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Leading Off:
• PA Redistricting: On Tuesday afternoon, Pennsylvania Republicans finally unleashed their new congressional redistricting plan, and wow is it ever an unholy mess:
(click for larger)
To see what I mean, take a look at this detail map of the southeastern part of the state—and in particular, check out the dark green 7th CD (home of Republican freshman Pat Meehan):
You can also explore PDF versions
of the whole state and Pennsylvania's
southwestern corner.
Since the GOP controls the proverbial redistricting trifecta—state House, state Senate, and governor's mansion—these maps are unlikely to change much if it at all before final passage. To understand what these new lines mean for the 2012 elections, I strongly encourage to read David Jarman's district-by-district analysis at Daily Kos Elections.
Senate:
• DE-Sen, -Gov, -AL: Businessman Glen Urquhart, the very unsuccessful Republican candidate for Delaware's lone House seat last year, had been toying with runs for either the Senate or governor, or a possible rematch against Rep. John Carney. But perhaps sensing how difficult all of those options would be, he instead decided to run for state Senate, which is an interesting enough story in and of itself. (Click the first link if you'd like to get down in the weeds on that one.)
• NC-Sen: In the middle of his pile of miscellany about the North Carolina legislature, Tom Jensen includes a 2014 head-to-head between Dem Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, who is thought to be gearing up for a run. Hagan leads 46-34, in large part due to Tillis being largely unknown.
• TX-Sen: Not sure I really understand this move, since the GOP primary is about as crowded as they come (both in terms of money and candidate stature). But ESPN analyst and former NFL running back Craig James says he plans to toss his helmet into the pile. James played college football at Southern Methodist University, based in Dallas.
Gubernatorial:
• VA-Gov: PPP took an early look at the nascent Republican gubernatorial primary between establishment choice Bill Bolling, the Lt. Gov. who has been patiently waiting his turn, and tea party favorite Ken Cuccinelli, the upstart attorney general who is trying to jump Bolling's place in line. Unsurprisingly (to me, at least), it's Cooch who has the lead, 44-25, thanks to his much higher name recognition (he's gotten a lot of face time thanks to his leadership in the lawsuits against healthcare reform). I have a feeling Bolling is going to be feeling pretty bitter come 2013.
House:
• IL-08: Tammy Duckworth says she's received donations from a number of Democratic big boppers: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Steny Hoyer, as well as caucus chair John Larson, the third-ranking Democrat in the House. Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, had previously given to Duckworth in the third quarter. While he won't be able to match her in terms of one-of-a-kind names like these, I'll be very interested to see if Duckworth's primary opponent, Raja Krishnamoorthi, keeps pace in overall fundraising.
For his part, Krishnamoorthi just announced that he'd secured the endorsement of IBEW Local 134, a 14,000-strong union in the Chicago area. They're the sixth union to get behind Raja.
• OR-01: There's one new detail in Kyle Trygstad's report on the OR-01 special election, which is that, in his words, "the NRCC has no plans to invest in this race." Of course, they didn't invest in NY-09, either, but still won. Anyhow, we'll know a lot more by the end of this week: Daily Kos is going into the field with PPP.
• PA-07: Aw, major bummer. Former Philadelphia school safety watchdog Jack Stollsteimer says he won't run against freshman GOPer Pat Meehan. Stollsteimer was a particularly interesting potential candidate because, as we noted all the way back in March when his name first surfaced, he had served as Meehan's press spokesperson a prosecutor under Meehan for many years while Meehan was Delaware Co. DA and later U.S. Attorney. Very quickly into Meehan's tenure as a congressman, though, Stollsteimer soured on his old boss, and the DCCC tried to recruit him. But now, instead, he says he's looking at the open-seat race for auditor, which is a statewide position. [UPDATE: Stollsteimer was never a press aide for Meehan, but did regularly speak to the press about prosecutions.]
Redistricting Roundup:
• CO Redistricting: Another redistricting win for Democrats in Colorado: Not long after accepting a Democratic-drawn congressional map, the state supreme court also gave its approval to new legislative maps that had passed through the state's redistricting commission on the strength of Democratic votes, plus a tiebreaker's. The high court had rejected the panel's initial plan, saying it split too many counties, but the revised version passed muster.
• OH Redistricting: A group called Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting has published a new report on how the state's redistricting process went down, accusing Republicans of shrouding it all in secrecy. What's interesting is that they've obtained tons of documents, including emails sent between mapmakers, via open records requests and posted them all to their website—just click the link to explore. ProPublica has more.
• RI Redistricting: Wow, this is unusual—and nasty. Typically, it's more senior members of a state's delegation who hold more sway during redistricting, but that seems reversed in Rhode Island's case. A new proposal (warning: large PDF) from the state's redistricting commission would benefit freshman Rep. David Cicilline by moving Republican-leaning towns out of his 1st district and into the 2nd CD seat of veteran Rep. Jim Langevin, a fellow Democrat.
Langevin's people are pissed, calling Cicilline's claims that he hasn't "interfered" in the process "blatantly disingenuous." They're also pointing out that the map would shift 125,000 citizens, when only 7,200 need to be moved to preserve population equality between the two districts. While Langevin is almost certainly invulnerable in any general election, thanks to his anti-choice views, he received only 62% in the 2006 primary and just 57% in 2010. So I'm guessing he's worried about another challenge from the left, in a district that may contain a bunch of unfamiliar turf.
• TX Redistricting: As Michael Li puts it, the San Antonio court hearing to deal with the fallout from the Supreme Court's stay of the interim court-drawn maps was expected "to be a short hearing" on Tuesday morning but "turned into an all-day affair set to continue Thursday and Friday." Republicans and Democrats did reach some agreements about the filing deadline, which had been scheduled for this Thursday but was extended until Monday. Legislative and congressional candidates can file now, but filing will be re-opened once we have final maps. (Click the link if you want the nitty-gritty.)
However, no compromise has yet been reached about the primary: Whether to split it into two or keep it as one, and what date or dates on which to hold it. However, Kath Haenschen says that issue won't get resolved until a hearing on January 12! So sit tight—and in the meantime, you can check out Kath's post, which has much, much more analysis of the whole situation.
Finally, though everyone's attention is, of course, focused on San Antonio, the DC panel hearing the state of Texas' preclearance case just scheduled a trial for Jan. 17 through Jan. 26. That's a week after the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the interim court-drawn maps they stayed last week.