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Leading Off:
• WI Recall: Yeah, baby! As I'd hoped, Wisconsin Democrats are in fact planning on more state Senate recalls, to go along with their efforts to recall Gov. Scott Walker. Indeed, Dem chair Mike Tate says ""It would be irresponsible of the party to not jump on that opportunity." The Journal Sentinel identifies three initial targets, Sens. Pam Galloway of Wausau, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls and Van Wanggaard of Racine, and adds that Democrats may go after others as well. Just based on the numbers alone, Dale Schultz could also wind up on the list, though he has long cultivated a very "moderate" profile and is generally thought to be pretty popular.
But what's good for the donkey, of course, is also good for the elephant. Republicans want to pile on a couple of recalls as well—though fortunately, they don't have as many viable targets as we do. They're mainly talking about targeting Julie Lassa (whom they failed to file enough signatures against this year) and Kathleen Vinehout, but both sit in districts that John Kerry won. GOP Senate Majority Leader also suggested they might try to recall Minority Leader Mark Miller, which we should hope they try, since Miller sits in a very blue seat. Anyway, it's game on once more!
3Q Fundraising:
• CT-Sen: Rep. Chris Murphy (D): $650K raised, $2 mil cash-on-hand
• IL-08: Raja Krishnamoorthi (D): $314K raised, $636K cash-on-hand; Tammy Duckworth (D): $477K raised (revised upward from $386K)
• IN-Sen: Sen. Richard Lugar (R): $842K raised, $3.8 mil cash-on-hand ($3.2 mil avail. for primary)
• KY-Gov (since 5/17): Gov. Steve Beshear (D): $4 mil raised, $1 mil cash-on-hand; David Williams (R): $1 mil raised, $262K cash-on-hand
• MT-Sen: Sen. Jon Tester (D): $1.2 mil raised, $3.1 mil cash-on-hand
• NC-07: Rep. Mike McIntyre (D): $225K raised, $550K cash-on-hand; David Rouzer (R): $200K raised (in six weeks), $193K cash-on-hand; Ilario Pantano (R): $65K raised, $29K cash-on-hand
• OH-Sen: Sen. Sherrod Brown (D): $1.25 mil raised, $4.2 mil cash-on-hand
• RI-Sen: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D): $550K raised, $2.6 mil cash-on-hand
• RI-01: Rep. David Cicilline (D): $202K raised; Brendan Doherty (R): $130K raised; John Loughlin (R): $23K raised
• TX-Sen: Ted Cruz (R): $1.1 mil raised, $2.4 mil cash-on-hand
• VA-Sen: Tim Kaine (D): $1.3 mil raised, $2.5 mil cash-on-hand
• WI-Sen: $738K raised, $1.5 mil cash-on-hand (Baldwin formally entered the race on Sept. 6)
Plus a whole bunch more numbers from The Hotline in this roundup.
Senate:
• HI-Sen: Another union for Dem Rep. Mazie Hirono: The 6,500-strong Hawaii Carpenters Union, described as "the state's largest private-sector construction union."
• MA-Sen: If you're going to plagiarize from someone's web site, why the hell would you steal from Liddy Dole, of all people? Yet that appears to be exactly what Scott Brown's web team did. As David Schraub zinged on Twitter, the Brown campaign must have "[f]igured no one'd be in position to recognize it."
• NE-Sen: This interesting article from the New York Times answers two questions that had been lurking the back of my mind about those ads the Nebraska Democratic Party has been running on behalf of Sen. Ben Nelson. First, where did the NDP get all that money, some $600K or so? Turns out they mostly got it from the DSCC. Secondly (and this is the focus of the piece), how is it that Nelson, who appears prominently in footage shot specifically for these ads, able to legally coordinate with the state party? It turns out that (as election law expert Rick Hasen puts it) we're sort of in a brave new world here:
[Nelson campaign manager Paul Johnson] and other Democrats said the ads do not run afoul of the rules in part because they do not come within 90 days of next year’s election — a blackout period for coordinating efforts — and they deal with “issues” without expressly urging Nebraskans to vote for Mr. Nelson.
