“Barack Obama” was one name that didn’t come up much in Thursday night’s Senate debate in Iowa between State Senator Joni Ernst and Representative Bruce Braley.
Ms. Ernst, the Republican, made vague but critical references to “the administration” and “failed leadership” and did talk about “Obamacare” but avoided most mentions of the president’s name until the end. That’s quite a departure from other recent debates, where the Republican candidates couldn’t seem to cram enough “Obamas” into one sentence.
The difference for Ms. Ernst in Iowa? We can’t say for sure, but the president did carry the state in both 2008 and 2012.
Mr. Braley also seemed strangely shy about invoking Mr. Obama’s name as he extolled his bipartisan record in Congress. He even had nice things to say about the state’s Republican senator, Charles E. Grassley, whom he disparaged in a video as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law” but who could become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (“I apologized to him and I apologized to Iowa farmers,” he said on Thursday.)
The most heated discussion was over the Affordable Care Act. Neither endorsed it completely: Ms. Ernst, like most Republicans, wants to “repeal and replace” it. Mr. Braley, a Democrat, said he wanted to “fix” it. But in a back-and-forth about what they would actually do in Congress, each called the other a liar, but in the most polite way possible. It is Iowa, after all.
Former Massachusetts Governor and Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.Credit Stephan Savoia/Associated Press
A strange thing happened Thursday at the trial of a friend of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect: Michael Dukakis took the stand in his defense.
Mr. Dukakis, a former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential nominee, said he was a family friend of Robel Phillipos, 20, who is facing two federal charges of making false statements in the days after the 2013 bombing.
Mr. Phillipos is a longtime friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of planting the bombs that killed three and wounded more than 260.
Prosecutors say that Mr. Phillipos went with two other friends of Mr. Tsarnaev to his dorm room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, but later lied to investigators about it. Mr. Phillipos’s lawyers have mounted an unusual defense: He had smoked so much marijuana that he was too high to remember what had happened that day.
Mr. Dukakis said that he and his wife, Kitty, had watched Mr. Phillipos grow up, and that he had even taken him to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. “He’s got a great future ahead of him,” Mr. Dukakis said outside the courthouse. “He’s a thoughtful, intelligent guy.”
Mr. Dukakis told the court that he had spoken by phone with Mr. Phillipos in the days after the bombing, at the request of his mother, who hadn’t heard from him. His testimony appeared to be intended by the defense to bolster their claims that Mr. Phillipos was confused during his interactions with law enforcement.
“He told me that he had been in Worcester, that the F.B.I. questioned him for five hours,” Mr. Dukakis said. “And I said, ‘What’d you tell em?’ He said, ‘I was so confused, I don’t know what I told them.’ ”
Mr. Dukakis added that he was “not familiar with his situation with respect to marijuana.”
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misspelled Michael Dukakis’ last name as Dukasis.
Looking for any advantage in a toss-up race for governor, Jason Carter, the Democratic nominee, has taken to Twitter to make common cause with University of Georgia Bulldog fans.
Georgia has indefinitely suspended Todd Gurley, its star running back and Heisman Trophy hopeful, over accusations that he took money for signing autographs or for the use of his image in memorabilia. Gurley was sidelined last week and is not likely to play Saturday for the No. 10-ranked Bulldogs (5-1) against Arkansas (3-3).
Hence #freegurley.
(We’d hazard a guess that as many Georgians are following the Gurley affair as they are watching the governor’s race, which pits Mr. Carter against the Republican incumbent, Nathan Deal.)
Ed Gillespie, the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia, campaigning in Norfolk last month.Credit Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
In a year when most Republican Senate campaigns have been running downhill, Ed Gillespie’s bid to unseat Mark Warner, the Democratic incumbent in Virginia, has been a steep climb.
Now, nearing the finish line, Mr. Gillespie may be running out of gas. According to a Republican firm that monitors media buys, Mr. Gillespie — a former Republican National Committee chairman, lobbyist and Bush White House adviser once thought to be a fund-raising powerhouse — does not currently have any airtime reserved between now and Election Day.
Paul Logan, a spokesman for the Gillespie, said a new round of ads would start airing on Saturday. He said it was a “significant” buy on network television, but would not say how long the ads would run. Responding to a report by the Associated Press, the campaign said it still had $2 million for the final stretch.
