
 
 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Bedford, N.H. (John Locher/Associated Press) 
 
 In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Congress came together to pass a landmark tax reform bill that streamlined tax brackets, cut rates, closed loopholes and eliminated tax breaks. Reagan declared it “a sweeping victory for fairness.” 
 
 Donald Trump, however, wanted the loopholes and tax breaks back. In testimony before a House Budget Committee task force in November 1991, Trump called the 1986 tax reform legislation an “absolute catastrophe” that had pushed the real estate business into an “absolute depression.” 
 
 To fix the situation, Trump advocated a combination of higher tax rates for the rich and the restoration of special exemptions for real estate investment. Together, they would incentivize people seeking to lower their tax bills to invest in real estate. Trump called for accelerated depreciation of property and rules that encouraged certain investors to seek out “passive losses” that could offset their other income and slash their steep tax bills. Trump cited wealthy dentists as the typical investor he hoped to attract. 
 
 The benefits became part of a suite of tax breaks that have buoyed the real estate industry and the wealthy developers behind it. The recent revelation that Trump had accumulated $916 million in net operating losses in a 1995 tax filing is a reminder that he, like others in the real estate business, has long defended and exploited targeted exemptions. There is, however, no way of knowing which provisions Trump was taking advantage of. 
 
 [Trump personally lobbied Congress to give real estate developers bigger tax breaks] 
 
 Now the Republican presidential nominee, Trump argues that his business experience would give him the insight to simplify the tax code and eliminate tax breaks. He has invoked Reagan’s tax legacy as a model for a new “revolution.” 
 
 Donald Trump speaks at a 1991 House hearing on U.S. Economic Recovery. (C-SPAN) 
 
 That sentiment is at odds with his 1991 House testimony, when Trump argued that the 1986 tax reform caught many developers off guard and undermined deals conceived under the previous tax rules. 
 
 “This tax act was just an absolute catastrophe for the country, for the real estate industry,” Trump said. And while economists say tax breaks distort the free market allocation of investment, Trump insisted that “we are no different right now than the Soviet Union. They have no incentive, and we have no incentive.” 
 
 He also said that tax breaks would save money for the government, which was then in the middle of bailing out the savings and loan industry, which was struggling with troubled real estate loans. 
 
 Trump appeared just four months after his Taj Mahal casino filed for bankruptcy, yet committee members praised his acumen and addressed him as the “distinguished panelist” whose “fame and reputation precede you.” The other panelists included Steven A. Wechsler, then president of the National Realty Committee, and Robert C. Baker, chief executive of the National Realty and Development Corp. 
 
 Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress responded to the industry’s complaints. Though Trump criticized the real estate industry for having “the most pathetic lobby in the history of the United States Congress,” real estate developers, brokers and lenders pressed their agenda in virtually every congressional district. Trump himself, outside the limelight of the House committee, was not particularly active. 
 
 [How Donald Trump and other real-estate developers pay almost nothing in taxes] 
 
 In the Senate, Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) asked the Joint Committee on Taxation staff to come up with ways to channel more capital to the real estate industry, according to former staff members. In the House, Reps. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) and Frank Guarini (D-N.J.) led efforts to bolster the real estate business. Thomas gathered more than 300 members to co-sponsor new passive loss legislation. 
 
 In 1993, a provision for passive losses became one of several new exceptions for the real estate industry adopted by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. This time, the passive loss rule applied only for real estate professionals — not for dentists as Trump had hoped. Another provision made it easier for developers to escape debts without paying more in taxes. 
 
 Steven Rosenthal, a tax lawyer who was a junior staffer on the Joint Committee on Taxation back then, said that the 1993 revisions of real estate tax provisions were “all because of the concern that the '86 pendulum had swung too far.” He added, however, that “some of what we did may have inadvertently helped Trump.” 
 
 It is impossible to know from information currently public which provisions of the tax code enabled Trump to take such a big loss and made that an attractive tax strategy. 
 
 But the disclosure of his big tax loss underlines the ebb and flow of real estate tax breaks that have been a feature of the tax code for more than half a century. 
 
 Throughout that time, the industry has effectively been heavily subsidized. At the broadest level, the real estate industry has benefited from the mortgage tax deduction, a subsidy for homeowners that will amount to $77 billion this year. And corporate borrowers, in the real estate industry as well as others that rely heavily on debt, also benefit from their ability to deduct interest they pay from their income. 
 
 Another rule dates to World War II, when Congress wanted to protect taxpayers who were being forced to sell their property to the government for military use. This rule allows taxpayers to count sales of certain kinds of property as capital gains, while counting losses against their ordinary income, which is taxed at a steeper rate than capital gains. 
 
 These days, the real estate industry is one of the main beneficiaries of this rule, which effectively protects developers who make unsound investments by partially reimbursing them for losses. 
 
 “Real estate investment has a magic, ‘Heads I win, tails you lose’ rule,” said Edward Kleinbard, a legal scholar at the University of Southern California. 
 
