News roundup: New poll shows tighter Matheson-Love race

Mia Love up five in DNews poll. 512 paths to the presidency. Just 2 days until Election Day.

Happy Sunday and welcome to a special weekend edition of Cornflakes. We have more poll confusion in Utah, this time surrounding the hyped race between Rep. Jim Matheson and his GOP challenger Mia Love. The new Dan Jones poll found Love has a five point lead with voters who are either committed to or leaning toward a candidate. Just a few days ago, we reported the Trib poll had Love up 12. [DNews]

Topping the news: Many strategists thought Mitt Romney's Mormon faith may be an obstacle in his presidential campaign, but there's a good case to be made that it helped him. [Trib] And most Utah voters says Romney's candidacy also benefitted the LDS Church. [Trib]

-> Romney is up on President Barack Obama 70 percent to 25 percent in the Trib poll, the question is can Romney surpass the 74.5 percent that Utahns gave to Ronald Reagan. [Trib]

-> There are 512 paths to the presidency, with this nifty New York Times graphic you can play out all of the scenarios. [NYTimes]

The race for 270: The latest Electoral College predictions:

FiveThirtyEight: Obama 306.9, Romney 231.1. Pollster: Obama 277, Romney 206. RealClearPolitics: Obama 290, Romney 248.

Tweets of the day: From @JWGOP: "What does a status quo election say about USA? POTUS wins. Senate stays Dem. House stays GOP. We have big issues. Who is going to man up?"

2012 watch: A look inside Romney's relatively quiet life in Boston and some of the decisions he'll have to make if he wins. Would he keep his spot on Belmont's Republican Town Committee. [Globe]

-> Karl Rove says Hurricane Sandy helped Obama. [WaPost]

-> It has devolved into political trench warfare in Ohio with just hours until the polls open. [NYTimes]

-> The last Denver Post poll has Obama up 2 points, within the margin of error. [DPost]

-> A small number of journalists donated to Obama and Romney. And here are the names. [Politico]

-> Romney leaned toward New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie before picking Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. [Politico]

-> Wall Street banked on Obama in 2008, but this time they have rallied around Romney. [LATimes]

-> CNN has dueling stories looking forward to what the next presidency may look like. [Romney] [Obama]

-> A small number of undecided voters have given money to both Obama and Romney. [NYTimes]

In other news: Sen. Orrin Hatch and Gov. Gary Herbert are 40 point favorites in their re-election contests. [Trib]

-> More than 350,000 Utahns voted early and the rest will have to wait until Tuesday. [Fox13]

-> State Rep. Mike Noel announced a campaign to become Speaker of the House a direct challenge to current House Speaker Becky Lockhart. [Trib]

-> FEMA funds are available to Washington County to help take care of September flooding. [Trib]

Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Email us at cornflakes@sltrib.com. If you haven't already, sign up for our weekday email and get this sent directly to your inbox. [Trib]

— Matt Canham Twitter.com/mattcanham