Mr. Warner and the Democrats, meanwhile, have nearly $1.5 million in airtime reserved through Nov. 4. And more could be coming. The Warner campaign says it has more than $8 million in its coffers.
Mr. Gillespie is one of the biggest names in Republican lobbying, but beyond the Washington area, he is far less known. Mr. Warner, a former governor, remains one of the most popular political figures in the state, and when Mr. Gillespie jumped in, some analysts speculated the run was about raising his name recognition ahead of a run for governor.
But that was before the political atmosphere turned toxic for Democrats. In states like Colorado, Iowa and Louisiana, lightly promoted Republican candidates have soared to contention. Mr. Gillespie has closed the gap as well, but no polls have him nearing parity.
Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a congressional hearing Thursday.Credit Jabin Botsford/The New York Times
Members of Congress suggested on Thursday that Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, does not grasp the gravity of the Ebola crisis. And that he does not read the news.
Making the case that a travel ban from West Africa should be imposed to prevent people infected with Ebola from coming to the United States, Representative Billy Long, a Missouri Republican, said that Dr. Frieden should have read an article this month that detailed the grim situation in a hospital in Sierra Leone.
Recommending that Dr. Frieden Google the article’s headline, “A Hospital From Hell, in a City Swamped by Ebola,” in The New York Times, Mr. Long said, “If you get a chance to read that, I think that everyone would be in favor of the travel restriction we’ve talked about here today.”
The C.D.C. has maintained that screening travelers is more effective than blocking travel in containing the Ebola epidemic. Dr. Frieden said he could not say to what degree travel restrictions would reduce the number of people with the virus making it into the United States.
President Obama’s team says he has the ingredients to make bipartisan deals with congressional Republicans on economic issues in the last two years of his presidency. Trouble is, the recipe sounds a lot like the one that’s yielded gridlock for the last several years.
Mr. Obama will continue to press Congress to replace automatic, across-the-board spending cuts with a “balanced” deficit-reduction plan, enact a broad corporate tax overhaul, undertake a major infrastructure spending initiative and approve a series of trade agreements, senior administration officials said Thursday.
“These are traditionally bipartisan terrains,” one official said of the tax, infrastructure and trade measures. If Mr. Obama and Congress “have a moment of productivity, these are the types of legislative proposals that I think could move forward with bipartisan support.”
That’s the case whether or not Democrats maintain control of the Senate, the official suggested, adding that “we’re optimistic” that Mr. Obama’s party will keep the majority.
“You’re going to see the president pushing the same basic set of ideas” next year, said a second official, who, like the others, spoke on the condition anonymity to discuss White House strategy.
It’s far from clear that Republicans, who have so far resisted nearly every element of the president’s economic agenda, will reverse course and team up with him.
Take tax reform. Mr. Obama and some Republicans agree on certain elements of a corporate tax overhaul, including slashing the rate from 35 percent to somewhere in the high 20s and using some of the money raised for infrastructure investments. But they are deeply divided on other vital issues, including whether the plan should raise revenue in the long term and whether to pair it with tax cuts for individuals.
If Republicans hold to their insistence that corporate and individual tax cuts occur together, the second official said, “you’re not going to have tax reform.”
Whatever happens in next month’s midterm elections, a series of fiscal deadlines will test Mr. Obama’s ability to work with Congress on economic issues next spring. That’s when lawmakers will have to raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit, renew authorization for the Highway Trust Fund and potentially reach a deal to keep the government funded for the remainder of 2015.
While Mr. Obama’s advisers argue that the “fiscal drama” that has surrounded past budget deadlines has harmed the economy, their plan for avoiding what one called “manufactured crises coming out of D.C.” amounts to a collective crossing of fingers.
“I’m hopeful that Congress has learned that lesson,” one adviser said, “and would be concerned if they haven’t.”
Mark Udall at a rally in Denver, Colorado.Credit Matthew Staver for The New York Times
Jonathan Martin, The Times’s national political correspondent, answered another round of questions on the midterm elections. Here’s the first batch. We’re also taking questions for our entire political unit. Ask us here.