 [What Donald Trump gets totally right about the economy] 
 
 On top of that, the industry has also reaped benefits from a raft of more convoluted provisions. 
 
 The 1986 tax reform was supposed to put an end to these. Before that legislation was adopted, investors frequently looked for projects that lost money so they could save more money by deducting those losses from their taxable income. 
 
 Such schemes were so widespread among affluent Americans that the joke went that “no orthodontist in America is paying tax,” Kleinbard recalled. 
 
 Not all tax shelters were in the real estate industry. Daniel Shaviro, a professor of law at New York University and a former attorney with the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, remembers one involving the marketing of cassette videotapes of the actor Vincent Price reading passages from the Bible. 
 
 The 1986 act both altered the rules to block those investments and lowered the top tax rate to reduce the incentives for seeking such shelters. The legislation was a rare defeat for the real estate lobby. The drop in investment capital, together with the economic recession of 1990, caused widespread disruption in commercial real estate. 
 
 But some special treatment for the real estate industry remained. For instance, one rule barred investors from claiming losses from projects for which they were not personally liable, but there was an exception for realty through what were known as non-recourse loans. 
 
 The new passive loss rule adopted in 1993 restored some of real estate’s tax privileges, enabling developers to use losses from rental properties to offset gains in another unrelated project or income stream. 
 
 “That, I think, is another reflection of the power of the real estate lobby at that point,” Shaviro said. 
 
 That power remains, fueled by active lobbying. So far this year, the National Association of Realtors and its affiliates have spent more than $21 million on lobbying — more than any other entity in the country besides the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, according to Federal Election Commission data and the Center for Responsive Politics. 
 
 Although Trump pressed for the changes in his 1991 testimony, it’s not clear how much he benefited personally from the 1993 law, Shaviro said. Trump’s hotels and casinos would not have qualified as rental property. Because he was not an orthodontist paying an accountant to shelter his money from taxes but someone who was directly involved in his business, he might not have needed this exemption to claim the loss. 
 
 [Trump’s use of debts and tax laws spurs concerns about his methods] 
 
 Trump might, however, have benefited from another odd bit of the tax code dating back to a 1980 bankruptcy reform act. Ordinarily, when investors’ debts are written down or forgiven, they must declare the forgiven debts as income and pay taxes on them. 
 
 As some of Trump’s high-profile businesses collapsed in the early 1990s, Trump’s creditors forgave hundreds of millions of dollars in debt that he owed. But instead of declaring that as income — and paying taxes on the sum — Trump might have exploited what appears to have been an oversight by lawmakers writing the rules. 
 
 Here’s one theory about how that might have worked: By playing off two sections of the tax code, Trump could have avoided declaring debt forgiveness as ordinary income. In addition, he could still have made use of the debt forgiven in calculations that could have reduced his tax liabilities somewhere down the line. (Those calculations would have increased what is known as his cost basis in those assets.) And he also would not have needed to use his massive net operating losses to offset the income from debt forgiveness — thus preserving those losses to reduce his taxes on items including real estate and appearances on “The Apprentice.” 
 
 This maneuver would have circumvented the legal obstacles Congress had tried to create against taxpayers claiming what were really lenders’ losses against their own income. The red ink would have flooded onto Trump’s personal tax return. 
 
 “All the pieces fit perfectly,” said Richard Lipton, a Chicago-based lawyer and expert on real estate taxes. 
 
 Lipton recalled a client of his who had been in a similar situation around the same time and who claimed massive losses that allowed him to avoid federal income tax for the rest of his life. While tax authorities argued that this scheme violated the intent of the tax law, Justice Clarence Thomas in a majority opinion said that it satisfied the letter of the law and that only Congress could alter it. Congress did just that, but not until 2002 and it did not apply retroactively. 
 
 No matter what Trump did with his tax returns, it’s clear that the lenders and shareholders in many of the money-losing ventures did not fare well. 
 
 “The long and the short of it is he lost other people’s money, one way or the other,” Kleinbard said. Trump would be able to avoid paying taxes on some $916 million in future income, “for the privilege of losing other people’s money.” ||||| Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton face off in the first 2016 presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. 
 
 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton face off in the first 2016 presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. 
 
 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton face off in the first 2016 presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. 
 
 Donald Trump and his allies signaled Thursday that he is ready to move past the controversies that have dominated the 10 days since the first presidential debate and that he will try to stay focused on policy, not attacks, at the second debate on Sunday. 
 
 The Republican presidential nominee appeared more controlled on the campaign trail on Wednesday and Thursday than he was last week, sticking with scripted speeches, mostly avoiding interviews and sending tweets that appeared to have been closely edited, if not entirely composed, by his staff. He denounced interruptions during debates, announced plans to campaign with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan in Wisconsin on Saturday and said he would avoid mentioning Bill Clinton’s affairs during Sunday’s town hall with Hillary Clinton in St. Louis. 
 
