Biden heading back to Michigan Saturday

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden plans to return to Michigan on Friday, but his campaign has not yet released details.

Biden was last in Southfield and Detroit on Oct. 16.

Former President Barack Obama has joined the campaign trail for Biden in Florida and Pennsylvania, but no Michigan events have been announced.

During the last week before the election, Michigan is netting visits from both major party presidential campaigns. President Trump has a rally scheduled rally on Tuesday at Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport. Vice President Mike Pence is slated to hold a rally at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Bishop International Airport in Flint. Biden’s running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), did a series of stops in Southeast Michigan on Sunday.

Election Day is Nov. 3, but early voting is underway.




https://www.michiganadvance.com/blog/biden-heading-back-to-michigan-saturday/

Jon Ralston's Nevada Early Voting Blog - 10/26/20 - 2:20 p.m.

SOS has updated with some rurals and I have added what we know about Washoe/Clark:

735K or thereabouts have voted; that’s 43 percent. (In 2016, total early/mail voting after two weeks was 780K, or about 54 percent of active voters; to match that this year, with a quarter of a million new statewide voters, that total would have to be 931K.)

If overall turnout is 80 percent – slightly above 2016 – that means more than half the vote is in. If it’s 85 percent, it’s almost exactly half.

The Dem firewall in Clark is 71K; the statewide lead is about 58K and that Washoe lead is just under 7.5K. GOP up in rurals by 20.5K. So not much change.

The Clark lead is 14 percent, slightly down from last update, still 3 points above voter reg; the Washoe lead is just under 5 percent, or 5 points above reg.

Here’s what the 2016/2020 Clark comparison looks like – remember that the lead is not as great as it might seem because of the 200K additional county voters, so 71K in 2020 would be about 57K in 2016. Still ahead of pace.

So where are we now with half of the vote or so in?

Dems are doing slightly better than 2016 so far, with all the usual caveats – mailing it in, odd patterns, possible GOP Election Day surge.



https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/the-early-voting-blog-3

Trump eyes hosting election night party at his DC hotel

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has his eye on hosting an election night party at his own hotel in the nation’s capital.

Over the past several days, the campaign has pushed out fundraising emails in the president’s name offering donors the chance to enter a drawing “to join Team Trump at the Election Night Party in my favorite hotel,” in Washington, suggesting he will use his luxury hotel as the backdrop for reacting to election results. The campaign has also spotlighted plans for the party in fundraising blasts from the president’s son Donald Trump. Jr.

“November 3rd will go down in history as the night we won FOUR MORE YEARS. It will be absolutely EPIC, and the only thing that could make it better is having YOU there,” Trump said in a fundraising solicitation.

or Trump, an election night party at his own hotel is symbolic for a businessman who leveraged his celebrity as a reality star and New York real estate magnate to win the nation’s highest office.

Critics see it as one more reminder of how the president has used his office to personally profit as foreign leaders, conservative supporters and administration officials use the lobby of Washington’s Trump International Hotel as an unofficial clubhouse for the Trump presidency.

Since 2017, the president and Republican National Committee have held several fundraisers at the president’s Washington hotel in the historic Old Post Office building, which the president’s company leases from the federal government.



https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-virus-outbreak-campaigns-elections-2ff4447d84cf12bb11f99d4779bb23de

Tennessee Sen. Joey Hensley defends prescribing opioids to relatives, lover

An attorney for Tennessee Sen. Joey Hensley conceded Monday the politician, a small-town doctor, prescribed opioids to family members and an employee with whom he was in a romantic relationship, in what the state contends is a violation of medical ethics.

During opening arguments in a medical discipline proceeding, attorney David Steed said it was well-intentioned, harmless and all but unavoidable for Hensley to prescribe to relatives in a small Tennessee town where he is the only available doctor.

Steed confirmed Hensley twice prescribed an opioid painkiller to a nurse at his clinic with whom he was in a romantic relationship.

