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Senate:
• CT-Sen: EMILY's List finally endorsed Susan Bysiewicz — a seemingly overdue move which had me wondering if her weak fundraising was giving EMILY pause. Note, though, that they only added her to their "On the List" list, not their full-blown "Recommended" slate.
• MA-Sen: The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation just put together a (rather nice) "It Gets Better" video, which you can see at the link… the entire delegation save Scott Brown, that is.
Gubernatorial:
• LA-Gov: On the "Democrats still have no remotely plausible challenger to Bobby Jindal" front, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that businessman John George, who had previously filed for an unnamed "statewide" office and had lent himself $10 million, has since cancelled the loan — and isn't returning reporters' phone calls. Even if state Sen. Rob Marrioneaux (the only name still in the mix) gets in, I can't possibly see this one being competitive.
• NC-Gov: Some fundraising numbers out of North Carolina: Dem Gov. Bev Perdue raised $1.3 million in the first six months of the year and has the same amount on hand. Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, Perdue's opponent in all but name, pulled in "just under" $1 million and has $940K in the bank.
House:
• AR-02, AR-04: Two Democrats in two different races are declining to run for Congress. In the 2nd, former Vic Snyder chief of staff David Boling says he won't challenge GOP freshman Tim Griffin next year. And in the 4th, Chris Thomason, chancellor of the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope, says he won't seek the open seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Mike Ross. According to a piece by Dave Catanese, at least some local Democrats had thought Thomason was best name.
• CA-51: Former state Sen. Denise Ducheney says she's interested in running for Rep. Bob Filner's very-probably open seat. (Filner is running for mayor of San Diego next year, but I'm still not entirely certain if he can seek re-election as a fallback plan in case he doesn't advance to the November mayoral run-off.) Fellow Democrat Juan Vargas, who primaried Filner several times, has already said he's running, and interestingly, Vargas replaced Ducheney in the state Senate after she was term-limited out.
• IL-08: "Mom loves me more!" "No, she loves me more!" That's what the current slapfight in the IL-08 Democratic primary is starting to sound like — though I guess in this case, there are two mommy stand-ins. Dem Tammy Duckworth cited some nice things that former Reps. Melissa Bean and Debbie Halvorson had to say about her, and then kinda-sorta accused Raja Krishnamoorthi of suggesting they had endorsed him, even though they're both saying they love all their children equally plan to remain neutral. Krishnamoorthi fired back, saying he never made any such claim — but pointing out that Bean donated to his campaign. I just hope the rest of the primary isn't this dumb.
• IL-14: The Club for Growth just threw their backing to Republican freshman Joe Walsh — a pretty serious snub for fellow GOP first-termer Randy Hultgren, since they endorsed Walsh in the new 14th. That's nominally Hultgren's district, but Walsh (currently in the 8th CD) almost certainly has to run there in order to have any chance at continuing his political career.
• MI-07: Dem ex-Rep. Mark Schauer, who beat Tim Walberg in 2008 only to lose a rematch last year, says he won't try to win his old seat back. He cited several reasons for declining to run, including the fact that his hometown of Battle Creek was moved out of the 7th CD in redistricting (and into MI-03, held by GOP frosh Justin Amash).
• NV-02: Democrat Kate Marshall is out with two new ads in the special election, what I believer are her first of the campaign. They've got strong production values, and I like them both. One is a positive spot touting her accomplishments, and even though it touches on "gotta cut spending" themes which ordinarily make me groan, I think it's pretty well done. The second one, hitting Mark Amodei for raising taxes, is even better. Take a look:
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NY-19: Does cardiologist outrank ophthalmologist? I sure hope so! Rich Becker, a town councilman in Cortlandt (in Westchester County) who is also a heart doctor, says he is preparing to challenge freshman GOPer Nan Hayworth — who, as it happens, is also an eye doctor. David Freedlander of PolitickerNY also mentions several other possible Dem names who are in the mix: LGBT activist Sean Eldridge (husband of a Facebook co-founder); Westchester County legislator Mike Kaplowitz; former Democrats Abroad head Margo Miller; and Wappingers Falls (pop. 5K) Mayor Matthew Alexander.