Q.
Why hasn’t Udall been able to pull away from Gardner in a state that Obama won twice and, by all accounts, is shifting left? - Reader Question
Unlike other recent Republican candidates running statewide in Colorado, Representative Cory Gardner is a strong candidate. And President Obama’s numbers have sagged in the state, hurting the campaign of the Democratic incumbent, Senator Mark Udall. See my story about where Mr. Obama isn’t wanted. Even Ken Salazar, Mr. Obama’s first-term interior secretary, acknowledged (in his own way) the difficulties his former boss poses in Colorado.
Q.
How much influence does the NRA have in KS? - Asked by gary klahr
They are on TV there attacking Greg Orman, the independent. But even more important is the member contact through the mail and email. That could be helpful for the Republican incumbent, Senator Pat Roberts, particularly among some N.R.A. types in sprawling western Kansas who might thought of staying home this cycle.
Q.
I read — EVERYWHERE — that Mary Landrieu doesn’t stand a chance in a December runoff. But after Veteran’s Day, won’t she benefit from Democrat-aligned organizers (even ones flown in from other states) and funding sources, beginning with the DSCC? Democrats do seem to have more cash on hand, last I looked. - Asked by MTF Tobin
Sure, money will help. But the Republican (either Bill Cassidy or Rob Maness) will also have national help. In some ways, Ms. Landrieu would be better positioned if Republicans capture the Senate outright on Election Day because then the stakes are less nationalized for her in the runoff. She can make it less about Harry Reid as the majority leader and more about oil and gas, the coast, clout. Of course, national reporters are just dreading the prospect of leaving Washington in chilly November for New Orleans…
Q.
What has your favorite meal been on the road so far this year in a midterm state? - Reader Question
Speaking of Louisiana! I had a decadent “Cajun Benedict” (inquire via email for ingredients) at The French Press in Lafayette. Thank you Brett Anderson of The Times-Picayune for the tip.
Charlie Crist during his long wait for Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, his Republican opponent, to take the stage for their debate on Wednesday.Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Charlie Crist was the one with the fan, but Gov. Rick Scott of Florida is the one feeling the heat after last night’s debate.
Mr. Scott left Mr. Crist standing alone on the stage as the debate was set to start, over what was announced as his objection to an electric fan that Mr. Crist uses to stay cool under the hot lights. The awkward moments became the story of the evening, overshadowing the issues and arguments.
The morning after, Mr. Scott denied having concerns about Mr. Crist’s perspiration problems, claiming another reason for his tardiness.
“Rick Scott never refused to take the stage and debate,” Greg Blair, a Scott spokesman, said in a statement. “In fact, our campaign was not notified Charlie had even taken the stage because the last we heard, Crist was in an ‘emergency meeting’ with debate organizers pleading for his precious fan.”
Mr. Scott’s campaign went on to criticize Mr. Crist’s record as governor of Florida, arguing that he had failed to stem job losses. (Mr. Crist was Mr. Scott’s predecessor and is now a Democrat.)
The two will hold their third and final debate on Tuesday, and it appears that Mr. Crist will be allowed to bring whatever electrical devices he needs.
“Charlie Crist can bring his fan, microwave and toaster to debates,” Mr. Blair said. “None of that will cover up how sad his record as governor was compared to the success of Gov. Rick Scott.”
The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, on Thursday corrected statements he made on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” that the bureau did not “do electronic surveillance without a court order.”
In a question-and-answer session after a speech he gave at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Comey said that he should have provided a more “lawyerly” answer.
“I gave an answer that I thought was fair and accurate, and people gave me feedback afterwards saying it was insufficiently lawyerly, should have been longer, and what about the exceptions,” Mr. Comey said. “So I think that’s very fair feedback, actually, and I wish I had thought of it in the moment.”
Mr. Comey said that “it remains true that in the over, over, overwhelming number of our cases we have court authority to collect the content of emails or telephones.”
Mr. Comey acknowledged that there were exceptions. For example, the government does intercept international phone calls or emails of Americans without warrants if they are to, from or about a noncitizen abroad who has been targeted for intelligence collection.
In response to Mr. Comey’s answer on “60 Minutes,” the correspondent Scott Pelley said, “You know that some people are going to roll their eyes when they hear that?”
