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Leading Off:
• CA-38, CA-46, CA-53: Further tallies of stolen Democratic money from the Kinde Durkee saga:
[Rep. Linda] Sanchez reported to the Federal Election Commission that she lost about $322,000 as a result of an unauthorized withdrawal from her campaign account. That leaves the congresswoman with about $144,000 in the bank, or little more than half what she started with when the quarter began.
Sanchez’s sister, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, reported she lost $125,000. Another California congresswoman, Democrat Susan Davis, reported that $160,000 was missing.
You'll recall that just the other day, Sen. Dianne Feinstein revealed that Durkee stole $4.7 million from her.
Senate:
• GA-Sen: Somehow, it escaped me all this time that Herman Cain ran for Senate in Georgia back in 2004. He came in second in the GOP primary, but fell short by a wide margin to Johnny Isakson, who took the nomination by a 53-26 margin. Anyhow, I bring all this up because Nathan Gonzales managed to dig up an old pamphlet from Cain's campaign, which you can find at the link. Fun stuff.
• TX-Sen: Ricardo Sanchez (D): $83K raised, $119K cash-on-hand. Needless to say, them is not good numbers.
• WI-Sen: Uh, seriously? Tommy Thompson is saying that he won't formally announce his Senate campaign until the spring. When you're already a guy known for dithering, this doesn't seem like a smart move.
House:
• AR-01: State Rep. Clark Hall just became the first Democrat to announce a challenge to GOP freshman Rick Crawford. Hall was the architect of the original "Fayetteville finger" redistricting proposal from earlier this year, which would have rescued the Dem-leaning citizens from the clutches of the ultra-red 3rd CD and placed them into the 4th. Democrats stupidly retreated from the plan even though it was the right thing to do, so at least this shows Hall has sense. In any event, Hall may not have the Democratic field to himself: Jonesboro businessman Steve Rockwell may also join the race. Several big names have already taken themselves out of the running, though: 2010 nominee Chad Causey, Senate President Paul Bookout, and Senate Majority Leader Robert Thompson have all said they won't run.
• GA-12: Maria Sheffield, who ran in the GOP primary for state insurance commissioner last year, says she may join the race to unseat Dem Rep. John Barrow. The only problem is, she'd have to carpetbag into the district to do so. Sheffield lives in Mableton in the northwestern part of the state, in the 13th CD. But the redrawn 12th District is clear on the other side of the state. Sheffield claims to have ancestral connection there, but we'll see how that plays. Two other Republicans are already in the race: state Rep. Lee Anderson businessman Rick Allen.
• ID-01: Former NFL wideout Jimmy Farris, who starred for the Grizzlies at the University of Montana and won a Super Bowl ring with the Patriots in 2002, just announced a challenge to GOP freshman Raul Labrador. It's a longshot bid, of course, but Farris also played a couple of seasons for the Redskins and said on Twitter: "Definitely looking forward to getting back in DC!"
• MI-03: Democratic attorney Pat Miles, who lost badly last year to GOPer Justin Amash, says he won't run again.
• MN-01: Ex-state Rep. Randy Demmer, who lost to Dem Rep. Tim Walz last year by a 49-44 margin, says he won't try for a rematch. One Republican recently announced a run, though, state Sen. Mike Parry, and another may also join, state Sen. Julie Rosen.
• NY-10: Good news for Hakeem Jeffries—and bad news for Ed Towns. Kevin Powell, the reality TV star who ran unsuccessful races against Towns in 2008 and 2010, says he won't try again this year. While Powell fell far short in both attempts, he'd only be likely to siphon votes away from Jeffries in the Democratic primary, giving Towns the chance to escape again. Politicker does note, though, that Charles Barron, the… eccentric city councilman, had amusingly said he wouldn't run if Powell did, so maybe now he'll get in. Oy.
• OR-01: Democrat Brad Avakian is up with his first ad of the special election primary:
The Avakian campaign says they
plan to spend about $50,000 airing the spot.
• Retirements: Kyle Trygstad at Roll Call has a good roundup looking at incumbents who raised paltry sums in the last quarter and who may therefore be potential retirees.
Grab Bag:
• Gerrymandering: Filmmaker Jeff Reichert's movie titled "Gerrymandering" is, for a limited time, available for free streaming on SnagFilms. Jeff discussed this movie with us a few times back at the Swing State Project, and nycyoungin wrote a positive review of a screening he attended last year, so now's your chance to check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
• Okay, this Twitter account is pretty damn funny: FakePewResearch.
Redistricting Roundup:
• ID Redistricting: Idaho's recently re-constituted redistricting commission has agreed on both legislative and congressional maps, which you can view here. For the federal map, one Democrat, Ron Beitelspacher, sided with the commission's three Republicans to provide the necessary final vote for the map to win passage. Annoying, but the map that passed barely changes things, and it's hard to see how a court-drawn map would have been much better. On the other hand, the legislative map, which passed unanimously, sounds very disruptive, seeing as it drew 33 lawmakers into districts with other members. Note that neither the governor nor legislature get a further say on these maps; unless someone challenges them in the state Supreme Court, they automatically have the force of law.
• MD Redistricting: It sounds like the worst of all possible worlds for Rep. Donna Edwards: The map she is now on record as bitterly opposing looks like it's going to become law anyway. The plan passed the state Senate yesterday with just one Democrat, Anthony Muse, voting against it, and the House could vote on it today.
You may have seen that Edwards unveiled her own alternate plan the other day (with a weird partial map); she tried to claim it strengthened Hispanic voting strength, but as state Sen. Victor Ramirez pointed out, it barely changed the percentage of Latino voters in each district. This kind of faux-selfless posturing really hasn't helped Edwards cause, and I think overall she's angered a lot of people and earned a bit of a rep as a non-team player—while getting nothing out of it. As a wise computer once put it, "The only winning move is not to play."
• TX Redistricting: Michael Li has good summaries of the proposed interim maps put forth by each of the parties in the big Texas redistricting case in San Antonio. While you'd obviously expect the plaintiffs and defendants to be far apart, there are also some notable differences between the plaintiffs.
• UT Redistricting: House and Senate Republicans in Utah finally resolved their differences and agreed on a congressional redistricting plan, which you can view here. While certainly not high, I'd say there's a non-zero chance that GOP Gov. Gary Herbert won't sign off on the map, given his public remarks questioning the "fairness" of prior iterations—and private speculation that he doesn't want Dem Rep. Jim Matheson to be pushed into a statewide run if his House district is seriously screwed with (which in fact it is, under this plan).