Leading Off
● ND-Sen: GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer, allegedly Mitch McConnell's top recruit to take on Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp next year, is really, really not helping his cause. During a "radio town hall" Wednesday morning, Cramer decided what the world truly needs is more men commenting on how their women colleagues dress professionally:
"But by the way, did you notice how poorly several of them were dressed as well? It is a syndrome. There is no question, there is a disease associated with the notion that a bunch of women would wear bad-looking white pantsuits in solidarity with Hillary Clinton to celebrate her loss. You cannot get that weird."
Ah. So not only are their sartorial choices and political preferences in question, their very mental health is as well. Women love being talked about in this manner, of course, which is why Cramer apologized so fulsomely later that same day. Oh wait, just kidding:
"But at the same time, they looked silly. I don't buy their argument that it was a celebration of suffrage. I think they should be celebrating the fact that there were women members of Congress sitting in a joint session, listening to the President of the United States on equal footing as a co-equal branch—and sort of get over this notion that somehow we have to be offended all the time."
See, little ladies? You should be just thrilled that, not even a hundred years after you were so generously given the right to vote, we're now allowing you to sit alongside us men on the floor of Congress to listen to a speech! So stop with your "silly" protests and just behave yourselves already.
It looks like Republicans are hell-bent on repeating their mistakes from 2012, when they nominated then-Rep. Rick Berg, Cramer's predecessor, to run against Heitkamp. Berg turned out to be spectacularly unlikeable, and the way his campaign approached women was a key factor.
Berg's most notable flop was a brutally stilted ad he ran featuring four older women sitting at a diner talking made-up smack about Heitkamp. The spot—which Berg quickly tried to hide—was bitingly derided as a "senior citizen remake of Mean Girls," and the actors' cattiness toward the sunny and pleasant Heitkamp made Berg look sullen and venomous. In a state that prides itself on being "North Dakota nice," Berg wound up looking anything but—and Cramer's managing to do the exact same thing.
But if there's one Republican who probably won't be bothered by Cramer's definition of women's outreach, it's Donald Trump. Indeed, Cramer claims that Trump has already promised to support him if he challenges Heitkamp. Cramer also says a Senate bid is "not a top-of-the-mind issue for me right now, and it won't be for several months." After hearing some of the stuff that does seem to be at the top of Cramer's mind, we can believe that.
P.S. Special thanks to Daily Kos community member stevemb for resurrecting the ad that Rick Berg didn’t want you to see!
Gubernatorial
● OK-Gov: GOP Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb has been flirting with a 2018 bid to succeed termed-out Gov. Mary Fallin for a while, and it sounds like he'll make his plans known sooner rather than later. Lamb recently told the local station KOKC that he's leaning towards getting in and while he didn't say when he'd make a final decision, he said that "I think you'll probably hear something about that in the very near future." Lamb recently got some attention when he resigned from Fallin's cabinet to protest tax increases he argued would hurt small businesses.
House
● IL-12: Ho-lee sh*t. This is a real quote from GOP Rep. Mike Bost explaining why he's not holding any town halls:
"The amount of time that I have at home is minimal, I need to make sure that it's productive. You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you'd put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That's not what we need. We need to have meetings with people that are productive."
So now town halls are the equivalent of Maoist "struggle sessions"—and leave it to a Republican congressman to describe them in the most racist way imaginable. Mouth agape.
● MT-AL: The special election to succeed Republican Ryan Zinke, who resigned to head the Interior Department, will be May 25, and both parties will soon know who their nominees are. The GOP has scheduled their nominating convention (there is no primary) for Monday, while the Democratic convention will be held the day before on March 5.
● NH-01: This week, ex-state Liquor Commission Enforcement and Licensing Director Eddie Edwards, who also used to serve as police chief of the small town of South Hampton, expressed interest in seeking the GOP nod to take on Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. Edward also used to serve as director of community relations for ex-GOP Rep, Frank Guinta, though he resigned in the midst of Guinta's campaign finance scandal. A little while ago, state Rep. John Burt also talked about challenging Shea-Porter in a seat that Trump won 48-47. WMUR has also mentioned state Sen. Andy Sanborn and ex-state Commissioner of Health and Human Services John Stephen as potential candidates, though neither man has publicly expressed interest yet.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, and James Lambert.