Mr. Comey responded by saying that the government “cannot read your e-mails or listen to your calls without going to a federal judge, making a showing of probable cause that you are a terrorist, an agent of a foreign power or a serious criminal of some sort, and get permission for a limited period of time to intercept those communications.”
“It is an extremely burdensome process,” Mr. Comey said. “And I like it that way.”
Democrats just launched a “War on Women” cruise missile into the Iowa Senate race, where Representative Bruce Braley is struggling in his matchup against Joni Ernst, the Republican nominee, who bills herself as a mother, a soldier and an independent leader.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a 30-second ad featuring Kim Tweedy of West Des Moines, a nurse on a sexual assault response team, who talks about the heartbreaking cases she handles daily, before taking aim at Ms. Ernst’s positions on women’s issues.
“I’ll never understand politicians who make it even harder, politicians like Joni Ernst,” Ms. Tweedy says. “She’d outlaw abortion even for victims of rape and incest. She’d ban a woman’s right to choose, even for women who have been through that trauma — absolutely brutalized.”
The stark, emotional ad, shot with soft lighting, ends with a pained-looking Ms. Tweedy, who says, “Joni Ernst has no idea what people like this go through.”
The Ernst campaign was quick to dismiss the ad as a desperate Hail Mary.
“As a woman and mother of three daughters, Braley’s war on women is the dumbest thing that has happened on this campaign, which is really saying something,” said Gretchen Hamel, an Ernst campaign spokeswoman.
A House subcommittee holding a hearing about the Ebola outbreak on Thursday.Credit Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press
Despite the anti-Washington sentiment permeating the midterm elections, sometimes the best place for candidates to be is, in fact, in Washington, doing their jobs.
Two Senate candidates, Representative Bruce Braley, Democrat of Iowa, and Representative Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado, interrupted their campaigns on Thursday to return to Capitol Hill for the House subcommittee hearing on the government’s handling of the Ebola outbreak.
Both candidates have been critical of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, particularly Mr. Gardner, who called for a travel ban last week and sparred with his opponent, Senator Mark Udall, over Ebola in a debate on Wednesday night.
Mr. Braley’s critiques have been more subdued, expressing concern that the “administration did not act fast enough” in its handling of the outbreak. Mr. Braley will return to Iowa for a debate on Thursday night.
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health are about to face a grilling from Congress on their handling of the Ebola epidemic.
Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the N.I.H., are among those testifying.
According to his prepared remarks, Dr. Frieden will make the case that the regulator needs more resources to help build the capacity of West African countries to eradicate disease threats before they spread globally.
“Improving these capabilities for each nation improves health security for all nations,” Dr. Frieden said. “Stopping outbreaks where they occur is the most effective and least expensive way to protect people’s health.”
The former New York City health commissioner has rapidly reversed many of the Bush administration’s policies at one of the world’s top health agencies.
An ad against Senator Mark Begich playing in a bar in Anchorage. The cost of televised political ads is seven times higher now in Anchorage than it was in March.Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
O to be a local television station owner in Des Moines, Little Rock or Anchorage. They are raking it in during these final frenzied days of competitive Senate races. And those buying late are paying a premium, potentially diluting the impact of the last-minute blitzes.
According to two Democrats who track media buys, the cost of television advertising is almost six times as high now in Manchester, N.H., as it was when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee invested in June. It is three times as high in Denver and almost seven times as high in Anchorage as it was in March. So jumping into a race can make a splash, but will it make a difference?
Greg Orman has not said which party he would caucus with.Credit Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle, via Associated Press
As part of our continuous political helpline, we’re taking questions and answering them as fast as we can. Today, Jonathan Martin, The Times’s national political correspondent, answered two rounds of questions on the midterm elections. Check back this afternoon for more answers.
Q.
There are two possible independents that may be elected,to the Senate. Have either of them indicated which party they would caucus with, or is there a valid reason to assume it would be with the Dems? - Asked by luxembourg
Both Larry Pressler and Greg Orman are being cagey on the topic, each hoping to maximize his influence should he win. The first vote they would cast, for leader, would probably be their most important. The two are running as centrists, and each has indicated that he would caucus with the party most willing to compromise and address such issues as tax and entitlement reform. Mr. Pressler, though, is also interested in retaining the seniority he accrued from his three previous terms and would probably want assurances on that from whichever party he chose.