 In the moments that Trump went off-script, stumbles returned. At a rally in Reno, Nev., on Wednesday night, Trump bragged about being able to properly pronounce the state’s name and proceeded to mispronounce it. In an interview with a local television station, he seemed unfamiliar with a pivotal state issue — the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain — and said that if China and the United States became engaged in a trade war that hurt Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas and other tourism businesses, he would “cut off relationships with China.” 
 
 [As Clinton gains, Trump supporters seem to hate her more than ever] 
 
 Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, told reporters Thursday that he expects Trump to be “much better prepared” on Sunday and not use “the kind of personal and harsh attacks that he has been threatening.” 
 
 Here are the key moments from the first 2016 presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Sept. 26. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt moderated the debate at Hofstra University in New York. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) 
 
 “We expect a more focused, more prepared Trump at this debate,” Mook said. “What we’re enthusiastic about is that this will be a town hall, that the candidates will be taking questions from voters. . . . And so the real question for us is: Will Donald Trump come with any specific plans? Will he have a command of the issues such that he can really address people’s questions and really explain to them how he will in fact make any difference.” 
 
 Trump was off the campaign trail for most of Thursday, but he returned to stoke existing feuds and spark new ones at what was billed by his campaign as a town hall event in New Hampshire on Thursday evening. The event was staged before a friendly audience. 
 
 He attacked Clinton, alleging with no evidence that when she says she is preparing for debates she is actually “resting.” He went after Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who does not support him. He knocked journalists John Harwood and John King, as well as the media in general and even the Commission on Presidential Debates. 
 
 Trump also denied that he was using the event to prepare for Sunday night’s debate in St. Louis, which will operate under a similar format. 
 
 “This isn’t practice. This has nothing to do with Sunday,” Trump said. Without any substantiation, he said that what Clinton does is “not debate prep – she’s resting.” 
 
 Later, he said: “She wants to build up her energy for Sunday night.” 
 
 Trump’s first debate performance Sept. 26 was widely viewed as a damaging flop, and even many of his supporters have said they hope he is better prepared for the St. Louis town hall. His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, provided a stark contrast at the vice-presidential debate Tuesday night, where many declared him the clear winner. 
 
 Donald Trump’s campaign praised him for not bringing up former president Bill Clinton’s past scandals during the first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post;Photo/Melina Mara/The Washington Post) 
 
 “I watched — he won. He won on the issues,” Trump said of Pence at a campaign stop in Las Vegas on Wednesday, an apparent hint on where his own focus might be Sunday. “He won on — somebody said he won on style. The style doesn’t matter. The issues, the policy matters.” 
 
 [The task in the next debate’s town-hall setting: Connecting with voters] 
 
 Trump also told the New York Post’s Page Six that he does not plan to bring up Bill Clinton’s sexual history during the debate, something he had threatened to do if Hillary Clinton continues to bring up the disparaging comments he has made about women over the years. 
 
 “I want to win this election on my policies for the future, not Bill Clinton’s past,” Trump said in an email to the gossip column. “Jobs, trade, ending illegal immigration, veteran care and strengthening our military is what I really want to be talking about.” 
 
 In another move typical for an ordinary campaign but not for his, Trump issued a somber statement Thursday urging those in the path of Hurricane Matthew to follow local evacuation orders because “nothing is more important than the safety of your family.” He left it to the Republican National Committee to attack Hillary Clinton’s campaign for running commercials on the Weather Channel during the storm’s buildup. 
 
 Meanwhile, Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka, campaigned for her father in southwest Ohio on Thursday, touring a manufacturing plant in the steel-mill town of Middletown and meeting with local female business owners. 
 
 Trump avoided national television interviews this week, allowing Pence to appear instead on Fox News on Wednesday night and several morning talk shows on Thursday. Pence didn’t stir up any controversy, as Trump is known to do, and he insisted Trump has abandoned several of his most controversial positions. 
 
 [As news of Trump’s taxes breaks, he goes off script at a rally in Pennsylvania] 
 
 During an interview Thursday on CNN’s “New Day,” for example, anchor Chris Cuomo asked Pence about two Trump positions that Pence had previously condemned: A temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and Trump’s assertion that an Indiana-born judge whose parents were from Mexico couldn’t fairly rule in a federal fraud case involving Trump University. 
 
 “You condemned those comments,” Cuomo said. “Why do you not condemn them now?” 
 
 “Well,” Pence said, “because it’s not Donald Trump’s position now.” 
 
 On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the same morning, host Joe Scarborough asked Pence point-blank if the campaign still wants a “ban on all Muslims,” and Pence replied: “Of course not.” 
 
 Pence is one of numerous Trump surrogates to repeatedly say Trump no longer wants a religion-based ban and would instead focus on halting immigration from unidentified countries compromised by terrorism, many of which have large Muslim populations. 
 
