 | BY NIGHTLY STAFF | | 
Attorney Neal Katyal speaks in front of the Supreme Court in 2022. | AP | FIRST LOOK — We called it “the week that blew up New Jersey’s political machine.” Last month, Nightly wrote about a stunning blow to the political order in one of the nation’s most reform-resistant states, a development that threatened to drag New Jersey’s preserved-in-amber politics out of the smoke-filled backrooms and into the 21st century. We’re talking here about the prospect of an end to the state’s infamous county-line ballot design, which has long been used by party bosses to reward, punish and command loyalty from candidates running for elected office. The county-line ballot design is the epitome of hack-driven, smoke-filled-room politics. It is the bane of good government groups. And now, with its demise finally in sight, an unlikely defender has stepped forward to save it: attorney Neal Katyal, widely viewed on the left as a virtuous champion of democracy and a stalwart against Trump-era assaults on democratic norms. The respected Washington lawyer, a former acting solicitor general in the Barack Obama administration who’s argued before the Supreme Court dozens of times, has been retained by New Jersey’s Middlesex County Democratic Party — one of the local party machines — to protect the archaic county-line design after a federal judge struck down its use in late March. Katyal’s arrival on the scene is a fascinating turn of events. The state’s unique ballot design is known to give an advantage to candidates officially endorsed by local leaders of both major parties; challengers who failed to win the endorsement are shunted off to the side of the ballot, to a position often referred to as “ballot Siberia.” Katyal’s defense of the practice has deeply disappointed his usual admirers and led to charges of hypocrisy. Our colleague, Michael Schaffer, will have more tomorrow morning on the saga — and Katyal’s response — in his weekly Capital City column . It’s a great read, and it raises questions that reach beyond grubby Garden State politics. “Alas, the appeals court won’t weigh in on what might be the most interesting aspect of the case for Washington types: Just why would Katyal sign on to a cause that, whatever its legal merits, looks so tawdry and backwards? For someone who is genuinely admired in the capital’s legal and media ecosystem, it’s off-brand, to say the least,” writes Schaffer. “Democracy advocates have long derided the rule as something out of a banana republic, “an unconstitutional governmental thumb on the scale.” “In Washington, the whole spectacle reflects a tension that has played out in the establishment ever since Trump’s defeat: Was pushing back against election subversion just about thwarting Trump? Or is it part of a larger effort to improve American democracy — a cause that might also include killing a crass New Jersey system that long predates the 45th president?” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at mschaffer@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @michaelschaffer .
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| | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, the newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world, including WEF in Davos, Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to UNGA in NYC and many more. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW . | | | | | | | — OJ Simpson, fallen football hero acquitted of murder in ‘trial of the century,’ dies at 76: O.J. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. Simpson’s attorney confirmed to TMZ he died Wednesday night in Las Vegas . A message posted today on Simpson’s official X account — formerly Twitter — said he died after battling cancer. “He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” the statement said. — Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court justice says she won’t run again, setting up fight for control: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced today that she will not seek another term , setting up a high-stakes fight for control of the battleground state’s highest court. Bradley, who is part of the court’s 4-3 liberal majority, said she felt confident she could win a fourth 10-year term but that it was time to “pass the torch.” Her term will end July 31, 2025. The election for the open seat will be held next April. Brad Schimel, the former Republican attorney general, announced in November that he plans to run. The race was already expected to be heated, but Bradley’s departure makes it an open race. — Menendez trial still set for May, but wife’s will be delayed: Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial will start in May — without his wife. A federal judge today refused to delay the trial because of health issues facing Nadine Menendez, who asked to postpone the trial because of an unspecified “serious medical condition.” The New Jersey Democrat and his wife face bribery and extortion charges stemming from his relationship with three New Jersey businesspeople, who are also co-defendants.
