• VT-Gov: Former Gov. Howard Dean announced Monday that he would not seek the Democratic nomination to take on Republican Gov. Phil Scott, a move that came a little more than a week after the incumbent confirmed he'd seek a fifth two-year term.
Dean told reporters that, while unreleased polls showed him within 10 points of beating Scott, victory would have required the type of "scorched earth" campaign he didn't want to run. It remains to be seen whether any notable Democrat will challenge Scott, who has always won reelection with ease, ahead of the May 30 filing deadline.
• WA-Gov: The Northwest Progressive Institute has released new numbers from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling that show Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson leading former GOP Rep. Dave Reichert 48-42 in a likely November general election matchup.
Ferguson enjoyed a similar 46-42 edge in PPP's February poll. The only data we've seen during the intervening time was a March survey from the Republican pollster Echelon Insights for a group called Concerned Taxpayers of Washington State that placed Reichert leading by a 39-30 margin.
PPP also continues to find the two frontrunners far ahead in the Aug. 6 top-two primary despite some potentially favorable developments for each of their main intra-party foes. Ferguson and Reichert respectively take 35% and 28% as former Richland school board member Semi Bird, who won the state GOP endorsement last month, secures 11%. Just 4% goes to Democratic state Sen. Mark Mullet even though a well-funded super PAC began airing ads for him a few weeks ago.
• LA-05, LA-06: Speaker Mike Johnson sent a not-very-subtle message on Monday that he doesn't want Rep. Garret Graves to challenge fellow GOP incumbent Julie Letlow by endorsing both of them—in separate districts.
Johnson explicitly backed Graves for the 6th District even though the revamped version of that seat is all but unwinnable for Republicans, while he endorsed Letlow's reelection to the 5th District, which remains safely red.
The speaker put out this statement days after Graves announced he'd be "running for reelection in a district anchored in the Capital Region," an area that's mostly contained in the new 5th and 6th Districts. Letlow, for her part, said in a statement—issued after a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing the new map to be used this year—that she'd seek reelection.
Johnson, who serves Louisiana's 4th District, also endorsed the other two members of the state's GOP delegation, Majority Leader Steve Scalise in the 1st District and Rep. Clay Higgins in the 3rd. Both represent conservative constituencies and neither currently has any serious intra-party opposition.
• WA-05: The Washington State Labor Council over the weekend issued a dual endorsement to Republican state Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber and former Spokane County Democratic Party chair Carmela Conroy in the Aug. 6 top-two primary for the conservative 5th District.
Maycumber is the lone Republican congressional candidate to receive an endorsement, albeit a shared one, from the WSLC, an AFL-CIO affiliate that calls itself the state's "largest labor organization." WSLC's support, though, could help Maycumber appeal to Democratic voters if she winds up facing Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner in an all-Republican general election to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
• WA-06: State Sen. Emily Randall has earned the backing of the Washington State Labor Council in the August top-two primary to replace retiring Rep. Derek Kilmer, a fellow Democrat. Randall's main intra-party foe this summer is Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, who has Kilmer's support.