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The state Democratic Party has withdrawn its Oct. 1 request for a Federal Election Commission opinion on the legality of using funds raised for federal congressional campaigns to pay for mass mailings promoting re-election of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

The withdrawal avoids the possibility of receiving a legal thumbs-down from the FEC on the mass mailing that the Democrats decided to move forward with, anyway, about a week after submitting the Oct. request.

The Democrat's attorney informed the FEC in an email, shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday, that it was dropping its request for the federal agency's advice. The email was sent on the eve of the federal election agency's scheduled consideration of the matter at a Thursday meeting.

Also Thursday, the matter was argued by Democratic and Republican lawyers in Hartford Superior Court, where a judge held off on a decision until he can review arguments concerning the GOP's request for an injunction to stop Democrats from using the federal campaigns to help Malloy.

The state Democratic Party's lawyer wrote to the FEC Oct. 1 to ask whether the federal commission would concur with the party's contention that it could legally spend the federal campaign funds to help Malloy. Then, about a week ago, the Democrats decided to go forward with a massive pro-Malloy mailing without waiting for the FEC's advice.

Republicans joined the State Election Enforcement Commission and the good-government advocacy group Common Cause in blasting Democrats for their pro-Malloy use of the party's "federal account," which receives heavy contributions from state contractors who are banned from contributing to state political campaigns.

Anticipating that the FEC would be considering the legality of the Democrats' move, the SEEC sent a 10-page letter to the federal commission earlier this month arguing that it should call the move illegal because it would "cynically circumvent" the state clean-election law that bans the contractors from giving money to candidates for state office.

Now that Democrats have told the FEC that they don't want an answer, state Republican Party Chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. said Thursday: "Of course Connecticut Democrats have withdrawn their request from the FEC. They've already sent the mailers, they've already violated the law -- the last thing they want now is for the FEC to confirm that they've violated the law."

"The fact is that Connecticut Democrats and Dan Malloy are engaging in an illegal pay-to-play scheme to raise money from state contractors and use it to fund the governor's campaign," Labriola said in an email.

Democratic Party Executive Director Jonathan Harris said: "This is simple: Jerry Labriola is lying about the facts, because he's trying to draw attention away from Tom Foley's abysmal record of exploiting the middle class, walking away with millions of dollars, and paying almost no taxes. ... The GOP should focus on developing an agenda that doesn't turn back the clock on everything from women's rights, to marriage equality, to support for the middle class."

Read the rest here:
Democrats No Longer Want Feds' Opinion On Malloy Mailers They've Already Sent

A notable finding in a new AP-GfK poll:

Women have moved in the GOP's direction since September. In last month's AP-GfK poll, 47 percent of female likely voters said they favored a Democratic-controlled Congress while 40 percent wanted the Republicans to capture control. In the new poll, the two parties are about even among women, 44 percent prefer the Republicans, 42 percent the Democrats.

In contrast, thepoll found that among men, Republicans' double-digit advantage hardly changed from their September survey, with 50 percent backing Republicans.

I reached out to our polling guys, Scott Clement and Peyton M. Craighill, for some guidance. They pointed out that in the latest Washington Post/ABC News pollthere was also a similar finding, with Republicans neutralizing Democrats' traditional advantage on the generic ballot among women, 47 percent of whom supported Democrats with 46 percent backing Republicans.

And if you look at the chart below, it matches what happened in the 2010 midterms, when Republicans won big in part because they were able to erase the typical edge that Democrats have among women voters. In 2010, unmarried women did back Democrats, but by slightly smallermargins than usual, and married women leaned more strongly Republican than in past years.

(The data in 2002 had some problems, so we dont have confidence in those numbers).

According to the AP-GfK poll, Republicans have broadly gained ground among women in the last month. And in at least one Senate race, that same trend is apparent. Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner (R)actually led narrowly among women in a Suffolk University poll released Wednesday. While that seems a little suspect, other polling has also shown himnarrowing the gap among womento varying degrees -- enough to show a slight lead in the overall race.

But, there are other contested races where Democrats are holding strong among women. In New Hampshire, for instance, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) still holds a steady 10-point lead among women over Scott Brown in the latest CNN/ORC poll. She led by nine among women in another poll this week, from Suffolk.

