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Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, March 13, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 242 ~ 26 of 46
Tower between members of the Trump campaign and Russians, though he called it ill-advised. Despite a promise of dirt on Clinton ahead of the meeting, there’s no evidence that such material was exchanged, he said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also investigating the Russian intervention, is expected to have a bipartisan report out in the coming weeks dealing with election security. The Senate panel is expected to issue ndings on the more controversial issue of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia at a later date.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, also investigating the meddling, is expected to release transcripts soon of closed-door interviews with several people who attended the 2016 meeting between the Trump campaign and Russians. It’s unclear if the Judiciary panel will produce a nal report.
The congressional investigations are completely separate from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, which is likely to take much longer. It has already resulted in charges against several people linked to Trump’s campaign.
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Associated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report.
Under spotlight, special Pa. House race goes to voters By BILL BARROW and MARC LEVY, Associated Press
CARNEGIE, Pa. (AP) — Shadowed by the Trump presidency and the potential impact of a special election in a midterm year, voters in a western Pennsylvania congressional district nd themselves on an unlikely national stage.
Ostensibly, they are choosing Tuesday between Republican Rick Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb to replace Tim Murphy, who resigned last fall amid a sex scandal.
But the outcome promises to reverberate well beyond the suburbs, small towns and rural swaths that surround Pittsburgh in a region known for its once-dominant steel and coal concerns.
A Lamb victory would hearten Democrats as they look to reclaim a House majority in November, while shaking Republican self-assurance that their new tax law is an omnipotent defense of whatever weakness comes with defending an all-GOP government helmed by President Donald Trump.
Those possibilities are enough to leave national Republicans already offering explanations for what would be an embarrassing defeat.
The president won the district by 20 percentage points just 16 months ago, when Democrats didn’t even eld a candidate against Murphy in a district gerrymandered by state GOP lawmakers. When the eight-term congressman vacated the seat in October, there came no chest-puf ng from national Democrats plotting how to reclaim the 24 additional seats they need to take over the House.
Now, polls suggest Lamb well-positioned for an upset, despite Saccone’s urging to a GOP-leaning elec- torate that their choice is about “making America great again,” just as the president says.
“Everywhere I get it’s 100-to-1 for Rick Saccone,” the candidate said Monday during one of his nal campaign stops, with Donald Trump Jr. anking him two days after the president himself made his second campaign visit on Saccone’s behalf.
The 60-year-old Air Force veteran turned state lawmaker and college instructor enjoys enthusiastic back- ing from social conservatives who’ve anchored his state career, and he’s perhaps at his most animated when he touts his opposition to abortion rights.
Yet Saccone struggled to raise money and stir the same passions that helped Trump sweep the indus- trial Midwest on his way to the White House. The consistent fundraising de cit has left him with limited resources to air the message he delivers one-on-one: His four decades of experience in the private sector, international business and now the legislature make voters’ choice a no-brainer.
Meanwhile, Democrats’ opted for a 33-year-old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor who hails from a well-established political family in Allegheny County.
Lamb took to the role, positioning himself as a centrist even as national Republican forces descended on