Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Gallup doesn’t do a lot of horse-race polling anymore, but its final pre-election survey found Democrats leading Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 54% to 43%, among likely voters.
* At a rally in New Jersey yesterday, Republican Senate hopeful Bob Hugin was quoted saying, “This election is about who gets the vote out and who doesn’t — and I hope it rains hard tomorrow.” It is, in fact, expected to rain across much of the East coast today.
* At Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Missouri last night, the president was joined on stage by two Fox News hosts, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro. Hannity, pointing to reporters covering the event — including, presumably, journalists from his own network — told the audience, “By the way, all those people in the back are fake news.”
* Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who’s retiring from Congress, and whose House seat is considered competitive, seemed to concede this morning that he expects to be replaced by a Democrat.
* Trump reportedly told the officials at his political operation that he “hated” their closing-message ad that focused on the economy, and instead wanted an anti-immigration message. * Barack Obama made an unscheduled stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, yesterday, delivering doughnuts to a group of campaign staffers and volunteers working in support of Sen. Tim Kaine (D) and state Sen. Jennifer Wexton (D). * Obama has also reportedly recorded more than 50 messages — “some robocalls, some videos that campaigns can spread through Facebook or text messages” — for Democratic candidates. * And in his final analysis of the race for the U.S. House, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver concluded that Democrats have a “pretty good chance” of winning the majority.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
