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Senate:
• NE-Sen: Is Mike Huckabee trying to set himself up favorably for 2016? He just endorsed AG Jon Bruning in the race to take on Dem Sen. Ben Nelson, so maybe Huck's hoping for payback waaay down the line.
• NM-Sen: The GOP primary has turned nasty really fast. Ex-Rep. Heather Wilson re-posted some state senator's statement on her Facebook page that called for her opponent, John Sanchez, to resign from his post as Lt. Gov. (Amusingly, the claim is that the LG post is so important, the job needs full-time attention.) Also, can anyone tell me why Wilson's website is little more than a splash page? I guess that's not too surprising, given the fate that's befallen her old for-Senate web page.
Meanwhile, on the Dem side, the United Transportation Union endorsed Rep. Martin Heinrich over Auditor Hector Balderas.
• WI-Sen: Ex-Gov. Tommy Thompson unexpectedly called in to a radio talk show to argue that he was always an opponent of Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan (even though he previously said he supported mandates). This means Thompson is exactly where he wants to be: on the defensive (the place every politician loves getting trapped).
On the same call, Thompson also called the Club for Growth "liars" and claimed he'd given "150 speeches" opposing HCR. He then later talked on the phone with CFG prez Chris Chocola, who more or less said that when he asked Thompson to back up his assertion, Thompson said the dog ate all 150 speeches. I'm telling you: Not only is Thompson not ready for primetime, he isn't even ready for late-nite infomercials.
Gubernatorial:
• FL-Gov: I think Lady Gaga had Rick Scott in mind when she crooned, "I want your ugly, I want your disease" — because he sure as hell has both. Quinnipiac now has Scott down to a comical 29-57 job approval rating, which makes his 35-48 numbers from April look downright beautiful. The Miami Herald notes that Scott's approvals are the worst of any governor in the six states Quinnipiac polls, so that includes fellow Republicans John Kasich, Tom Corbett, and Chris Christie. Like I said, ugly!
• IN-Gov: Democratic state Senate Leader Vi Simpson said she wouldn't seek her party's gubernatorial nomination on Tuesday, which is welcome news for former House Speaker John Gregg, since this gives him a clear path to the Dem nod.
• TX-Gov: This is just getting too lulzy for me to handle anymore: Now Rick Perry is talking himself up as possible presidential material. I'm just not sure which country he has in mind, though, since this guy advocated secession from the United States.
• WI-Gov: PPP tests the recall question once more, and finds a slight uptick in favor of yanking Scott Walker, with voters approving the idea by a 50-47 margin (up from 48-48 in February). Even better, these numbers don't matter: all you need is enough signatures to put a recall on the ballot. And if that happens, look out: Russ Feingold leads Walker by a 52-42 margin, while Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is on top 50-43. Walker's job approvals help explain this, since they've moved to 43-54 (from 46-52). As Tom Jensen notes, the heartening sign is that Walker continues to suffer even without the glare of the national spotlight on him. (Also, with respect to the legislative recalls, voters say they prefer Democratic control of the state Senate by a 50-42 margin.)
House:
• MN-08: Duluth City Councilman Jeff Anderson, whom we've mentioned in the past, is officially going to challenge GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack. He joins ex-state Sen. Tarryl Clark in the Democratic field. Of course, what Cravaack's district winds up looking like is totally up in the air (see redistricting bullet below).
• NV-02: Time to say hasta la vista to Sharron Angle: She says she won't participate in the special election regardless of what form it takes. Obviously she wasn't going to get picked by the state GOP, but even if the most recent court ruling is over-turned and we go back to a "ballot royale," Angle says she wants no part of the race. She does hold out hope that she might seek office again in the future. Perhaps she could even run in the regularly-scheduled election next year. In any event, according to the SoS's new timetable (PDF), the parties have until June 30 to designate their nominees. The election is on Sept. 13.
• NY-26: Heh. And LOL.
Grab Bag:
• Voter Suppression: Ohio Republicans look likely to pass a bill which would shorten the state's early voting period, under the guise of saving money (cough*bullshit*cough). Amazingly, one version of the law also "gets rid of a requirement that poll workers direct a voter who is in the wrong precinct to the correct precinct." I'd like to see the justification for that.
Meanwhile, Scott Walker signed a punitive new voter ID bill into law, though a court challenge is possible. I think the immediate response to this sort of thing is that Dems in states we control need to pass the reverse version: legislation which allows same-day voter registration, makes election day a public holiday, and permits permanent vote-by-mail without any excuse needed.
• Ryan's Curse: Five Republicans defected on the Paul Ryan budget vote in the Senate: Scott Brown, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and Olympia Snowe. Both Brown and Snowe are up for re-election this cycle, though I think Snowe perhaps made the more dangerous choice, since she's more vulnerable in a GOP primary than in the general election. Orrin Hatch and Dick Lugar, both facing teabaggings, voted yes, though in Lugar's case, he's set himself up for a nice stark contrast with Dem Joe Donnelly, who of course voted against Ryan in the House. And finally, Dean Heller enjoyed the distinction of becoming the only idiot who managed to vote for Ryan twice – once in the House, and now again in the Senate.
Redistricting Roundup:
• Illinois: Soon we will witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station… but first it has to pass through committee. A panel gave approval to the Dems' state House map, which now goes before the full chamber for a vote. Democrats have been appropriately scornful of GOP kvetching about the process, which bodes well for the forthcoming congressional map:
"I don't see anything inherently unfair. We had the point made that these districts don't belong to us individually and… (it's) not as if somebody owns the district," said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, the sponsor of the map legislation. "Maybe Republicans tend to live in closer proximity to one another than do my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle."
The only roadblock right now looks like it might be the VRA. The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund says that the new plans don't create enough majority-minority districts, though the Chicago Tribune notes that MALDEF "stopped short of threatening a lawsuit."
• Minnesota: Just circling back on some entirely expected news from last week: Dem Gov. Mark Dayton, as promised, vetoed the GOP's new redistricting maps, which very likely will send the whole process to the courts. And in case any Democratic state legislators out there are reading this, I'd like to point out that Minnesota Democrats unanimously voted against the GOP plans. If you're in a state where you know you're going to get the shaft, I implore you to at least vote against said shaft.
• New York: Aaron Blake has a good summation of what Kathy Hochul's win on Tuesday night might mean for redistricting. Since a plausible compromise involves eliminating one downstate Democratic seat and one upstate Republican seat, life just got a bit more precarious for the various freshmen GOPers who were swept in on last year's wave. (Also, Dave Wasserman sketches a quick map showing what a shored-up Hochul district might look like.)
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