Senate:
•MA-Sen: Now he's against it, instead of just "on" it. A truly pathetic saga for Scott Brown. While an actual "yes" vote for the Ryan budget would undoubtedly have hurt Brown more, the flip-flopping most certainly has not helped.
•NM-Sen: Lt. Gov. John Sanchez is expected to formally announce his campaign today, says Roll Call — which makes sense, since he just filed FEC paperwork yesterday. Will the personally wealthy Sanchez emerge as the conservative bulwark against libruhl Republican ex-Rep. Heather Wilson? Hopefully this primary will dish up some tasty cat fud.
•VA-Sen: Well whaddya know: Sen. Jim Webb is actually getting off his duff to help the guy who would succeed him, ex-Gov. Tim Kaine. Perhaps not literally: Webb sent out a fundraising email on Kaine's behalf. Still, a good sign, and hopefully indicative of more to come, seeing as Webb's people told The Hill this is "one part of his stepped up involvement" for Kaine.
Gubernatorial:
•KY-Gov: Party Unity, My Ass!
Republicans proclaimed unity Saturday after nominating David Williams for governor in Tuesday’s primary, but there were hints of cracks in that unity.Williams downed Louisville businessman and Tea Party favorite Phil Moffett by 10 points and Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw in the primary. He faces incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear in the fall. As they have after recent primaries, both winning and losing Republican primary candidates and party brass gathered at state headquarters to show they’re all on the same page.
But Moffett didn’t speak even though a spokeswoman for the party on Friday said he would. Neither did Holsclaw. Both joined Williams on stage after he publicly invited them. Before the event, Moffett said he hasn’t formally endorsed Williams, resisting the word endorse when asked by a reporter – but he still expressed a preference for Williams over Beshear.
P.S. Beshear has a new ad out, a positive bio spot featuring his wife.
•WV-Gov: Party Unity, My Ass!
An event initially billed as an opportunity for Republican gubernatorial candidates to publicly unite following the May 14 party primary may instead highlight some hard feelings in the party.Republican businessman Bill Maloney's campaign first announced the "unity breakfast" in an Election Day email. The event, hosted by state GOP Chairman Mike Stuart, is scheduled for this morning. …
It's clear that former Secretary of State Betty Ireland will not be there. A spokeswoman said she is out of town. Ireland finished second following negative ads from the Maloney campaign.
House:
•AZ-01: Harvard-educated attorney and local activist Wenona Benally Baldenegro says she's exploring a run for congress. She'd be the first American Indian woman to serve in the House. Ex-Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick has also said she plans to seek the Democratic nomination.
•CT-05: As expected, state House Speaker Chris Donovan filed paperwork with the FEC to enter the Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Chris Murphy. Several candidates are already in the race, including former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty, foreign policy analyst Michael Williams, and public relations exec Dan Roberti. The linked article also mentions that Roberti won an unusually early endorsement from the local branch of the Communication Workers of America last week, something which had Donovan grumbling.
•IL-08: Former state Deputy Treasurer and 2010 Comptroller candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi says he's considering a run to take on freshman GOPer Joe Walsh. Krishnamoorthi lost the Democratic primary for Comptroller last year to state Rep. David Miller by just one percent (47-46). He's also tight with one Barack Obama, having worked on his very first congressional campaign in 2000 and pretty much all of his races since then.
•NC-03: Not particularly newsworthy here, but Roll Call has an interesting profile on Rep. Walter Jones, who frequently departs from his fellow Republicans when it's time to cast votes on the House floor, particularly regarding Iraq. Despite his apostasy, Jones has somehow managed to weather primary challenges with aplomb, but you have to wonder if his luck will run out some day.
•NJ-07: Another interesting profile, this time from Newark Star-Ledger columnist Tom Moran on Rep. Leonard Lance. Moran says that Lance "has moved steadily to the right" since first getting elected in 2008 and goes on to make his case:
Lance, 58, says he hasn’t changed a bit, but facts are hard things to ignore. He once vehemently supported a cap-and-trade bill to fight climate change, and now he’s against it. He even voted to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of the power to regulate carbon emissions in more measured ways, giving aid and comfort to the troglodytes who see climate change as a hoax.A pro-choice Republican going way back, he voted recently to cut off all funding for Planned Parenthood, even those clinics that provide health care with no abortion services.