 But Trump has yet to formally drop his call for a temporary ban on allowing most foreign Muslims into the United States, and his campaign website still contains a “statement on preventing Muslim immigration” that calls for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” 
 
 Anne Gearan and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report. ||||| NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said as many as 70 percent of federal agency regulations could be eliminated if he is elected in November, just hours after an adviser said the candidate would seek to cut 10 percent. 
 
 Trump, who blamed regulations for stifling business, told a crowd at a town hall event in New Hampshire on Thursday night that regulations for the environment and safety would remain. 
 
 “We are cutting the regulation at a tremendous clip. I would say 70 percent of regulations can go,” Trump said. “It’s just stopping businesses from growing.” 
 
 Earlier in the day during an online discussion with Reuters, Trump campaign adviser Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier who has raised campaign money for Trump, said Trump would eliminate 10 percent of regulations. 
 
 “We need regulation but immediately every agency will be asked to rate the importance of their regulations and we will push to remove 10 percent of the least important,” he said. 
 
 Another Trump campaign adviser reached by Reuters confirmed the 10 percent regulatory cut was part of their economic plan. 
 
 Jeff Holmstead, a former assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush’s presidency, said the goal was hard to comprehend. 
 
 “You could reduce the number of regulations by 10 percent without accomplishing very much,” he said. 
 
 He added it would make more sense for Trump to try to reduce the cost of regulatory compliance by 10 percent. 
 
 “I think it probably would be possible for a new administration to make changes that would reduce the cost of these programs by at least 10 percent while still maintaining essentially the same level of environmental protection,” he said. 
 
 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign town hall event in Sandown, New Hampshire, U.S., October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar 
 
 Officials at the EPA and the U.S. Department of the Interior declined to comment, citing internal policies. 
 
 Scaramucci also said that Trump, a fierce critic of the Federal Reserve, would probably get along well with Fed Chair Janet Yellen. 
 
 Trump has repeatedly accused the Fed of serving as a political arm of the Obama White House. He says Yellen has put off raising interest rates in order to let President Barack Obama end his term in January without the economic shock that a rise in interest rates might entail. 
 
 Scaramucci, a founder of SkyBridge Capital, joined Reuters Global Markets Forum to discuss his views of the campaign. He said Trump would strive for a better balance in federal regulations. 
 
 Scaramucci was not as dismissive of Yellen as Trump is, saying he believes the New York property developer would warm to her eventually. 
 
 “There are many well-qualified candidates but I think Mr. Trump has to spend some time with chairwoman Yellen. I think knowing what I know about his personality he will like her,” he said. 
 
 Trump would seek to streamline regulations as a way to generate economic growth and help the flow of capital, the adviser said. Trump has specifically singled out the energy industry as an area that he would look at for reducing regulations. 
 
 “Wall Street is not the devil,” said Scaramucci. “In fact we are at our best when (there) is harmony between Main Street and Wall Street and we hope to restore that.” 
 
 Scaramucci singled out several areas that Trump would look to for reforms: 
 
 —Labor Department rules expanding the fiduciary standard for financial brokers who sell retirement products would likely be stopped. 
 
 Slideshow (6 Images) 
 
 —Legislation similar to the former Glass-Steagall Act that limited the banking industry would be on the table for review. 
 
 — The Dodd-Frank banking reforms that emerged from the Great Recession of 2008-09 will be reviewed and “the worst anti-business parts of it will be gutted.” 
 
 — The Volcker rule will be adjusted. Named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, it is part of the sweeping 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It aims to reduce risk-taking by preventing banks from using their own capital to make speculative bets. ||||| The Battleground Project Clinton preps final-stage blitz against Trump The Democrat has as much cash ready for the final stretch as any candidate ever. And she’s sending it to Battleground America. 
 
 WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Hillary Clinton is walking into the final stretch of this 2016 presidential contest with as much cash at her direct disposal as any White House contender in history. And her operatives expect her to use it to blanket the battleground states with both organizers and a heavy dose of anti-Donald Trump ads. 
 
 In-state Democratic operatives are planning for a significant tranche of the money — coming from the $150 million Clinton’s campaign and associated accounts had in the bank to start October — to be added to the previously announced $80 million television investment her team previewed at the start of this final phase, on top of other paid media and a heavily-funded get-out-the-vote push. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 And while Brooklyn hasn’t made any official announcement or alerted her swing state operatives about final spending plans, Clinton’s finance team led by Dennis Cheng told donors the resources will go to paid media, organizers and voter registration. 
 
 Now, in the states where the election will be decided — Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in particular — Democrats' active preparations for that influx have already started. 
 
 “We’ve kind of turned a corner. Everything is fever pitch, because now vote-by-mail ballots, I think over two million, land in mailboxes, so every day is Election Day,” explained Florida Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, outlining a charged landscape that’s reflected in the other top-tier battlegrounds. “And that will ratchet up [further] when early voting starts." 
 
