The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● Deaths: Bobby Baker, an influential protégé to Lyndon Johnson who helped him amass power in the Senate and may have helped doom his political career if the Kennedy assassination had not happened first, died last week at the age of 89. Baker arrived in the Senate as a page in 1943 at the age of 14, and he quickly acquired a huge and intimate knowledge of every senator. In 1948, Sen.-elect Johnson sought out Baker. Decades later, Baker recounted Johnson telling him, "Mr. Baker, they tell me you're the smartest son of a bitch over there," and Baker responded, "Well, whoever told you that lied. I know all of the staff on our side. I know who the drunks are. And I know whose word is good."
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And indeed, as historian Robert Caro recounts in great detail in "Master of the Senate" (a book we highly recommend), Baker very quickly proved his worth. In 1950, Johnson was appointed as assistant Democratic leader (now known as whip), which was pretty much a useless position at the time. However, Baker helped provide Johnson with the best possible information about which way Democratic senators were leaning on any vote. As one contemporary recounted to Caro, Baker was no "true believer," because he wasn't someone who "just can't help but feel that the issue is so clear on their side that the people must vote that way… Bobby didn't let that kind of consideration affect him, maybe because he didn't have terribly strong convictions himself."
Johnson's whip counts were far better than anything else available, and fellow Democratic senators and the Truman White House came to depend on them. As whip and later as Democratic leader, Johnson utilized Baker to understand where senators actually stood on votes, and what means were needed to bring over reluctant members. Baker later said that after hours senators "let their hair down when they've had a few drinks, tell you their likes and dislikes, and you file it away. You find out who likes to take trips around the world, and then you try to repay those who voted against their conscience to help you. Senator Johnson was very adept at taking care of senators and their wishes, and the bills that they wanted." Baker was close to Johnson throughout his time as leader, and he acquired the nickname "Little Lyndon."
However, while Baker helped Johnson become the most powerful leader of the Senate before or since, he almost led to his political downfall.
In 1963, when Johnson was vice president, a disgruntled former business associate named Ralph Hill filed a lawsuit alleging that Baker had taken thousands from Hill to steer a vending machine contract to his company but had then taken the contract for himself. Baker, it turned out, had created his own vending machine company and had used his influence with government officials to win lucrative contracts, amassing a $2 million fortunate on a Senate salary of less than $20,000 a year.
Baker also attracted attention for co-founding the Quorum Club, where lobbyists and members of Congress would drink and cavort with women. Baker also would say that he directed Ellen Rometsch, a suspected East German spy, towards President John. F. Kennedy. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president's brother, was worried enough about the rumors that he secretly had Rometsch deported. Baker's financial dealings and other illicit activities got him on the covers of Time and Life and created a headache for Kennedy and especially Johnson—and giving an opening to congressional Republicans, who soon began pushing for an investigation into Baker.
Baker resigned from his Senate post hoping to stop the investigation from spreading, but he was unsuccessful. It's quite possible that Johnson's ties to Baker, as well as other factors, would have gotten the vice president removed from Kennedy's 1964 ticket. However, after Kennedy was murdered in November 1963 and Johnson became president, the Baker matter quickly faded from public view. Baker's own troubles weren't over, though: In 1967, he was indicted for tax evasion, theft, and fraud, and he later served 16 months in prison.
Johnson completely cut ties with the man responsible to a great degree for his rise to power and refused to acknowledge him in any way. Baker visited Johnson just before he died in 1973 and recounted in his memoir (aptly titled, "Wheeling and Dealing: Confessions of a Capitol Hill Operator") that the former president told him, "Everything within me wanted to come to your aid. But they would have crucified me."
In 2009 and 2010, Baker spoke to the Senate Historical Office about his experiences in D.C. As Todd Purdum would write for Politico, the "manuscript was so ribald and riveting, so salacious and sensational, that the Historical Office refrained from its usual practice of posting such interviews online." Luckily for history, Purdum would publish Baker's most vivid recollections.
P.S: And if you haven't read them, we again cannot recommend Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson series highly enough.
