The Daily Digest: Debate round up
Good morning!
In Minnesota
In their first one-on-one debate before the November election, U.S. Sen. Al Franken and his Republican challenger, businessman Mike McFadden, repeatedly took each other to task on domestic policy and foreign affairs. (MPR News)
No candidate seemed to land a knockout punch in the first debate in the race for governor Wednesday night. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, Republican Jeff Johnson and Independence Party candidate Hannah Nicollet sparred over several issues, including the state of the economy. (MPR News)
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Take these sorts of polls with many grains of salt: 8th District Democrat Rep. Rick Nolan has an 11 point lead over GOP challenger Stewart Mills according to a poll commissioned by the campaign arm of U.S. House Democrats. (Star Tribune)
Minnesotans will pay an average of 4.5 percent more for health plans offered through MNsure next year. Premiums will be the lowest of any in the nation but the increase for 2015, however, masks some major price swings. (MPR News)
The new rates immediately became fodder for both political parties eager to prove their case about health care. (MPR News)
National Politics
Julia Pierson resigned as Secret Service director on Wednesday after just 1 1/2 years on the job following a series of major security lapses that eroded President Obama’s confidence in her ability to run the agency tasked with protecting him. (Washington Post)
Everyone's out campaigning this fall. Everyone, that is, except for President Obama. (NPR)
A record number of African Americans are running for federal office this year, but their advances in elected office have been met by increased racial polarization in politics, particularly in the Deep South. (USA Today)
Facing the prospect of a fully Republican Congress for the first time in eight years, GOP strategists are divided over how to advance a central tenet of their political agenda: a simpler U.S. tax code with sharply lower rates. (Washington Post)