 A last-second ad and organizing blitz is hardly unusual in campaigns, but the size and intensity of Clinton’s could feel like none before due both to the resource imbalance between her campaign and Trump's, and her team's insistence on stockpiling highly coveted political funds until now, even as it’s raised less than Barack Obama’s 2012 operation. 
 
 The enormous cash position gives Clinton nearly $5 million to spend per day— even before money from the Democratic National Committee, which entered September with roughly $11.5 million, and the main super PAC Priorities USA Action, which started last month with $40 million, is taken into account. New laws that came into effect since the last presidential election allow Clinton to directly use fundraising committees with higher contribution limits than ever before, even if there are some restrictions on how the money can be spent — four years ago, Obama’s campaign, the DNC, and Priorities, were all sitting on far less at the start of October. (Clinton's 2016 numbers are similar to Obama's in 2008, though he didn't have a super PAC then.) 
 
 And Trump's totals appear to be dwarfed by Clinton's: his campaign entered September with $38 million while the Republican National Committee had $40.5 million. Two committees associated with the Trump campaign haven't reported their finances since July. 
 
 The effects of that resource disparity have been felt on the ground for months, and they only stand to become more pronounced 
 
 "You cannot turn on your TV without seeing a Clinton ad," said Castor, adding that in her district it feels like "it's about 10 Clinton ads to every one Trump ad." 
 
 Clinton strategists in target states report being told that the cash hoard is intended to largely service the final three weeks – that means a blitz opening in mid-October, around the time of the final debate. Certainly, a huge large chunk will be spent on operations sooner than that, with senior officials from her national headquarters boarding flights to live out the election in the battlegrounds and targeted get-out-the-vote efforts beginning on a rolling basis, as early-voting opens state by state. (Clinton’s camp is operating with the expectation that over 40 percent of this year’s votes will be cast before November 8.) 
 
 Between the campaign and Priorities, Clinton’s political operation already has roughly $76 million worth of television advertising in the battleground states booked for the final five weeks, according to media buyers, compared to Trump's $34 million. (Trump associates say he will spend $140 million in TV and digital ads over the final stretch, but even fellow Republicans have questioned that figure since it's so much higher than his cash on hand.) 
 
 Democrats' numbers stands to increase as the campaign shuffles its focus on specific markets and ratchets up its investments in secondary-priority regions of the swing states. Party strategists also expect to see a renewed investment in radio and mail pieces, which are far cheaper to draw up and distribute. 
 
 “One way or another, we’re going to get money, and these states at the tipping point are going to get that money. What we’re going to do with that money is stuff you can move on quickly: paid media. You can add markets, double down in some, and even add mail,” said one swing-state operative. “If you drop $5 million into a state, you can use about 20 percent in field, and the rest goes straight into paid media." 
 
 “In Obama 2012, on the advertising team, we had base buys. We knew we wanted to keep them pinned down in as many states as possible, but after that you’re allocating resources on a week-by-week basis, based on tracking polls, based on voting metrics, field metrics that you’re getting,” added Democratic strategist Isaac Baker, who helped manage the president's paid media operation that year. "They will be able to calibrate spending and time in 48-hour increments based on the metrics they’re getting back from the early voting data and their rolling poll tracks. Those combined will determine that." 
 
 Clinton's closing blitz is highly unlikely to cut out any of the states where she currently has ad time booked — even Iowa, where she’s trailed in most recent polls — since her strategists figure that Trump’s path to victory narrows as Clinton’s map grows. But Clinton operatives still expect to see a focus on the four big states where Clinton and Trump have both spent most of their time, including the traditional Big Two of Florida and Ohio. (“The bar is really high for Donald Trump,” said Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook this week, surveying the map. “I would argue he has to win North Carolina, he probably has to win Pennsylvania.”) 
 
 The campaign and Priorities have roughly $18.5 million worth of home-stretch television booked in Florida and $14 million in Ohio. 
 
 The number is $12 million in Pennsylvania, where Clinton has kept a consistent lead but where Trump has long threatened, and local Democrats are still expecting a final push. 
 
 “There’s a reason there will be a great deal of resources spent in Pennsylvania in the final weeks: because we’re one of the few battleground states without early voting, so every vote will be cast on Election Day,” explained Rep. Brendan Boyle, whose Philadelphia-era district is one where Clinton must do well. “Let’s say you’re within a couple points [in Pennsylvania], leaning blue, and Ohio’s within a couple points, leaning red. When you’re getting down to the final couple states and you’re looking to allocate resources, do you do it in a place where 50-60 percent of votes have already been cast?" 
 
 And in North Carolina — yet another Trump must-win — it’s $9.5 million. 
 
 “The Clinton campaign made an early decision that they were going to invest heavily in North Carolina,” explained Rep. G.K. Butterfield, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, adding that he has urged Clinton to campaign in the eastern part of the state to replicate Obama’s success there when he won it in 2008. “They told me that several months ago, and they’ve followed through." 
 