Senate
● IN-Sen: What is it with Indiana Senate candidates and residency issues? The latest contender to become ensnared in controversy as to whether they actually reside in the state is Rep. Luke Messer, who is one of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly next year. Messer was first elected to the House in 2012 to succeed Mike Pence, and a recent revelation details how his family now lives in Virginia's D.C. suburbs while Messer lists his Indiana address as a two-bedroom house that he co-owns with his mother. Furthermore, Messer's wife is no longer registered in the Hoosier state.
Rep. Todd Rokita, who is Messer's biggest primary rival, swiftly capitalized on the news to blast Messer for supposedly no longer even living in the state he wants to represent. This is a trap every member of Congress faces: Spend too little time in your district and you're accused of having "gone Washington," but spend too little time in D.C. and you're accused of not working hard enough. That pressure forces many to purchase a second home and deal with the struggles of balancing family with work and travel. Messer himself defended his family's move to Virginia by arguing he wanted to get the most out of being a father to his three children by keeping them closer to where he works.
However, Messer's defense simply may not matter to voters in America's often parochial elections. Indeed, two former senators, Republican Richard Lugar and Democrat Evan Bayh, each took heaps of scorn in their respective 2012 and 2016 Senate elections for failing to spend much time in the Hoosier state, and both went on to lose their elections. Republican Dan Coats had similar issued in the 2010 Senate race, and Democrats even dug up footage of him justifying his move to North Carolina after leaving the Senate in 1999 by saying he and his wife "decided that there might be a better place where some of these older bones can absorb, so we have joined her parents in North Carolina," but Coats won anyway.
Next year's upcoming Republican primary has already seen Rokita and Messer descend into nasty personal attacks, and we can be sure that Rokita will continue to skewer Messer over the residency issue given what happened to Lugar and Bayh.
● MI-Sen: On Monday, Grosse Pointe businessman and venture capitalist Sandy Pensler jumped into the Republican primary for the nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow next year. Pensler's only previous electoral experience includes losing a relatively close primary for the Lansing-based 8th Congressional District all the way back in 1992. However, Pensler told The Detroit News that he is willing to spend millions of his own money, which could be a game-changer in the Republican primary for Senate.
Republicans recently lost a top potential recruit after longtime Rep. Fred Upton declined to seek higher office, but the GOP primary already includes businessman John James and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young. However, James only had $216,000 in cash-on-hand at the beginning of October, while Young had an even more pathetic $102,000, which is simply not going to cut it in a sizable state against an entrenched Democratic incumbent (by comparison, Stabenow had $6.9 million in the bank). Since none of the three Republican aspirants starts off with much name recognition, Pensler's millions could make it much easier for him to get his message out compared to his primary rivals.
● MN-Sen: On Monday, CNN reported that a second woman, Lindsay Menz, has accused Democratic Sen. Al Franken of inappropriately touching her. Menz says that she and her husband met Franken at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010 and asked him for a photo. Franken, she says, "pulled me in really close, like awkward close, and as my husband took the picture, he put his hand full-fledged on my rear. It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek. It wasn't around my waist. It wasn't around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt" for three or four seconds.
Menz says she was inspired to speak out by Leeann Tweeden, the radio host who accused Franken of forcing an unwanted kiss on her and groping her breasts while she was asleep, but added, "I don't want to paint my story in the same light as hers," saying she felt Tweeden's experience was worse. However, Menz went on, "the reason I want to say something is if someone sees that I said something, maybe it would give them the courage to say something, too." In response, Franken released a brief statement, saying, "I take thousands of photos at the state fair surrounded by hundreds of people, and I certainly don't remember taking this picture. I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected."
Prior to this, Franken had said he'd ask the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the Tweeden matter, but so far, the committee hasn't commented. If Franken were to resign his seat, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton would appoint a replacement, who would serve until a special election could be held next year for the remainder of Franken's term. The winner of that race would then go before voters for a full term in 2020.
● NJ-Sen: The Republican field to take on Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez next year is slowly starting to take shape after a court declared a mistrial in the corruption case against him. Assemblyman Jay Webber told the Observer recently that he hasn't decided whether to run, stating, "I don't know who will step up." Webber has served in the Assembly since 2008 and has strong ties with the state GOP. When asked about a potential campaign, outgoing Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno deflected the question by saying "I think right now I'm going to finish my job," which isn't exactly a firm "no." Earlier this month, Guadagno lost the governor's race to Democrat Phil Murphy 56-42.