Moran also notes that Lance voted for the ultra-dystopian Scott Garrett/RSC budget — a plan so toxic that the GOP had to round up the votes to kill it. Definitely not the kind of record you'd expect from a supposed "Main Street Republican."
•OR-01: Usually it isn't good news when a Democrat declines to run for office, but in this case it just might be. Former state Sen. Ryan Deckert says he won't pile into the race to unseat troubled Rep. David Wu. Given that Brad Avakian's polling confirmed that Wu could win a plurality in a split field, I think we're definitely best off with a one-on-one race. However, at least two other major players are still hovering on the sidelines: state Rep. Brad Witt and state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici. I don't carry any particular brief for Avakian, but I do want to see Democrats unite around a single challenger.
•PA-04: Republican attorney Keith Rothfus says he'll seek a rematch against Rep. Jason Altmire, who narrowly beat him last year. Rothfus might wind up facing Rep. Mark Critz, though, if Critz and Altmire are thrown into a Dem-on-Dem primary thanks to redistricting, which is what most observers seem to expect. (PoliticsPA also notes that an earlier version of the linked story suggested that Rothfus could primary fellow GOP Rep. Tim Murphy. However, the Rothfus campaign denied that possibility.)
•WA-01: Even the New York Times has now taken notice of Dennis Kucinich's attempts to survive redistricting by parachuting over to Washington state. They caught up with Kucinich while he was actually doing some retail politicking at Seattle's Pike Place Market, amazingly enough. The article suggests that Kucinich — man, I can't believe I'm taking this seriously, but here we are — could seek Rep. Jay Inslee's 1st CD seat if Inslee, as expected, runs for governor. I don't know that that's going to go over well.
Other Races:
•Wisconsin Recall: The Government Accountability Board certified recall elections against Republicans Dan Kapanke, Randy Hopper, and Luther Olsen for July 12, rejecting some spurious GOP arguments about Democrats' filing paperwork. Further legal action could delay these elections, though. Also, a third Republican (with a long legal history of his own), David VanderLeest, says he plans to run against Dem Sen. Dave Hansen.
•Wisconsin Sup. Ct.: The GAB also certified the results of the Supreme Court recount yesterday, declaring Justice David Prosser the winner by 7,004 votes, down slightly from his original 7,316-vote lead after the original canvass — but obviously nowhere near enough to change the outcome. JoAnne Kloppenburg could still file a legal action contesting the results (she has until May 31 to do so), but the only reason to continue at this point would be to keep Prosser off the bench for as long as possible.
Grab Bag:
•Census: The Census has a bunch of new data out on the quintessentially American phenomenon of geographical mobility. Here's a tidbit: Of the 10% of Americans who changed residences in 2010, "seven in 10 of those people moved within the same county, nearly two in 10 moved from a different county within the same state, and about one in 10 moved to a different state." Much more at the link.
Redistricting Roundup:
•Los Angeles: A new tool lets you redistrict L.A.'s board of supervisors districts.
•Nebraska: At least if you're going to lose, go down fighting. Nebraska Democrats, a small minority in the state's unicameral legislature, had no hope of stopping the GOP's redistricting bill, but at least they threw up a roadblock in the form of a five-hour filibuster. The filibuster was eventually defeated by a strictly partisan 33-15 vote, which was the minimum needed. One Dem state senator says he thinks a VRA suit could get initiated on vote dilution grounds because some 9,000 minority citizens were moved out of the 2nd CD.
Relatedly, the AP has a piece out on an issue we've been discussing for months: whether Barack Obama will still try to compete for NE-02's lone electoral vote even if the district is redder. One issue they don't address is the fact that a chunk of southwestern Iowa is covered by Omaha's media market, so Obama will likely advertise there whether or not he thinks the 2nd district is competitive.
•Texas: Even though there are still a few days left in the legislative session, GOP Rep. Joe Barton claims that time has expired — and that, he says, is why he filed a rather vague-sounding lawsuit in state court over redistricting. In the past, Barton has pushed for hyper-aggressive gerrymandering as though the Voting Rights Act doesn't exist, so I can't wait to see what the map he plans to put forth via this suit winds up looking like. Republicans in the lege are also trying to finish up maps of their own. Even if they can't pass something, they at least want something they can show to a judge (even if it won't carry much if any legal weight).
•Utah: Another draw-your-own-map site, this time for Utah.
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