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By Scott Wong (
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SUPERSTORM SANDY: THE POLITICS OF ANTI-POLITICS - Jonathan Allen reports for the hometown paper: "For all the talk of how the presidential campaigns would be frozen by Hurricane Sandy, the reality is this: They've simply shifted gears. As wind and driving rain began to whip the East Coast in earnest Monday, President Barack Obama hunkered down in Washington to attend briefings - but dispatched Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton to continue campaigning without him. Republican Mitt Romney's campaign canceled some events Monday and Tuesday 'out of sensitivity for the millions of Americans in the path of Hurricane Sandy,' a campaign advisory said. But Romney is headed to Dayton, Ohio,
where at he plans to devote an event to hurricane relief. Paul Ryan will collect donations at a campaign center in La Crosse, Wis.

-- "When it comes to natural disasters, neither side can afford to get tagged as overly political. So both campaigns tried to show they were putting the needs of storm victims first. The reactions to Sandy reinforce the notion that every move in a presidential campaign is viewed through a political prism - by the candidates, by the strategists and by the voters they seek to sway."
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SANDY: BY THE NUMBERS

6 million to 7.5 million - The number of people on the East Coast without power this morning.

16 - The number of deaths in seven states caused by the storm

50 - The number of homes destroyed by fire in Queens, N.Y.

More than 13,000 - The number of flights cancelled.

$10 billion to $20 billion - The estimated economic impact from storm damage.

9.37 -- Inches of rain in West Cape May, N.J., from Sandy.

NORTHEAST AWAKES TO DAMAGE FROM SANDY - The Washington region suffered some power outages and downed trees but was spared the brunt of the superstorm. Areas further north weren't as lucky. "Superstorm Sandy carved a harrowing path of destruction through the East Coast on Monday, inundating Atlantic City and sending cars floating through the streets of lower Manhattan,"Jamila Trindle, Michael R. Crittenden and Michael Howard Saul report for the Wall Street Journal. "Accelerating Monday evening as it made landfall on the New Jersey coast, the storm promised a legacy as one of the most damaging ever to menace the Northeast, from North Carolina to New England.Some 5.2 million people were left
without electricity across the region Monday evening-the most since the 2003 blackout. In New York, more than 250,000 Con Ed customers from 39th Street south were left without power. One of the city's major hospitals was forced to evacuate patients late Monday when its backup power system failed.

-- "A top Consolidated Edison official said it could take up to a week to restore power to the bulk of Manhattan neighborhoods plunged into darkness as the utility weighs the scope of damage left by the explosion that rocked a substation.... The storm left a trail of death, and the toll is expected to mount; at least 10 deaths were blamed on the storm.A fire destroyed at least 50 homes in a flooded neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. ... Connecticut's governor, Dannel Malloy said thousands were stranded by rising water along the coastline of his state. He urged people in one-story homes to move to their roofs. 'This is a Katrina-like warning we are issuing,' he said.
The impact was mounting. As night fell Monday, a record breaking 13-foot surge of seawater hit New York City, flooding New York's Brooklyn-Battery tunnel, a major traffic artery, as well as portions of the city's subway system. Subway service could be crippled for 'at least a week,' the head of the municipal transportation authority said late Monday.

