Leading Off:
• UT-04: Freshman Republican Rep. Mia Love quite clearly does not know how to run a professional congressional operation. For the second time this year, Love has been forced to reimburse the treasury for travel expenses improperly billed to taxpayers, and has compounded her errors by utterly failing to offer any sort of consistent explanations for her actions. In the most recent incident, as the National Journal's Jack Fitzpatrick explains, Love received reimbursements for two plane tickets she booked on back-to-back days in February, even though she only flew once.
Her office at first said that she'd given back the money for the unused ticket, even though federal disbursement reports indicate she's done no such thing. Then her staff claimed that such remittances wouldn't appear in those disbursement reports, which a House administrator quickly refuted. As for why Love bought two tickets in the first place, a spokesman that his boss had done so in order to keep her travel options open—even though airlines don't require members of Congress to pay upfront for multiple reservations. Then decided he had no idea what she was doing:
"I wouldn't characterize it like that," he told National Journal, when his explanation was repeated to him. "The truth is, I don't know why there were two flights booked. That was in February, when we first started. And I know that sometimes the members book flights to give themselves options. But in this particular circumstance, I honestly—like, off the record—I have no idea why she did that."
How freaking sad is that? Love reacted very poorly when confronted over a similar debacle that also featured improper billing and shifting excuses back in September. This time, Love is trying to stiff-arm reports by issuing a statement, but with the stiffer-than-expected challenge she's facing from Democrat Doug Owens, she's unlikely to get off without better answers.
Senate:
• CO-Sen: El Paso County Commissioner Peggy Littleton, whose name first came up as a possible GOP candidate just the other day, now confirms on the record that she's looking at a bid. She did not offer a timetable, but she did say that if she runs, she won't try to petition her way on to the primary ballot. Instead, she'll seek the support of delegates to the Republican Party caucus, who can also place candidates on the ballot. To date, nearly all of the GOP's top options have declined. State Sen. Tim Neville and wealthy businessman Robert Blaha are probably the leading options to take on Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet at this point, but anyone would be an underdog to the incumbent.
• IL-Sen: State Sen. Napoleon Harris, who recently joined the Democratic primary for Senate, just released a one-day internal poll from McKeon & Associates that finds him trailing Rep. Tammy Duckworth 25-13, with former Chicago Urban League president Andrea Zopp at 5. If Harris is trying to accomplish anything by sharing these numbers, it's to argue that there are still a ton of undecideds (56 percent), that Duckworth doesn't have a sizable lead, and that he, not Zopp, is the real alternative to the front-runner. However, Duckworth is very well-funded, and the only other poll we've seen of the race, a PPP survey from July (before Harris was a candidate), had Duckworth crushing Zopp 59-10.
• MD-Sen: On Tuesday, state House GOP Whip Kathy Szeliga announced that she would run for this seat. Any Republican faces extremely tough odds in a federal race in this blue state in a presidential year, but Szeliga could give the GOP a viable candidate just in case something crazy happens.
While Rep. Andy Harris didn't rule out a Senate bid as recently as September, Szeliga's move means he won't be giving up his safely red seat for a very tough statewide race. Harris encouraged Szeliga, who used to be his chief of staff, to run, and he issued a supportive statement as she announced.
• NV-Sen: The conservative group One Nation is out with their second ad for this race. This spot, which is part of a $800,000 buy, is just as bland as all their commercials, and praises Republican Joe Heck for fighting for jobs. At least the narrator pronounced Nevada right.
• NV-Sen, WI-Sen: The NRSC is out with new spots for each race that aired during Tuesday's GOP presidential debate. The Wisconsin ad argues that Democrat Russ Feingold changed for the worst in the Senate: The spot features a shot of strawberries decaying to back up the narrator's argument that not all change is good. In Nevada, the GOP once again uses scary visuals to hit Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto for her support for the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran.
Gubernatorial:
• LA-Gov: David Vitter and John Bel Edwards have two formal debates scheduled ahead of the runoff (including one that occurred Tuesday night), but they got an early start at clawing each others' faces off in a get-together at the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday. Most of their exchanges were pretty predictable, but get a load of this garbage fearmongering from Vitter:
"We are one horrible murder or shooting in the French Quarter away from an implosion of a big part of our economy," Vitter said. "We need to lead and prevent that; I'd do that with that State Police troop."
Seriously? One ugly killing would destroy "a big part" of Louisiana's economy? And deploying the state police to New Orleans is supposedly going to prevent that? This is ridiculous. If New York could survive 9/11—hell, if NOLA could survive Katrina—then Louisiana's not going anywhere. None of this is to minimize the state's crime problem, but Vitter is looking to maximize it for political gain. Does he sound like a guy who's happy with where things stand in this race?
House:
• IA-03: U.S. Attorney Nick Klinefeldt, who would be the top choice of national Democrats if he were to run against freshman GOP Rep. David Young, announced his resignation a few weeks ago, which would in theory free him up for a congressional bid. However, reports the Des Moines Register, Klinefeldt says he has "no plans to run" (though those are the paper's words, not his), and he'll be joining a private law firm.
But another new name is in the mix: businessman Mike Sherzan, who briefly ran for this seat in 2013 but pulled out, citing health issues. Sherzan says he's "at the exploratory phase" and suggested that he could at least partially self-fund. He also says he's spoken with the DCCC, though of course, lots of candidates do that. Right now the top Democratic contender is Iraq vet Jim Mowrer, who lost to GOP Rep. Steve King in the neighboring 4th District last year.
• NJ-07: Rep. Leonard Lance, one of the few moderates left in the GOP caucus, faced a surprisingly tough primary last year. Lance had easily defeated perennial candidate David Larsen in both 2010 and 2012, but the underfunded Larsen held him to just a 54-46 win in 2014. Larsen is running for a fourth time, and he's at least worth keeping an eye on after what happened last time. The good news for Lance is that another Some Dude candidate, York Cook, is also running, so he could split the anti-Lance vote. Still, if Lance disappoints for the second time in a row, he may attract a much tougher challenger for 2018. Romney won this seat 53-46.
• PA-16: As expected, Lancaster County Commissioner Scott Martin has opted not to run for retiring Rep. Joe Pitts' seat in Congress; instead, he'll seek election to the state Senate district being left open by fellow Republican Lloyd Smucker, who is running to succeed Pitts. A few other Republicans are sniffing around the 16th District, but so far, Smucker's the only one to join this jam. On the Democratic side, nonprofit consultant Christina Hartman is likewise the only candidate in the race. She was running before Pitts announced his retirement, but no other Democrats have stepped forward to express any interest in a bid.
• TN-09: As a white congressman representing a predominantly African American seat, Democrat Steve Cohen always faces a primary challenge in his safely blue Memphis seat. Cohen beat lawyer Ricky Wilkins 66-33 last year, a pretty dramatic drop from his 89-11 win two years before. Last month, Wilkins didn't rule out running again, and Shelby County Commissioner Justin Ford has also expressed interest. Wilkins may be the tougher of the two potential candidates: While Ford is a member of the powerful Ford political family, he only took fifth place in a recent Memphis clerk of court race.
Grab Bag:
• Arkansas: Filing closed Monday for the March 1, and the state has a list of candidates. There isn't too much to see though. Republican Sen. John Boozman faces only a perennial candidate in the primary, while ex-U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge is unopposed on the Democratic side. Daily Kos Elections currently rates the general election as Safe Republican.
All four members of the Razorback State's all-GOP House delegation are running for re-election, and none of them face more than token primary foes. 2nd District Rep. French Hill is the only congressman to face a Democrat at all, but ex-Little Rock School Board President Dianne Curry has raised very little money.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir and Jeff Singer, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, and Stephen Wolf.
