The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.
Subscribe to The Downballot, our weekly podcast
Leading Off
● LA Ballot: Louisiana will become the first state in the nation to let voters weigh in on a proposal to ban private funding for elections this fall, an effort that comes after years of conservative conspiracy theories about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's role in the 2020 presidential election. No one has released any polls of the Oct. 14 contest over Amendment 1, which will take place the same day that the Pelican State holds its all-party primary for governor, but a prominent local voting rights advocate tells Bolts' Alex Burness he's pessimistic about opponents' chances.
Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced in October 2020 that they would donate $350 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit that provided grants to cash-strapped election officials at a time when the pandemic resulted in a massive increase of mail-in voting; other organizations, including Google and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, also made large contributions. "Honestly, I don't know what we would have done without it," one local elections administrator in Pennsylvania told NPR. "This grant really was a lifesaver in allowing us to do more, efficiently and expeditiously."
But while CTCL's grants, as Burness writes, went to 47 states, Louisiana was not one of them, even though Republican Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin at first encouraged parish clerks to apply. (Parishes are the state's equivalent of counties.) But Attorney General Jeff Landry, a far-right Republican who is now the frontrunner to succeed termed-out Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, responded by telling clerks that state law forbade them from taking outside money, even though there was no such law on the books. Landry went on to file a lawsuit baselessly alleging that CTCL was trying to send the money to certain areas of the state as part of "an inherently insidious and corrupting effect."
The head of the state's association of election clerks, Debbie Hudnall, told the Louisiana Illuminator in response that there was no sign at all that CTCL had any partisan agenda. Hudnall, though, said that Landry's team said he'd sue any clerk who tried to obtain funding, an account the attorney general's office denied. Landry nevertheless succeeded: Louisiana, along with Delaware and Wyoming, was one of just three states that did not receive any funds from the nonprofit.
Following Donald Trump's defeat that fall, Big Lie spreaders responded by throwing out evidence-free accusations that the money from Zuckerberg was used to advance an imagined pro-Joe Biden conspiracy. The Anti-Defamation League warned that such rhetoric was an antisemitic dog whistle insinuating that "rich Jews are controlling levers of power." (Zuckerberg is Jewish.)
However, Republicans in Louisiana were eager to join in. "The use of private money to finance public elections, or 'Zuckerbucks,' is the gravest danger that our nation faces, bar none," wrote state GOP chair Louis Gurvich last year. "Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-in [sic], and the Ayatollah combined do not threaten our republic as severely as does the loss of confidence in the fairness of our elections."
Legislatures in 25 states have now passed laws to restrict or ban private money from being used for elections, but Edwards has used his veto pen to prevent Louisiana from becoming the 26th for now. However, while GOP legislators haven't been able to muster up quite enough support to override the governor, who has blasted their efforts as an "unnecessary political ploy," they enlisted the help of 10 House Democrats in June to place their new plan on the ballot as Amendment 1. Unlike the bills Edwards blocked, though, the amendment also says it would ban election funding from "foreign government[s]," text critics argue was inserted to raise the specter of another nonexistent threat.
Burness writes that there's been no well-funded campaign to promote or defeat the proposal, though Peter Robins-Brown of the nonprofit Louisiana Progress believes it's sure to pass. Burness summarized Robins-Brown's fears, writing that "without context, many people of varying political stripes will likely be persuaded by the argument that a private or foreign interest shouldn't be sending Louisiana money to perform basic governmental operations."
Robins-Brown also said that Amendment 1 wouldn't fix any actual problems plaguing Louisiana's under-funded elections. "If you're going to do this, you also need to make sure that election administration is fully funded, and that's where I think there's the element of potential bad faith here," he told Burness. "You're going after this one piece of the larger puzzle without addressing the underlying problem, which is underfunding of election administration."
That problem, though, isn't being addressed in the state. "The state is scrambling to make sure they have enough machines for everyone, but we can't get them anymore," said Bridget Hanna, the Republican clerk of reliably red Ascension Parish, who told Burness her equipment is now nearly two decades old. "We're just hanging on."
House
● NY-04: The New York Times reports that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries tried to convince former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran to take on freshman GOP Rep. Anthony D'Esposito as recently as last month, but she's decided not to. "Primaries can be bloodying, and they cost a lot of money," Curran herself told the paper. The Democratic field consists of 2022 nominee Laura Gillen, attorney Sarah Hughes, and state Sen. Kevin Thomas.
● TX-23: Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland said Friday that he wouldn't challenge GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales for renomination, a declaration that came four months after he announced that he was forming an exploratory committee. Gonzales already faces three intra-party opponents, and an old foe also hasn't dismissed talk that he could also take on the congressman: The Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek writes that businessman Raul Reyes "declined to comment" after a Gonzales detractor tagged him in a social media post along with two of the incumbent's declared foes.
Reyes in 2020 unexpectedly lost the GOP runoff for what was an open seat to Gonzales by only 45 votes, and he initially expressed interest in trying again the following cycle. Reyes, though, decided to run for the state Senate instead only to lose the 2022 Republican runoff to once-and-future state Sen. Peter Flores 59-41.
● UT-02: Dan Jones & Associates gives us our very first poll of the Sept. 5 special GOP primary, though the survey was already about two weeks old when it was released Sunday. The survey for the Deseret News and the University of Utah finds former state Rep. Becky Edwards leading former RNC member Bruce Hough 32-11, with another 9% going to former congressional aide Celeste Maloy.
Ballot Measures
● Aurora, CO Ballot: The campaign promoting a city amendment to dramatically strengthen the mayor's powers announced Friday that its proposal would appear on the November 2025 ballot rather than go before voters this year as planned, though the city hasn't confirmed that this contest won't take place this fall or that proponents could just skip the signature gathering process two years hence.
