A quick plug: Check out my latest YouTube video, which recaps some of the latest ads we’re seeing from Republican and Democratic candidates and shows how they’re using the airtime to distance themselves from their national party brands…
And now, a few things I’m watching this morning…
Will the money matter? Both parties are racing to make their last spending decisions as the 2026 election reaches its final stage. Republicans are in full triage mode, diverting resources from Georgia and North Carolina as Democrats Jon Ossoff and Roy Cooper increasingly seem assured of Senate victories in those states.
Where they are spending the money instead shows how much of a defense posture the party has been pushed into: as Politico notes, the top Senate GOP super PAC is now having to divert resources towards Kansas and South Carolina, two states that would never have been seen as competitive at the start of the cycle. Nate Silver’s polling average currently shows Democrat Adam Hamilton leading Republican Sen. Roger Marshall by 0.8 percentage points in Kansas, while Republican Darline Graham boasts an edge of only 2.5 percentage points over Democrat Annie Andrews in South Carolina. The Cook Political Report moved the Kansas race to “Tossup” status yesterday.
Meanwhile, Democrats are being faced with the opposite decision, considering how aggressively to play offense and how far to expand the map with their own spending, as the New York Times reports. “Now is the fun part of the cycle where you decide where can you make a last-minute play to snatch a few extra seats,” one former Democratic strategist told the Times, as the party plans its moves into double-digit Trump seats.
The question hanging over all these decisions is how much campaign spending even matters in 2026. As the Washington Post details this morning, a major fundraising edge was supposed to be the Republicans’ ace in the hole this cycle. But a surge of GOP ads doesn’t seem to have moved the needle in a single race.
“More voters hold a favorable than unfavorable view of Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, according to a late September New York Times/Siena poll — despite more than $115 million spent attacking him,” the Post writes. “Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s favorability actually increased by five points since August, to 47 percent, Fox News surveys show, despite $76.2 million in attacks.”
SCOTUS is back. This is the Supreme Court’s first week back for a term that is set to include major cases on climate change, assault weapons, and immigration. Plus, this morning, the justices will hear arguments in an interesting, though obscure, case on whether the Air Force can keep destroying munitions on a beach in Guam.
Washington is wondering, though, whether this term will see any changes in the makeup of the court. Per Politico, Senate Republicans are privately preparing for a year-end Supreme Court confirmation fight, just in case Democrats win the Senate majority in November and Justices Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas decide to retire during the lame-duck session.
“We would proceed quickly with such a vacancy,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Politico. But the party might not get that chance. Alito, promoting his new book “So Ordered,” told Bloomberg in an interview last week that he is staying put for the current term no matter what, which means he won’t retire until at least June 2027. “I intend to stick around through this term,” Alito said. “I made that decision many months ago.”
Camp Donald? President Trump has never been fond of Camp David, the official presidential retreat since the 1940s, instead preferring to spend his time at his various golf clubs and other properties.
Now, he is reportedly trying to turn one of those golf clubs into a new presidential retreat. According to the Washington Post, the Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, is trying to rebrand a parcel of its land as the “Presidential Golf Course,” which would be offered as a permanent sanctuary for future presidents to vacation and host international summits.
Future presidents would also be given free memberships to Trump’s golf club next door, of course. “My understanding is that President Trump views this as a lasting contribution to the presidency and to those who will hold the office after him,” Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo told the Post.
The money is the fraud and the means to corruption , not wisdom and knowledge only dumb money spending from Billionaires with no any scruple 👎‼️
Your last item is intriguing. If I recall, the Post family gave Mar A Lago to the government decades ago, but the government gave it back because the maintenance costs were so high. I wish the president would concentrate a bit more on his day job, but that would have to focus on fixing the many messes he has made.