• Massachusetts: Candidate filing closed Tuesday in Massachusetts for major party congressional candidates (the deadline for state-level candidates passed a week earlier), but don't expect much action this cycle in either the Sept. 3 primary or Nov. 5 general election. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and each of the nine members of the Bay State's all-Democratic House delegation are seeking reelection, and none of them face any serious opposition.
It will be a while, though, before the state releases a list of primary candidates. Massachusetts requires state and federal candidates to submit a second batch of paperwork to state election officials by May 28 and June 4, respectively. Anyone who fails to complete this additional step won't appear on the primary ballot.
• NY-16: The Daily Beast's William Bredderman reports that Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman has subscribed to numerous conspiracy theorists on his personal YouTube account, which was active as recently as last month.
Bredderman says these channels include, but are not limited to, accounts that spread disinformation on behalf of the governments of China and Russia; a user "who killed a German citizen and provoked attacks on American businesses in Egypt"; and a Donald Trump backer who insists the U.S. is behind coverups involving extraterrestrials.
Bowman's team did not deny that Bredderman had correctly identified his personal YouTube account but sought to disavow knowledge of his account's subscriptions.
"I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know these accounts, and I haven't watched any of these videos," Bowman said in a statement. "There is a war going on that has killed tens of thousands of innocents and people here can't afford rent and groceries, I think people care more about that than some convoluted story about videos that I haven't even watched."
Bredderman previously reported in January that Bowman had used his old blog to spread conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 attacks, including through a "free verse" poem he published in 2011. The congressman, who faces a difficult primary against Westchester County Executive George Latimer on June 25, responded at the time that he does not believe such theories.
• LA Ballot: The Louisiana House of Representatives voted Tuesday to advance Republican Gov. Jeff Landry's plan to replace the current state constitution with a new governing document even though the governor has yet to explain exactly how he wants to transform state government.
However, convincing two-thirds of the House to vote Landry's way may have been the easier part of the governor's ongoing goal to consolidate even more power within his office. A supermajority in the 39-member Senate also needs to agree to a constitutional convention, and while the GOP holds a 28-11 edge there, its assent isn't guaranteed.
Senate President Cameron Henry in particular has expressed skepticism about Landry's plan, though he hasn't shot down the idea.
"I don't think it's on track or off track," Henry told NOLA.com's Stephanie Grace last month. "I still think members have a lot of unanswered questions." (The Republican who authored the bill that passed Tuesday, Rep. Beau Beaullieu, is Henry's college roommate.)
But Landry's allies removed one big source of concern for reluctant Republicans on Tuesday when they delayed the starting date for a convention from May 20 to Aug. 1. The current legislative session is set to last through June 3, and several senators complained about the final weeks overlapping with potential gathering to revise the constitution. Ultimately, all but one House Republican voted for the bill, while just four members of the Democratic minority voted in the affirmative.
However, it remains to be seen whether this adjustment will be enough to satisfy Henry, whom LAPolitics.com's Jeremy Alford recently identified as "[t]he only thing standing" in Landry's way.
If the Senate signs off on the House's bill, 171 delegates would convene for two weeks in the first half of August. Participants would include all 144 members of the legislature, while Landry would choose the other 27.
By contrast, most of the delegates to the 1973 convention that produced the current constitution were elected by voters. The Gambit, a local alt-weekly, also notes that delegates picked by the governor had to "reflect specific political and demographic interests," a mandate not included in this bill.
Approval of a new constitution following a convention would require the support of a simple majority of voters on Nov. 5. If "yes" were to prevail, Louisiana would be the first state to adopt a new state constitution since Rhode Island in 1986.
The governor and his backers have remained quiet about what they'd like this constitution to include or exclude even as they've played down the entire process.
"We are not rewriting the constitution," insisted Beaullieu, adding, "This is a refresh of the constitution."
That's not comforting to skeptics who have watched Landry, with the support of the GOP's supermajorities in the gerrymandered state legislature, push his ultra-conservative agenda and augment his powers during his first four months in office.
"The governor's influence is everywhere now," Alford told The Gambit. "It's like an octopus. His tentacles extend to the House, the Senate, the lobbying corps—everywhere."
• OK-04: The GOP firm Medium Buying tweeted Tuesday that insurance agency owner Paul Bondar is deploying close to $300,000 on TV and radio ads to boost his longshot bid against veteran Rep. Tom Cole in the June 18 Republican primary for Oklahoma's 4th District. A runoff would take place on Aug. 27 in the event that none of the candidates earned a majority in a field that also includes three other challengers.
While Bondar has attracted almost no attention up until now, the incumbent and his allies appear to be taking him at least somewhat seriously. Cole this week debuted his own commercial attacking his opponent, though Medium only tracked $86,000 in ads from him through Tuesday.
The firm also relays that a super PAC called Americans 4 Security is deploying a larger $215,000 to boost the congressman, who became chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee last month. However, we don't yet have a copy of its spot.
Bondar is one of four Republicans opposing Cole in the 4th District, a safely red seat based in the southern part of the state, and until this week, he looked just as anonymous as the other three challengers. Bondar spent every single cent of the $31,000 he self-funded through March and, because he raised nothing from donors, he ended the first quarter with exactly nothing in the bank.
According to Medium, though, Bondar still had access enough money this quarter to go on the air with an anti-Cole message. "Washington insider Tom Cole voted with Democrats for billions in new deficit spending," declares the narrator, continuing, "Paul Bondar opposes new federal spending and wants to cut it to stop inflation." The commercial, which was shared by Punchbowl, goes on to attack the 12-term incumbent for voting to fund Ukraine.
Cole's own commercial accuses Bondar of owning mansions in both Illinois, "where he didn't pay his taxes," and Texas, "where Bondar swore he lived when he voted just weeks ago." After displaying a picture showing that Bondar cast a vote in Texas' March 5 primary, the ad goes on to say the challenger "doesn't own anything in Oklahoma." The incumbent is also airing an ad depicting himself as a pro-Trump conservative.
Cole, who first won this seat in 2002, has never faced serious opposition for renomination. The congressman was in the national spotlight 16 years ago when he had the misfortune of leading the NRCC through an ugly 2008 cycle. Our predecessor site the Swing State Project had plenty of fun at his expense with the Tom Cole Deathwatch where, as The Hill wrote, we invited readers to guess how long it would take for him to lose his post.
Cole defied us naysayers by making it to the end of what was indeed a dire cycle for his party, but Minority Leader John Boehner dashed his hopes for redemption by backing Texas Rep. Pete Sessions' bid to lead the NRCC for 2010. Cole, though, continued to amass seniority in Congress, and last month he made the switch from chairing the House Rules Committee to leading the appropriations panel.