Q.
Do the Democrats still have a fairly good chance to hold the Senate majority? - Asked by Sonya
“Only time will tell, it all comes down to turnout, etc.”
Seriously, this has been a volatile election year, and it is not wise to get into the prediction business. But Democrats have little margin for error, given the map and President Obama’s unpopularity. That is why they are trying to be creative in states like Kansas.
Q.
Reports have the DNC has shifting away from Alison Grimes to Michelle Nunn to hold the Senate. Does Nunn actually have a chance? - Asked by Jim
Georgia was the closest state in the 2012 presidential election that was not seriously contested by either party. That’s because of the state’s changing demographics. See Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s wicked-smart “States of Play” story for more on this topic. As the noted Democratic strategist Bill Clinton alluded to in his rope-line press avail at the Harkin Steak Fry, though, the $85 million question is whether Democrats can make the off-year electorate look like the presidential-year electorate. It will be tough without President Obama on the ballot, and Michelle Nunn is still the underdog. But she got a needed late break when David Perdue seemed to embrace his outsourcing history a few weeks ago. Keep in mind that Georgia requires candidates to win 50 percent on Election Day to win outright, and that there is a Libertarian on the Senate ballot. We may be headed to overtime (i.e. a January (!) runoff).
Q.
Why hasn’t Tom Harkin been able to give Bruce Braley more of a boost in the polls in Iowa? - Reader Question
It is tough to transfer popularity to another candidate, no matter the race or state. Mr. Harkin was first elected to the House in ’74, and had a deep relationship with many Iowans, especially older voters. Before the race, Mr. Braley was largely unknown outside his eastern Iowa district. And that’s not even to mention some of the unforced errors he’s made.
President Obama working the phones at a campaign office in Williamsburg, Va., in 2012.Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
We know a bit more about how the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent some of the money it brought in via all of those fund-raising emails this summer: In August, the committee paid Obama for America $1.5 million to rent its donor list, which presumably produced even more emails. The Obama campaign also rented its list to other committees, including the Environmental Defense Fund and the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund. The campaign paid out $1.6 million in the third quarter, including $12,000 in “fees” to the Federal Election Commission.
Good Thursday morning from Washington, where the Islamic State fight has a new, not-so-scary name, a bizarre dispute over perspiration overtook a Florida debate, and President Obama is hunkering down to deal with the Ebola epidemic.
Weeks after the Ebola epidemic became a global threat, the White House on Wednesday suddenly moved to convey that it was in crisis mode.
With the revelation of a second infected health care worker at a Dallas hospital, White House officials suddenly scratched President Obama‘s political travel for the day and hastily scheduled a cabinet-level meeting to coordinate a response to the Ebola outbreak.
That meeting lasted more than two hours, twice as long as expected. Reporters asked about virtually nothing else at the press secretary’s daily briefing. Aides described the president’s calls to five world leaders.
At the same time, Mr. Obama faced mounting public criticism from Republicans on the campaign trail, many of them calling for West Africa travel restrictions.
The events echo another crisis: the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. It took weeks of political turmoil before Mr. Obama and his aides adopted a crisis footing that involved around-the-clock briefings and a barrel-chested Coast Guard commander heading up the response. In June, two months after the explosion, Mr. Obama canceled a trip to Indonesia and Australia so he could oversee efforts to cap the gushing oil.
White House aides later said privately that the oil spill prevented them from dealing with much else that summer.
Will the Ebola crisis have the same impact? Late Wednesday evening, the White House canceled a second day of trips, including an economic-themed speech in Rhode Island and fund-raising in New York City on Thursday.
But what seems clear is that a switch has been flipped at the White House. And it’s unlikely to switch back until the Ebola threat subsides.
It lacks the ferocity of Operation Desert Storm in Iraq or the idealism of Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya. Instead, United States military officials took a more delicate and ambiguous approach in their belated naming of the campaign against the Islamic State — Operation Inherent Resolve.
And that may be the point.
