WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 The Boston Globe Nation/Region A

California at 8 percent, fol-
lowed by SouthBend,Ind.,
Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 6 per-
cent and Representative Tulsi
Gabbardof Hawaiiat 3 per-
cent.
Among the reasonswhy
Biden, Sanders, and Warren
will be difficult to topple from
the top tier: a significant por-
tionof theirsupporters say
they have madeup their minds
about the race.
This is especially the case
with Sanders. Nearly half — 48
percent — of his supporters
said they woulddefinitely vote
for him,includingDouglas
Deaett, a 70-year-oldretired
emergency roomdoctor from
Hanover.
“Bernie has beendedicated
to his polices for a long time,”
said Deaett. “Most of the other
contendersare riding his coat-
tails and wouldn’t workas hard
to bring his ideasto fruition.”
Some45 percentof Biden’s
supporters say they have found
their candidate, while 35 per-
centof Warren’s supporters
consider themselves commit-
ted, according to the poll.
There are signs in the poll,
however, that Warrenmight
have the most room to growin
the next six months. She was by
far the most popular second
choice of respondents, with 21
percent saying they would back
her after their first choice.
“This is an especially impor-
tant numbernow that a num-
ber of candidates coulddrop
out soon,and showshow she
could grow,” Paleologos said.
Anotherkey number for
Warren:60 percent of voters
say they are opento changing
theirmindand mightlookto
theirsecondchoice.
Just over one-fifth of likely
New Hampshire Democratic
primary voters said they
weren’t leaningtowardany of
the 25 candidates in the survey.
Seven of the candidates,in-
cluding Massachusetts Repre-
sentative Seth Moulton,of Sa-
lem,didn’t have a singlere-
spondent say they were
backing them.
The survey of 500 New
Hampshirevoterswhosaid
they wereeither “somewhat
likely” or “very likely” to vote in
the state’s Democratic primary
next year was taken Thursday
though Sunday. The poll’s mar-
gin of errorwas plus or minus
4.4 percentage points.
One candidate who may be
starting to grab the attentionof
New HampshireDemocrats is
Gabbard, who had just 1 per-
centin the last Suffolk/Globe
poll of New Hampshire, taken
in April. In the latest survey,
the representative from Hawaii
movedinto sixthplace — ahead
of New Jersey Senator Cory
Booker, who had just 1 percent
support — althoughthe differ-
enceis still wellwithin the
poll’s margin of error.
But the poll mightdisap-
pointthe campaignsof Beto
O’Rourke, a former representa-
tive, and Julian Castro, a for-
mer US housing secretary, who
bothhad levels of support that
rounded down to zero percent.
“As far as Beto is concerned
this result isn’t surprising given

uPOLL
ContinuedfromPageA

how poorly his year has gone,

but considering how he came

into the race with such momen-

tum it is still a little stunningto

see,” Paleologos said.O’Rourke

has been in headlines in recent

days because of the massshoot-

ing in his hometown of El Paso,

though,given the timing, that

likely would not have regis-

teredin the poll.

And despite an aggressive

televisionand social media ad

campaign, Californiabillion-

aire Tom Steyer was at 1 per-

centwhenhis support was

rounded up.

Another point that stood

out in the poll?New Hamp-

shire voters said they are ready

for the historically large field to

shrink.Nearly two out of three

voterssaid they felt if a candi-

date didn’t qualify for the third

round of debates they should

drop out.

Due to thresholds set by the

Democratic National Commit-

tee, it’s possible that half the

fieldwill not qualify for the

Septemberdebates. To secure a

spot on the stage, a candidate

must have at least 130,000 in-

dividualdonors and reach 2

percent in four sanctioned polls

(The Suffolk/GlobeNew

Hampshire poll is not one of

them).

On the issues, 85 percent of

New Hampshire Democratic

primary voters said they want

theirparty’s nomineeto back

Medicare for All. A majority al-

so wantthe nomineeto back

the Green New Deal and im-

peach President Trump.

A majority of respondents

also confirmed their top priori-

ty is a candidate who can beat

Trump— even if it means that

persondoesn’t sharetheirval-

ues.

JenniferPitts, 54, an execu-

tive recruiterfor a business

consulting firm, is among the

58 percentpolledwho said the

most important thing for Dem-

ocrats is to nominate a candi-

date who can stop Trump.

At this moment, she is back-

ing Biden.

“I wantto beat Trump,and

it painsme to say that I fear on-

ly a well-known whiteguy like

Biden can do it,” Pitts said.

“But, like New Hampshire vot-

ers do, I will be watching to see

what happensas the campaign

plays out.”

JamesPindell canbe reached at

[email protected].

Followhimon Twitter

@jamespindellor subscribeto

hisGround Gamenewsletter on

politics:

http://pages.email.bostonglobe.

com/GroundGameSignUp

WASHINGTON— Presi-

dent Trump and the Republi-

can National Committee filed

a pair of lawsuits Tuesday

against officialsin California,

challenginga new law requir-

ing presidentialcandidates to

releasefive yearsof tax re-

turnsin orderto be placedon

the state primary ballotin

2020.

