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Off to the races: GOP still losing women

Republicans continue to lose women. House Republicans may be worried about primaries in their own mostly homogenous districts, but national party leaders should be banging on their doors with this kind of polling data… “The Republican Party's effort to rebrand itself with women since losing the 2012 presidential race and seats in Congress is falling short, a new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll has found,” National Journal writes. “Only 14 percent of women said the Republican Party had moved closer to their perspective. More than twice as many women, 33 percent, said the party had drifted further from them. A plurality, 46 percent, saw no change. The dangers for the GOP of losing women's support are playing out in the Virginia gubernatorial race, where Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe has taken the lead over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, almost entirely by opening up a lead among female voters.”

Women were 53% of the voting population in the 2012 presidential election and they went for Obama 55%-44%.

Jessica Taylor: “Washington Republicans are getting little help from their friends in governor’s mansions across the country. GOP governors aren’t urging John Boehner to stand strong: they’re calling for an end to the stalemate or ducking the shutdown issue entirely. That’s the same strategy that Republican presidential hopefuls and lawmakers in tough 2014 races are following. As the shutdown goes on, the collateral damage will grow–along with voter anger at the GOP. Polls show that Americans blame the Republicans more than the Democrats or President Obama for causing the crisis.”

MONTANA: “Montana Lt. Gov. John Walsh will run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, his campaign said Thursday, giving Democrats the high-profile candidate they've been scrambling for in a bid to keep the seat they've held for decades,” AP writes. “Walsh plans to tell supporters Thursday morning that he will run for the office that has been the focus of a great deal of speculation since Sen. Max Baucus announced earlier this year that he will retire at the end of 2014. An advance copy of the announcement provided to The Associated Press said the 52-year-old former Montana National Guard commander is running because Washington needs more leaders with a ‘sense of duty’ to do what’s right.”

NEW YORK: Bill de Blasio (D) leads Republican Joseph Lhota by 50 points, 71%-21%, per a new Quinnipiac poll.

TEXAS: AP: "When Wendy Davis walks into the coliseum where she received her high school diploma on Thursday to announce a bid to become Texas governor, she will also walk onto a national stage from which she'll call on Democrats from across the country to help finance her long-shot bid....But the question remains: In a year where Democrats risk losing control of the Senate — and with Davis' opponent already banking $25 million — will national donors commit the resources she needs to win?"

VIRGINIA: New York Times: "With 170,000 federal employees in Virginia and 30 percent of the economy of Northern Virginia dependent on government spending, no state has more to lose from a government shutdown than this one. And the first concrete gauge of the political fallout may play out here, where a governor’s race that had been dominated by the weakness of the two candidates now seems to be focused on the question of which party will take the blame. With the election just 34 days away, the issue increasingly is raising risks for Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the Republican, who is worriedly trying to keep voters angry at Washington Republicans from taking it out on him."

McAuliffe will unveil a TV ad today hitting Cuccinelli over the shutdown and tying him directly to Ted Cruz. Richmond's NBC12: Cruz "will appear with Cuccinelli this weekend at the conservative Family Foundation's annual fundraiser. Cruz will also headline a seperate fundraiser for Cuccinelli himself."

Richmond Times Dispatch: "Cuccinelli is calling on members of Congress to decline their paychecks during the government shutdown. Cuccinelli has said he’s against a shutdown but is less definitive about whether he supports a clean spending resolution to keep it running."

AP's Bob Lewis: "It took Democrat Terry McAuliffe almost two weeks to affirm his support for new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal. Now, Republicans are counting on it to solidify support in rural Virginia for Ken Cuccinelli in a close governor’s race. McAuliffe told reporters Tuesday in northern Virginia that he supports the EPA regulations that limit carbon emissions that could come from gas- or coal-fired power plants in the future. The regulations could sharply reduce the demand for coal from mining regions such as southwestern Virginia. Cuccinelli and fellow Republicans began hammering McAuliffe across rural Virginia on Wednesday."