Leading Off:
● AL-Gov: Fellow Republicans have begun putting serious pressure on Gov. Robert Bentley after the former head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency made an explosive accusation last week that the governor had used state resources to conceal an affair with his top political advisor, Rebekah Mason. A recording surfaced of Bentley making explicit remarks to Mason in a phone call, though he still denies the two had an affair. (When a reporter asked if he loved Mason, as he professed on that call, Bentley declared, "I love many members of my staff.")
Now, state Auditor Jim Zeigler has asked the Alabama Ethics Commission to investigate Bentley; other Republicans, including a state senator and a member of state GOP's executive committee, have called on Bentley to resign. Bentley's refusing, but as the Washington Post's Amber Phillips explains, he was already suffering from a poor relationship with the legislature after he pushed for tax hikes to close a budget deficit.
Indeed, if there are any Bentley allies anywhere in the state, they're remaining very quiet, and an embattled incumbent without friends often does not remain an incumbent for very long. We saw this last year in Oregon when then-Gov. John Kitzhaber very quickly fell from grace after he repeatedly denied that his fiancée had violated ethics rules for advising him on energy issues at the same time she was acting as a paid consultant. Kitzhaber had previously alienated most of his fellow Democrats and soon resigned. Bentley right now is on a similar course.
Senate:
● FL-Sen: Biden Alert! As promised when he and Barack Obama first endorsed, the VPOTUS headed down to Florida to headline a fundraiser for Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy on Monday. Biden also campaigned publicly with Murphy, greeting voters at soul food restaurant in Miami. (The president, however, remained in the capital, surrounded by his Imperial Guard.) Murphy faces fellow Rep. Alan Grayson in the August primary.
House:
● AZ-05: Former state parks director Bryan Martyn is joining the race for Arizona's 5th Congressional District, making him the third Republican to seek this dark red open seat. Prior to the parks job, Martyn served on the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, but unfortunately for him, none of Pinal is in the district he's hoping to represent. Also running are Senate President Andy Biggs, who was endorsed by retiring Rep. Matt Salmon, and state Rep. Justin Olson.
● CA-44: State Sen. Isadore Hall has released an internal poll from Garin-Hart-Yang of June's top-two primary for the seat Rep. Janice Hahn is leaving open to run for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and unsurprisingly, he's in the lead. Hall, a Democrat, takes 35 percent while Republican Christopher Castillo is in second with 10 percent. Two other Democrats, Armando Sotomayor and Nanette Barragan, earn 7 and 5, respectively, while "other" nets 7, and 36 percent are undecided.
Barragan's showing is the most surprising: Unlike Some Dudes Castillo and Sotomayor (who doesn't even appear to have filed with the FEC), Barragan has raised real money—$433,000 to date—and has the support of EMILY's List. Hall, as the only elected official running, naturally starts out as the best-known figure, as this poll shows. But Barragan will be able to increase her name recognition, especially if EMILY helps out. Perhaps this survey is meant to send a signal that they shouldn't bother.
Hall would certainly prefer to face Castillo in November, since he'd be guaranteed of victory against a Republican in a seat that gave 85 percent of its vote to Barack Obama. Against Barragan, though, the general election would be much tougher, particularly if she's able to mobilize fellow Latinos, who make up 70 percent of the district (though only around 40 percent of eligible voters). Hall, who is African American, would likely still be the favorite, but he'd rather wrap this up in June.
● FL-23: Barack Obama's antipathy toward his own DNC chair is well-documented: Unable to secure meetings with the president, Debbie Wasserman Schultz reportedly stakes out photo lines at fundraisers to cadge a minute of his time. But nevertheless, Obama has done one final favor for DWS, endorsing her over law professor Tim Canova in the August Democratic primary.
Any lingering awkwardness aside, the fact that Wasserman Schultz feels it's necessary to call on the president's help is what's truly news here. Canova is waging a long-shot bid, but he's hoping to leverage some Sanders-esque enthusiasm (and liberal discontent with the incumbent) to score an upset. That's why Obama specifically called Wasserman Schultz a "strong, progressive leader" in his statement Monday. Is DWS truly worried, though, or is she just playing it safe? Probably the latter, but it sure would be interesting if this race wound up close.