The "issue" dodge has long been used, but the coordination here is unusual. As Hasen notes, though, it doesn't appear to be illegal. Karl Rove's American Crossroads has asked the FEC for an advisory opinion on the matter, so if this passes muster, I expect we'll see a lot more like this.
Gubernatorial:
• NC-Gov: Well, this oughta give any would-be primary upstarts some pause: Every Republican member of North Carolina's congressional delegation just back former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory in his gubernatorial bid.
• LA-Gov: I'm surprised anyone even paid for such a poll, but there it is: Clarus tested the governor's race for local news station WWL-TV and found GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal leading his closest opponent, Democrat Tara Hollis, by a comical 57-5.
House:
• CT-05: Add one more union endorsement for Democratic state House Speaker Chris Donovan: The Connecticut State Council of Machinists, which counts "more than 20,000 members and retirees" in the state.
• IL-12: Three more Democrats say they won't run for retiring Rep. Jerry Costello's seat: State Rep. Tom Holbrook, St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly, and St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern. I'm wondering if these quick disavowals of interest are a sign that ex-state Rep. Jay Hoffman will indeed follow through on possible plans to switch from the 13th CD race to this one instead.
• IL-17: As expected, former state Rep. Mike Boland has dropped out of the congressional race and will instead run for state Senate. I don't think Boland was likely to have a huge impact in the House contest, but it sounds like this move sets up a major conflagration in the Democratic primary for the legislative seat he's now gunning for. Click the link for some entertaining color.
• Iowa: PPP has some favorability numbers for Iowa's entire House delegation, as well as former First Lady Christie Vilsack, who is running in the new 4th CD. Be cautioned, though, that Tom is dividing a normal-sized sample four ways, so the per-district sample sizes are going to be quite small.
• NV-01: Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford just announced that he will run for Congress next year. Though Nevada's maps have yet to be redrawn, we're putting this down under NV-01 because Horsford specifically said he hopes to succeed Rep. Shelley Berkley. Horsford, just 38, is the state's first black majority leader—and more remarkably was just the fourth black senate Senator in Nevada history when he ascended to his current leadership post in 2008.
• SC-07: Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela had been considering a run in South Carolina's brand-new 7th CD, but given how red the seat is, it's hardly a surprise that the first-term Democrat has opted to seek re-election to his current post instead.
Other Races:
• KY-Auditor: Adam Edelen, the Democratic candidate for state Auditor in Kentucky, is up with his first ad, a bio/intro spot:
Grab Bag:
• DCCC: The DCCC has put out a new list of Democratic candidates it's highlighting—but most definitely not endorsing, since they include multiple candidates running for the same seat (e.g., Patrick Murphy and Lois Frankel in FL-22). I've organized the list into spreadsheet form here. One question: Do you think CA-41, which is an incumbent-less open seat right now, should be regarded as a D-held or R-held district, for the purposes of counting pickups & holds if we were to win it? (Dem Mark Takano is currently seeking the seat.)
• Media Markets: Here's a fun link that I've kept bookmarked for years and have occasionally made reference to. It contains maps of all TV markets in every state — information that is otherwise pretty hard to find. Great for trying to figure out where politicians need to advertise to get the coverage they wants.
Redistricting Roundup:
• NM Redistricting: New Mexico's Supreme Court consolidated all of the state's redistricting litigation in Santa Fe, as Democrats had asked (and which Republicans had opposed). They assigned the entire docket to retired Judge James Hall, who was originally appointed by Republican Gov. Gary Johnson in 1995 but won re-election in 1996 as a Democrat, for whatever that's worth.
• TX Redistricting: If you've been following Texas's redistricting saga closely, you know that the three-judge panel in San Antonio is in the process of adopting an interim map for next year's congressional elections, having previously ruled that the legislature-passed map could not go into effect. Parties to this massive case have begun submitting their proposals, which Michael Li directs us to at the link. The deadline for submissions is Monday.
• UT Redistricting: Republicans are trying to get their troubled redistricting efforts back on track—you'll recall that the state House and Senate split on the new congressional map, with the House complaining the map didn't screw Dem Rep. Jim Matheson enough—by going back to the drawing board. The House has actually abandoned the extreme map it had originally passed and is now working on two modifications of the Senate plan, Sumsion 15 and Sumsion 16… not that the Senate plan is any great shakes for us, either.