The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● AK-Gov: The Alaska Supreme Court heard arguments last month on the legality of the recall campaign against GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy, but it will be at least a few more weeks before the court reaches a decision.
The justices have asked both Recall Dunleavy and the state Division of Elections to submit additional information by April 20, and the Anchorage Daily News writes that "a ruling is expected after that date." Stand Tall With Mike, the main group fighting to prevent Dunleavy from being removed from office, announced in February that it was dropping its legal opposition to the recall campaign, but the state Division of Elections is still challenging a lower court ruling that allowed it to proceed.
Campaign Action
The court has allowed Recall Dunleavy to collect signatures to get a recall measure on the ballot, and the campaign announced last month that it would collect signatures by mail instead of in person because of the novel coronavirus. If Recall Dunleavy prevails in court it will have to turn in more than 71,000 valid signatures—which is 25% of the votes cast in 2018—to make the ballot. However, while there's no time limit for gathering petitions, the date of the recall election does depend on when Recall Dunleavy submits the signatures. It now looks like the contest won't be happening before the Aug. 19 primary.
Recall Dunleavy would need to turn in its petitions by April 19 to force a special summer election, and its campaign manager acknowledged last week that this was "unlikely" to happen. A recall election would take place 60 to 90 days after the Alaska Division of Elections verified that enough valid signatures have been turned in, and if Recall Dunleavy submits its petitions after April 19, then the contest might end up occurring on the day of the primary or the November general election.
If Dunleavy is removed from office, he would be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer, a fellow Republican. No matter what, though, Alaska's regularly scheduled gubernatorial election will take place in 2022.
While defeating Dunleavy wouldn't change which party holds the governor's office, his critics have good reason to want him out. Dunleavy alienated plenty of Alaskans last year—including some of his old supporters—with his draconian budget cuts that included an attempt to slash 41% of higher education funding, as well as retaliating against the state Supreme Court by cutting $335,000 in funding after it upheld a ruling that protected abortion rights.
Election Changes
Please bookmark our statewide 2020 primary calendar and our calendar of key down-ballot races, both of which we're updating continually as changes are finalized.
● Florida: An organization representing local election officials has asked Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to relax a number of laws so that they can more easily carry out the state's Aug. 18 down-ballot primaries and the November general election. Most notably, officials are asking that the number of days allowed for early voting be expanded and that they be allowed to open more early voting locations. In their letter, they also tell DeSantis that the state "is not in a position, at this time, to conduct an all-mail ballot election this year."
● Maine: Democratic Gov. Janet Mills says it is "not going to be possible" to conduct Maine's down-ballot primaries as planned on June 9 and says she's "anticipating holding the election on July 14." Mills has the power to unilaterally postpone the election under a new law passed by legislators last month. After Mills delivered her remarks at a Tuesday press conference, Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said he would prefer to conduct the primary entirely by mail.
● Minnesota: Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon has introduced legislation under which every Minnesota voter would automatically receive a mail-in ballot for the state's Aug. 11 down-ballot primaries and the November general election. Voters would be required to have someone witness their ballots.
Republicans immediately expressed their opposition, with state Rep. Jim Nash claiming the bill would "provide for a lot of electioneering" and "open the door for election fraud." (To "electioneer" means "to take an active part in an election," so it's not clear why Nash objects to that.) Democrats control the state House and governorship but Republicans have a narrow majority in the state Senate.
● New Jersey: Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has postponed New Jersey's presidential and down-ballot primaries from June 2 to July 7. Murphy says that he wants to "preserve the possibility that improvements in the public health situation will allow for in-person voting" but adds that if the state has to conduct the primary entirely by mail, "this extra time will make that task easier."
● New York: Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that all voters will be able to cast absentee ballots in New York's June 23 presidential and down-ballot primaries. New York is one of a number of states that ordinarily require voters to have an excuse in order to vote absentee.
● Utah: Utah's Republican-led legislature will consider whether to delay the state's down-ballot primaries from June 30 to Aug. 4 when it likely convenes next week in a special session that will be held entirely online. Lawmakers may also extend or eliminate the April 13 deadline for candidates to gather signatures in order to appear on the primary ballot.
● Virginia: Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has delayed Virginia's June 9 down-ballot primaries until June 23, using executive powers that allow him to postpone elections for up to two weeks. Northam has also asked the legislature to pass legislation consolidating the state's May 5 municipal elections with the November general election. Separately, Democratic lawmakers are also considering whether to move to all-mail elections.
