OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Campaigns target the Ebola voter

Ebola is front and center in voters’ minds — and that means politicians are zeroing in on it as well.

Reps. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) were back in D.C. to attend hearings on Ebola, a rare break from the campaign trail. And Republican Senate candidates are focusing increasingly on a push to ban travel to Ebola-stricken countries — a call echoed by new legislation House Republicans plan to introduce as soon as Congress is back after the elections.

{mosads}Most lawmakers in tough races are focused on their own survival at this point. But Ebola is making plenty of voters nervous — and the candidates looking to capitalize.

 

SENATE SHOWDOWN

IA-SEN (OPEN): A former Iowa Republican Senate caucus staffer is suing her old employers, claiming that she was fired because she complained to her superiors about sexual harassment she witnessed — and alleging that Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) witnessed the harassment and did nothing. Ernst denies the claim.

GA-SEN (OPEN): Businessman David Perdue (R) said the scrutiny and criticism of his comments that he spent “most of my career” focused on outsourcing stems from a lack of understanding of how business works.

“The criticism I’ve gotten over the last few weeks is coming from people who really have no business background and really don’t understand, you know, what it takes to create jobs and create economic value — which is really what this free enterprise system is based on,” Perdue told reporters at a Veterans of Foreign Wars social hall event.

Second lady Jill Biden will raise money and campaign with former charity executive Michelle Nunn (D).

NSRC: National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Collins said the party will win Senate control.

“We are going to win the Senate. I feel very good about that,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Collins told reporters after joking that “I’ll be in an unmarked grave in Kentucky” if the party doesn’t.

MN-SEN (FRANKEN): First lady Michelle Obama will hit the stump for Sen. Al Franken at a rally on Tuesday. The one-term senator’s opponent, Mike McFadden (R), is also receiving help from the Hometown Freedom Action Network super-PAC that’s spending more than $340,000 on mobile ads against Franken. 

SD-SEN (OPEN): The South Dakota Republican Party is threatening to sue the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for defamation over an ad saying former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) “gave special tax breaks to a shady off-shore corporation to keep the scheme afloat.”

Former Sen. Larry Pressler (I-S.D.) spent Wednesday night reading cowboy poetry at a local pub.

KY-SEN (MCCONNELL): Senate Democratic women are rallying behind Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) despite the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s decision to stop spending on TV ads there.

VA-SEN (WARNER): The Washington Post endorsed incumbent Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) over former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie (R), who just canceled many of his television ads in the run-up to Election Day.

 

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE

IL-17 (BUSTOS): Ray LaHood, who was an Illinois GOP representative before joining the Obama administration as Transportation secretary, campaigned Wednesday for Bobby Schilling, a former GOP representative looking to oust incumbent Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.). Schilling also got the endorsement of the Chicago Tribune. 

Democrats, however, are feeling bullish about Bustos’s chances. A source tracking ad buys tells The Hill that House Majority PAC cut about $140,000 from its buy in the Peoria and Rockford markets, indicating the group is optimistic about the freshman Democrat and can use that money elsewhere. 

FL-2 (SOUTHERLAND): Gwen Graham (D-Fla.) said that she would vote against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for Democratic leadership if voters chose her to replace Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.).

MN-8 (NOLAN): Vice President Biden will head to Minnesota to campaign with Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.).

SO YOU WON — NOW WHAT?

The American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies are joining with the Congressional Institute as co-hosts of Harvard Institute of Politics’s upcoming Bipartisan Program for Newly Elected Members of Congress. After November’s election, the Institute of Politics hosts the country’s preeminent ‎educational and preparatory program for new U.S. House lawmakers. 

 

AD WATCH

IA-SEN (OPEN): The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hits Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) on federal student loans and her opposition to abortion “even in cases of rape and incest” in two new ads.

SD-SEN (OPEN): The anti-super-PAC MayDay super-PAC touts Democrat Rick Weiland’s (D) opposition to “special interests” in a new ad, part of a buy it’s increasing to $1.25 million.

AK-SEN (BEGICH): Alaska Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan is highlighting his national security credentials, releasing a new ad featuring his old boss, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. 

LA-SEN (LANDRIEU): The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hits Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on his support for raising the minimum age of Medicare and Social Security.

MT-SEN (OPEN): Democratic nominee Amanda Curtis released her first TV ad, touting her working-class roots. 

OR-SEN (MERKLEY): Republican Monica Wehby hits Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) over the IRS scandal in a new ad. 

CA-52 (PETERS): The AFSCME hits Republican nominee Carl DeMaio for Tea Party ties in a new ad. 

CO-5 (LAMBORN): The retired Air Force general looking to unseat incumbent Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) claims he’s missed more than half of his Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s meetings in a new spot.

PARTY COMMITTEES: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hits Rep. Dan Maffei’s (D-N.Y.) opponent, Republican John Katko, over his opposition to abortion in a new ad, and knocks Rep. Rick Nolan’s (D-Minn.) opponent, businessman Stewart Mills (R), as an out-of-touch millionaire in another.

 

POLL POSITION

CO-SEN (UDALL): Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) has a 6-percentage-point lead over Democratic Sen. Mark Udall (D) in the latest independent poll of the race, the fourth this week to show Udall trailing.

GA-SEN (OPEN): Democrat Michelle Nunn leads Republican David Perdue by a margin of 46 percent to 45 percent in a new poll conducted for WRBL. Libertarian Amanda Swafford received 6 percent, support that could keep either candidate from winning outright and force a January runoff election. 

MINIMUM WAGE: The Democratic firm Public Policy Polling released surveys in six states — Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and Wisconsin — that found a majority of voters support increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and that Republican candidates could face backlash for their opposition. 

MN-7 (PETERSON): Minnesota state Sen. Torrey Westrom (R) released an internal poll that shows him ahead of Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), 44 percent to 43 percent.

 

FUNDRAISING FIGURES

LA-05 (MCALLISTER): Embattled Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) raised less than $16,000 in the third fundraising quarter as he struggles to keep his seat just months after he was caught kissing a married woman.

AR-SEN (PRYOR): Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) outraised Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) in the third quarter and has nearly three times the cash on hand as the incumbent senator for the final weeks of their campaign. Cotton brought in $3.9 million from July through September, more than the $2.2 million Pryor hauled in during the same period.

 

2016 RUMBLINGS

PAUL: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is stumping with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on the eve of Election Day.

PORTMAN: The National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay-marriage group, tells The Hill that it is putting a target on the back of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in 2016, whether he runs for reelection or for the White House, over his support for legal gay marriage.

PENCE: Gov. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) will travel to New Hampshire next week to help rally support for  House candidate Marilinda Garcia (R), according to the NH Journal.  

 

QUOTES OF  THE DAY 

“Somehow, there is a fan there. And for that reason, ladies and gentlemen, I am being told that Governor Scott will not join us for this debate.” — Florida gubernatorial debate moderator Elliot Rodriguez on why Gov. Rick Scott (R) initially refused to take the debate stage against former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D)

“What Rick Scott should have done is walk on the stage, shake [Crist’s] hand, bend down, pull the cord out, and say, ‘This is how rules work, bitch.’ ” — Rick Wilson, a Florida-based GOP consultant.