First Draft on Politics: A Complex Paper Trail

View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, November 6, 2017 [NYTimes.com/Politics »]( [A Navigator ship chartered to Sibur, a Russian energy company whose owners include President Vladimir V. Putin’s son-in-law. The United States commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross Jr., retained an investment in Navigator after taking office.]( A Navigator ship chartered to Sibur, a Russian energy company whose owners include President Vladimir V. Putin’s son-in-law. The United States commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross Jr., retained an investment in Navigator after taking office. Ola Westerberg and Adam Ihse, TT News Agency Good Monday morning, Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today: - Wilbur L. Ross Jr., the commerce secretary, retained investments in a shipping firm with ties to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle, [newly disclosed documents show](. - Leaked files show that a state-controlled bank in Moscow helped [to fuel a billionaire’s ascent]( in Silicon Valley. - A new leak of millions of files, called the Paradise Papers, centers on an offshore law firm that has [helped obscure the wealth of multinational companies and the superrich](. — The First Draft Team HAVE A CONFIDENTIAL NEWS TIP? Do you have the next big story? Want to share it with The New York Times? We offer several ways to get in touch with and provide materials to our journalists. [Learn More »]( ADVERTISEMENT The New Washington [Speaker Paul D. Ryan]( Mr. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, spoke with Carl Hulse about his plan to push the potentially legacy-defining tax plan through Congress, his evolving relationship with President Trump and the lessons he learned waiting tables at a restaurant across from the Capitol. [• Listen to the Podcast »]( THE UPSHOT [After a Tough 2016, Many Pollsters Haven’t Changed Anything]( By NATE COHN Jay Keeree A year after polls broadly overestimated Hillary Clinton’s strength in the decisive Rust Belt battleground states, top pollsters and analysts across the survey industry have reached a broad near-consensus on many of the causes of error in the 2016 presidential election. But so far, public pollsters — typically run by news outlets and colleges — have not changed much about their approach. Few if any of the public pollsters that conducted surveys ahead of Tuesday’s elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey appear to have adopted significant methodological changes intended to better represent the rural, less educated white voters who pollsters believe were underrepresented in pre-election surveys. On the other hand, private pollsters — typically employed by campaigns and parties — have already begun to make changes. This is especially true among Democrats stunned by Donald J. Trump’s upset victory, but Republicans are making changes as well. The adjustments are already playing out in Virginia, where pollsters will have one of their first chances to put postelection shifts to the test. [Read more »](  [While he is favored to win, Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, is under duress from both his Republican opponent and his own left flank in ways that could foreshadow his party’s challenges in next year’s midterm races.]( [Trump’s Agenda Moves to Fore as a Race Tightens in Virginia]( By JONATHAN MARTIN A racially tinged campaign by the Republican nominee for governor, Ed Gillespie, has tightened the race and, perhaps, presented a template for how to run in the Trump era. [Upshot/Siena Poll Gives Democrat Narrow Lead in Virginia Governor’s Race]( By NATE COHN The race has divided voters along demographic lines highly reminiscent of last November’s election. [“Survival is its own reward,” said John A. Koskinen, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, who survived impeachment threats from lawmakers and a change of presidents. His term ends on Thursday.]( [I.R.S. Commissioner, Demonized by Conservatives, Leaves on His Terms]( By ALAN RAPPEPORT John A. Koskinen, who took over an agency in turmoil and was threatened with impeachment by conservative lawmakers, called his survival to the end of his term “its own reward.” [David Burleigh getting transformed into President Trump at the Westin hotel in Long Beach, Calif.]( No People Like Show People [A Trump for All Ages]( By GREG BEATO The conventions industry pays big bucks for impersonators. How do they solve a problem like The Donald? Right and Left: Partisan Writing You Shouldn’t Miss Read about how the other side thinks. We have collected political writing from around the web and across ideologies. From the Right [Ben Shapiro]( in [The Daily Wire]( “Isn’t radical Islam just as horrifying as white supremacism? And isn’t white supremacism just as statistically nonrepresentative of Confederate flag-owners throughout the South as radical Islam is of observant Muslims across the country?” Mr. Shapiro criticizes those in the news media who are quick to separate an Islamic terrorist from the entire religion, while equating all white supremacists with those who choose to fly the Confederate flag. He writes, “If we’re going to start attributing terrorist ideologies to broader movements, we’re going to have to abide by that rule across the board.” [Read more »]( _____ From the Left [Zaid Jilani]( in [The Intercept]( “[ …] it’s notable that if a shooter is Muslim, the question seems less likely to be asked at all — even if the attacker, in this case, emerges from a truck waving a BB gun and paintball gun, an act that displays a dubious tethering to reality.” Mr. Jilani has noticed that the public processes attacks perpetrated by Muslims differently from those perpetrated by white people. When a white person is involved in a mass shooting or act of violence, questions about his or her mental health invariably crop up. Not so with a Muslim attacker, Mr. Jilani writes. However, he argues that “if Muslim terrorists were routinely subjected to this sort of examination in popular media, it might help increase public understanding of the dynamics that fuel terrorism.” [Read more »]( _____ [More selections »]( ADVERTISEMENT HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [washington-newsletter@nytimes.com](mailto:washington-newsletter@nytimes.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback). FOLLOW NYTimes [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@NYTPolitics]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »](  | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps for just $0.99. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's First Draft newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018