women.”
“More specifically, Moore’s ability to survive the allegations of sexually pursuing young girls, which have rocked his campaign, will likely turn on whether he can maintain his pre-scandal advantage among white women without a college education — even as their college-educated counterparts have moved toward Democrat Doug Jones in much bigger numbers than usual for deeply conservative Alabama, according to public and private polling in the race.”
Key takeaway: “In the Trump era, the class divide looks more powerful than the gender divide, especially among whites.”
“President Trump’s endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore triggered a flood of financial support, as America First Action invested $1.1 million in advertising on television and other venues just days before a crucial special election,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“The super PAC, affiliated with Trump’s official outside group, the political nonprofit America First Policies, saw the endorsement as a signal to enter the race on Moore’s behalf.”
Meanwhile, The Hill reports the RNC has reversed course and will now also provide support to Moore.
Debbie Wesson Gibson didn’t like when Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) denied their relationship when she was a teenager and he was 34, the Washington Post reports.
“Gibson said that after finding the scrapbook, she was not sure whether to make it public given the threats she received after publication of the original story. Then she heard what Moore said last week, she said, and contacted The Post.”
Said Gibson: “He called me a liar. Roy Moore made an egregious mistake to attack that one thing — my integrity.”
President Trump “offered a strong endorsement of Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama embroiled in accusations that he had inappropriate sexual relations with underage girls,” the New York Times reports.
“While many Republicans called for Mr. Moore to drop out of the race after several women came out with their stories, Mr. Trump has defended him, saying that Mr. Moore denied the accounts and deserved to be heard.”
The Moore campaign tells Axios that Trump wrapped up his phone call to Moore saying, “go get ’em, Roy!”
Rick Hasen notes that Alabama has a straight ticket option on the ballot which will allow voters to vote Republican while not directly voting for Roy Moore, even though they are still actually voting for Moore.
President Trump made no mistake on Twitter that he wants Roy Moore (R) to win next week’s special U.S. Senate election in Alabama:
Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!
Politico: “Roy Moore appears to have inched back in front of Democrat Doug Jones in the latest Alabama Senate election polls, according to the oft-cited RealClearPolitics average — a change in fortune from mid-November, when sexual misconduct allegations against Moore first surfaced. The reality? No one really has a clue about where things stand with Alabama voters in the December 12 special election.”
“For all the national attention and the millions of dollars spent to win the seat, there’s relatively little public polling in the contest. Only three public surveys in the average have been conducted since the Thanksgiving holiday, and odds are you’ve never heard of two of the three pollsters. And that’s precisely the problem. The most important and closely watched election in the nation is taking place in the equivalent of a polling black box.”
G. Elliot Morris: The media stopped covering Roy Moore’s sex scandal, then he bounced back.
A new CBS News poll finds the U.S. Senate contest in Alabama looks to be highly dependent on turnout.
Roy Moore (R) has a lead over Doug Jones (D), 49% to 43%, among the likely voters who are most apt to vote on Dec. 12. Among all registered voters, the contest is even.
Asked if he believes Roy Moore (R) should be in the U.S. Senate under a cloud of child molestation allegations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told ABC News, “I’m going to let the people of Alabama make the call.”
A new Washington Post-Schar School poll in Alabama finds Doug Jones (D) leading Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 47%.
“The survey shows that allegations of improper sexual behavior against Moore, a former Alabama chief justice, hang heavily over a race that would favor a Republican under ordinary circumstances in this deeply conservative state.”
“There is no one I would love to fight more than you. I will put my Christian values aside just for you, and for that fight. So, if you are challenging me to a fight, here’s what we’ll do: Let’s find a place to do it, I’ll wear a Girl Scout uniform so you can have something to get excited about, and the winner—whoever wins the fight—will give all the money we charge for the tickets to charity. My charity will be the women who came forward to say you molested them. All right, tough guy with your little pistol?”
“President Trump isn’t going to Alabama to campaign for Roy Moore. But he’s planning to get about as close as you can to the state line,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump is expected to hold a campaign-style rally in Pensacola, Fla., about 20 miles from the Alabama line, next Friday. The rally is four days ahead of the Dec. 12 special election in Alabama, where Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones.”
A new poll from America First Policies, an outside group aligned with President Trump, finds Roy Moore (R) leading Doug Jones (D) by just one point in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race, 46% to 45%.
“If he is elected, there are no grounds under the Constitution to fail to seat him. The Constitution says you can only look at citizenship, whether they are a resident of the state, and if they are the proper age. So we have to seat him.”
— Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), quoted by CNN, on whether the U.S. Senate would refuse to seat Roy Moore (R) if he wins Alabama’s special election.
Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) “appeared to blame members of the LGBT community, liberals and socialists for the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him,” The Hill reports.
Said Moore: “When I say they, who are ‘they?’ They’re liberals. They don’t hold conservative values. They are the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender who want to change our culture. They are socialists who want to change our way of life and put man above God and the government is our God. They’re the Washington establishment…who don’t want to lose their power.”
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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