Overnight Campaign: Clinton stakes out left on gun control

Welcome to OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races. 

CLINTON STAKES OUT LEFT ON GUN GONTROL: 

The Hill’s Kevin Cirilli and Amie Parnes report: 

Hillary Clinton is putting the squeeze on Bernie Sanders over gun control. 

The former secretary of State is taking a harder line against her upstart challenger for the Democratic nomination on guns in the wake last week’s mass shooting in Oregon, as she seeks to chip away at Sanders’s advantage among progressives. 

RACE TO 1600 PENN 

CALL AN UBER: The Hill’s David McCabe reports: Marco Rubio is embracing the sharing economy. In a Tuesday speech, he called for tax reform and fewer regulations on companies like Uber and Airbnb. 

FISHING FOR A HOOK: The Hill’s Niall Stanage and Amie Parnes report: Hillary Clinton’s campaign team is looking for a theme. The campaign is brainstorming ways to address a nagging problem for the former secretary of State: How to explain why Clinton is running for president. 

LABOR FIGHT: The Hill’s David Tim Devaney reports: Bernie Sanders continued his play for labor support on Tuesday, unveiled sweeping new legislation that will make it easier for workers to organize unions.

CLINTON GOES BOLD IN FIRST NATIONAL AD: The Hill’s Julian Hattem reports: The former secretary of State is seeking to capitalize off of Republicans’ comments linking her political performance with the House committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya in her first national campaign ad. House Democrats, meanwhile, are moving to kill the committee. 

IS CARSON ‘READY FOR BIDEN?’: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Ben Carson thinks Vice President Joe Biden has a better shot at the Democratic presidential nomination than Hillary Clinton. 

KASICH TALKS RELIGION: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Gov. John Kasich warned against the shift toward a “secularized society,” a potential nod to more religious Iowa voters as his poll numbers in New Hampshire lag.   

NEW HIRE: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee communications director Justin Barasky will take on the same role at Priorities USA, the super-PAC supporting Hillary Clinton for president. 

ODDS AND ENDS: 

GUNS PART I: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Sen. Marco Rubio argues that none of the gun control proposals out there would have done anything to prevent last week’s mass shooting in Oregon. 

GUNS PART II & III: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Ben Carson said that if he’d been there, he would have attacked the shooter at Umpqua Community College last week. He also said that teachers should have access to guns. 

GUNS PART IV: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Bobby Jindal is blasting the father of accused Oregon shooter Chris Harper Mercer as a “complete failure” as a parent and blamed “cultural rot” for the nation’s mass shootings. 

FLAGGED FOR TAUNTING: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: A heckler was kicked out of a Rubio rally after a bizarre exchange. 

MY BAD: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Bernie Sanders’s campaign apologized to pro-Palestine college students who were threatened with arrest at one of his campaign rallies. 

ASK BERNIE ANYTHING: National Journal reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has a legion of users on the popular website Reddit, almost 116,000 strong, who are helping with grassroots organizing and has helped to raise more than $300,000. 

POLL POSITION 

CLINTON UP: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Hillary Clinton holds double-digit leads nationally over all her Democratic challengers, including a dream team of contenders who remain on the sidelines, according to a new poll. 

GOP RACE TIGHTENS: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Donald Trump still holds a big lead nationally, but Ben Carson and Marco Rubio are making up ground. 

CLUB VS. TRUMP: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: A new poll from the fiscally conservative group Club for Growth’s super-PAC shows Donald Trump falling into second place in Iowa. The Club has been openly warring with Trump, and credits his fall to the $1 million in attack ads they’ve been running in the Hawkeye State. 

O’MALLEY STRUGGLING EVEN AT HOME: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s presidential polling woes extend to his home state, where he takes only 2 percent support in the race for the Democratic nomination, according to a new poll. The numbers mirror O’Malley’s struggle to gain traction nationally.

THE DAILY TRUMP 

STILL SCRAPPING: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Now Trump is tangled in a fight with former Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens. 

HERE TO STAY: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Trump says he’s nowhere near dropping out, even as polls show the race tightening. 

A GOOD THING: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Trump remains content to allow Russia to take the the lead in airstrikes over Syria. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The mission of the Select Committee on Benghazi is to find the truth – period. The integrity of Chairman Gowdy, the Committee and the work they’ve accomplished is beyond reproach. The serious questions Secretary Clinton faces are due entirely to her own decision to put classified information at risk and endanger our national security.”

       — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy statement on Clinton’s first national campaign ad, which       highlights his suggestion from last week that the committee is responsible for Clinton’s falling poll numbers. 

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS 

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE: The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is seeking to protect vulnerable Republican incumbents – and close allies like Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) in particular – as he maps out a strategy on key votes this year in the upper chamber.

MONEY WATCH 

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT?: The Los Angeles Times reports: It’s no secret that many presidential super-PACs have proved to be vital allies on the campaign trail. But Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub openly questioned whether loose rules could breed corruption as the roles of these groups expand. 

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TONIGHT AND TOMORROW:

(All times Eastern) 

Chris Christie will be on Fox News with Sean Hannity at 10 p.m. Tuesday night. 

Bill Clinton will appear on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night at 11:35 pm. 

John Kasich will appear on ABC’s The View on Wednesday.

Marco Rubio and Chris Christie attend campaign events in New Hampshire. 

Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum each have two campaign stops planned in Iowa. Mike Huckabee’s wife, Janet Huckabee, will make three stops of her own in Iowa. 

TWEET OF THE DAY 

Think you have what it takes to produce our next campaign ad? Enter here for a chance to have your ad aired on TV: https://t.co/4YxYaa3wS2

— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 6, 2015

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is outsourcing his next campaign ad amid lackluster results at the polls and in his latest fundraising quarter. The campaign also posted a one minute video of B-roll footage for supporters to use in the ads–footage that can also likely be used by a super PAC supporting Paul since the video has been released publicly.

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: Jonathan Easley, jeasley@digital-release.digital-release.thehill.com; Ben Kamisar, bkamisar@digital-release.digital-release.thehill.com; Jonathan Swan, jswan@digital-release.digital-release.thehill.com