Daily Kos Elections Live Digest: 3/28

by Daily Kos Elections for Daily Kos Liveblogs

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024 Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024 at 5:59:04am PDT

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UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 28, 2024 · 10:53:23 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer

• Joe Lieberman: In a new piece, Jeff Singer takes a deep dive into the late Sen. Joe Lieberman's many decades in Connecticut politics, including the multiple setbacks that threatened to end his promising career before he could make it onto the national stage.

An anti-war insurgent. While Lieberman's advocacy for the Iraq War would make him a Democratic pariah in the 21st century, the 28-year-old Yale graduate first ran for office as an ardent opponent of the United State's involvement in Vietnam in the 1970 Democratic primary. His bid to unseat a state senator attracted the attention of other anti-war activists―including a future president.
Poking the bear. Lieberman aspired to climb higher than the Connecticut legislature, but an embarrassing 1980 loss in a House race left him in danger of becoming a has-been. However, he soon revived his career, setting himself up for a Senate race that saw him campaign to the right of a Republican incumbent.
The kiss. The Democrats' 2000 vice presidential nominee faced his greatest test six years later when Ned Lamont did everything he could to tie the senator to the Bush White House. But the administration would prove to be an asset for the Connecticut for Lieberman nominee―in ways that both were and weren't obvious in 2006.

Check out our obituary for a detailed look at Lieberman's climb through Nutmeg State politics and his battle to stay there―including why some of his biggest detractors were only too happy to help him win a spot in Congress.

UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 28, 2024 · 10:43:44 PM +00:00 · David Nir

• NC Redistricting: North Carolina's new Republican-drawn Senate map will remain in use this year after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court's decision not to block the maps on the grounds that they discriminated against Black voters. Further appeals remain possible, however.

UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 28, 2024 · 10:07:58 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer

• NH-02: Former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern on Thursday became the first major candidate to announce a bid to succeed Rep. Annie Kuster, a fellow Democrat who unexpectedly announced her retirement the previous day. However, there are many other local Democrats being talked about as possible contenders in the Sept. 10 primary, and they have a while to decide before the June 14 filing deadline.

Van Ostern was Kuster's campaign manager during her 2010 campaign for Congress, when she narrowly lost to Republican Charlie Bass. But just two years later, he won a seat on the state's powerful Executive Council on the same day Kuster avenged her defeat by unseating Bass.

In 2016, Van Ostern was his party's nominee for governor, but he lost by a narrow 49-47 margin to Republican Chris Sununu, who was his colleague on the Executive Council.

Van Ostern reemerged on the political scene following the 2018 elections when he put his name forward to become secretary of state, a post that's filled by the legislature rather than by voters. Van Ostern hoped that the new Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate would end the 42-year-run of incumbent Bill Gardner, a nominal Democrat who had infuriated voting rights advocates by serving on Donald Trump's bogus voter fraud commission.

But Gardner, who spent his decades in office protecting the Granite State's first-in-the-nation presidential primary, maintained enough support from a minority of Democrats to hold on in a 209-205 vote. Van Ostern did not seek public office again until launching his House campaign this week.

He's unlikely to have the primary to himself, though. Reporters mentioned several Democrats as possible contenders in the hours after Kuster's retirement announcement, and the Concord Monitor reports that one of them, former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky, is considering. We haven't seen any public statements from Volinsky, however, who lost the 2020 primary for governor to state Sen. Dan Feltes 51-46 two months before Sununu beat Feltes in a landslide.

The Granite Post News also names a few other Democrats as possibilities:

State Rep. Angela Brennan
Former state Sen. Matt Houde
2018 gubernatorial nominee Molly Kelly
Regional Planned Parenthood official Kayla Montgomery
State Rep. Laura Telerski

On the Republican side, 2022 nominee Bob Burns tells the New Hampshire Journal he's all but certain to try again, one cycle after his 56-44 loss to Kuster. The site also says that businessman Vikram Mansharamini, who took a distant fourth place in the 2022 Senate primary, is thinking about running. Finally, the Union Leader mentions former state Rep. Steve Negron, who lost to Kuster by double digits in both 2018 and 2020.

UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 28, 2024 · 10:00:17 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer

• NJ-Gov: The New Jersey Globe's David Wildstein reports that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official Shereef Elnahal, a Democrat who previously served in Gov. Phil Murphy's cabinet, is considering a bid to succeed his old boss next year. Wildstein adds that Elnahal, who would be the nation's first Muslim governor, "is not expected to make any moves until after the 2024 election."

• WI State Assembly: Far-right activists seeking to recall Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced Thursday that they were launching a new signature collection campaign even as they said they were still hoping they had turned in enough signatures earlier this month to force a vote.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission's initial review found that they'd failed to do so in the district that the Republican speaker was last elected to represent, though the bipartisan body has asked the state Supreme Court to clarify whether a recall would be conducted under the old or new district lines.

UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 28, 2024 · 9:55:11 PM +00:00 · David Nir

• SC Redistricting: A federal district court said on Thursday that South Carolina could hold elections this year using its current congressional map despite ruling more than a year ago that the map unconstitutionally discriminated against Black voters.

In the interim, the Republican officials defending the state appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in October. The lower court said it would not impose a remedial map while an appeal was pending, saying there was only an "outside chance" that the matter would not be resolved in time.

But the Supreme Court's inexplicable five-and-a-half-month delay, which election law expert Rick Hasen called "inexcusable," turned that outside chance into reality. As a result, Republicans will be able to defend the existing version of the 1st District even though the lower court said that they had "exiled over 30,000 African American citizens" from the district, a move that helped ensure the seat would stay solidly red.

UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 28, 2024 · 8:09:31 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer

• MO-Sen: Marine veteran Lucas Kunce, who is the Democratic frontrunner to take on Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, is airing what he says is the first TV ad from any Senate campaign focused on in vitro fertilization. The Huffington Post says the spot is backed by "five-figure." buy.

Kunce's ad stars a mother identified as Jessica who begins by telling the audience how the procedure allowed her daughter to be born, then lights into the incumbent. "Josh Hawley has proven that he won't protect IVF," she declares, "and he would let politicians make me a criminal." She concludes, "I want Josh Hawley to look me in the eye and tell me that I can't have the child that I deserve."

The senator has insisted he's "pro-IVF," but critics have highlighted his 2019 vote to confirm Sarah Pitlyk as a federal judge despite her strong opposition to IVF. The Guardian last month also published a story explaining how some of the arguments contained in the Alabama Supreme Court's decision threatening the procedure are similar to those advanced by Hawley a decade ago when he represented Hobby Lobby in its successful lawsuit to avoid providing birth control to its employees.

• GA-03: The Club for Growth followed Donald Trump's lead on Thursday by endorsing Brian Jack, a former aide to Trump, in the May 21 Republican primary to succeed retiring Rep. Drew Ferguson. The move comes at a time when the Club's long-running on-again-off-again feud with the GOP's master seems to be firmly in the "off" setting. "[W]e're back in love, we're deeply in love," Trump himself proclaimed early this month.

Jack, who launched his campaign a day before filing closed three weeks ago, faces six intra-party rivals, and a June 18 runoff would take place if no one secures a majority in the first round. Jack's most prominent foes in this dark red seat in the southwestern Atlanta exurbs appear to be former state Rep. Philip Singleton and a pair of former state senators, Mike Crane and Mike Dugan.

• DCCC: The DCCC announced on Thursday that it had added four candidates to its “Red to Blue” program, which highlights contenders the committee thinks have the strongest chance of picking up Republican-held districts or defending competitive open seats. The new additions are:

CA-45: Derek Tran
CA-47: Dave Min
NJ-07: Sue Altman
NY-04: Laura Gillen

While the DCCC included a few contenders in competitive primaries when it released its first list in January, that's not the case for this quarter. Both Tran and Min already advanced out of their respective primaries, while Altman is the only Democrat who filed to take on GOP Rep. Tom Kean.

Candidate filing is still open until April 4 in New York, but Gillen's most prominent rival for the nomination, state Sen. Kevin Thomas, dropped out late last month. There's no indication any other serious Democrats will seek to join the primary, leaving Gillen with a clear path to a rematch against freshman Republican Rep. Anthony D'Esposito.