The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● AL-Sen: On Friday, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore told a conservative radio show that he was “seriously considering” seeking the GOP nod for another campaign against Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. Moore was Team Red’s nominee in the 2017 special and lost 50-48 after multiple women accused him of preying on them when they were teenagers. Moore never conceded defeat to Jones (nor has he conceded his 2006 and 2010 primary losses for governor) and continued to raise money for what he called an “election integrity program” months after that contest.
Campaign Action
Moore began making noises about running last month, with Jones all but daring him to jump in. Unsurprisingly, national Republicans had the opposite reaction, with the NRSC’s executive director telling the Washington Examiner, “The NRSC’s official stance is ABRM: anyone but Roy Moore.”
It’s tough to see Moore winning the GOP nod again after all that happened in 2017. It doesn’t help him that Alabama requires a runoff in primary contests where no one earns a majority of the vote, so he couldn’t just get through a crowded field to win with only a plurality of the vote.
However, a Moore-Jones rematch isn’t something we can rule out. Moore has long had a solid base of support among Alabama’s numerous social conservative voters, and that may not have changed even after the 2017 race. Moore has always claimed that the numerous women who accused him were part of a conspiracy against him, and plenty of his fans, including one in the White House, agreed with him.
Still, that doesn’t mean Donald Trump will be so keen to see Moore run again. While Trump ardently supported him in the general election even after his accusers came forward, he’s used Moore as a cautionary tale since then. Most notably, in a 2018 primary for New York’s 11th Congressional District, Trump tweeted his support for incumbent Dan Donovan. Trump also implored voters to reject former Rep. Mike Grimm, who had spent seven months in prison for tax evasion, telling them that Donovan “will win for the Republicans in November...and his opponent will not. Remember Alabama.” (Donovan won, but contrary to Trump’s prediction, he lost in in November to Democrat Max Rose.)
Trump can be incredibly fickle with whom he views as a friend and who he sees as an enemy, but if he too remembers Alabama, it could be very tough for Moore to take the GOP nod again. Moore’s supporters (as well as Democrats who hope he’ll be the GOP nominee again) will certainly remember that in 2017, Moore won the GOP nomination even though Trump was supporting appointed Sen. Luther Strange. However, Trump still spoke well of Moore throughout that campaign, even saying during what was supposed to be a rally for Strange that he “might have made a mistake” by not backing Moore instead.
Things could go very differently, though, in a primary where Trump was actually opposing Moore. In today’s environment, where a tweet from Trump is often the biggest factor in deciding who wins or loses a GOP primary, that distinction could make all the difference.
Senate
● TX-Sen: Democratic Houston City Councilor Amanda Edwards told the Texas Tribune on Friday that she was giving "very serious consideration" to a Senate bid, and that she didn't have a timeline for deciding.
Edwards won her first campaign in 2015 when she was elected to one of Houston's five citywide council seats by a 62-38 margin. After Hurricane Harvey devastated the city in 2017, Edwards led an effort to identify and contact low-income flood victims who had stopped answering calls from people trying to assist them.
House
● GA-06: Former Rep. Karen Handel's old campaign strategist said back in January that she was mulling a comeback bid, and Handel herself confirmed on Wednesday that she was giving "very strong consideration" to running to reclaim the seat she lost last year to Democrat Lucy McBath.
If Handel runs, she'll need to get through a GOP primary against state Sen. Brandon Beach, who announced he was running in late January. Several other Republicans have been mentioned as possible candidates, but no one else has stepped up yet. This district backed Trump 48-47, and Handel lost to McBath 50.5-49.5 as Democrat Stacey Abrams was carrying this suburban Atlanta seat 51-48 in the gubernatorial race.
● NC-09: The Charlotte Observer's Jim Morrill said Thursday that GOP state Rep. Dean Arp has been "making calls" ahead of a possible bid. The filing deadline for the special election is March 15.