The Democratic advantage with women is also shows up in a new Pew poll, which projects a better forecast for Democrats on the generic ballot:

So, what do we make of this? For Democrats, a clear advantage among women in both presidential and midterm elections has just been a fact of life -- and a requirement for winning. But in 2010 they saw a reversal.

See the article here:
The Fix: Are Democrats losing their edge among women?

President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, which now holds a 55-seat majority in the Senate, can be sure of keeping 45 of them after Election Day. Republicans will hang on to 44 of their 45 seats.

That leaves 11 close races to settle the outcome.

Democrats or independents lead in just three of them. Incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan holds a slim advantage over Thom Tillis in North Carolina. Incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen leads Republican Scott Brown in New Hampshire. And business executive Greg Ormanwho calls himself an independent but all Democrats are rooting for himmaintains a razor-thin advantage over Republican incumbent Pat Roberts in Kansas.

Republicans lead in eight of these battleground races. In Alaska, Arkansas Colorado and Louisiana, Republican challengers have built steady leads over respective Democratic incumbents Mark Begich, Mark Pryor, Mark Udall and Mary Landrieu. In open seat contests, Joni Ernst has moved ahead of Bruce Braley in Iowa, business executive David Perdue leads Michelle Nunn in Georgia, and ex-Gov. Mike Rounds has the advantage in South Dakota's three-way race. The sole embattled Republican incumbentSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentuckyhas the edge over Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Read MoreRepublicans unlikely to sweep midterms: NBC/WSJ Poll

If those leads hold, McConnell will lead a 52-seat Republican majority in the Senate next January.

History tells us some of those leads will NOT hold. Roberts has been making headway against Orman in Kansas, which has elected only Republican senators since FDR's time. Nunn has been moving up in Georgia, where demographic change in recent years has swelled the proportion of Democrat-friendly non-white voters.

Read MoreIn Kentucky Senate race, will verve upend sure-footed experience?

Moreover, at least some candidates trailing at the very end are likely to win anyway because their campaigns do a better job of finding and mobilizing potential voters that public pollsters overlook. That's how Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, currently chairman of his party's Senate campaign, won his seat four years ago.

As a result, Democrats still have a chance to maintain their majority, and with it control of the Senate agenda for the last two years of Obama's presidency. But what we can see at this point makes it clear: They will need more of those fortunate breaks to fall their way than Republicans do.

Read more from the original source:
Midterms: Democrats need some fortunate breaks

By Ed Tibbetts, Quad City Times

DAVENPORT Republicans and Democrats were sparring Thursday over the meaning of new figures that show the GOP gaining the upper hand in absentee votes, a milestone for a party that until this election season put relatively little effort into the practice.

For years, Democrats have gained an electoral edge by winning the absentee vote, but Republicans vowed this year to make an unprecedented effort to catch up. And on Wednesday, they did.

Figures released early Thursday by the Iowa Secretary of States office showed 105,347 Republicans had voted early, while 104,984 Democrats had cast ballots. At this point four years ago, Democrats led by roughly 16,000 absentee votes.

I dont believe anybody thought we were going to have this kind of success, an exultant state GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann said Wednesday night, when it became clear that Republicans had gained the edge.

Democrats acknowledged Thursday the effort Republicans are putting into early voting, but they say the important thing is theyre still winning the battle to harvest voters who traditionally dont vote in midterm elections.

Democrats said that as of earlier this week, their data showed them to be about 12,000 ballots ahead of the Republicans among low-propensity voters.

Thats what matters, the party says. It does little good to get people who would have voted on Election Day to simply cast their votes early, they say.

Democrats are expanding the midterm electorate and are turning out non-midterm voters, said Christina Freundlich, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Democratic Party.

The party says 21 percent of its early voters are people who did not vote in 2010 and some who didnt vote in 2012, while 14 percent of the Republicans early votes this year didnt cast ballots in those elections.

Read the original here:
Democrats, Republicans spar over early vote milestone

Why Democrats Missing the Message...
George Lakoff, University of California at Berkeley / Don #39;t Think of An Elephant.

By: The Big Picture RT

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Why Democrats Missing the Message... - Video