Situational awareness – December 13, 2018

Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City.

CONGRATULATIONS! After tallying up the more than 3,000 entries in our 2018 Election Challenge, we have a winner. Michael Melendez was the only person to predict all 20 races correctly, while Zach Jamison grabbed second place after winning a tiebreaker over 5 other contestants who got 19 out of 20 correct.

Thanks for reading Utah’s most reliable daily political newsletter. We help get you up to speed on the most important local and national political stories of the day. Follow our social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook

We’re listening! If you have any news tips, suggestions, complaints, corrections or just want to give us some feedback, feel free to drop us an email.

Wednesday’s essentials: Hatch bids farewell. Republicans still don’t have a spending plan to avoid a government shutdown. Pelosi cuts a deal that all but assures she will be the next speaker.