The Observer also relays that an anonymous source close to Rep. Tom MacArthur said it's "very unlikely" that the congressman would run, but that "it's not entirely off the table." MacArthur is worth many millions, which would be a pivotal asset in what is one of the costliest states for a campaign thanks to the pricey New York City and Philadelphia media markets.
The Observer also mentioned a handful of other Republicans as potential candidates, including state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr., state Sen. Michael Doherty, biotech executive John Crowley, and conservative talk-radio host Bill Spadea. Kean, who lost the 2006 election to Menendez 53-44, is the son of former Gov. Tom Kean, Sr. Kean ran a credible campaign during a tough year for his party, and if he ran again, he would likely start out with some considerable name recognition compared to other potential candidates. Meanwhile, Crowley considered running in 2008 but ultimately declined. However, there's no word from any of those Republicans about whether they're actually interested.
● UT-Sen: Republican Boyd Matheson, who is a former chief of staff to Sen. Mike Lee, announced he won't run for Senate. There's widespread speculation that GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch will retire, and Hatch only says the he "intends" to seek an eighth term at the moment. However, several media reports have previously indicated that former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is preparing a run to succeed the longtime incumbent. Matheson has deep ties to the same extremist faction of the state GOP that put Lee into office in 2010 by ousting an incumbent from the right, and he might have made trouble (especially for Hatch) in the primary if he had chosen to run.
Gubernatorial
● AK-Gov: Former Democratic Sen. Mark Begich is one of the biggest remaining wildcards in next year's gubernatorial contest, and he still has yet to make up his mind about running. At a recent event, Begich said, "The press mention that more than I do. ... I don't have to make any decision any time soon." He even pointed out how the filing deadline isn't until June, meaning he "can be patient."
However, state Democrats and independent Gov. Bill Walker, who was elected in 2014 on a unity ticket with the critical support of state Democrats, are unlikely to have the same patience for Begich. Indeed, the state party recently won a lawsuit to allow independents such as Walker to run in Democratic primaries while remaining independent. Begich just barely lost a brutal re-election campaign in the 2014 GOP wave, meaning he would be a formidable candidate in his own right, but his potentially winning the Democratic nomination would almost certainly just split the non-Republican vote enough to allow the GOP to win.
● CT-Gov: Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin had previously come close to ruling out joining the Democratic primary for governor next year, but he recently changed course when he said, "It's not something I had been planning to do, but I've heard from a lot of people over the past few days and I'm giving it serious thought." Bronin only became mayor after beating incumbent Pedro Segarra in the 2015 Democratic primary, but he governs the third-largest city in Connecticut. Still, Hartford only makes up 3 percent of the state, and he would likely be starting with limited name recognition if he runs. Bronin inherited a bad financial situation in Hartford, and while he's arguing that he's helping revitalize the city, Republicans could attack him for what's happening at home.
Meanwhile, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, another Democrat, sounds increasingly likely to run. Ganim formed an exploratory committee this past spring, and he recently didn't dispute a January timeline for when he could upgrade his campaign to officially running. While Bridgeport has just 4 percent of Connecticut's population even though it's the state's biggest city, Ganim likely starts off with much higher name recognition. Of course, that infamy is for all the wrong reasons since it stems from his past felony convictions and incarceration for corruption.
● IL-Gov: Democratic Rep. Danny Davis, who represents a heavily black district that includes downtown Chicago, has endorsed businessman Chris Kennedy in next March's Democratic primary for governor. Kennedy faces venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker and state Sen. Daniel Biss in the contest for the nomination to take on GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner next November.
The Republican primary may be heating up too. State Sen. Kyle McCarter, who had considered a primary challenge of his own after Rauner signed a law providing public funding of abortion services, decided to ultimately stay out of the race. However, McCarter endorsed state Rep. Jeanne Ives, who kicked off her primary against Rauner not too long ago.
