US won't send monitors to polls
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WASHINGTON - The Justice Department said yesterday it will not station criminal prosecutors at the polls on Election Day after civil rights groups said minority voters who are expected to turn out in unprecedented numbers because of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama could be intimidated by them.
The move reverses a decades-long practice that put prosecutors on the lookout for voter fraud, ballot access violations, and other polling problems.
"This decision was made as a precaution and is not the result of any instance of intimidation or complaint regarding any specific incident," acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker said in a statement.
Becker and Attorney General Michael Mukasey met two weeks ago with about 40 representatives from voter access watchdogs, hoping to assure them that having a smooth Nov. 4 election is a top Justice Department priority. Some civil rights groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the monitors themselves could be part of the problem.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
McCain aide's firm was paid by
One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain's campaign manager from the end of 2005 through last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.
The disclosure contradicts a statement Sunday night by McCain that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had no involvement with the company for the last several years.
Davis's firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with
They said Davis's firm, Davis & Manafort, was kept on the payroll because of Davis's close ties to McCain. Davis took a leave for the duration of the campaign, but as a partner and equity-holder, continues to share in its profits.
A Freddie Mac spokeswoman said the company would not comment. The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Clinton pleas fail to sway many to shift to Obama
Despite Hillary Clinton's repeated pleas, many of her supporters are still not falling in behind former rival Barack Obama, according to a poll released yesterday.
And that reluctance is weakening Obama six weeks before Election Day, according to the Associated Press/Yahoo News survey.
Among those who voted for Clinton during the Democratic primaries, 58 percent now support Obama - the same percentage as in June, when Clinton ended her bid and threw her support to Obama - even though 69 percent view him favorably, up 9 percentage points from June.
Meanwhile, the share of Clinton supporters saying they'll vote for Republican John McCain grew from 21 percent to 28 percent, according to the survey. And while 87 percent of Republicans are behind their party's nominee, only 74 percent of Democrats say they will vote for Obama.
Asked about the poll, Clinton said on MSNBC, "I'm working hard to close that gap."
GLOBE STAFF
Clarification: A headline on an item in Wednesday's Campaign Notebook about Election Day should have indicated that the Justice Department will send monitors to the polls but that none of the monitors will be criminal prosecutors.
