For the Record: The new king of the GOP hill
Happy Election Day, everyone! (No, not THAT Election Day, but definitely AN Election Day.) Voters in various states and municipalities are heading to the polls today to vote on everything from legalizing marijuana in Ohio to limiting Airbnb rentals in San Francisco. It’s also a good day to figure out if you’re registered to vote, because primary season is right around the corner and nothing turns on the hotties quite like a voter registration card. In the meantime, if there’s an election in your area and you spot someone wearing an “I Voted” sticker, be sure to show your deepest appreciation. The future of the Republic depends on it. Not anything super lewd, necessarily, but maybe an obscene handshake at minimum.
But wait, before you start making things weird for everyone around you, be sure to follow your For the Record crew on Twitter (@jmestepa, @joannaallhands, @RGJBrettMcG) and tell your friends how to sign up for six-days-a-week For the Record goodness right in their inboxes.
ALL HAIL CARSON, (CURRENT) KING OF THE ELEPHANTS
Of all the outsiders in the Republican race, who’s the outsideriest? Right now it’s Ben Carson, who can now claim to be outside the margin of error in the latest national poll. After months of Donald Trump leading the GOP field, the neurosurgeon has taken the lead in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 29% to 23%. It’s not the first time Carson has been in the lead in a national GOP poll, but it’s the first time his lead has been larger than the margin of error (in this poll, it’s 4.9%) and 29% is the largest percentage for a Republican in this particular poll so far. Did Carson use the latest GOP debate to take a bite out of Trump? No, because this poll was conducted before the debate; and also, gross, Trump meat. Paste BN OnPolitics’ William Cummings has the latest numbers.
BUMMED ABOUT CARSON’S SURGE: 1) TRUMP, 2) CLINTON
Among the now three-person Democratic field, Hillary Clinton has been the most successful in attracting support among minority voters, which is easier than it sounds when you can delegate your Hispanic mobilization efforts to Donald Trump. Whenever the real estate mogul refers to undocumented immigrants as “rapists,” it forms a barrier – like some kind of wall, maybe – between Hispanics and GOP candidates. “’Don’t get mad, register,’ that’s the rallying cry,” says Clinton organizer Federico Peña. All this frustrates Hispanic Republicans including Mario Lopez (not that one, this one) who has been warning GOP candidates to avoid anti-Hispanic rhetoric. If Trump gets more Hispanic voters off the sidelines (the group had a 48% turnout rate in 2012), he might singlehandedly turn the GOP into a buncha losers in 2016. Irony! Paste BN’s Heidi M. Przybyla has more.
TRUMP WANTS TO NEGOTIATE TERMS FOR UPCOMING DEBATE APPEARANCES. THIS SHOULD BE FUN!
Welp, all three of these paragraphs are going to involve Trump one way or another. Donald Trump’s team says they’ll continue to negotiate directly with the networks on the ground rules for Trump’s participation … seemingly implying that if his demands aren’t met, he’s going to take his hair and go home. (Just curious: When you say “negotiate directly with the networks,” does that mean “tweet at them”?) This may sound outrageous, but both parties have been attempting to gain the upper hand against the media in debates – one of the few areas where campaigns are forced to go off-script in front of a national audience. Former DNC communications director Mo Elleithee thinks this time, the parties will gain control of the system. (On another note, we’re fully expecting to hear from Trump’s people later today to discuss the terms of future For the Record coverage.) Paste BN OnPolitics’ David Jackson has more.
MORE FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
- Sanders meets with Joe Biden, discusses extending public education through college (The News Journal, Wilmington, Del.)
- ISIS makes al Qaeda look like a Rotary Club, says Lindsey Graham. Damn you al Qaeda, and your Tuesday morning coffee shop meetings (Paste BN OnPolitics)
- As president, Kasich vows to finish Obama’s work – on eliminating the Commerce Department, that is (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- Let’s check in with the Larry Lessig campaign – wait, never mind (Paste BN OnPolitics)
ALSO: IT’S ‘LIGHTNING,’ NOT ‘LIGHTENING’
Inside RNC headquarters:
“Ooh, I got one: Networks can’t talk about how far away the bathrooms are.”
(30 seconds of awkward silence.)
“Dammit, you guys haven’t used ANY of my suggestions so far.”