• OR-01: Kari Chisholm does yeoman's work recapping yesterday's madcap series of events surrounding David Wu's resignation announcement. Of chief interest to DKos Elections Readers will be the names of possible candidates who could get in on both sides. For Democrats, nothing much has changed: Brads Avakian and Witt are still running, and state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici is still thinking about it. On the GOP side, I'll just quote Kari (who should be on your daily reading list if he's not already):
2010 nominee Rob Cornilles, Tea Party activists (and 2010 candidates) John Kuzmanich and Doug Keller, business owner Rob Miller, state Reps. Katie Eyre Brewer and Shawn Lindsay, and Molly Bordonaro (the 1998 nominee and former Ambassador to Malta). Sen. Bruce Starr reiterated his March decision not to run.
Meanwhile, Taegan Goddard suggests an awful possibility: "Could this be the new district Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is looking to run from?" Oy.
• PA-03: Back in March, Dem ex-Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, who lost in 2010 after a single term, said she was considering a rematch with freshman GOPer Mike Kelly, and had even spoken with the DCCC. The National Journal recently checked in with her, and she's saying pretty much the same thing: that she hasn't "completely ruled it out or jumped back in." She doesn't sound too excited to me, though I wonder if she'll stick to her previously-announced quasi-timetable (she said she didn't want to wait until the fall to announce).
• WA-01: State Rep. Marko Liias, someone who seems well-liked by progressives, said he's made up his mind about whether to seek Jay Inslee's open seat… but won't announce his decision until the end of this week.
Grab Bag:
• Voter Suppression: The good guys score a win: North Carolina's GOP-controlled state legislature failed to over-ride Gov. Bev Perdue's June veto of a voter ID bill. All Democrats in the House voted to sustain the veto.
Redistricting Roundup:
• FL Redistricting: While there are a lot of pathetic Democratic state legislators out there when it comes to redistricting, I'm not sure there's anyone in Congress more awful than Corrine Brown. She's still fighting Florida's "Fair Districts" amendments in court, and just held a breakfast fundraiser "[c]ause I have to pay my lawyer fees." Fortunately, there were "few visible contributors," according to the Orlando Sentinel.
• IL Redistricting: This is amusing, bordering on idiotic. Illinois Republicans, as expected, filed suit against the Dem-passed congressional map, alleging it violates the rights of Latinos (something at least theoretically cognizable before the law)… and Republicans (an "injury" almost certainly not remediable under the Supreme Court's jurisprudence). You can read the actual complaint here (PDF); while it doesn't cite any caselaw (complaints typically don't), plaintiffs allege that their first and fourteenth amendment rights have been violated as Republicans. Good luck with that. (If you're interested in more on this legal issue, check out the case of Vieth v. Jubelirer.)
• UT Redistricting: After conducting hearings around the state, it sounds like the GOP isn't going to try for the "pizza pie" plan, which would have cracked Salt Lake City into all four of Utah's congressional districts. But Republican State Senate President Michael Waddoups has a different plan, which you can see here: a district which keeps SLC intact but jogs to the rural west with an almost airstrip-straight dog-leg. Local Democrats sound unhappy, but it may be that the GOP is trying to draw an ideal district for Jim Matheson, to dissuade him from running for Senate or governor. Of course, they could just be trying to give Matheson what they think will be a difficult district.
• WV Redistricting: We haven't been able to find a copy of the map yet, but Dem state Sen. Herb Snyder is proposing a new congressional plan which would put veteran GOPer Shelley Moore Capito in the same district as Republican frosh David McKinley. The map apparently has "the favor of Senate Majority Leader John Unger." Click a link for a description of the plan.