● Congress: On Friday, House Democrats passed the For the People Act, the most far-reaching voting rights legislation to strengthen democracy since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This groundbreaking bill, which was given the symbolically important designation of "HR 1," aims to preserve and expand the right to vote, reform campaign finance laws to deter corruption, and change the way the election system works by banning gerrymandering at the federal level.
The bill passed exactly along party lines, demonstrating just how hostile national Republicans are to the idea of protecting the right to vote in free and fair elections. That's why it doesn't stand a chance of becoming law so long as Mitch McConnell is in charge of the Senate, since he has vowed not to even bring it up for a vote. However, the legislation's passage underscores how serious Democrats are about protecting our democratic institutions, and it could become law if Democrats gain control of the Senate and presidency in 2020.
As we explained when the bill was introduced, the proposal takes a four-pronged approach to protecting free and fair elections by (1) removing barriers to expand access to voting; (2) securing the integrity of the vote by mandating paper ballots; (3) establishing public financing in House elections to level the playing field; and (4) banning congressional gerrymandering by requiring that every state create a nonpartisan redistricting commission.
You can find an extensive list of the For the People Act's major provisions in last week's edition of Daily Kos Elections' Voting Rights Roundup.
Mayoral
● Chicago, IL Mayor: On Friday, former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot received an endorsement from Willie Wilson, who finished fourth in the primary with 11 percent of the vote and did well in predominately black wards on the South and West Sides.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Lightfoot's opponent in the April 2 general election, didn't waste much time reminding voters about a Lightfoot tweet from less than a month ago where she'd declared, "No amount of money can paper over the fact that @DrWillieWilson is a proud, Trump and Rauner supporting Republican who supports horrible policies that will end up costing regular Chicagoans much much more in the long run." Lightfoot said Friday in response that she had come to know Wilson during the race and the two "fundamentally" agree on "the absolute, urgent necessity to invest in our neighborhoods to change people's lives and to give them opportunity and hope."
On Thursday, Lightfoot also went up with her first TV spot against Preckwinkle. The narrator, after first denouncing Preckwinkle's earlier negative spot against Lightfoot, ties her to indicted Alderman Ed Burke, who caused Preckwinkle's campaign plenty of headaches in the primary. The ad also goes after Preckwinkle over the soda tax that she passed in 2017 but that the board of commissioners soon voted to repeal under pressure from the beverage and restaurant industry.
● Phoenix, AZ Mayor: Voters in America's fifth-largest city will go to the polls on Tuesday for the second round of the special election to succeed Democrat Greg Stanton, who resigned in May to successfully run for Congress. Back in November, Kate Gallego led fellow Democrat Daniel Valenzuela by a wide 45-26 margin, but because she didn't take a majority, the two former city councilors are facing off again four months later. Stanton's mayoral term ends in April of 2021, so whomever wins will need to face the voters again soon.
Gallego, the former wife of local Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, would be the second woman ever elected mayor of Phoenix, while Valenzuela would be its first Latino leader. The Arizona Republic's Jessica Boehm writes that Valenzuela is largely being backed by the city's "traditionally influential City Hall groups" including the local Chamber of Commerce, public safety unions, the United Food and Commercial Workers union, and several former mayors. Valenzuela, who is also hoping to win over local Republicans, announced on Thursday that he had the support of Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain.
Gallego, by contrast, has the support of EMILY's List and Planned Parenthood, as well as the Sierra Club. Boehm writes that she also has some "traditionally more conservative groups" including some local law enforcement organizations and the Phoenix Association of Realtors.
The two Democrats have similar voting records, but they differ when it comes to public financing of sports facilities. In January, well after both Gallego and Valenzuela had resigned from the council to run for mayor, the city committed $150 million to renovate the Phoenix Suns' Talking Stick Resort Arena. Valenzuela supported the deal, and he also helped broker a previous agreement that kept the Milwaukee Brewers' spring training facility in the city, which Boehm describes as "one of the most taxpayer-friendly in Arizona professional sports deals." Gallego has opposed both deals, arguing that city resources should not go to supporting sports teams.