-- "The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey declared an alert due to high water levels in its water intake structure, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday evening. An alert is the second lowest of four levels the NRC uses to characterize events at power plants, and the NRC said conditions were still safe at and around the plant in Lacey Township, N.J., and at all other U.S. nuclear plants. Economic damages from Sandy, which is expected to affect some 20% of the U.S. population, could be in the range of $10 billion to $20 billion, according to EQECAT, a catastrophe-risk modeling firm. That compares to Hurricane Irene, which caused $10 billion in damage last year."
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New York Times lead editorial: "A Big Storm Requires a Big Government":
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D.C.-area federal offices are closed to the public again Tuesday:
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U.S. stock markets will be closed for a second consecutive day Tuesday:
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Today's forecast in D.C.: Heavy rain band with gusty winds pivoting toward eastern suburbs:
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FEMA FLUSHED WITH FUNDS - Seung Min Kim reports for POLITICO: "Hurricane relief has been a nasty political football on Capitol Hill in the past. But this time around ... the federal government has plenty of money to cover the costs in the short run as Hurricane Sandy barrels her way up the East Coast. Nearly $7.8 billion is available for storm response through FEMA's disaster relief fund, congressional aides said Monday. That includes more than $7 billion set aside in the stopgap spending bill that funds the federal government through March, as well as money designated for disaster relief carried over from last year that was not spent. ... And regardless of the ideology regarding how to pay
for disaster aid, the hurricane is serving as a great equalizer, hitting states represented by a wide range of prominent politicians - with Eric Cantor in Virginia, Chris Christie in New Jersey, and Andrew Cuomo in New York."
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CITING SANDY, BROWN PULLS OUT OF DEBATE -Michael Levenson reports for the Boston Globe: "Senator Scott Brown, citing the danger posed by Hurricane Sandy, has pulled out of his fourth and final debate with Elizabeth Warren, which was scheduled to take place Tuesday evening in Boston and be broadcast live on television. 'It is simply not appropriate to go forward with a political debate when a disaster strikes,' Brown's spokesman, Colin Reed, said in a statement released this afternoon. 'The focus for all of us before, during, and after the storm needs to be on emergency response and disaster relief, not campaigns and politics. ...

In a statement, Warren campaign manager Mindy Myers agreed with not debating Tuesday, but sounded open to a possible rescheduling."
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McCASKILL'S MOTHER DIES A WEEK BEFORE ELECTION - Kevin McDermott writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Betty Anne Ward McCaskill, who played a key role in her daughter Claire's election to the U.S. Senate six years ago, died Monday of natural causes. She was 84. 'For some time, Mom's health has not been good, and our family takes comfort that she is now at rest,' Sen. McCaskill, D-Mo., said in a written statement. 'Her death creates a hole in my life that will never be filled.' ... Her death comes barely a week before Election Day. Sen. McCaskill is running for a second term. ... Betty Anne McCaskill was involved in Missouri Democratic politics throughout her life. In 1971, she was the
first woman elected to the City Council in Columbia, Mo. In 1978, she made an unsuccessful run for the Missouri Legislature against Leroy Blunt, the father of U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. In 1980, she was appointed to be the Springfield region's director of census."
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GOP SENATE HOPES COULD HINGE ON OHIO - Our own David Catanese reports from Columbus: "Mitt Romney isn't the only one whose fortunes may rest on Ohio. Republicans have renewed optimism that a late surge by Senate candidate Josh Mandel could offer a Buckeye State surprise - and keep the party's fading chances of winning the Senate alive. Make no mistake: Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown remains the favorite. The grizzled first-term incumbent has clung to a durable polling lead over the hard-charging 35-year-old state treasurer. Internal tracking polls consistently have shown Brown running just ahead of President Barack Obama. And during multiple campaign stops this week, the senator carried
himself with an air of unmistakable confidence, bordering on gleeful bravado. ... But it's also true that Mandel has closed on Brown in the final weeks, turning the race from a potential landslide into a single-digit affair."
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KYL SURVEYS SENATE LANDSCAPE: 'DISAPPOINTING' -Your Huddle host caught up Monday with Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, who gave a frank assessment of the GOP's chances to capture control of the upper chamber. Here's Kyl in his own words: "There are probably eight, maybe more, races that are margin-of-error races where presidential turnout could be the difference, or a last-minute thing could make the difference. And that's disappointing for Republicans because we thought we'd be able to count the Senate seats we could definitely win at this point to give us the margin. We might win it; we might not. At this point everything is pretty much up in the air. And the Ds are fighting in some places
where they didn't expect to either.