House
● MA-03: State Sen. Barbara L'Italien formed an exploratory committee for a potential bid for this open Merrimack Valley seat two months ago, and on Monday, she announced she was seeking the Democratic nod. Several other Democrats are running for this open 58-35 Clinton seat, and this is already shaping up to be an expensive primary. L'Italien is one of just a few of the candidates who holds local office here, which could help her stand out from the pack.
● NJ-05: Over the weekend, attorney John McCann announced that he would seek the GOP nomination against freshman Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer in this competitive North Jersey seat. McCann served a few terms on the council of the small borough of Cresskill in the early 2000s, but he likely starts out with little name recognition. However, McCann is the longtime right-hand man to Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino and The Record's Richard Cowen writes that he's "been in and around Republican politics in Bergen County for more than 20 years," so he may have a relationship with some local power players.
However, McCann's ties to Saudino could also be a liability. Saudino was elected as a Republican in 2010, but he won re-election as a Democrat in 2016. As Saudino's legal counsel, McCann helped merge the sheriff's department and the county police, which McCann says will save Bergen $40 million over four years, but also resulted in several layoffs and demotions. Indeed, the president of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association took McCann to task right after he announced he was in, calling him "directly responsible for 24 layoffs and 19 demotions."
So far, the only other notable Republican who has announced a bid for this 49-48 Trump seat is Steve Lonegan, a far-right perennial candidate who was the GOP nominee in the 2013 special Senate election and unsuccessfully ran in the primary for the 3rd District the next year at the other side of the state. While Lonegan has had no success winning office outside the small community of Bogota, he's well-known to conservative activists. But Lonegan also very much pissed off Trump in the presidential primary, which could cost him. By contrast, McCann says he considers himself more of a moderate.
To say that things are tense between Team Lonegan and McCann would be an understatement. Cowen writes that Joseph Hakim, a Lonegan supporter, alleges that McCann told Hakim in September that he had "used his power as attorney for the sheriff's department to dig into Hakim's background." Local police investigated the matter in October and have not filed charges. Hakim recently filed a criminal complaint accusing McCann of "threats and improper influence in official and political matters." McCann denies ever threatening Hakim, and argues he filed the complaint now to make him look bad.
● PA-18: On Sunday, some 500 Democratic Party officials gathered in Pennsylvania's 18th District to select former prosecutor Conor Lamb as the party's nominee in the special election to replaced former GOP Rep. Tim Murphy. Lamb, a Marine veteran and nephew of Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb, easily won on the second ballot, beating out Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli, who campaigned as a "pro-life and pro-gun" candidate, 319 votes to 151. After the vote, both Cerilli and the third-place finisher, former Veterans Administration official Pam Iovino, gave their backing to Lamb.
And he'll need all the help he can get. Pennsylvania's 18th District, which occupies the southwest corner of the state, is very red: It went for Donald Trump by a 58-39 margin, and for Mitt Romney by a similar 58-41 spread. Democrats have won some special elections for state legislative seats on even more daunting turf this year, but Lamb would need to perform at the very upper end of the realm of the possible in order to have a shot. Lamb will face state Rep. Rick Saccone, whom Republicans recently picked as their standard-bearer, on March 13.
● TX-21: Over the last few days, ex-Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco and Bexar County Republican Party Chairman Robert Stovall each announced that they were running for the Republican nomination for this open seat. The duo joins state Rep. Jason Isaac and retired CIA officer Eric Burkhart in the primary to succeed retiring Rep. Lamar Smith in this 52-42 Trump seat, which includes parts of the Austin and San Antonio areas.
Stovall, who owns a floral business, ran for Bexar County tax assessor-collector in 2012 and narrowly lost to a Democrat. Canseco has a much longer electoral track record, but he's only won once. Canseco unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for the House in 2004 and 2008 before narrowly beating Will Hurd 53-47 in the 2010 primary runoff. Canseco's timing worked out quite well for him, and he unseated Democratic incumbent Ciro Rodriguez 49-44 during the GOP wave to win a seat that stretched from San Antonio west to El Paso. However, Canseco lost re-election two years later 50-46 to Democrat Pete Gallego even as Mitt Romney was carrying his 23rd District 51-48. Canseco wanted a rematch in 2014, but this time, Hurd beat him 59-41 in the primary runoff, and Hurd still holds the 23rd.
