Archive

Morning Must Reads for Monday, October 31, 2016

··

Good Monday morning and Happy Halloween from Salt Lake City. Today is the 305th day of the year. There are 61 days left in 2016.

Newly discovered Clinton emails roil the presidential race. The “Trump tapes” turned off Utah voters. Chaffetz headed toward a blowout victory in November.

The clock:

  • Tomorrow is the last day to register to vote online in Utah (11/1/2016)
  • Eight days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
  • 49 days until the Electoral College meets to cast their votes for president and vice president (12/19/2016)
  • 81 days until Inauguration Day (1/20/2017)
  • 84 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
  • 129 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)

Ten talking points for Monday:

  1. About half of Utahns say the videotape of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women make them less likely to vote for the GOP nominee [Utah Policy].
  2. Rep. Jason Chaffetz has an insurmountable lead over Democrat Stephen Tryon ahead of next week’s election [Utah Policy].
  3. Email hubbub redux.FBI director James Comey rocked the presidential race saying they are reviewing newly discovered emails possibly related to the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Those emails were on a device used by Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin and her former husband Anthony Weiner [CNN]. Here’s what we know and don’t know about what’s in those emails [Newsweek]. Democrats and dozens of former prosecutors are furious that Comey would inject such inflammatory information into the discussion just days ahead of the election [Huffington Post]. The FBI discovered the new emails weeks ago [CNN]. Not to be outdone, Sen. Harry Reid accuses Comey of sitting on “explosive” information about Trump’s alleged ties to Russia [CBS News].
  4. It’s looking like the disclosure of the renewed investigation into Clinton’s emails isn’t having much of an impact in the presidential race. A new poll says about 1/3 of Americans say they’re less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton because of the new email revelations, but most of those were already against Clinton [Politico].
  5. Early voting in the presidential election is tilting slightly toward Democrat Hillary Clinton [New York Times].
  6. Woah! Donald Trump reportedly offered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie the VP slot on the GOP ticket before his political advisors objected and talked him out of it [Huffington Post].
  7. Another day, another email showing the presidential race in Utah is a toss-up [Tribune]. Donald Trump says losing to independent Evan McMullin in Utah would be “devastating” [Tribune].
  8. Big early voting numbers from Utah Democrats has them optimistic they could gain up to 10 seats in the Utah Legislature on election day [Tribune].
  9. Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Mike Weinholtz accuses Gov. Gary Herbert of paying women in his office less than men who do the same job [Deseret News, Tribune].
  10. Republican Richard Snelgrove has a 13-point lead over Democrat Catherine Kanter in the race for a hotly-contested at-large Salt Lake County Council seat [Tribune].

On this day in history:

  • 1517 – Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation by nailing a proclamation to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany.
  • 1941 – The Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota was completed.
  • 1968 – U.S. President Lyndon Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam.