Kathleen Kane (center)
Leading Off:
• PA-AG: Oof. State Attorney General Kathleen Kane continues to assert her innocence in the face of charges that she unlawfully leaked secret grand jury materials to embarrass a critic, then lied to cover it up—and she's now claiming that somehow her misfortune has to do with an internal investigation relating to the Penn State sex abuse case that had uncovered pornographic and racist emails sent by government officials. That inquiry led to the resignation of several prominent figures, including a state Supreme Court justice, but what this has to do with Kane's own alleged wrongdoing she did not explain.
In any event, life is moving on without her. Republicans in the legislature are taking tentative steps in the direction of impeachment, and one of Kane's fellow Democrats just announced that he'll run for her job next year, prosecutor Jack Stollsteimer of Delaware County. (If you have an incredibly good memory, you may recall that the DCCC unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to run against GOP Rep. Pat Meehan in PA-07 back in 2012.) Several other Democrats are looking at the race or thought to be interested, including Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro, and Republican state Sen. John Rafferty is already in the race. No matter who runs, though, it's virtually impossible to imagine a scenario where Kane is her party's nominee next year.
Gubernatorial:
• LA-Gov: MarblePort Polling's latest survey of this fall's gubernatorial race in Louisiana offers a return to normalcy after the bout of temporary insanity induced by a recent Verne Kennedy poll that somehow found Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle in first place. Not so, says MarblePort. The jungle primary is still a two-way race between GOP Sen. David Vitter and Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards, who take 31 apiece. The two other Republicans running, Angelle and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, are well back at 14 and 13, respectively.
That's pretty much unchanged from MarblePort's last poll, and it's similar to what everyone but Kennedy has seen. This being Louisiana, where candidates often file very late to run, there are a few other names hovering around the edges, and if any Democrats get in, they could block Edwards from the runoff. (Amazingly, the filing deadline is not until Sept. 10; the primary is Oct. 24, and a second round, if no one gets 50 percent, would take place Nov. 21.) MarblePort didn't test any of those alternatives, though, so for now, there's not much new to see here.
• VT-Gov: State House Speaker Shap Smith, one of the leading Democrats considering a bid for governor, just filed paperwork to register as a candidate and has an announcement of some sort scheduled for Wednesday. In classic silly style, Smith is refusing to say what exactly his plans are, but come on. Several other people in both parties have been looking at the race as well, but assuming Smith doesn't pull a Trent Franks, he'll be the first to formally enter the contest to replace retiring Gov. Peter Shumlin.
House:
• NV-04: Six local labor unions, representing some 23,000 workers, just endorsed state Sen. Ruben Kihuen in his bid to win the Democratic nomination in Nevada's 4th Congressional District. Kihuen faces three other prominent Democrats—former Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, non-profit executive Susie Lee, and former Assembly Speaker John Oceguera—for the right to take on freshman GOP Rep. Cresent Hardy.
Grab Bag:
• FL Redistricting: Uh, wow. Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown has completely lost it. Just read this mind-boggling exchange she had Thursday with two reporters, in which she insisted, over and over again, that the proposed new 5th District would not elect an African-American—and that it wouldn't even elect a Democrat! (Around 63 percent of the Democratic primary electorate would be black, and the seat would favor Obama by about 20 points.) When pressed for statistics to back up her claim, Brown declared, "I'm not giving you the numbers." If that's the approach she's going to take with her new lawsuit to block any attempts to redraw her district, her case is going to get laughed out of court.
• United Kingdom: Something remarkable is taking place across the pond: The shock frontrunner in the race to lead Britain's Labour Party is Jeremy Corbyn, a left-wing throwback to the days when the party wandered the electoral wilderness in the 1980s. Among other things, Corbyn wants to nationalize the UK's energy companies—a popular position—but he also happens to have bizarre views on foreign policy. (Corbyn loves him some Hugo Chavez and blames the west, not Vladimir Putin, for the crisis in the Ukraine.)
As David Beard details in an excellent new piece, Corbyn's ascent speaks to the unhappiness Labour's vanguard has long felt toward the centrist Tony Blair wing of the party, aka "New Labour." But Britain as a whole doesn't seem interested in electing someone of Corbyn's ideological stripe, which means Labour would likely face disaster in the next general election. That won't take place until 2020, but whomever the party elects now will ostensibly be its standard bearer five years hence, and Labour's tearing itself apart at the prospect. Click through for the entire picture on these stunning developments.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir and Jeff Singer, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, and Daniel Donner.