Canseco filed to run against Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro in the safely blue 20th District in October, but we suspected he was just trying to raise money while waiting for a more winnable seat to pop up. Canseco may have been hoping that court-ordered redistricting would scramble Texas' congressional map and give him an opportunity to run somewhere new, but Smith's retirement also served his purposes. Only about 2 percent of the seat that Canseco represented in 2011 and 2012 is in the 21st District, so he likely will start out with very little name recognition. Maybe if Canseco still has connections from his term in Congress he'll be able to raise money to get his name out: Canseco raised a meh $300,000 for his 2014 comeback bid, however, so we're not really holding our breath.
● TX-29: While state Rep. Ana Hernandez was one of several Democrats who reportedly considered a run for this safely blue open seat, she announced on Friday that she was seeking re-election instead.
● VA-06: GOP Del. Ben Cline picked up an endorsement on Friday from Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. Liberty, which is located in this seat, is a bastion for the religious right, and Falwell's support could carry some weight here. The only other notable Republican who has announced a bid for this very red Shenandoah Valley seat is Republican National Committeewoman Cynthia Dunbar, a former Liberty law professor.
● VA-10, VA-05: Over the weekend, Democrats in Northern Virginia's 10th Congressional District made the right call and opted for a traditional state-run primary to select a nominee to run against GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock next year. A couple of months ago, local party officials had held out the possibility of choosing another method, such as a convention or party-run "firehouse" primary, but a proper primary maximizes the opportunity for the greatest number of voters to get involved and will require all of the many candidates running here to try to engage the broadest cross-section of the Democratic Party. And of course, it's also how voters in almost every congressional district in America get to pick their nominees.
But not in Virginia's 5th. There, a trio of credible Democrats are vying to challenge freshman GOP Rep. Tom Garrett, but party leaders have just opted to hold a convention instead of a primary. Delegates to this convention will be chosen at caucuses held throughout this sprawling district (which stretches from the state's southern border all the way to the D.C. exurbs), meaning that few voters will have the chance to participate. Not only is that no way to run a democracy, it's also short-sighted. Instead of reaching out to as many voters as possible, campaigns will now only focus on the hard-core activists and party insiders who are likely to attend the caucuses. In a red district like this one, the last thing Democrats should do is turn inward—they need to motivate as many people as possible. Officials here seriously need to reconsider their approach.
Legislative
● VA State House: It's been two weeks since Election Day in Virginia, but there are still a few outstanding state House races where the outcome could determine whether Republicans lose the 51-49 majority they would hold if they won every seat where they currently lead. While recounts are far from uncommon in close races, one close district is facing a potential disaster of epic proportions after election administrators admitted that at least 83 voters were given ballots for the wrong district in a race where Republican Bob Thomas leads Democrat Joshua Cole by just 82 votes. It would be unreasonable to assume all 83 of those voters would have favored Cole if correctly assigned to the Fredericksburg-area 28th District, but it's plausible that Thomas' lead could shrink after a looming recount, meaning this administrative error potentially swung the race.
The state board of elections certified the results in all races except the 28th and the adjacent 88th District, where the local elections registrar wrongly assigned those 83 voters, although that latter district's outcome won't change regardless. Complicating matters further, the Republican incumbent who prevailed in the more GOP-leaning 88th was named Mark Cole, which may have introduced additional voter confusion when those 83 Virginians received the wrong ballots. Thus, even if we knew how those 83 voters voted in the 88th, there's no telling how they would have voted if given the correct ballots in the 28th, especially since Virginia doesn't have party registration.
It's deeply troubling that this sort of administrative error can happen and potentially swing a pivotal election. If the recount indeed lowers Thomas' margin to where these wrong-district votes could have changed the outcome, Democrats' only recourse may be legal action to void the election and hold a new one, which is not without precedent in other states but would depend on the particulars of Virginia state law.