The RNC

suit, which

was filed in

the Eastern

District of California and in-

cluded the California Republi-

can Party and several Califor-

nia Republicanvotersas plain-

tiffs, called the law a “naked

political attack against the sit-

ting presidentof the United

States.” It was filed against

Governor Gavin Newsomand

the Californiasecretary of

state.

Trump and his campaign

filed a second suit challenging

the constitutionality of the

new law, and it namedthe Cal-

ifornia secretary of state and

the state attorney general. In

that suit, they arguethat

states do not have the power

to “supplement” the qualifica-

tions for the president, set

forth by the Constitution.

The California law, known

as the Presidential Tax Trans-

parencyandAccountability

Act, was signedby Newsom

last weekand was the latest

flashpoint between the White

House and the state of Califor-

nia, whichis involved in more

than 40 lawsuits against the

Trump administration, on is-

sues including environmental

regulation and immigration.

The California state Legis-

lature approved a similar mea-

sure in 2017, but the governor

at the time,Jerry Brown, ve-

toed it, raising questions

about whether it was constitu-

tional.

NEWYORK TIMES

McConnell campaign

criticizes protesters

WASHINGTON— The re-

election campaignof Senate

Majority Leader Mitch McCo-

nnell, Republican of Kentucky,

on Tuesday decried the actions

of protesters outside his Louis-

ville, Ky., homeover the week-

end as ‘‘serious calls to vio-

lence’’ and said it had notified

law enforcement.

A groupof 20 to 30 people

gathered outside McConnell’s

home on Sunday night, with

some voicing threats and

shouting profanities during a

protest that was broadcast on

FacebookLive, according to an

account in the New York Post.

The protesters reportedly

were responding to McCon-

nell’s refusal thus far to allow

the Republican-ledSenate to

considerbills passedby the

Democratic-led House that

seek to strengthenbackground

checksfor gun sales. The pro-

test followedthe massshoot-

ings over the weekend in El

Paso and Dayton, Ohio,that

left 31 people dead.

The senator was reportedly

homerecoveringfroma frac-

turedshoulderat the timeof

the protest. Facebookvideo

captureda momentwhereone

of the protesters urged anoth-

er to stab a voodoodoll repre-

sentingMcConnell in the

heart.

In tweets Tuesday, McCon-

nell’s campaigncharacterized

the protesters as ‘‘an angry

left-wingmob of Amy

McGrath supporters,’’ refer-

encinga Democrat who is

seekingto topple McConnell

in next year’s election in Ken-

tucky.

‘‘These threats go far be-

yonda politicalcartoonor a

broken shoulder, they are seri-

ous calls to physical violence

and we’ve alerted law enforce-

ment,’’ the campaignsaid in

one of its tweets.

In another tweet, the cam-

paign referenced another epi-

sodeover the weekend in

which several McConnellsup-

porters wearing ‘‘Team Mitch’’

T-shirts were photographed

around a cardboard cutout of

Representative AlexandriaOc-

asio-Cortez,DemocratofNew

York, with somegropingit and

kissingit.

In a tweet Monday night di-

rected at McConnell, Ocasio-

Cortez asked whether the Sen-

ate leaderwas ‘‘paying for

youngmen to practice groping

& chokingmembers of Con-

gress w/ your payroll, or is this

just the standardcultureof

#TeamMitch?’’

The McConnell campaign’s

tweets on Tuesday suggested

that McConnell faced a far

greater danger.

‘‘Rep.AlexandriaOcasio-

Cortez and liberal Twitter per-

sonalities are trying to dox

someunderage kids for taking

a photowith a cutout at the

Fancy Farm political picnic

and are cheering on thousands

of accounts calling for Senator

McConnell to ‘break his neck,’

‘‘ a campaigntweet said.

WASHINGTON POST

TrumpaccusesGoogle

of biasagainst him

PresidentTrump once

again accused Alphabet Inc.’s

Google of amplifying negative

news stories about him, this

time citing an ex-employee

who claimshe was firedfor

conservative bias.

“All very illegal.We are

watching Google very closely!”

Trump said in a seriesof

tweets Tuesday, addinghe’d

met with Google CEO Sundar

Pichai, thoughdidn’t say

when. Trump tweeted a pair of

clipsfromthe segments late

Monday, and continuedto

tweet about the subject Tues-

day morning.

The Twitter storm is an in-

dication that the president

continuesto try to rev up his

base with charges of tech com-

pany bias as the 2020election

approaches.

Trump said he’d watched

comments by Kevin Cernekee

in a Fox News interview,

where the former Google em-

ployee alleged that conserva-

tiveswereharassed at the

company. Cernekee said

Google wants Trumpto lose

the 2020 election, and that

Google executives weptafter

Trump’s victory and “vowed

that it would never happen

again.” Cernekee told Fox he’s

in a legalfightwith the search

enginegiantafter he was

fired.

