OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Obama, Romney duke it out in Virginia

A Fox News poll of the state released last week showed Obama with a seven-point lead. But a Suffolk University poll out Thursday had Obama up by 2 points over Romney in Virginia, 46 percent to 44 percent.

TOMORROW’S AGENDA TODAY: President Obama will attend three fundraisers in Washington, D.C. — one at 4:20 p.m., one at 6:05 p.m. and one at 8:25 p.m.

Vice President Biden begins a two-day campaign tour in Florida with events in Boca Raton at noon and in Tamarac at 3:20 p.m.

{mosads}Michelle Obama will speak at a campaign rally in Cedar Falls, Iowa, at 1 p.m. and will speak at a rally in Appleton, Wis., at 4 p.m.

Mitt Romney will attend a campaign rally in Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pa., at 12:05 p.m.

TWEET OF THE DAY: “QED=Quod erat demonstrandum, Latin for “Say no more, yo!” — Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) 

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Well, he could fall off the stage,” — Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki, on what’s the worst that could happen to President Obama in the debate

AD WATCH:

President Obama‘s campaign seized on a 1985 video of Mitt Romney in which he discusses Bain Capital’s business strategy — including buying stakes in undervalued companies and then planning to, within five to eight years, “harvest them at a significant profit.” The video was posted by the liberal Mother Jones magazine on Thursday — the same publication that last week posted an undercover video from one of Romney’s closed-door fundraisers — and was apparently from a CD-ROM created in 1998 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Bain.

Obama argues for a “new economic patriotism” and touts his plan for a recovery in a new two-minute ad that will air in seven battleground states. In the ad, the president speaks directly to the camera, and tells voters that if he could sit down with them “in your living room or around the kitchen table,” he would draw a contrast between his and Romney’s economic vision.

Romney’s campaign released a new TV ad attacking Obama on coal.

The Obama campaign released a third ad hitting Romney for controversial comments he made at a recent fundraiser. The ad, which The Washington Post reports will air in seven critical swing-states, simply plays audio of Romney’s comments over images of blue-collar workers, the working poor, veterans and the elderly.

Priorities USA and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have a new radio campaign that uses comments secretly recorded at a Romney fundraiser to bash the Republican nominee. The new ad is part of a $1.25 million radio push in Ohio and Virginia planned between Thursday and Election Day. 

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE:

ARIZONA: The Democratic candidate in Arizona’s 9th District, Kyrsten Sinema, released a new ad that targets female voters with a pitch based around Sinema’s tenure as a state senator, during which time the ad says she worked to restore funding for family health programs and maternity benefits.

FLORIDA: Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican turned Independent, is supporting Rep. Allen West‘s (R-Fla.) Democratic opponent, the latest sign he’s trying to ingratiate himself with the state’s Democrats ahead of a possible run for governor in 2014. “In this age of extremist politics, being willing to work with the other side is too often labeled a sign of weakness. It’s just wrong,” he says in a Thursday afternoon fundraising email to supporters of Democrat Patrick Murphy.

ILLINOIS: The National Republican Congressional Committee is reserving nearly a half-million dollars in cable television airtime to support Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), the first time the committee has signaled it would spend on behalf of the embattled congressman.

IOWA: Two new Democratic polls show Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) with a narrow lead in his race. King leads former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack (D) by three points in a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling and by four in a poll conducted by Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner.

NEW YORK: A Siena College poll of voters in New York’s 25th district shows Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) leading Republican challenger Maggie Brooks by 10 percent, with 52 percent support to 42 percent support for Brooks. Fifty percent of voters say Slaughter should be reelected.

WISCONSIN: Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) also has a narrow edge in a Democratic poll, leading Democrat Pat Kreitlow by 48 to 44 percent in a PPP poll.

SENATE SHOWDOWN:

CONNECTICUT: Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released a new ad that makes the argument that he’s the best candidate for the middle class. It features Murphy speaking to the camera, explaining that, because his father and grandfather worked in factories, his family is “rooted in the middle class.”

INDIANA: Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) holds a narrow lead over Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), 40 to 38 percent in the poll conducted for Howey Politics Indiana by DePauw University. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is out with a new ad tying Mourdock to Tea Party positions. It features a clip of Mourdock from a well-known MSNBC interview in 2011 during which he said that “bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view.”

MAINE: Former Gov. Angus King (I) retains a substantial lead over his Democratic and Republican opponents. He pulls in 45 percent support to Republican Charlie Summers‘s 33 percent support and Democrat Cynthia Dill‘s 14 percent support.

MISSOURI: Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said that he has a good chance of ousting Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) partially because she isn’t as “ladylike” as she was in 2006, when she last ran for Senate. Specifically, Akin was referring to McCaskill’s demeanor during a debate a week earlier. “I think we have a very clear path to victory, and apparently Claire McCaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive at the debate, which was quite different than it was when she ran against Jim Talent,” Akin said at a campaign stop according to the Kansas City Star. “She had a confidence and was much more ladylike (in 2006), but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she feels threatened.”

The pro-Democratic super-PAC American Bridge released an archive of video footage attacking Akin as “far outside the mainstream.” The Senate Conservatives Fund, a political committee founded by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), has received more than $290,000 in pledges for Akin. The Service Employees International Union and the independent expenditure unit of Emily’s List, Women Vote!, launched a $1 million ad buy attacking Akin.

NORTH DAKOTA: Democrat Heidi Heitkamp released a new ad that attempts to connect Rep. Rick Berg (R-N.D.) to a beleaguered real estate company, Goldmark Property Management. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released an ad hitting Heitkamp for her support for President Obama‘s healthcare law, saying that she “fought hard” for the law and that it raises taxes on the middle class.

VIRGINIA: Workers’ Voice, a super-PAC backed by the AFL-CIO, is running Web ads targeted at minority voters that accuse former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) of racism.

WISCONSIN: A new ad from Senate Democrats’ campaign arm hammers GOP candidate Tommy Thompson over Medicare.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Liberal billionaire George Soros has donated $1 million to Priorities USA, the super-PAC backing President Obama‘s reelection, a source with knowledge of the donation confirmed to The Hill.

Mitt Romney muffed the punt when asked about the recently concluded NFL referees’ lockout, a fight that has drawn the focus of sports fans nationwide. “I sure hope they do,” he said in response to a reporter’s question about the referees’ return after an agreement was reached with the league over pensions and other benefits.

Romney’s top political adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, said that Obama “needs to be held accountable for his administration’s attempts to mislead the American people about what happened in Benghazi.”

Paul Ryan received his first intelligence briefing, according to Romney’s presidential campaign.

Hollywood superstar Samuel L. Jackson lent his star power to the Jewish Council for Education and Research (JCER), a liberal super-PAC, in a new campaign ad that tells voters to “wake the f–k up”.

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