 The slate of ads in those states is still wide-ranging, as the campaign has yet to unveil its closing-argument television spots: A mix of Spanish-language ads hitting Trump’s immigration policies and hard negative clips highlighting Trump’s other controversial statements currently blanket the swing state airwaves, for example, joined on the radio by some spots touting GOP support and African American-focused ones like the DNC’s featuring First Lady Michelle Obama. (The committee is also expected to roll out a Latino-focused clip soon.) 
 
 Now, a new 60-second positive ad unveiled on Thursday is intended to project the message that Clinton is going on the offensive, even in states like Ohio where political pros had counted her out as recently as this week, but where her poll numbers appear to be rebounding. 
 
 “They’re going full bore, hitting Latinos with the Spanish ads. And obviously they’re worried that even though she has a huge lead with African Americans over Trump, they’re not going to be as motivated to go to the polls, hence the Michelle Obama ads,” said Jimmy Siegel, a New York ad maker who worked on Clinton’s 2008 campaign. 
 
 "And then, the typical ‘whatever Trump says last.’ Taxes now, and I’m sure the veterans next. It’s a little like shooting fish in a barrel. But hey, they’ve got the barrel." 
 
 Authors: ||||| Trump swoops into Sandown for town hall 
 
 By JASON SCHREIBER 
 
 Union Leader Correspondent 
 
 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a town hall meeting Thursday night in Sandown. (JASON SCHREIBER/UNION LEADER CORRESPONDENT) Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a town hall meeting Thursday night in Sandown. 
 
 SANDOWN — Surrounded by an invite-only crowd of about 160 at Sandown Town Hall Thursday night, billionaire businessman and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took prepared voter questions on subjects ranging from jobs to foreign policy failures.The questions were read by Boston radio talk show host Howie Carr.Trump said his town hall wasn’t prep for Sunday night’s debate against Democrat Hillary Clinton."I want to be with the American people," he said.He then asked voters if they really believed that Clinton was prepping for days before Sunday’s debate."No," audience members shouted.Trump said she was "resting."The first question of the night focused on Trump’s performance in the first debate and whether he had held back on being more critical of Clinton."I did hold back," he said, adding, "I didn’t like getting into the gutter."Trump was asked if he was "upset" by running mate Mike Pence’s "success" at his vice presidential debate earlier this week as some political observers suggested.He denied the claims."I was so happy that Mike did well," he said.Many of Trump’s supporters said they felt he did well with the town hall format, although some were surprised that voters didn’t get to ask their own questions to make it more personal. They did stand when Carr read their question.Republican Paul Cote, 56, of Londonderry, said the event was like an "informal chat" that wasn’t too heavy on policy."After you follow him long enough, it’s the standard things he believes in. He speaks from his heart," said Cote.Before Trump arrived, independent voter Christine Paul, 67, of South Hampton, waited outside and shared the reasons why she’s been supporting Trump since he launched his campaign."I feel that both the Republican and the Democrat establishment, the political elite, have really brought this country down," she said.Paul called Trump a "can-do person" who can be trusted, can’t be bought, and is the only candidate who’s "come forth with the courage to stand up to this to say ‘Enough is enough.’"She dismissed claims by some who have accused Trump of being sexist."These are all trumped-up charges," she said.Republican Roger Souland, 30, a small businessman from Hudson, said he came to hear Trump in person and not through media sound bites."I’m here to see him live, see what I feel like without going through media to get my own perception to see if it changes anything, makes it better or makes it worse," he said.Souland admitted that Trump wasn’t his first choice during the primary, but he’s now behind him."With all the different candidates in the beginning there were different rivers to go down, but we’re all going down this river now," he said.As the crowd lined up outside, a man carrying a sign that said, "Trump is God," stood across the street alongside opponents with protest signs.One showed head shots of Trump and U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, with the question, "Is Trump a Role Model?" and the answer, "Absolutely."New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who appeared at Sandown Town Hall in June 2015 the day he launched his primary campaign, joined Trump for Thursday’s event.jschreiber@newstote.com 
 
 
 
 Sandown Donald Trump ||||| Republican candidate insists friendly forum in Sandown, New Hampshire is not a rehearsal for Sunday’s debate with Hillary Clinton 
 
 Donald Trump prepared for Sunday’s town hall-style debate with Hillary Clinton by insisting he wasn’t preparing for it. 
 
 
 
 At a town hall in Sandown, New Hampshire, questions were written down by an invited audience and then read by moderator Howie Carr, a pro-Trump talk show host in New England. 
 
 There was even a timer that kept Trump from talking for more than two minutes at a time. 
 
 But the Republican nominee insisting he wasn’t preparing for his next bout with Hillary Clinton. “This has nothing to do with Sunday,” Trump insisted. 
 
 He even complained about the media hype around his debate preparations. “Even tonight they said ‘Donald Trump is going to New Hampshire to practice for Sunday’ … it’s like they make you into a child. 
 
