Senate:
• RI-Sen: Teabagging businessman Barry Hinckley, whom we've mentioned before, is sounding very much like a candidate—and very much like a teabagger. He's seems pretty positive about the Ryan Republican budget, and is calling out Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for supposedly "fear-mongering" about it. This is a fight we definitely want to have.
Gubernatorial:
• NV-Gov: PPP tested a rematch between new Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and his 2010 opponent Rory Reid. In a big exception to PPP's other similar polls, Sandoval suffers almost no slippage, winning by 51-41. Tom Jensen says that the weak Rory Reid's favorables have managed to drop even further than where they were last November.
• WV-Gov: Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin once again far outpaced the rest of the pack in fundraising, pulling in $777K in the last month, while his nearest opponent, House Speaker Rick Thompson, raised $267K (and loaned himself $106K). Other numbers at the link. Speaking of Tomblin, he has a new positive ad out, narrative by his wife. SoS Natalie Tennant, who lags badly in fundraising, also has a new spot.
House:
• NV-02: The DCCC is, for now, officially not endorsing any candidate in the special election, but I have yet to hear a single Democrat say they don't want to see the party rally around Treasurer Kate Marshall. Let's hope it happens.
• NY-13: We've been keeping tabs on this general theme for a while now, but Politico has a good summation of Rep. Mike Grimm's deliberate distancing from the teabaggers who helped get him elected in the first place. As a political matter, I think Grimm is making the right decision. While many Republicans are afraid of getting teabagged to death, in this case, I don't think these nuts have the power to bring Grimm down. So it makes sense for Grimm to spurn them, since it allows him to look more "moderate" when he faces actual voters next November.
Other Races:
• NJ-St. Sen.: Carl Lewis has been fighting his ballot eligibility battle on two fronts: state and federal. In addition to getting dinged by both a state trial and appellate court, a separate request to get restored to the ballot has been denied by a federal district court. Lewis is appealing in both cases: to the NJ Supreme Court in the former, and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the latter.
• Special Elections: From Johnny Longtorso:
As expected, Republicans easily held Wisconsin's AD-60 and AD-83. In AD-94, Steve Doyle picked up the seat for the Democrats by a 54-46 margin. Notably, this is the most Republican of the three Assembly districts within Dan Kapanke's Senate district, and despite being swingy, has been held by Republicans for the past 18 years.
In California's AD-04, Republican Beth Gaines won as expected, but Democrat Dennis Campanale had a respectable showing, only losing 55-45.
Chris Bowers has more on the Doyle victory.
Grab Bag:
• DNC: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was formally elected DNC chair yesterday. She takes over from—hah, no, you're wrong—Donna Brazile, who had actually served as interim chair for a couple of weeks. (Alright, I admit, I didn't realize that myself until the other day.)
• WATN?: Does it get more perfect that this? Former Missouri Senator and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has accepted a job as ethics counsel for Blackwater! A match truly made in the fifth bolgia of the eighth circle of hell.
Also, this is just unspeakably sad. You're going to have to click the link and watch the video.
Redistricting Roundup:
• Colorado: Even though this one seems all but certain to head to the courts, Republicans are claiming to offer an "olive branch" map… but of course Democrats say it's no such thing. You can see the GOP map here. Dems have also put out a further compromise map of their own (you can see it at the link)… but maybe it's all just posturing for the eventual legal battle? Redistricting in general has been so full of shocks and surprises that I'm just reluctant to try to predict what this all might mean.
• Missouri: The GOP-held legislature over-rode Gov. Jay Nixon's veto yesterday, meaning their map will become law. A fuller post will follow later today.
• North Carolina: Rep. Patrick McHenry, the GOP's key figure in the state's redistricting process, sounds like he's already running a victory lap. His stated goal is to create a third majority-minority district to imperil the white Democrats in North Carolina's delegation. I'll just let McHenry speak for himself:
“Republicans should pick up three seats under any fair and legal map,” McHenry said. “That is huge. No other states in the nation would gain as many Republican seats. This would be in a state that Barack Obama won in 2008 and where we have had a Democratic governor since 1992—the longest such period in the nation. A 9-4 delegation is pretty good and would attempt to avoid the risk of a bad year for Republicans. Clearly, Reps. Kissell and Miller are serving their final term.”
But at least one black Democrat (who knows a thing or two about redistricting battles under the VRA) is openly skeptical: Rep. Mel Watt, who seems to think such a district couldn't permissibly be created, and in any event is not legally required.
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