-- "Indiana is not the automatic that we thought it would be. Nor is Missouri. We've had tougher fights in North Dakota and Montana than we thought we'd have, though I think we'll do fine there. [Democrats] have tougher fights in places like Wisconsin and Connecticut. And I think we're going to win at least one of those. And I wish Scott Brown were doing a little better. He was doing great for so long and now the polls there show that really tightening. Florida is a real nail-biter for us - that wasn't necessary for us to pick up but that would have been nice. Virginia is looking better for us, though that could depend on presidential turnout, as might Ohio."
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-- Some of Kyl's concerns are echoed in AP's Andrew Taylor's story on how gaffe-prone Senate candidates could hurt the GOP's chances:
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GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, October 30, 2012, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day's congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to
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My new followers include but are not limited to @piwowar and @joseiswriting.

FISCAL CLIFF FORCES ALL SIDES TO JOCKEY - Damian Paletta writes for the Wall Street Journal: "Lawmakers, CEOs, business groups and charities are scrambling to shape the debate over tax and spending policy after the November elections, staking out negotiating positions for what could be a fast-paced brawl. The jockeying is intensifying as Election Day approaches, despite a halt in talks between party leaders about how to avoid a total of $500 billion in annual tax increases and federal spending cuts set to begin in January, a double-whammy known as the fiscal cliff. Party leaders are waiting to see who holds more leverage after the elections. If Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney
is elected, GOP lawmakers will seek to postpone the big decisions until after he takes office next year."
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GOP'S SIMPSON BACKS DEMOCRAT KERREY - David Rogers scoops for POLITICO: "Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson endorsed the uphill Senate campaign of Democrat Bob Kerrey in Nebraska Monday, describing his former colleague as a friend and someone willing to 'place the national interest ahead of the howling special interests' in addressing the federal debt and entitlement reforms. ... 'We've had a long friendship going back to legislation we worked on together and the Danforth Commission,' Simpson told POLITICO, speaking of a 1990's entitlement reform panel co-chaired by then Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.) and Kerrey. 'I said `Can I help?' and I did.'"
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CLINTON STUMPS FOR HEITKAMP - Marino Eccher writes for the Jamestown (N.D.) Sun: "The signs and the chants said 'Heidi.' But the rock star atmosphere in the Fargo Civic Center most definitely said 'Bill Clinton.'The former president was in town Monday night to bolster Heidi Heitkamp's U.S. Senate bid. A capacity crowd at the Civic Center showed up to greet him with full-throated enthusiasm.Outgoing Sen. Kent Conrad, U.S. House candidate Pam Gulleson, North Dakota state Sen. Mac Schneider and Fargo City Commissioner Melissa Sobolik also spoke. So did Heitkamp herself, who urged supporters to push to the end in a close race.But Clinton was the unquestioned draw for the event - even luring a
number of Minnesota voters who won't see Heitkamp on their ballots. ... In trademark fashion, Clinton laid out vigorous, often exhaustive defenses of Heitkamp's positions and record on issues ranging from energy policy to student loan debt to the Affordable Care Act."
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McCOTTER ABSENCE LEAVES CONFUSING CHOICE IN MICHIGAN-The Associated Press: "It seemed things couldn't get more muddled after U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Republican who appeared destined for easy re-election in his suburban Detroit district, shockingly failed to qualify for the ballot this summer and then resigned. Putting aside initial reservations, party leaders closed ranks behind the other Republican in the race, Kerry Bentivolio, a Vietnam and Iraq war veteran, reindeer farmer and Santa Claus impersonator with libertarian leanings. Democrats countered with a local physician, sensing a rare opportunity to capture a congressional seat in normally reliable GOP territory. But less than
two weeks before the election, a sense of the bizarre still permeates the campaign - and the outcome appears no more certain than when McCotter's political career imploded in July. Either the Democrats will cash in on a fortuitous fluke, or the GOP will avoid the political equivalent of having its pocket picked."
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MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - David Heymsfeld was first to correctly answer that the last time the House of Representatives increased the number of full-time staff in lawmakers' personal offices was 1975. It is set by law at 18 "permanent" staff.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Steven Grossman has today's question: Who, as Pennsylvania's Republican Party boss, helped block Ronald Reagan from overtaking Gerald Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination, but then was named to Reagan's Cabinet after "the Gipper" won the White House in 1980? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
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WEATHER -Breezy with some rain likely and temperatures in the low 40s, according to ABC7's Alex Liggitt.

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