The first presidential debate is just 20 days away and right now it appears Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump will have the stage all to themselves.
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, whose running mate is former Massachusetts governor William Weld, hasn’t cracked the 15 percent polling threshold required by the Commission on Presidential Debates to make it onto the stage.
A Franklin Pierce/Boston Herald poll released on Tuesday indicated Clinton is leading Trump by a margin of 44 to 41 percent, with Johnson at 8 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 3 percent. A sampling of recent general election polls listed on the RealClear Politics website shows Johnson with anywhere from 5 to 12 percent, but none show him at 15 percent.
Johnson and Weld have both said that if they don’t make it on to the debate stages their ticket has no chance of succeeding. But, as most polls indicate, they could become spoilers in the presidential race if the campaign remains close.
The Commission on Presidential Debates is hosting three presidential debates and one vice presidential forum. The presidential debates will be held on September 26, October 9, and October 19. The vice presidential debate will be held October 4.
The commission requires candidates to appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College and to have the support of at least 15 percent of the electorate as determined by an average of five national public opinion polling operations.
On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Bernie Sanders said the 15 percent threshold is too high, but he didn’t suggest a specific lower number. A Boston Herald editorial said most voters are distressed by the choice between Clinton and Trump, so voters should be given the chance to hear from Johnson at the debates. “The commission should give him a microphone,” the newspaper said.
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Top aides to Gov. Charlie Baker were on the guest list of the July 3 “private party” hosted by the two top officials at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, who were suspended without pay for a week for using state resources on the event. (State House News) The guests were offered tickets to the Boston Pops rehearsal concert. (Boston Herald) Many on the guest list were staffers at DCR and other agencies within the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
David Scharfenberg illustrates vividly how hostile most of the suburbs surrounding Boston are to affordable housing. (Boston Globe) Among the places spotlighted is Newton, where resistance to affordable housing was recently examined in this CommonWealth feature story.
A Canton man is suing the town’s zoning board over a four-acre zip-line and ropes course park at the Irish Cultural Centre abutting his property, saying the screams of enjoyment from patrons are aggravating. (Patriot Ledger)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
President Obama, who has strongly considered issuing a “no first use” pledge of nuclear weapons, has apparently bowed to advice from aides that such a move would embolden Russia and China and will stay with the current policy. (New York Times)
Obama said San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has a constitutional right to protest during the national anthem as other athletes, including women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe, have joined him in kneeling during the Star Spangled Banner. (New York Times)
ELECTIONS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is pressed on an illegal $25,000 donation he made to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi while she was weighing an investigation of Trump University. (Washington Post)
The day after Labor Day is considered the traditional start of the home stretch in the presidential campaign and it’s now a race to the bottom, according to some analysts. (U.S. News & World Report)
A more subdued Bernie Sanders rallies for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. (Boston Globe) Clinton maintains a narrow lead in a new Franklin Pierce/Boston Herald national poll.
The Globe endorses Roxbury activist Monica Cannon in the Democratic primary for the House seat being vacated by longtime state representative Gloria Fox. Over the weekend, the paper gave its nod to Nora Harrington in the Democratic primary race to succeed Brian Joyce of Milton in the state Senate.
The state’s two US senators must cast momentous votes on global matters in Washington, but they were a study in waffling indecision yesterday when asked about the ballot question to allow more charter schools in Massachusetts. Ed Markey said he was “leaning” against the measure, while Elizabeth Warren continued to say she doesn’t know yet how she’ll vote. (Boston Herald)
Seven Democrats are vying for the largely do-nothing, but well-paid, post of Suffolk County Register of Deeds. (Boston Globe)
There are some misgivings about marijuana legalization in one Colorado county, where voters will decide in November whether to backtrack and end legal cultivation and sale of pot. (Boston Globe)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The 2014 state law that increased the minimum wage has raised the average earnings of Massachusetts’ lowest paid workers by more than 7 percent and the wages of middle-class workers by nearly 3 percent, according to a report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. (Associated Press)
EDUCATION
Massachusetts has launched a new online tool to help students streamline a path to transfer from community colleges to state colleges and universities by showing which credits can be applied at different schools and the costs and savings at each campus to keep the price of a bachelor’s degree under $25,000. (GateHouse News Service)
Harvard University has blown past its $6.5 billion record-setting fundraising goal, already raising $7 billion with two years left in the campaign. (Harvard Crimson)
A former assistant principal in Mashpee has filed a $1.5 million suit against the district claiming she was fired from her job at the elementary school in retaliation for reporting a physical confrontation between the principal and a staffer. (Cape Cod Times)
A teacher-training program in Boston that drew more than three dozen participants did not have state approval to grant teaching licenses. (Boston Globe)
Melissa Click, the UMass alumna who achieved internet notoriety when she called for “some muscle” during a Black Lives Matter protest at the University of Missouri, has landed at Gonzaga University after being let go at Missouri. (American Spectator)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
A four-year-old drug, taken as a daily pill, is highly effective in preventing infection with HIV, but virtually none of those at high risk of contracting the virus take it. (Boston Globe)
A kidney transplant story shows how the generosity of a woman from Bellingham saved a family from Auburn. (Telegram & Gazette)
TRANSPORTATION
Mayor Marty Walsh said it would be a dangerous “slippery slope” if the MBTA started privatizing core functions such as bus routes and maintenance. (Boston Herald)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Scientists track the New England-to-Caribbean/South America migration of osprey using special tracking devices. (Eagle-Tribune)
More than 200 solar panels installed on the roof of a Fall River middle school three years ago but never activated because of legal concerns will finally be turned on in about a month. (Herald News)
CASINOS
A restaurant with ties to Magic Johnson Enterprises is looking to locate across from the MGM casino in Springfield. (Masslive) But the Clothes Tree, a women’s clothing store that has been a survivor in downtown Springfield since 1962, is closing. (Masslive)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association’s attempt to block a new body-worn camera pilot program is just the latest example of foot dragging in the department in adopting new innovations and procedures in policing. (Boston Globe)
MEDIA
Ousted Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, represented by the same lawyer who is pressing Melania Trump’s defamation suit against The Daily Mail, has notified New York magazine he may take legal action for the publication’s stories about Ailes and the sexual harassment claims that cost him his job. (New York Times)
PASSINGS
Phyllis Schlafly, the outspoken conservative leader and opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, dies at 92. (New York Times)
Phyllis Schlafly also noted how charter schools “opened up a path for foreigners to run schools at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers, without much news coverage…The principals and school board members are usually Turkish men. Hundreds of Turkish teachers (referred to as “international teachers”) and administrators have been admitted to the United States, often using H-1B visas, after claiming that qualified Americans cannot be found…In addition, the Gülen Movement has nurtured a close-knit network of businesses and organizations run by Turkish immigrants. These include the big contractors who built or renovated the schools, plus a long list of vendors selling school lunches, uniforms, after-school programs, Web design, teacher training and special-education materials.” The lack of news coverage on charter schools isn’t limited to Gülen inspired charter schools.