Google spokeswoman Jen-

nifer Kaisersaid Cernekee’s

comments “are absolutely

false.”

“We go to great lengths to

build our products and en-

force our policies in ways that

don’t take politicalleanings

into account,” Kaiser said.

Trump also cited comments

toFoxBus inessbyauthorPe-

ter Schweizer, who alleged

Google suppressed negative

storiesabout Hillary Clinton.

Pichai “was in the Oval Of-

fice workingvery hardto ex-

plain how muchhe liked me,

what a great job the Adminis-

tration is doing, that Google

was not involved with China’s

military, that they didn’t help

Crooked Hillary over me in the

2016 Election and that they

are NOT planning to illegally

subvert the 2020Election de-

spite all that has been said to

the contrary,” Trump said in a

pair of Tuesday tweets.

BLOOMBERGNEWS

Trump, GOP sue Calif.

over law on tax disclosure

Joe Sestak

Tim Ryan

Seth Moulton

Wayne Messam

Jay Inslee

Mike Gravel

Bill de Blasio

Refused

JulianCastro

Steve Bullock

John Hickenlooper

Beto O’Rourke

MarianneWilliamson

Tom Steyer

Kirsten Gillibrand

Amy Klobuchar

John Delaney

Other

Andrew Yang

Cory Booker

MichaelBennet

Tulsi Gabbard

Pete Buttigieg

Kamala Harris

Elizabeth Warren

BernieSanders

Undecided

Joe Biden

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

0.2%

0.2%

0.2%

0.3%

0.4%

0.6%

0.6%

0.6%

0.8%

1.0%

1.2%

1.4%

1.4%

1.6%

3.2%

5.8%

8.0%

13.6%

16.8%

20.8%

21.4%

Pollresults

From Aug. 1 to 4, the Suffolk University/Boston Globepoll

surveyed 500 likely Democratic primaryvoters in the New

Hampshire primary. The margin of error is +/- 4.4 percentage

points.

SOURCE: Suffolk University/Boston Globepoll GLOBE STAFF

Thinkingaboutyour first choice, is your mind firmly madeup, or do you

think you might changeyour mind before the primary?

In the Democratic presidential primary, who would you vote for or lean

toward at this point?

Mind madeup

Might changemind

before primary

39.5% 57.7%

Undecided

2.5%

Refused

0.3%

NIC ANTAYAFORTHE BOSTON GLOBE

Formervice presidentJoe Bidentops the field with 21

percentin the latest poll of New HampshireDemocrats.

In poll,

it’sBiden,

Sanders,

Warren

POLITICAL

NOTEBOOK

By Larry Neumeister
ASSOCIATEDPRESS
NEWYORK — A defamation
lawsuit Sarah Palin brought
against The New York Times
was restoredby a federal ap-
peals court Tuesday, giving the
onetime Republican vice presi-
dential nomineean opportuni-
ty to prove her claimsthe news-
paperfalselyaccused her of in-
citinga shootingthat severely
wounded a congresswoman.
The US Court of Appeals for
the 2nd Circuit said a lower-
court judge tossed out the law-
suit too quickly without giving
her a chanceto obtain e-mail
records and other evidence that
might aid her lawyers.
Still, the decisionby a three-
judge panel said Palin’s burden
of proofwas high to provethat
the newspaper acted with actu-

al malice whenit published an

editorialin 2017titled‘‘Ameri-

ca’s Lethal Politics.’’

The Manhattan judges said

they took no position on the

merits of Palin’s claim, but were

concerned withthe process

lower-court judges follow in

evaluating lawsuits.

Palin sued the Times for un-

specified damages after the edi-

torial aboutgun control was

published following the June

2017 shooting of Louisiana US

Representative Steve Scalise, al-

so a Republican, on a baseball

diamondin Washington.

In the editorial,the Times

wrotethat before the 2011

shootingof then-Arizona US

Representative Gabby Giffords,

Palin’s political action commit-

tee circulated a map of targeted

electoral districts that put Gif-

fordsand 19 otherDemocrats

under stylized crosshairs.

The editorial was criticized

by somereaders who chal-

lenged the notion that the map

constituted‘‘political incite-

ment’’ or that there was any

‘‘link’’ between it and the Arizo-

na shooting, the Times lawyers

have said.

The Timeslawyershave said

the newspaper revised the on-

line version of the editorial the

following morning to remove

thosereferencesand to make

clearthat the crosshairson the

mapappearedoverGiffords’

district ratherthanoverher

name or image.

A Times spokeswomansaid

in an e-mailedstatement: ‘‘We

are disappointed in the deci-

sion and intend to continueto

defend the action vigorously.’’

Courtreinstates Palinsuit againstTimes

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