1Q Fundraising
● NH-Sen: Jeanne Shaheen (D-inc): $2 million raised, $7.1 million cash-on-hand
● CA-08: Chris Bubser (D): $309,000 raised
● CO-03: Diane Mitsch Bush (D): $363,000 raised, $478,000 cash-on-hand; James Iacino (D): $184,000 raised, additional $250,000 self-funded, $361,000 cash-on-hand
● FL-19: Byron Donalds (R): $335,000 raised
● MA-04: Becky Walker Grossman (D): $230,000 raised, $400,000 cash-on-hand
● WA-10: Beth Doglio (D): $240,000 raised (in one month), $220,000 cash-on-hand
Senate
● MA-Sen: On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey's campaign told the Boston Globe that it had collected only 7,000 of the necessary 10,000 signatures it needed to make the September primary ballot. Campaign manager John Walsh said he didn't "have any anxiety" about gathering the remaining petitions by the May 5 deadline, but he acknowledged that the novel coronavirus would make it more difficult to complete this task.
Walsh said that the campaign was asking any registered Democrat or unenrolled Massachusetts voters who want to help Markey get on the ballot to fill out a form online. The voter would then receive Markey's nomination papers by mail, which they could then mail back using a prepaid and preaddressed envelope. Walsh also said that staffers were using all "the virtual tools available" to gather the signatures in time.
Markey faces a tough primary challenge in September from Rep. Joe Kennedy III, whose team told the Globe that they'd already submitted 15,000 signatures to local election authorities for certification.
Gubernatorial
● VA-Gov: Last week, Democratic Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy filed paperwork for a potential 2021 run for governor. Carroll Foy has not yet announced that she's in, though, and her office said she was "focused on the state's response to the pandemic and helping her constituents manage this crisis." The Virginia Mercury's Graham Moomaw wrote that Carroll Foy had planned several events for mid-March, but the novel coronavirus led her to postpone them.
Carroll Foy was among the first black women to graduate from the Virginia Military Institute, and she would again make history if she won the governorship next year. Carroll Foy sought elected office for the first time in 2017 in a GOP-held open seat in Northern Virginia, and she told the Associated Press that Donald Trump's win and the previous Republican-majority legislature's "anti-woman" laws had motivated her to run.
Foy won the primary by 12 votes against Joshua King, who had narrowly lost the 2015 general election, but she had no trouble in November. Foy was easily reelected in 2019, and she was the main supporter of this year's successful effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
House
● CA-25: Democrat Christy Smith is out with her first general election ad ahead of the May 12 special election. Smith begins by talking about the novel coronavirus and tells the audience, "America is hurting but our community is strong, and we'll get through this together."
Smith goes on to pick up a picture of her mother as she continues, "I know how it feels to lose a loved one when our health care system fails. That's why I'm working with Democrats and Republicans to get families on their feet and the health care they need." She also notes that she's supported by nurses, doctors, and firefighters, who "have my back, and together, we have yours."
● NJ-03: Barnegat Township Mayor John Novak announced this week that he was dropping out of the GOP primary after several of his petitions were ruled as invalid. Novak threw his support behind wealthy businessman David Richter in the contest to take on Democratic Rep. Andy Kim.
● NM-03: Attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez is out with her first TV spot ahead of the June Democratic primary for this open seat. Leger Fernandez is shown shoveling on a farm as she tells the audience: "One thing you learn growing up around here: Water is life and acequia is community." She continues, "As an acequia commissioner, I brought people together to keep our water flowing through the valley, stopping a developer who wanted to take it away." Acequias are communal irrigation systems common in New Mexico. They are run by commissioners elected by each waterway’s users.
● New York: Candidate filing closed last week for New York's June 23 primary, but it may be a little while before we have a complete list of contenders.
The state does publish a list of candidates who've filed for Congress, but it doesn't include all House seats: Candidates running for a district that is contained entirely within a single county or within New York City file with their local election authorities, while everyone else files with the state. Outside of New York City, the three House seats that are located in just one county are NY-01 (Suffolk County), NY-04 (Nassau County), and NY-25 (Monroe County). As of Wednesday, we only have the candidate list from the state and Monroe County.