 “You really think Hillary Clinton is debate prepping for three or four days? She is resting … she wants to build up her energy for Sunday night and that’s fine.” 
 
 The town hall was the only public event staged by either presidential candidate on Thursday. Clinton held a private fundraiser at the St Regis Hotel in New York but otherwise did not appear on the campaign trail. 
 
 Trump’s performance in the first presidential debate was widely considered disastrous and Clinton has risen steadily in polling numbers to build a solid lead. On Thursday, Real Clear Politics showed the former secretary of state with an advantage of just over four percentage points. 
 
 Sunday’s debate at Washington University in St Louis represents a critical opportunity for Trump to try and turn the tide. He was neck and neck in the polls with Clinton prior to the first debate. 
 
 In Sandown, Trump looked back on that contest. First he blamed the microphone, but later told a questioner: “I did hold back.” 
 
 Still, he wouldn’t attack Clinton’s personal life on Sunday. “I’d much rather it be on policy. I didn’t like it getting into the gutter.” 
 
 
 
 The spectre of Hurricane Matthew hung over both campaigns on Thursday as the storm menaced Florida’s Atlantic coast. The Clinton campaign has asked cable companies in Florida not to run its advertisements on the Weather Channel this week after Republican complaints of opportunism. 
 
 The Trump campaign in a statement on Thursday offered “our thoughts and prayers” to everyone in the path of Hurricane Matthew and called on residents of affected areas to heed warnings and evacuation orders. Trump went on to express condolences to Haiti. “The United States should offer our assistance to help our island neighbors,” he said. 
 
 Before Sunday’s debate Trump is scheduled to appear in southern Wisconsin at an event held by the local Republican party in the district of Speaker Paul Ryan. It will mark the first time Ryan has appeared on the campaign trail with his party’s nominee. Trump will be joined by the state’s governor, Scott Walker, as well as Senator Ron Johnson, who is facing a tough fight to hold his seat in the Badger State. 
 
 Clinton is not scheduled to hold any public events before Sunday. However high-profile surrogates like Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders are scheduled to appear on her behalf in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania respectively. ||||| Donald Trump Donald TrumpSotomayor: 'We can’t afford for a president to fail’ Trump ditches press pool to go out to dinner Pro-Sanders group: Schumer 'poor choice' to lead Senate Dems MORE needs to deliver a race-changing performance in Sunday’s town hall debate in St. Louis to have a chance at the White House. 
 
 A strong performance by running mate Mike Pence Mike (Michael) Richard PenceAfter delay, White House receives key transition document from Trump Trump announces inaugural committee leadership Trump, Pence get first presidential intel briefing MORE at his own debate this Tuesday has stopped the bleeding for the Trump campaign after a difficult stretch. 
 
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 But presidential elections aren’t won or lost at vice presidential debates. 
 
 Trump needs to beat Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham ClintonChaffetz: Clinton probe ‘wasn’t political targeting’ Kaine: Dem senators are 'emergency brake' on Trump Sanders puts damper on party leadership rumors MORE — and be seen as the winner — to give hope to his supporters and bring energy to his campaign. 
 
 Here are five things he can do to improve on his first debate performance. 
 
 Learn from Pence 
 
 The reaction to Pence’s debate performance was everything the GOP ticket had hoped for when Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, took on Clinton, the Democratic nominee, last week. 
 
 Pence won the post-debate polls that Trump lost, and partisans on both sides praised the Indiana governor’s calm and collected approach. 
 
 His decision to deny most of Trump’s most controversial statements drew the ire of Democrats and served as the basis for a new Clinton attack ad that contradicted those denials. 
 
 At the same time, the strategy worked in that Pence didn’t have to fight a losing battle onstage, re-litigating every questionable statement Trump has made. Instead, he stayed on message, often pivoting to a criticism of Clinton. 
 
 While Trump fell into traps laid by Clinton, who responded with scripted attack lines, Pence used Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine Tim KaineKaine: Dem senators are 'emergency brake' on Trump Justice reform is still alive and well after Trump election Republican Party leaders take victory lap MORE’s canned lines against him. 
 
 Republicans are hoping that on Sunday, Trump can take a page from his running mate’s book. 
 
 Be prepared 
 
 Trump reportedly didn’t practice much ahead of his own debate. That backfired, as he found out primary and general election debates are completely different animals. 
 
 During the primaries, a crowded stage allowed Trump to land pointed blows and retreat into the background, limiting lengthy policy discussions. 
 
 That’s not possible in a one-on-one scrap, and especially not in the town hall format that will be used Sunday in St. Louis. 
 
 There are signs that Trump is devoting more time to practicing for the debate this time. 
 
 Most notably, on Thursday night, Trump will take part in a town hall-style event in New Hampshire. 
 
 But while his early public schedule has him off the trail in the 48 hours before the debate, Trump added an appearance Saturday at an event with Speaker Paul Ryan Paul RyanGOP rushes to embrace Trump Rubio: 'I have no reaction’ to Bannon hire Assad labels Trump ‘natural ally’ to fight terror MORE (R-Wis.). 
 