| | WRITING IN CHENEY — John R. Bolton, who fervently disavowed former President Donald J. Trump after serving as his national security adviser, said on Wednesday that he would be voting for a Republican in the November election, just as he did four years ago — only not for his old boss but for former Vice President Dick Cheney , reports the New York Times. TRUMP-APPROVED — Donald Trump is tightening his stranglehold on the congressional GOP’s policy agenda as he reshapes Republican lawmakers’ party orthodoxy on national security and social issues. Trump’s sway was on full display Wednesday as the House tried to take up a warrantless government surveillance bill that was intended to unite the party. Then, hours after the former president pushed to “kill” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization, 19 House Republicans did just that. He’s also successfully nudging most anti-abortion conservatives to accept his call to abandon a national standard — what was once a consensus position in the GOP. That’s on top of Trump’s long-standing opposition to new Ukraine aid, which remains stalled on the Hill.
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Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip pass through the inspection area at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel. | Ohad Zwigenberg/AP | JAMMED UP — Long processing delays of trucks entering Gaza are creating a backlog of humanitarian aid in the enclave , thwarting the distribution of food and medical aid to more than 2.2 million people, aid workers say. Since Sunday, about 400 assistance-carrying trucks a day have entered the enclave from Egypt, the largest number since Israel began its counteroffensive against Hamas in October, according to Israeli government figures. But aid groups are still having difficulty accessing that aid, which is pooled in a restricted area on the Gazan side of the border overseen by Israel for vetting. Humanitarian organizations have to load that aid onto other trucks and can retrieve the cargo only at certain times of the day, according to four aid workers whose organizations work in Gaza. While distributing humanitarian aid is difficult in any war zone, the aid workers, who were granted anonymity because they feared retribution by Israel, said Israel’s bureaucratic processing and rules around access are creating particularly large delays in Gaza. Israel has fired back at the aid groups’ allegations, saying the U.N. does not have the capacity to distribute all of the aid it has let through the border. Whatever the reason for the long delays, it could take weeks, maybe months, for the aid to reach all those who need it, including those in the northern part of the enclave who are still largely blocked off from aid delivery networks. TIGHTROPE WALK — Iran is calibrating its plans for a major retaliatory strike against Israel to send a message — but not spark a regional war that compels Washington to respond, the U.S. assesses. Biden administration officials judge that Iran is planning a larger-than-usual aerial attack on Israel in the coming days, one that will likely feature a mix of missiles and drone strikes, said two U.S. officials who were granted anonymity to detail sensitive intelligence assessments. Neither official said they were fully confident Iran will succeed in striking Israel in a way that doesn’t prompt the U.S. to respond militarily, as any attack increases the risk of a greater conflagration in the Middle East. But Iran doesn’t seek to expand the regional crisis further, the Biden administration has long determined, which the officials said may be weighing on Tehran’s planning. The National Security Council declined to comment. But President Joe Biden, speaking during a Wednesday news conference, said Iran was “threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel.”
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15 percent The percentage growth of the Russian military since the start of the Ukrainian war, according to testimony from Gen. Christopher Cavoli, who heads up European Command and is also NATO’s supreme allied commander on the continent. Cavoli, in a plea to Congress for more aid to Ukraine, warned that Russia replaced its heavy battlefield losses in Ukraine faster than anticipated. |
| | | STRANGER THAN FICTION — A Texas-based artist named Roxy Gordon was famous for spinning a good yarn — he worked as a Native American artist but wasn’t actually Native American, he once wrote he doesn’t know the difference between truth and fiction , noting “either one I can get away with.” As a writer, it’s a fascinating — and plausibly disturbing — way to live a life. But as his fascination with Native American art grew, he started to buy into the idea that he was Native as well — and his art started to appear in anthologies of Native writing, and his profile grew throughout Texas as a counterculture, Native figure who had ideas about a whole lot. As his profile grew before his death in 2000, he held tight to his outsider status, even though it was a fiction. For Texas Monthly, Michael Hall writes about Gordon and what it means to be an outsider artist.
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On this date in 1966: A huge crowd of grape strike pickets and sympathizers gather at the steps of California's Capitol building in Sacramento. The strike, fighting the exploitation of farm workers, lasted until 1970. | AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here . | |
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