“It doesn’t have that boo-yah attitude,” said Dean Crutchfield, a business consultant and brand expert. “It’s not ferocious, or too hard or frightening in a way that would make America seem to be the aggressor. It’s coming to protect.”
The military names operations for administrative and public relations purposes. Yet Inherent Resolve, which was disclosed on Wednesday, may not bring up images of enemy annihilation as much as it does household chores.
“The first thing that came to mind was that this didn’t make me think about hitting the bad guys in Syria and Iraq, it made me think about cleaning my carpet,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department analyst, “ISIS being among the tough stains it would get out.”
It was perhaps the most bewildering seven minutes of this election cycle.
A high-profile televised debate between Gov.Rick Scott, a Republican, and former Gov. Charlie Crist was held up for what seemed like an eternity Wednesday night over a surprising dispute over sweating and an electric fan.
The perennially tanned Mr. Crist had placed an electric fan at his feet, as he often does, to prevent him from perspiring on stage. But Mr. Scott refused to come out after his aides showed debate organizers the rules, which prohibited its use.
That left a table of moderators and panelists facing a single candidate. “I don’t know, what can we say?” one moderator said.
“Ladies and gentleman,” he added, “we have an extremely peculiar situation right now.”
After seven minutes of a lot of back and forth between the Scott team and the organizers, Mr. Scott finally appeared, the fan stayed in place, and, by the debate’s end, no one was sweating that we could see.
In the explosion of Twitter jokes that followed, Ben Smith of BuzzFeed may have summed it up best. It was, he said, “the dumbest, most Florida thing.”
The unemployment rate is down, but the percentage of Americans who actually have a job has hardly budged. Housing prices are on the rise, except where they aren’t. Corporate profits have soared, but wages have stagnated.
In this “on the one hand, on the other” economy, the stock market has been one of the few unambiguous bright spots, with Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rising nearly 30 percent last year alone.
But now, less than three weeks before the midterm elections, the markets are gyrating on fears of a global economic slowdown, adding a dose of uncertainty for voters already unnerved by the Ebola, Islamic State and Ukrainian crises.
And that’s not likely to help the Democrats, whose fortunes are tied closely to those of President Obama.
The stock market has always been a much debated measure of the economy. Yet bull markets – especially during the 1990s – have made Americans more optimistic, improved economic fortunes on Main Street as well as Wall Street, and benefited the party that controls the White House.
But this week’s dismal stock market performance has dimmed, if not killed, any hope that voters will see such a “wealth effect” before Nov. 4 that will buoy Democratic chances.
Mitt Romney speaking to supporters of Scott P. Brown at a campaign event at the Gilchrist Metal Fabricating plant in Hudson, N.H., on Wednesday.Credit Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times
Mitt Romney has lost none of his fervor in calling the Obama administration a failure.
He made that clear on Wednesday when he made a return campaign trip to Hudson, N.H. to stump for Republican Scott P. Brown.
“They say they’re trying to reduce income inequality – that hasn’t happened,” he said, ticking off an anti-Obama checklist. “They misjudged the importance of having our forces remain in Iraq. They made so many mistakes.”
Some Republicans have been trying to persuade Mr. Romney to mount another presidential campaign in 2016. But he gave little indication that his latest trip to Hudson was a warm-up.
His wife, Ann, has pretty much quashed that notion.
After his brief speech, Mr. Romney introduced Mr. Brown’s wife, Gail Huff. So eager was he to call Mr. Brown “the next senator from New Hampshire” that he accidentally called Ms. Huff “the next wife” of the next senator.
Ms. Huff laughed. “I’m not sure I could deal with that,” she said.
The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., profiles the state representative who engaged in a shootout with a robbery suspect this week near the State Capitol. It wasn’t the first time he’s had such a run-in.
New York magazine looks at what it says is the right-wing campaign against Mayor Annise Parker of Houston, the first openly gay mayor of a major American city.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the party affiliation of Attorney General Greg Abbott of Texas. He is a Republican, not a Democrat.
The CBS station in Miami caught the first moments Wednesday night of the Florida governor’s debate, which was held up for seven minutes over whether former Gov. Charlie Crist would be allowed to keep an electric fan at his feet and whether Gov. Rick Scott would ever come onstage.