 That appearance will give him less time to prepare for Sunday night. 
 
 Keep fight on favorable ground 
 
 Trump actually was doing well in the first debate — for 30 minutes. 
 
 He hammered Clinton over her position on trade, an issue his camp believes will resonate with the Rust Belt voters he needs to secure states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. 
 
 But he barely mentioned her private email server or her family foundation’s controversies, two crucial GOP lines of attack. 
 
 Republicans cried foul, arguing that the moderator should have spent more time on those issues. But Trump has likely learned he can’t trust the moderator, so it will be up to him to keep the conversation on Clinton’s weaknesses and his perceived strengths of the economy and trade. 
 
 “He needs to stick to the offense and on his ground as opposed to taking the bait any time there’s a charge against him, “ said University of Michigan debate expert Aaron Kall. 
 
 “Stick to the things that got you there — your message on trade, the economy, outsourcing and immigration.” 
 
 Connect personally 
 
 The town hall puts a premium on connecting with the voters. And with the favorability ratings of both candidates in the gutter, there’s quite some room to grow. 
 
 Trump’s campaign has argued over the past few days that he’s better at connecting with people than Clinton and that her over-prepared nature won’t serve her as well on Sunday as it did last week. 
 
 “There’s no amount of programming or different lines that someone can memorize going into a town hall format,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day” of Clinton. 
 
 Independent voters will make up a significant portion of the debate audience. 
 
 These voters likely don’t have a positive view of either candidate. Kall said Trump will have to resist the urge to go negative in order to connect — even as Clinton seeks to tempt him. 
 
 “He’s going to have to not engage and pivot to the high road — the town hall forum is a perfect place to do that,” Kall said. 
 
 Watch out for interruptions and unforced errors 
 
 While Clinton won the post-debate polls, Trump also made a handful of slip-ups that continue to haunt him. 
 
 Trump’s repeated interruptions hurt him in the first debate of 2016, just as they hurt Kaine in the vice presidential showdown. 
 
 Democrats amplified his aside that using laws to avoid paying income tax is “smart,” messaging that blew up once The New York Times published tax information that showed he took an almost $1 billion loss in 1995 that could have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for 18 years. 
 
 Trump also opened himself up to barbs about his criticism of a former Miss Universe, an attack that prompted a surprised Trump to ask, “Where did you find this?” 
 
 Town hall-style events can make it even tougher for an undisciplined candidate to avoid missteps. 
 
 During a question on a healthcare bill in 2000, Democratic nominee Al Gore Al GoreMark Mellman: What happened to the polls? Cook: Clinton passes 1M in popular vote lead Dem introducing bill to abolish Electoral College MORE walked toward Republican nominee George W. Bush in what many saw as an attempt to intimidate him. Bush brushed it off with a smile and a nod that disarmed the crowd, who laughed along with him. 
 
 Clinton’s opponent during her 2000 Senate bid tried something similar, but she kept her cool and benefited as her allies spun the move as threatening.
– Donald Trump wants to more than merely decimate federal regulations: He told a town hall event in New Hampshire on Thursday night that he wants to wipe out a full 70% of them. "We are cutting the regulation at a tremendous clip. I would say 70% of regulations can go," Trump said. "It's just stopping businesses from growing." He didn't specify which 70% will be axed, but he said regulations on the environment and safety could stay. Earlier in the day, Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci told Reuters that the candidate was planning to get rid of the "least important" 10% of federal regulations. In other coverage: Trump denied that the town hall was prep for Sunday's second debate with Hillary Clinton, which will have a similar format, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports. He told the audience that his rival was "resting" to "build up her energy" instead of prepping for the debate—and strongly denied that he was "upset" about running mate Mike Pence being seen as the winner of this week's vice presidential debate. The Guardian reports that after criticism from Republicans, the Clinton campaign has asked cable companies not to run the ads it bought on the Weather Channel this week ahead of Hurricane Matthew. The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has called on people in the storm's path to heed evacuation orders, and Trump says the US should "offer our assistance to help our island neighbors" affected by the storm in Haiti. The Washington Post reports that Trump appears to be trying harder to stick to his advisers' script: His tweets have been restrained and he has said he doesn't plan on bringing up Bill Clinton's infidelity during Sunday's debate. Politico reports that with a month to go and around $150 million to spend, Clinton's campaign is planning an ad blitz like no other in battleground states. The Hill looks at five things Trump will need to do to win Sunday's debate. They include learning from Pence's performance—and not taking the bait every time there's a charge against him. The New York Times and the Washington Post look at an episode from Trump's past that could come back to haunt him in the debate: In 1991 he appeared before the House to successfully lobby for the restoration of tax breaks and loopholes for real estate developers that had been removed in Ronald Reagan's 1986 tax reform legislation.