memeorandum: Happy Halloween, there's a candy-colored fentanyl scare on the campaign trail (David Weigel/Semafor)

12:30 PM ET, October 31, 2022

Top Items:

Senate Control Hinges on Neck-and-Neck Races, Times/Siena Poll Finds — The contests are close in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Many voters want Republicans to flip the Senate, but prefer the Democrat in their state. — Control of the Senate rests on a knife's edge …

Discussion: National Review, Bloomberg, New York Post, Outside the Beltway, Washington Times, The Forward, Opinion Today and DNyuz

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Final AJC midterm poll: Kemp leads Abrams, deadlocked Senate race — Gov. Brian Kemp maintains a solid lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams in the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, while the race between U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker remains a neck-and-neck contest that could be headed toward a runoff.

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, The Guardian and FiveThirtyEight

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Times/Siena Polls Show Democrats Slightly Ahead in Key Senate Races — Respondents said they preferred Republicans to control the Senate, but individual matchups showed a different story. — Eight days before the election, we have our final* midterm surveys: polls of the four states likeliest to determine control of the Senate.

Discussion: Raw Story and Political Wire

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: The next big precedent SCOTUS is set to overturn

Discussion: American Errata and New York Times

Rolling Stone:
Dr. Oz's Campaign Is Stocked With Jan. 6ers

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

Politico:
Senate control could go either way despite Republican momentum

Discussion: The Michigan Daily, New York Times and Breitbart

Washington Post:
Election denier Mark Finchem's sleeper campaign closes in on MAGA prize

Discussion: NBC News, Election Law Blog, Raw Story and Insider

Scott Pelley / CBS News:
Belief in the Ballot: Republicans in Arizona running on claims of election fraud

Discussion: The Hill, HuffPost and Axios

Ally Mutnick / Politico:
The Michigan race testing the limits of a GOP wave

Discussion: Reason

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Ambitious GOP senators dive into midterms while Trump weighs his 2024 plans

Discussion: Raw Story

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Twitter is planning to start charging $20 per month for verification … Now that he owns Twitter, Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave. — The directive is to change Twitter Blue …

Siva Vaidhyanathan / The Guardian:

Like Trump, Elon Musk reveals a vapid mind super-charged by wealth and ego — Musk, despite his wealth, good fortune and global influence, is not a serious person - but he is toying with dangerous ideas — t took less than 48 hours for Elon Musk to reveal just how dangerous his new toy can be to this world.

NBC News:

Biden lost temper with Zelenskyy in June phone call when Ukrainian leader asked for more aid — It's become routine since Russia invaded Ukraine: President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak by phone whenever the U.S. announces a new package of military assistance for Kyiv.

Discussion: Insider, Washington Examiner, Politico, Breitbart, DNyuz, Mediaite and New York Post

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Trump: Attack on Paul Pelosi a ‘terrible thing’ — Former President Donald Trump in an interview Sunday called the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) husband in their San Francisco home a “terrible thing” as he railed against crime in Democrat-led cities.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Mediaite, Insider, CNN, HuffPost, New York Post, CD Media, BizPac Review, Lucianne and Vanity Fair

CBS News:
Suspect in Paul Pelosi attack had list of targets, law enforcement sources say

Discussion: Fox News, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Rolling Stone, DNyuz, Forbes, IJR, Mediaite, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, Super-Probably Relevant …, The Hill, ABC7, NBC News, New York Post and Law & Crime

New York Times:
Pelosi, Vilified by Republicans for Years, Is a Top Target of Threats

Discussion: Washington Post, Popular Information, DNyuz, CNN, IJR, The Post Millennial, The Guardian, Lucian Truscott Newsletter, Washington Examiner, Fox News, The Hill and Axios

Jay Caspian Kang / New Yorker:
The Futile Race to Label Paul Pelosi's Attacker

Discussion: New Republic, RedState and Robert Reich

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Don't blame ‘both sides.’ The right is driving political violence.