“There are not many people in the county who haven’t been to see Dr. Hensley, and she was one of them,” Steed said, adding a moment later, “Half of the county are Hensleys. Everyone there knows everyone. There were multiple relationships and the physician-patient relationship was only one and somewhat incidental to the others.”




https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2020/10/26/tennessee-senator-joey-hensley-fights-charges-unethical-opioid-prescriptions/5691825002/

Michael Bloomberg gives $2.6 million to Texas Democrat running for railroad commissioner

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has made a late donation of $2.6 million to the Democratic nominee for railroad commissioner, Chrysta Castañeda, providing a massive fundraising boost in a race for the oil and gas regulatory board that usually does not see such big money — or attract much political interest outside Texas.

Bloomberg's contribution helped Castañeda raise $3.5 million on her latest campaign finance report, according to her campaign. The filing covers Sept. 25 through Oct. 26 and is due to the Texas Ethics Commission by the end of the day Monday.

“Chrysta Castañeda will be a champion for Texans — her commitment to improving people’s lives is clear,” Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for president this year, said in a statement. “I’m glad to support Chrysta in her campaign to be the next Railroad Commissioner, because she has the vision and experience needed to build a safer, healthier, and more environmentally prosperous future for the state of Texas.”

Bloomberg gave $2.625 million total to Castañeda, $2.5 million in direct money and the rest in in-kind contributions, according to her campaign. It said her report will also show she received $500,000 from environmentalist philanthropists Richard and Dee Lawrence, and that the Sierra Club donated $90,000 and has pledged another $125,000.



https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/26/bloomberg-chrysta-castaneda-railroad-commission/

Three Texas Counties Already Surpass 2016 Vote Totals

Two Texas counties, Denton in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs and Williamson in the Austin suburbs, have now surpassed their total 2016 turnout with early voting, according to David Wasserman.

Hays County, south of Austin, passed that distinction two days ago.

And there’s still a week of voting left.


https://politicalwire.com/2020/10/26/two-texas-counties-already-surpass-2016-vote-totals/

Election could stoke U.S. marijuana market, sway Congress on cannabis reform

Voters in four states from different regions of the country could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, and a sweep would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation’s deep political divide.

The Nov. 3 contests in New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana will shape policies in those states, while the battle for control of Congress and the White House could determine whether marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

Already, most Americans live in states where marijuana is legal in some form, and 11 now have fully legalized the drug for adults: Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. It’s also legal in Washington, D.C.

In conservative Mississippi, voters will consider competing ballot proposals that would legalize medicinal marijuana, which is allowed in 33 states, including Pennsylvania.


https://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2020/10/25/election-2020-marijuana-legalization-New-Jersey-Arizona-South-Dakota-Montana-cannabis-market-pot-weed-hemp-industry/stories/202010250203

Rick Perry says Trump won't stump again in Texas despite tight polls, but Harris is on the way

Despite a new poll showing he trails in Texas, President Donald Trump will not stump again in the state, his spokesman and former Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday.

“He’s going to be in battleground states,” Perry, Trump’s former energy secretary, told reporters on a call the campaign arranged to critique Democrat Joe Biden’s energy policies. “Texas is not a battleground state, it’s that simple.”

A poll released Sunday by The Dallas Morning News and University of Texas at Tyler shows Biden leading 48%-45% among likely voters. That’s within the margin of error, but it’s also a 5-point reversal from the last such poll in early September.

Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, will stump in Texas on Friday, four days before Election Day.

So far, neither Democrat has campaigned in Texas, though their spouses have, and Texas Democrats have been increasingly frustrated at the apparent neglect in the face of what they deem a historic opportunity to flip the state.



https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/10/25/rick-perry-says-trump-wont-stump-again-in-texas-despite-tight-polls-because-texas-is-not-a-battleground/

Bonus Tweet of the Day

Three state legislative chambers just shifted in our direction.