Although the board certified the other 98 House races, Republican Del. David Yancey leads Democrat Shelley Simonds by a mere 10 votes in the 94th District. That margin is slim enough that it's quite plausible a recount could change the outcome. If Democrats indeed prevail in the 94th, they would force a 50-50 tie that would necessitate the GOP actually ceding some power and enter an arrangement to share control of the chamber with Democrats. And of course, if Simonds prevails and the wrong-district voters cause the 28th District to have to hold a new election, Democrats would have a shot at taking a 51-49 majority, a result that was practically unthinkable in the run-up to Election Day.
Mayoral
● Atlanta, GA Mayor: The Dec. 5 non-partisan general election is coming up quickly, and Georgia Democrats are working to help Keisha Lance Bottoms against fellow City Councilor Mary Norwood, a rare independent politician in this very blue city. Several local Democrats, including 2014 gubernatorial nominee Jason Carter, endorsed Bottoms on Monday, and they each made sure to remind voters that she's a Democrat. Bottoms, who has termed-out Mayor Kasim Reed's support as well, led Norwood 26-21 in the Nov. 7 primary.
● New Orleans, LA Mayor: New Orleans held its mayoral runoff on Saturday, and City Councilor LaToya Cantrell defeated former Judge Desiree Charbonnet, a fellow Democrat, by a wide 60-40 margin. Cantrell will not only become the first black woman to run the Big Easy in its 300-year history, she'll be the city's first woman mayor, period. It'll be a little while before Cantrell can take office, though: Because the city recently changed its mayoral election calendar, she won't succeed termed-out Mayor Mitch Landrieu until May.
Cantrell rose to prominence for her work helping her neighborhood recover from Hurricane Katrina, and she won office in 2012 by beating a city council candidate backed by Landrieu and Rep. Cedric Richmond. Cantrell continued to position herself as a political outsider in her mayoral bid, while Charbonnet, who hails from a well-connected political family, had the support of Richmond and much of the city's old political establishment. Charbonnet was also backed by New Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, though as we'll discuss, these endorsements may have badly backfired on her.
Despite Charbonnet's deeper connections and stronger fundraising, Cantrell edged her 39-30 in the October primary, in which all candidates from all parties ran together on a single ballot. Cantrell's stock quickly rose: Another former judge, Michael Bagneris, who took third place with 19 percent, quickly endorsed Cantrell, and big donors began betting on her for the first time. That allowed Cantrell, who'd been decisively outspent by Charbonnet in the primary, to press her advantage to the fullest.
In the final weeks of the contest, with defeat looming, Charbonnet and her allies began to attack Cantrell for allegedly using her city credit card for personal and campaign expenses that she only belatedly paid back. The matter escalated when Cannizzaro announced that he had forwarded an anonymous tip about Cantrell's spending to the state's Republican attorney general, but the district attorney was precisely the wrong surrogate to try to elevate this story to headline fodder.
While Cannizzaro was re-elected without opposition in 2014, he has become incredibly controversial especially in the last few years. Most notoriously, Cannizzaro's office has jailed at least one rape victim for not cooperating with prosecutors and has even issued fake subpoenas to compel crime victims and witnesses to testify. And though Cannizzaro was elected as a Democrat, Donald Trump is considering appointing him as the area's U.S. attorney.
Charbonnet did perform well in Lakeview, one of the very few reliably Republican neighborhoods in New Orleans, but relying on GOP support in a city as blue as this one was a risky gamble at best, and the support of Cannizzaro and Scalise may have cost her elsewhere. Cantrell wound up winning 317 of the city's 351 election precincts, while about half of the mere 31 precincts Charbonnet carried were in Lakeview. (The candidates tied in three other precincts.)
Grab Bag
• International Digest: Spain became engulfed in its greatest constitutional crisis since the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship in the 1970s after its northeastern region of Catalonia held a disputed referendum that led to a unilateral declaration of independence. The Spanish national government violently tried to stop the vote from taking place and cracked down on the autonomous region's government, imposing direct rule and calling for fresh regional government elections in December. Meanwhile, Austria is poised for a hard right turn after mainstream conservatives are poised to ally with a resurgent far-right following its recent elections. Check out these stories and more in the November edition of the Daily Kos Elections International Digest.
