New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, one of the most vulnerable Republicans running for reelection, is down by 10 points to her likely Democratic opponent in a new poll.

Some 50 percent of likely voters said they would vote for Governor Maggie Hassan, compared with 40 percent for Ayotte, according to a poll released Thursday by WBUR.

Both Hassan and Ayotte have strong support from members of their parties, but Hassan has a sizable lead among the large swath of independent voters who typically sway elections in the Granite State. Among the undeclared voters surveyed, 57 percent said they would vote for Hassan, while only 28 percent said Ayotte.

One of the only demographic areas where Ayotte is leading right now is among men over 50 years old, and among those whose education level is high school or less.

Ayotte’s favorability ratings are about the same as they were in a WBUR survey conducted in May, but it appears that she is being dragged down by Donald Trump, who has struggled over the past several weeks. In the same poll, he is losing to Hillary Clinton by 15 points, and few voters right now appear willing to split their ballots, so Hassan is getting a bounce out of voters gravitating toward Clinton.

Ayotte has sought to distance herself from Trump at times — and come under withering criticism from the GOP nominee for doing so — but she has maintained that she still supports him in the election.

Matt Viser

Pregnant workers protection bill fails

Beacon Hill was busy this week patting itself on the back for the gender pay equity law that Governor Charlie Baker signed on Monday.

Less remarked upon was a bill that didn’t make it to Baker’s desk, one of several that fell victim to disagreement — both policy and personal — between the House and Senate.

The innocuously titled “pregnant workers fairness act’’ would make it explicitly illegal to discriminate against a pregnant worker who has requested “reasonable accommodations’’ while still performing her duties. The measure’s lead House sponsor, Amherst Democrat Ellen Story, used the examples of a cashier who, not wanting to be on her feet for eight hours, requests a stool — not a cot — to do her job or a retail worker who requests not to stock the highest, difficult-to-reach shelves.

“I mean who’s going to be publicly against this?’’ Story asked.

Well, her House colleagues, sort of. Story’s amendment didn’t make it into the House version of the economic development bill that passed in the final moments of the two-year legislative cycle. It was in the Senate’s, but when the compromise emerged from conference committee late Sunday night, fairness for pregnant workers was not included.

Stepping down at the end of this year after 24 years in the House, Story, a member of Speaker Robert A. DeLeo’s leadership team, said she will try to push the bill through in the remaining five months of informal sessions, when the objections of a single member can block any bill.

“The speaker says he’s totally in favor of it,’’ Story said.

In general, bills the speaker is “totally in favor of’’ fare a little better.

Jim O’Sullivan

119 legislators oppose pot legalization

Politics is sport. And sometimes the game is: Who has the bigger team?

Just ask the coalition aiming to defeat the November ballot question that would legalize marijuana for recreational use. The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts announced Wednesday that 119 legislators — representatives and senators, Democrats and Republicans — are opposing the measure, which would greenlight retail pot sales starting in 2018.

That represents more than half the members of the 200-seat Legislature.

And it is no coincidence that the press release announcing the news came out the same day as the pro-legalization campaign, YES on 4, held a State House event trumpeting the support of two Boston city councilors.

Ten legislators have gotten on board the legalization train.

Game on.

Joshua Miller

MassFiscal ordered to disclose donor’s ID

State campaign finance regulators released a narrow ruling Wednesday holding that a conservative outside group does not constitute a political action committee, but should disclose the name of one donor who contributed $500 earlier this year.

Responding to a complaint that the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance improperly solicited funds in February for three special state elections, the Office of Campaign and Political Finance said that, under state law, the door hangers and handbills the group purchased shortly after the Feb. 23 e-mail was sent were electioneering communications. The state panel “strongly suggest[ed]’’ that the pro-fiscal conservatism group, run by former GOP operatives, should continue to seek state review of its fund solicitations.

“Such submission will ensure future compliance with the campaign finance law,’’ wrote Michael J. Sullivan, the OCPF director.

But the letter, to Mass. Fiscal Alliance executive director Paul Craney, stopped short of calling for the group to divulge the identities of its donors going forward.

“This ruling did not say that moving forward, MassFiscal must disclose all of its donors,’’ OCPF spokesman Jason Tait said Thursday.

Rick Green, chairman of the MassFiscal board, said in an e-mailed response to the ruling, “I’m always amazed how angry legislators get when we educate constituents on their voting records.’’

MassFiscal released a statement late Thursday disputing the OCPF’s conclusion that it must release the name of its donor. “OCPF’s conclusion is not supported by either the facts or the law,’’ the group said.

State Democratic Party executive director Jason Cincotti called the group “a cellophane cover over a Republican ploy to skirt campaign finance laws and promote Governor Baker’s conservative agenda.’’

“They broke the law,’’ Cincotti said in an e-mail. “Now, they have two choices — continue communicating as a political committee and comply with law or stop election communications immediately.’’

Jim O’Sullivan

Large Mass. contingent at White House dinner

Massachusetts sent more than just the usual Harvard connections to Tuesday’s State Dinner honoring Singapore President Lee Hsien Loong at the White House. Bay Staters aplenty were invited to enjoy the Maryland blue crab salad and American Wagyu beef tenderloin dressed with roasted yams, wilted kale, and heirloom carrots.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry; US Senator Ed Markey and his wife, Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal; and event planner Bryan Rafanelli and longtime partner Mark Edward Walsh were just a few of the former and current Bay Staters included on the guest list. Also on there: Belmont native Brian Deese, an Obama senior adviser; and his wife, Heather.

Gregory Mecher, who is congressman Joe Kennedy’s chief of staff, was invited in his capacity as White House communications director Jennifer Psaki’s husband. Another invitee and White House staffer, deputy chief of staff Kristie Canegallo, is a Springfield native. Melissa Steel King, wife of Education Secretary John King, is an education specialist who got her start in Boston public schools.

Not that the aforementioned Cambridge school went unrepresented. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, a former Harvard professor, and his wife, Stephanie, were on the list. And Samantha Power, ambassador to the United Nations and her husband, Concord native Cass Sunstein, have both been Harvard professors and were in attendance.

Jim O’Sullivan

In Maine, an unusual career trajectory

David Emery, a former Republican congressman, is now aiming a tad lower: He’s running for a seat in the Maine state Senate — a career move that’s rare, but not entirely unheard of in New England.

Emery, who represented Maine’s 1st District from 1975 to 1983, recently received his party’s nomination for the state Senate seat representing the Rockland area. The seat is now held by Democratic state Senator David Miramant, who is seeking reelection.

From the nation’s capital to the state capital is a curious trajectory — but Emery, who served in Governor Paul LePage’s budget department, could get some advice from his peers in New Hampshire. There he could chat with state Senator Jeb Bradley, a former two-term member of Congress. Or with Gordon Humphrey, who served two terms in the US Senate before his successful run for the New Hampshire Senate in 1990.

(A Boston Globe article at the time about Humphrey’s more humble ambitions that year described his campaigning in Bow, N.H., thusly: “From the marble halls of the US Senate, Gordon Humphrey came here to the dump. Under a glistening Saturday morning sky, the air redolent with the aroma of warm trash, Humphrey readily volunteered to lift big leaking sacks of garbage out of cars and into disposal bins.’’ He eventually won his race.)

In Maine, Congress-to-the-State-House is a slightly less common phenomenon. Maine media reports the last time it happened was 1880.

Felice Belman