GOP-turf races draw Clinton; Trump calls voter-fraud denial naive

Hillary Clinton supporters listen Monday as former President Bill Clinton speaks at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Clinton called on his wife’s backers to reach out with kindness to Donald Trump supporters after the election rather than treat them “the way they and their candidate have treated us.
Hillary Clinton supporters listen Monday as former President Bill Clinton speaks at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Clinton called on his wife’s backers to reach out with kindness to Donald Trump supporters after the election rather than treat them “the way they and their candidate have treated us.

WHITE PLAINS, New York -- Hillary Clinton is expanding her campaign into states the Democrats haven't won in decades, advancing her offensive against Donald Trump and aiming to help her party win back control of Congress.

In a Monday morning blitz of tweets, Trump continued to lash out at Republicans who have tried to tone him down, calling his party's leaders "so naive" and claiming, without evidence, that large-scale voter fraud is real.

"Of course there is large-scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!" he tweeted.

Rather than campaigning in the tightest battlegrounds, Trump was spending much of Monday out of sight before speaking in Green Bay, Wis., a state where Clinton leads in many polls.

[INTERACTIVE: The 2016 election in Arkansas]

At that rally, Trump punched back against allegations made by several women who accused him of making unwanted advances, saying the events "never happened" and claiming the media are trying to "rig the election by giving credence to false stories that have no validity."

He also rolled out a five-point policy for an ethics revamp, including a requirement that members of Congress and White House officials wait five years before becoming lobbyists.

Clinton was spending the day with advisers near her home in New York, preparing for the final presidential debate Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

"Donald Trump is becoming more unhinged by the day, and that is increasing prospects for Democrats further down the ballot," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said.

Clinton is "dramatically expanding" her efforts in Arizona, Mook told reporters Monday, pouring more than $2 million into advertising and dispatching first lady Michelle Obama for a rally in Phoenix on Thursday.

In Indiana and Missouri, Mook said, the campaign will spend a total of $1 million to drive voter turnout, despite what he acknowledged as an "uphill battle" for Clinton in the two states, where several races are competitive below the presidential level.

In Texas, the campaign has prepared an ad highlighting Clinton's endorsement from The Dallas Morning News. And Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, has begun sitting for local media interviews in Utah.

On the other side, Trump's campaign expanded its ad buys in seven battleground states and announced plans to start a $2 million advertising blitz in Virginia.

Trump also leads in Indiana and Missouri, but U.S. Senate races in both states have become very close. In Indiana, former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh is in a dead heat with Republican U.S. Rep. Todd Young. In Missouri, Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is locked in a tight race with Democrat Jason Kander, Missouri's secretary of state.

"I think it's an act of goodwill because her numbers look good and some of our races are tighter," said Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada, one of the states receiving cash. "But it's also an important move because she's going to need friends to get her appointments approved, to have our help breaking through the obstruction on the other side to get legislation through."

After nearly eight years in which Democrats on Capitol Hill grumbled about a lack of such support from President Barack Obama, Clinton has taken care to stay in frequent contact with Sen. Chuck Schumer, her former New York colleague, about down-ballot races.

"This is one of many things that the Clinton campaign is doing to help us win a majority in the Senate," Schumer said through a spokesman.

At the same time, Clinton faced fresh revelations about her use of a private server as secretary of state and in regard to hacked emails from a top campaign official's personal account. FBI records released Monday show that a senior State Department official unsuccessfully sought to lower the classification level of an email found on the server, a move Trump's campaign labeled collusion.

In an online video, Trump called the records proof of collusion among the FBI, the Justice Department and the State Department "to try to make Hillary Clinton look like an innocent person."

At the Wisconsin rally, Trump claimed that there was a "criminal conspiracy," calling it "worse than Watergate."

Queasy Republicans

Trump's fellow Republicans, particularly those whose job it is to ensure a free and fair election, faced another gut check after his accusation Monday of voting fraud.

For many in Trump's party, it was a bridge too far. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, had already distanced themselves from the claim. But state election officials were under even more pressure, with their competence as public servants being called into question.

They fought back by describing how elections work and noting that Trump cited no evidence in making his assertion.

"I can say on Twitter I'm a supermodel, but that doesn't make it so," said Lynn Bartels, spokesman for Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, disputing Trump's claims.

County clerks in Colorado released an open letter to voters Monday outlining the security and transparency within the process, adding that "our system is the best in the world and will achieve meaningful and credible outcomes."

Presidential elections are conducted on a state and local basis, not nationally, with more than 8,000 jurisdictions administering elections. And in most of the states seen to varying degrees as presidential battlegrounds, the chief election officers are Republicans, including in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio and Utah.

They are elected by voters. Most are secretaries of state; Utah's lieutenant governor oversees elections there.

In Florida, the secretary of state is appointed by the state's Republican governor, Rick Scott -- a Trump supporter. In North Carolina, the state Board of Elections has five members, appointed by the governor -- currently a Republican. Its current chairman and three out of five members are Republicans.

"Perception can become reality," said Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican. "If you keep being told over and over and over that something is hacked even though it isn't, some people might start believing that. So, yes, I do take it seriously."

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Trump supporter, was equally incensed, telling CNN that Trump's talk was "irresponsible."

Congressman Peter King, a Republican from New York who supports Trump, also sought to downplay fears of a rigged election in a radio interview in New York on Monday. "Is it legally rigged? No it's not. Whoever wins, wins," he said.

But researchers have found that voter fraud in previous elections is extremely rare, with only a handful of instances that would be highly unlikely to swing a national election. Two years ago, Loyola law school professor Justin Levitt, who studies election administration, found 31 credible claims of voter fraud of more than 1 billion ballots cast since 2000.

Pro-Clinton lobbyists

Lobbyist-driven fundraising for Clinton picked up significantly over the past three months, records show, especially regarding bundling, in which contributions are gathered from individuals and presented as a sum to campaigns.

Between July and September, lobbyists bundled nearly $11 million for the Clinton campaign and the Hillary Victory Fund, the campaign's joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.

By comparison, neither Trump's campaign nor the Trump Victory fund, a joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee, reported any lobbyist bundlers.

In addition, more lobbyists signed on to bundle for Clinton during the most recent period. About 60 lobbyists bundled for Clinton during the most recent quarter, up from about 40 the previous quarter.

Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Lerer, Kathleen Hennessey, Thomas Beaumont, Michael Biesecker and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press; by Noah Bierman and Michael A. Memoli of Tribune News Service; by Ben Brody of Bloomberg News; by Catherine Ho of The Washington Post; by Matt Flegenheimer and Jonathan Martin of The New York Times; and by Bill Glauber, Jacob Carpenter and Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A Section on 10/18/2016

Upcoming Events