This divide has also played out in TV commercials. A dark money group called Revitalize Arizona has run ads hitting Valenzuela over the Talking Stick deal, declaring that he "supports giving out tax dollars to billionaires." At the same time, this group has been advertising in a city council race and praised a candidate for supporting this very deal.
Boehm writes that, according to the Secretary of State's office, Revitalize Arizona is entirely funded by another PAC called Residents for Accountability, which aided Democratic statewide candidates in 2014 and is largely funded by the political arm of the local pipe traders union. Weirdly, Residents for Accountability also received a $50,000 contribution from Suns owner Robert Sarver―the very "billionaire" referenced in their attack ad against Valenzuela―in early February.
However, Sarver contributed twice that amount to aid Valenzuela. Another group called Moving Phoenix Forward has been running TV ads going after Gallego for voting against a property-tax increase in 2016, with the spots featuring firefighters and police officers saying that she voted against funding public safety. This group is largely funded by Valenzuela's allies at the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and International Association of Firefighters. Sarver donated another $100,000, with most of it coming the day after Revitalize Arizona purchased ad time for their anti-Valenzuela (and by extension anti-Sarver) spot.
● Tampa, FL Mayor: City Councilor Harry Cohen, who finished third in Tuesday's primary, endorsed former Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor on Friday for the April 23 general election. Castor finished first in the primary with 48 percent of the vote while wealthy businessman David Straz edged Cohen 16-12 for second place.
Grab Bag
● Where Are They Now?: New York Republican Ed Mangano, who served as Nassau County executive from 2010 until last year, was convicted on corruption charges on Friday. Mangano was found guilty of bribery and wire fraud, though he was acquitted of extortion. Both Mangano and his wife, Linda Mangano, were also found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Prosecutors had alleged that Ed Mangano had taken bribes from a self-described "restaurant mogul" named Harendra Singh, which included a $454,000 "no-show" job for Linda Mangano, in exchange for steering government contracts his way. Prosecutors also argued that the county executive had pressured officials in the town of Oyster Bay into indirectly backing massive loans for Singh.
Mangano's conviction, which he has vowed to appeal, caps off a volatile political career in this large Long Island County. In 2009, Mangano, who was a member of the Nassau County Legislature, challenged Democratic County Executive Tom Suozzi in 2009. Suozzi had made history back in 2001 by becoming the first Democrat to become county executive in three decades, a win that dealt a massive defeat to the once-almighty Nassau County Republican Party. (For more on the fall of the Nassau GOP, check out Steve Kornacki's excellent 2011 article.)
While Suozzi had gone down in flames in the 2006 gubernatorial primary against Eliot Spitzer and was now running for re-election in the midst of the Great Recession, he looked like a sure bet to win a third term three years later. However, Mangano unseated Suozzi by 386 votes in a shocker. Suozzi had $1 million left in his war chest after that campaign, a strong indication that he didn't take this campaign as seriously as he should have. Years later, Suozzi would admit that he had underestimated Mangano's chances.
Mangano quickly got started on the wrong foot, and the state seized control of Nassau County's finances a year into his tenure; Mangano responded by running ads in 2011, well ahead of his re-election campaign, that demonized his "opponents." Suozzi came back for a rematch in 2013 and blamed the incumbent for running up the county's debt. Mangano ran commercials praising him for not raising taxes and for his work in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, and he won by a wide 59-41 in a result that foreshadowed the national Democratic Party's problems for the following year.
However, Suozzi and Mangano's political fortunes dramatically reversed in 2016. Suozzi successfully ran for New York's 3rd Congressional District, while Mangano, his wife, and Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto were indicted. Mangano wanted to run for a third term in 2017, but the county GOP made it very clear they didn't want him as their standard bearer.
Mangano threatened to run as an independent but eventually just retired, and Democrat Laura Curran won a competitive contest to succeed him. The Manganos and Venditto went to trial the following May, and Venditto was acquitted. The first trial ended without a verdict for the Manganos, but they weren't so lucky on Friday.