The city clerk previously determined the measure had 181 more valid signatures than the roughly 12,000 minimum needed to qualify. Westword's Bennito L. Kelty, however, writes that are several more procedural steps that election officials are unlikely to be able to finish in time for their Sept. 8 certification deadline in part because lawsuits have slowed the process down. To complicate things, Kelty says that it would likely require the city council to hold two special meetings to both read and approve the measure in time for it to make this year's ballot: The city council, though, overwhelmingly expressed its disapproval for this "strong mayor" plan, a policy backed by GOP Mayor Mike Coffman.
One of the amendment's opponents on the council is Democrat Juan Marcano, who is trying to unseat Coffman in the Nov. 7 nonpartisan race. Marcano predicted to Kelty that the measure's backers would just abandon their effort should he win, arguing, "The proponents of this—which is to say, Mike Coffman and the dark-money group that's funding this operation—would not want to actually put this on the ballot if it's anyone other than Mike Coffman in that seat."
● OH Ballot: Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom announced Monday that it would sue the GOP-led state Ballot Board days after it voted along party lines to adopt Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose's summary of the Nov. 7 proposed abortion rights amendment, text that, among other things, substitutes the words "unborn child" in place of "fetus." The matter will go before the state Supreme Court, where the GOP has a 4-3 majority.
Legislatures
● OR State Senate: Five Republican state senators filed a lawsuit in state court Friday against Democratic Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade weeks after she announced that a 2022 referendum would prevent them from seeking reelection because they participated in a legislative boycott this year.
Voters last year approved Measure 113, which says that any legislator who incurs 10 or more unexcused absences in a legislative session can't seek another term in the subsequent election and that these legislators would only regain the ability to run again after sitting out their next term. Measure 113, which passed 68-32, came after Republicans spent years boycotting the legislature in order to deny Democrats the two-thirds supermajorities needed for a quorum, tactics that let the GOP minority block bills on topics such as climate change and gun safety.
The passage of Measure 113, though, didn't prevent Republicans from doing the very same thing this year, and Griffin-Valade declared earlier this month that she'd enforce it to keep any boycotters from running for reelection in 2024. The plaintiffs, however, argue that the wording of Measure 113 means they can seek another term.
The text says that these legislators can't run "for the term following the election after the member's current term is completed." Because these terms don't actually end until two months after Election Day, Republicans insist that this prohibition wouldn't take effect until their following election. State senators in Oregon serve staggered four-year terms, and the Republicans who want to run next year argue that the soonest they could be penalized for their actions in 2023 is 2028.
Griffin-Valade, though, addressed this very argument earlier this month in her announcement. She wrote that the courts "have emphasized that the text of adopted ballot measures must be interpreted in a way that is consistent with the voters' intent. And voters universally understood Measure 113 would prohibit legislators who accumulate 10 or more unexcused absences during a legislative session from holding office in the immediate next term."
Griffin-Valade noted that the explanatory text in the 2022 voter pamphlet said the act would prevent impacted legislators "from holding term of office after the legislator's current term ends." She added that there was no indication that anyone was confused during or immediately after the election about what Measure 113 would do.
Mayors and County Leaders
● Nashville, TN Mayor: The Democratic firm Show Me Victories, which says it does not have a client, released a poll last week showing Democrat Freddie O'Connell beating Republican Alice Rolli 58-40 ahead of the Sept. 14 nonpartisan runoff. This is the first survey we've seen here.
Obituaries
● Don Sundquist: Don Sundquist, a Tennessee Republican who served six terms in the U.S. House before a stint as governor from 1995 to 2003, died Sunday at age 87. Sundquist, who was active in state GOP politics at a time when Democrats were still the dominant party, managed Sen. Howard Baker's unsuccessful 1980 presidential campaign two years before he sought elected office himself by campaigning for the 7th Congressional District.
Sundquist ended up beating Democrat Bob Clement for this sprawling seat, which included portions of the Memphis and Nashville areas, 50.4-49.6. (Clement, as the Tennessee Lookout's Holly McCall writes, would memorialize his 1,476 vote deficit during his successful 1987 special election for the neighboring 5th District by writing that number across his campaign office's walls.)
Sundquist, who quickly became entrenched, unsuccessfully ran to lead the RNC in 1990, but he sought a much bigger prize in 1994 when he left Congress to campaign for governor. Sundquist's Democratic foe was Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, and the congressman rode that year's red wave to a 54-45 victory. (Republicans also flipped both of Tenneesse's U.S. Senate seats that year.)
Sundquist easily won reelection four years later by beating wealthy perennial candidate John Jay Hooker 69-29, but his support for a state income tax soon made him a pariah with his party. Term limits barred Sundquist from running again in 2002, and he was succeeded by Bredesen.
● Joe Wurzelbacher: Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who became a household name as "Joe the Plumber" during the final weeks of the 2008 presidential election, died Sunday at age 49 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Wurzelbacher became a GOP star during that campaign after he was recorded in Ohio confronting Barack Obama about the Democrat's tax plan, and John McCain used the year's last presidential debate to insist, "We're going to take Joe's money, give it to Sen. Obama, and let him spread the wealth around. I want Joe the plumber to spread the wealth around."
Wurzelbacher, who quickly became a popular Republican surrogate even though he unenthusiastically called McCain "the lesser of two evils," enjoyed some continuing fame on the right after the GOP ticket's defeat, but he soon largely faded from the news. Wurzelbacher sought elected office in 2012 when he campaigned for Ohio's 9th District, a constituency that Republican map makers had made safely blue in order to protect their members elsewhere, but he predictably lost to Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur 73-27.