Discussion: Politico, Newsbusters, Raw Story, Mediaite, American Greatness, The Colorado Sun, NBC News, HuffPost, The Economist, Morning Shots, Washington Examiner, Politico, Today's Edition Newsletter, CNBC, The Hill and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »

Mike Allen / Axios:

First look: Mike Pence's new book reveals key moment before Jan. 6 — In former Vice President Mike Pence's “So Help Me God” — out Nov. 15 — he describes a scene in November 2020, just after the election, when he and former President Trump met in the Oval Office to review legal challenges with the campaign's lawyers.

Discussion: HuffPost, Washington Examiner, The Hill and Raw Story

Jack Nicas / Reuters:

Lula's victory likely means big changes for Brazil, though his specific plans are vague. — Maria Magdalena Arréllaga for The New York Times — Maria Magdalena Arrellaga for The New York Times — Victor Venco Moriyama for the New York Times — Maria Magdalena Arrellaga for The New York Times

CNN:
Brazil's Bolsonaro loses bid for second term in fiercely contested presidential vote

Matthew Kassel / Jewish Insider:

Laxalt campaign paid thousands to political operative linked to Twitter account that denigrated Jews, women — A Twitter account connected to former Laxalt staffer Michael Pecjak has compared abortion to the Holocaust and claimed that “Jews are not a religious sect and are a cult,” among other comments

Discussion: Axios

David Weigel / Semafor:

Happy Halloween, there's a candy-colored fentanyl scare on the campaign trail — MESA, Ariz. - It was the talk of Republican candidates over Halloween weekend: A rumor that their trick-or-treating kids might get candy-colored fentanyl from strangers. — “The cartels, they're dressing …

Discussion: NPR, Mediaite and Tampa Bay Times

The Intercept:

Leaked Documents Outline DHS's Plans to Police Disinformation — The Department of Homeland Security is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents …

more at Techmeme »

Nora Mishanec / San Francisco Chronicle:

Ex-girlfriend of suspect in Paul Pelosi attack says he struggled with mental illness, drugs, believed he was ‘Jesus for a year’ — The imprisoned longtime partner of David DePape, the suspect in the attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, said Sunday that mental illness …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Political Wire, Kurt Nimmo on Geopolitics, BizPac Review, Breitbart, Fox News and Just The News

Lawrence Mower / Tampa Bay Times:

After voter fraud arrests, Florida issues new forms that could bolster future cases — “This is just going to make future prosecutions easier for the state,” an attorney said. “I think it's horrifying.” — TALLAHASSEE — A week after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the arrests of 20 people …

Discussion: Raw Story

Kurt Schlichter / Frontpage Mag:

Everyone is Laughing at the Ridiculous Pelosi Big Lie — Meet the underwear-clad MAGA assassin from a hippie commune in Berkeley. — How dare you reject the Official Approved Narrative parroted by the regime media about the weird Schiff that went down at Casa de Pelosi the other night.

Discussion: DNyuz, Washington Times and Mediaite

Shelby Talcott / Semafor:

Republican donors are being forced into an agonizing choice between Trump and DeSantis — Shelby is a Political Reporter for Semafor, joining us from the Daily Caller. Morgan is a Political and National Security Reporter for Semafor, joining us from The Hill.

Discussion: Raw Story

Luis Ferré-Sadurní / New York Times:
Clinton, Obama and DeSantis Lend Star Power to Tight N.Y. Races

Discussion: Spectrum News 1 Central NY, Florida's Voice, BizPac Review, Just The News, Washington Examiner, The Daily Wire, National Review, The Gateway Pundit, New York Post, Politico and NBC New York

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Right-wing “zombie” papers attack Illinois Democrats ahead of elections — Since late summer, many Illinois residents have been receiving newspapers that they haven't paid for or, in many cases, even heard of. — Each paper bears a clear-cut tagline: Real data, real news.

Discussion: Capitol Fax.com