Overnight Campaign: Fight Night

by Jonathan Easley - 10/28/15 6:17 PM ET

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

The Republican presidential candidates will square-off at the third GOP debate of the cycle on Wednesday night in Boulder, Colo.

The event takes place at a pivotal moment for several of the candidates: Donald Trump’s dominance in the polls is waning. Ben Carson will take center-stage for the first time. Jeb Bush is in the midst of a campaign overhaul. Marco Rubio needs to deliver on his potential. The long-shots are looking for a spark.

Check back at The Hill for instant reaction and analysis, including the winners and losers, on a big night for the candidates.

RACE TO 1600 PENN

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Hillary Clinton believes that the death penalty should be “limited and rare.”

WEED: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Bernie Sanders will call for marijuana to be removed from the federal list of dangerous drugs at a town hall event on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports that the GOP field is divided on the issue.

HOMETOWN PAPER: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley and Mark Hensch report: In a blistering editorial, the South Florida Sun Sentinel is calling for Marco Rubio to resign from the Senate.

FILIBUSTER: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Rand Paul plans to filibuster a bipartisan budget bill making its way through Congress. Bernie Sanders will back the deal despite concerns over spending levels, The Hill’s Sarah Ferris reports.

HORSE RACE: The Hill’s Niall Stanage reports: Ben Carson is rocketing up our rankings of Republican candidates most likely to win the GOP nomination, as Jeb Bush and John Kasich fall.

ODDS AND ENDS:

TROLLING: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Bernie Sanders’ campaign team thinks Hillary Clinton might make a good vice president. His allies laid out how they intend to take Clinton on in interviews with Bloomberg’s John Heilemann.

NOT GOING TO TAKE IT: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: John Kasich is lashing out at the front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination, saying he’s “had it” with Donald Trump and Ben Carson. His allied super-PAC is also out with a new video highlighting those remarks ahead of Wednesday’s debate.

RX: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Ben Carson is looking to convince voters that a former neurosurgeon has the right prescription to fix the economy.

LET THEM FAIL: The Hill’s Elliot Smilowitz reports: Hillary Clinton broke from President Obama, telling Stephen Colbert in an interview that she would let the big banks fail if the U.S. saw another crisis similar to 2008.

CAMPAIGN POLITICS: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Rand Paul sees tough sledding ahead for Jeb Bush, his rival for the GOP nomination.

SET YOUR LINEUPS: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Marco Rubio made it sound like he was asking which of his rivals were dropping out of the race, asking, “is he in or is he out?” But he was really just having a little fun, playing fantasy football with his Republican presidential rivals.

VETERANS: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: Hillary Clinton is under fire for comments she made about the V.A. Now, Sen. John McCain, himself a war veteran, is saying that Bernie Sanders has a better record on veterans than Clinton does.

POLL POSITION

IOWA PLEA: The Hill’s Elliot Smilowitz reports: His poll numbers sliding in Iowa, Donald Trump is pleading with conservative voters in the Hawkeye State to return to him.

THE DAILY TRUMP

BOULDER HEAT: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: A group of conservative Hispanic activists is protesting against Donald Trump at the Republican presidential debate in Boulder.

PREEMPTIVE STRIKE: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: Even before Wednesday night’s debate, Donald Trump was calling it unfair.

KEYSTONE: The Hill’s Timothy Cama reports: Trump believes the U.S. needs to negotiate a “better deal” before approving the Keystone XL pipeline.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Who is even a 10? No one is a 10.”

— Heidi Klum on Donald’ Trump’s comment that “sadly, she’s no longer a 10.”

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

DRAINING THE WELL: Roll Call reports: “The presidential campaigns of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and outgoing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have siphoned off the time and money from top donors that could be going to Republican Senate candidates. The cash squeeze has been so bad that the leading Democrat in the race raised nearly as much in the third quarter as the three top Republican candidates combined.”

PELICAN STATE: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Louisiana Sen. David Vitter’s (R) gubernatorial race is complicated by bitter primary. Vitter’s slim margin to win the second spot in last week’s Louisiana gubernatorial primary has sparked questions about whether he’ll be able to win after once holding favorite-son status. Check The Hill Thursday morning for the full story.

MONEY WATCH

IOWA JUGGERNAUTS: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Ben Carson has surpassed Hillary Clinton as the top fundraiser in Iowa of this cycle.

MORE MONEY: The conservative nonprofit One Nation is launching $1.1 million in TV and radio ads on behalf ofRepublican Sen. Rob Portman’s reelection effortsin Ohio, the group said in a release.

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW:

(All times Eastern)

The Republican presidential candidates square off at the third GOP debate in Boulder, Colorado. The main event will take place at 8 p.m. and runs for two hours.

Martin O’Malley meets with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board at 1 p.m. and will give the keynote address at a Nebraska Democratic Party dinner in Omaha at 6 p.m.

Jeb Bush holds a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H. at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday and a town hall in New London at 7 p.m.

Ted Cruz will be on hand to open a Las Vegas campaign office at 4 p.m. and will hold a town hall at 6 p.m.

Bobby Jindal holds a town hall in Des Moines at 6 p.m.

Rick Santorum will hold four campaign events across Iowa on Thursday.

TWEET OF THE DAY

Spotted – eating a breakfast of champions on debate day – Lindsey Graham, egg sandwich, Diet Mountain Dew #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/05V3yCGnXw

— Rick Klein (@rickklein) October 28, 2015