● MD-04, MD-08: With Maryland's Democratic primary now just a month away, the ad wars are heating in two blue open seats in the Washington, DC area. In the 4th District, state Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk touts her own toughness in her first ad, saying she's taken on the NRA. At the end, her daughter, seated at a breakfast table, pours out a box of cereal into a bowl—only it's filled with nails, you see, because her mom is "tough as nails." It was goofy enough to make us laugh. Peña-Melnyk's two main rivals are former Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey and former Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.
Meanwhile, in the 8th District, three different candidates have new spots. Former hotel executive Kathleen Matthews features the endorsement she received from the Washington Post in two new ads (and takes a dig at the "overwhelming" quantity of political mailers voters have received—something she's no doubt partly responsible for). Wealthy businessman David Trone, who has had a heavy presence on the airwaves, says that he "banned the box" on employment applications at his huge chain of wine stores, meaning he stopped asking prospective employees if they had criminal records. (Progressives want this policy enshrined in law nationwide.)
Finally, former White House aide Will Jawando is also out with his first ad. In it, he says that a scholarship helped lift him from a difficult and uncertain life, taking him to law school and eventually into the employ of Barack Obama, first as a senator, then as president. Jawando is a longshot in this extremely crowded race, where polls agree that state Sen. Jamie Raskin is the frontrunner. We don't have the size on any of these buys, but it's a safe bet that the self-funding Trone and the well-financed Matthews are spending plenty.
● NH-01: Businessman Rich Ashooh has been upgraded from "expected to enter the GOP primary soon" to "expected to enter early next week," according to John DiStaso. Ashooh would join state Rep. Pam Tucker in challenging incumbent Rep. Frank Guinta for this very swingy seat that Democrats are targeting.
● PA-02: State Rep. Dwight Evans, who is hoping to unseat indicted Rep. Chaka Fattah in next month's Democratic primary, just released his first TV ad of the race. In an era when politics is so heavily nationalized in nature, Evans' spot is unusually local in focus: After briefly recounting his bio ("a legislator at 25"), the narrator says Evans has "brought new grocery stores to underserved areas" and will be a "block-by-block congressman." It'll be interesting to see whether this sort of messaging works.
● VA-02: Perhaps no district better symbolizes the Democratic Party's near-impossible task of retaking the House this year than Virginia's 2nd. That's because, even though the 2nd is an open seat that Mitt Romney carried by just two points, Democrats don't have a single candidate here, not even a sausage. The one serious option who had been considering, state Sen. Lynwood Lewis, just begged off, and the only name in circulation is that of Shaun Brown, a perennial candidate.
Making matters graver is the fact that the filing deadline is Thursday, though Democrats might try to buy some time by switching from a primary to a convention, which would allow potential candidates to come forward at a later date. Still, the cupboard is looking awfully bare, and if Donald Trump turns the GOP ticket into a dumpster fire the size of Mar-a-Lago, it would be a shandeh to leave this seat uncontested.
That's especially so since Republicans have a nasty primary of their own, between Rep. Randy Forbes, who's carpetbagging over from the 4th District (which became unwinnably blue after a recent round of court-ordered redistricting), and state Del. Scott Taylor, who's been attacking Forbes as, well, a carpetbagger. With presidential-year turnout, Democrats won't have a better opportunity to pick up this seat for many a year to come, but right now, it's looking like any hope will slip through their fingers.
● VA-04: State Sen. Donald McEachin doesn't face much of a contest in the Democratic primary, and his latest round of endorsements ought to seal the deal. All five of Virginia's statewide elected officials, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, have now given McEachin their endorsement. The 4th District is now a comfortably blue open seat, thanks to a recent court-imposed redistricting plan than prompted GOP Rep. Randy Forbes to seek re-election in the 2nd District instead, though Henrico County Sheriff Mike Ward is giving it the old college try for Republicans.
Legislative:
● Special Elections: Johnny Longtorso has the goods, as always:
Maine SD-32: This is an open Democratic seat southwest of Portland. The candidates are Democrat Susan Deschambault, chair of the Biddeford Planning Board, and Republican Stephen Martin, a former cop. Also on the ballot is a Green Independent candidate who has dropped out of the race. This seat went 61-37 for President Obama in 2012.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir and Jeff Singer, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, and Stephen Wolf.
