The hit that Republican U.S. Senate incumbents and challengers took in the wake of the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump described sexually assaulting women has ebbed a bit, but that doesn’t mean that the party doesn’t face real challenges in its efforts to keep their losses to a minimum next week. The question of the day, though, has been whether Friday’s announcement by FBI Director James Comey that more Clinton emails had been discovered during the ongoing investigation of Anthony Weiner will help Republicans down the ballot. The answer is probably not. First, there was a lag of almost a week between the release of the Access Hollywood tape and signs that it was hurting down ballot Republicans. Thus, any indication that this may be helping Republicans won’t show up until the end of the week. Second, the issue of Clinton’s emails is somewhat baked into the cake. Voters are already aware of them, and have formed an opinion. A new batch isn’t likely to change minds, and many voters probably aren’t
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