9:45 AM PT: Maine Voter Registration: A group called Protect Maine Votes just submitted over 68,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's office, in an effort to get the state's new law eliminating same-day voter registration placed on the November ballot for a repeal vote. (The GOP-backed law requires voters to register two days before any election, undoing 40 years of Maine tradition.) Organizers need 57,277 valid signatures.
10:03 AM PT: HI Redistricting: Hawaii's Reapportionment Commission released proposed preliminary maps last week for Congress and the state legislature. (You can view them all at the link). The commission was faced with two different federal plans and wound up choosing one which puts Rep. Colleen Hanabusa's hometown of Ko Olina into her 1st CD. Somewhat ironically, Hanabusa had been making plans to move into HI-01, and even put her home up for sale, but may reverse course since there'd be no point in doing so now. The commission must complete its final plans by Sept. 26.
10:11 AM PT: WV Redistricting: So, just to be clear, the West Virginia legislature passed its new congressional plan last Friday, and acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin says he'll sign the bill, perhaps late this week, or more likely next week. The lege also signed off on new state maps which wound up keeping half of all legislative seats in multi-member districts, contrary to (mostly Republican) wishes for universal single-member districts.
10:20 AM PT: IL-11, IL-08: I can't imagine more perfect optics. Republican Chris Lauzen, who is looking at a run in the 11th CD, still has to pay down a ton of campaign debt from his failed 2008 attempt to score the GOP nomination in the special election to succeed Denny Hastert (in what was then the 14th District). So who did he invite to headline a recent fundraiser for him? None other than Rep. Joe Walsh, the guy who is famously being sued for owing six figures in unpaid child support to his ex-wife.
And Walsh's situation looks like it could get worse rather than better. TPM points out that Walsh never listed any child support dues on the financial disclosure forms he's required to file as a member of Congress. He's really squeezed, though: Failing to disclose debts could bring the Ethics Committee down on his head, while filing an amended report would constitute an admission that he does indeed owe his former spouse money — something he's hotly denied.
10:33 AM PT: IL-17: Former state Rep. Mike Boland, who is 68, says he'll join the (already very large) Democratic field in the redrawn 17th. Boland ran for Lt. Gov. last year, coming in an abysmal fourth place with just 13% of the vote in the primary, which of course was won by none other than Scott Lee Cohen.
11:09 AM PT: NY-01: I've repeatedly referred to George Demos as the "third wheel" in last year's Republican primary for the right to challenge Rep. Tim Bishop, because for whatever reason, I had it stuck in my head that he finished last in what was a three-way affair. But as a commenter reminds me, Demos actually wound up in second place, with 30%, to Randy Altschuler's victorious 45%. It was Chris Cox who brought up the rear with 25%. (I mention this because, in case you missed it, Demos just announced that he'd square off against Altschuler once again this cycle.)
11:17 AM PT: TX-35: Aaron Blake has a fun contest going to "name that district" — in this case, he wants you to come up with a funny/clever name for Texas's new, crazy-ass looking 35th CD.
11:19 AM PT: NH-01: I'm always skeptical of these sorts of things amounting to anything, but Tea Partier Mike Malzone, who is also a former town councilor in Merrimack (pop. 25K), says he's creating an exploratory committee to look at a primary challenge to GOP Rep. Frank Guinta.
11:25 AM PT: OH-Sen: GOP Sen. Rob Portman just endorsed the non-campaign of non-candidate Josh Mandel, who still swears he is not running for the not-Senate. Amusingly, Mandel has a letter to the editor in the Cleveland Plain Dealer today lambasting Sen. Sherrod Brown for his vote in favor of the debt ceiling… but of course, Portman also voted "aye" on the bill.
12:01 PM PT: LA-SoS: They definitely aren't much for incumbency down in Louisiana, where term-limited state House Speaker Jim Tucker just announced his candidacy for Secretary of State — even though the sitting SoS, Tom Schedler, is also a Republican. (It's also remarkably late, considering the seat is up this fall, though that also seems par for the course for the Pelican State.) Admittedly, Schedler himself was never elected to the job — he took the reins from Jay Dardenne after Dardenne was elected Lt. Gov. in a special last year.
1:38 PM PT: Vemont: PPP has a bunch of miscellany, mostly related to how popular all of the state's elected officials are.
1:41 PM PT: MI Redistricting: As expected, Gov. Rick Snyder signed Michigan's new congressional map into law. Our original analysis of the plan (from back in June) can be found here.
2:35 PM PT: TX-35: Dem Rep. Lloyd Doggett has definitely hit on an interesting re-election strategy. In a recent speech, Doggett declared:
“I am announcing today that, if Rick Perry enters the race for president of the United States, I will, with your help, make it my mission to sound the alarm in every corner of our great country. America, don’t let Rick Perry mess with you the way he messed with Texas!”
His remarks (which you can see in full at the link) are actually pretty funny and biting. Doggett has been the victim of what commenter James Allen dubbed a "Perrymander"; the new 35th CD in which he plans to seek re-election is now heavily Dem (it went 63-36 Obama), but it's also heavily Hispanic, and Doggett will face a stiff challenge from state Rep. Joaquin Castro in the primary. Running hard against Perry seems like a clever way to rack up votes among Democratic partisans.
2:38 PM PT: MI-Sen: PPP has ex-Rep. Pete Hoekstra at 78% in a hypothetical GOP primary, with everyone else at irrelevant levels. However, I still think Clark Durant, the well-connected founder of a network of private Christian schools, could give Hoekstra a run for his money if he gets in the race. (Durant wasn't tested.)
3:23 PM PT: WV Redistricting: Unsurprisingly, West Virginia's new congressional map doesn't change the 2008 presidential results by CD one whit. The only difference between the new map and the old was to move Mason County from the 2nd District to the 3rd, which didn't affect things at all.
5:25 PM PT: New Hampshire: Good news to start the night: Democrat Bob Perry just won a special election to the NH state House, in a very swingish district that we'd gotten killed in last year.