LOTS OF POSTS IGNORED BY BLOGGER.....
OR REMOVED ON THEIR WHIM!
ALL POSTS ARE AVAILABLE ON
MIDDLEBORO REVIEW AND SO ON
BLOGGER DOESN'T LIKE TRUTH OR FACTS!
BLOGGER DOESN'T LIKE FUND RAISERS AND DELETES
POSTS THAT INCLUDE FUNDRAISING THAT 'VIOLATES THEIR
UNDEFINED COMMUNITY STANDARDS SO ALL 'FUND RAISING'
IS DELETED - CONTRIBUTE AS YOU ARE INCLINED TO SUPPORT
IMPORTANT ISSUES! THESE ARE NOT SOLICITATIONS
Morning Digest: How a failed GOP gerrymander is putting a Missouri seat in playRepublicans tried to shore up Ann Wagner’s district. Instead, they’re rescuing her campaign.
Leading OffMO-02The Congressional Leadership Fund just made a late $650,000 ad buy to help Rep. Ann Wagner, whom Republicans hadn’t treated as vulnerable until now, at the same time as a new Democratic poll shows the longtime congresswoman trailing her Democratic opponent. That survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling for the House Majority PAC, finds Army veteran and podcaster Fred Wellman with a 46-45 edge on Wagner in Missouri’s 2nd District. There’s been no other recent polling of the race, but CLF’s latest move indicates it’s seeing similar numbers. What’s especially notable about the group’s new investment, which was flagged by Punchbowl’s Ally Mutnick, is that Wagner’s district, based in the St. Louis suburbs, voted for Donald Trump by a 53-45 margin in 2024. Missouri Republicans telegraphed some concern about their hold on the 2nd District when they sought to make it safer under the newly gerrymandered map they passed last year. That version would have supported Trump 55-43, according to calculations by The Downballot. That map, however, is on hold pending a referendum next month that could repeal it permanently, meaning Wagner must defend the less-red configuration against Wellman this year. The redistricting saga, though, may have made matters worse for her. In a message to the firm’s email list discussing the survey, Public Policy Polling said that the failed redraw “sen[t] Democratic energy off the charts,” noting that Wellman holds a 53-43 edge with voters who say they are “very excited” to vote. In another possible sign of enthusiasm, Wellman also outraised Wagner in the third quarter of the year. But thanks to a hefty war chest she built up earlier in the cycle, the congresswoman went into the final month with four times as much cash available as her opponent, $2.4 million to around $570,000. That financial edge, though, doesn’t seem to be enough for CLF, which did not book any airtime in Missouri when it announced $175 million in fall ad reservations earlier this year. Wellman has received modest outside support so far from a pair of groups, VoteVets and American Bridge, who together have spent about $200,000. VoteVets, which supports Democratic veterans, has been airing negative ads attacking Wagner for “get[ting] $20 million richer on a government salary” while raising costs for Americans by, among other things, voting in favor of the Iran war. Conservative third-party outfits had deployed roughly that same amount before CLF came in. The only Republican spending the FEC tracked was just over $200,000 from a group called Protect Our Family Values Action. The Downballot PodcastWhat the hell is Ramaswamy thinking?The most appalling ad of the midterms is also the most inexplicable. On this week’s episode of The Downballot podcast, co-hosts David Nir and David Beard rip Vivek Ramaswamy for trying to weaponize his opponent’s painful experience of sexual assault as a child in a new campaign commercial. But they also simply can’t believe Ramaswamy defended the ad after it leaked before even airing on TV and explain why it’s already causing grief for other Ohio Republicans. The Davids also welcome back Lou Jacobson to discuss his new rankings of competitive legislative chambers just published at Sabato’s Crystal Ball. Jacobson dives into a whole host of battles, telling us why Democrats are favored to flip New Hampshire’s House even as its Senate favors the GOP; why GOP supermajorities are threatened in a number of states; and why the Pennsylvania Senate is such a huge prize for Democrats. SenateME-SenThe GOP’s top Senate super PAC is running a radio ad mocking Democrat Troy Jackson for being in a long-time relationship with a woman who is reportedly his second cousin. Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ team called for the ad to be taken down Tuesday, even though she brought up this very topic this summer. “Troy Jackson is weird, he has two kids with his cousin,” croons a country singer in the Senate Leadership Fund’s ad. The spot, which is intercut with the chorus, “If he’ll screw his own family, he’ll screw yours too,” levels further complaints about Jackson, whom it labels a “creep” and a “freak.” These include him telling Collins to “shut up” last week after she alleged a protester who interrupted their debate was one of his supporters. The singer, though, returns to Jackson’s family at the end, warning, “If he’ll f**k his own family, he’ll f**k yours too.” (The profanity is bleeped in the original.) Jackson has been in a relationship for nearly 40 years with Lana Pelletier, with whom he has two adult children. The conservative news site Maine Wire published a piece in late July saying that he and Pelletier share a pair of great-grandparents. While Jackson does not appear to have publicly addressed the story, Collins was happy to talk about it just before Labor Day when Politico asked her, “Should the circumstances of his personal life and the mother of his children be relevant to this campaign?” “I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin,” Collins responded, “I don’t know whether people know that or not.” The senator’s team, however, reacted differently on Tuesday when the Portland Press Herald asked about SLF’s new ad. “Senator Collins believes there have been far too many personal attacks in this campaign,” her spokesperson said in a statement. “This ad has nothing to do with Troy Jackson’s qualifications for the job and should be taken down immediately.” But the jingle was still running the next day when Pelletier published an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News denouncing the senator for leveling attacks on her family. “Collins has been quick to demand respect and decency for herself. My family deserved the same,” she wrote. “I stayed quiet because I never wanted this election to be about me. Collins and her allies made a different choice.” GovernorsNV-GovRepublicans are trying to convince liberal voters to back an independent candidate in the tight race for governor in Nevada—and that candidate just happens to share a last name with the Democratic nominee. “The AOC of Nevada,” proclaims a mailer featuring photos of Danielle Ford and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. “This isn’t about political party. This is about the people of Nevada.” A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez told the Nevada Independent that the congresswoman backs Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat who is not related to the little-known independent. Her team also said that Republicans were engaging in “a disgusting attempt to trick Nevada voters” into thinking she instead supports the other Ford, a former Clark County School Board trustee who has a history of promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 9/11 attacks. The mailers come as Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and Ford are locked in an unpredictable and expensive race to lead this perennial swing state. An aggregate of polling compiled by FiftyPlusOne shows Lombardo with a small 44.1 to 42.6 advantage as of Wednesday, though just three surveys have been released since the beginning of September. Lombardo, who narrowly unseated Democratic incumbent Joe Sisolak four years ago, sought to avoid the same fate as his predecessor by launching an early and sustained ad campaign against Ford. The governor and his allies had the airwaves almost completely to themselves from December of last year until mid-September, when the Democratic Governors Association began booking significant ad time. However, the GOP has retained a significant edge: AdImpact reported Monday that Lombardo’s side had spent $34.7 million on commercials, compared to $13.5 million from Democrats. But while the GOP no longer has a near-monopoly over the airwaves, it’s using its still-considerable resources to air a barrage of ads attacking Ford over a clemency application he sponsored last year. “A young mother and her unborn baby boy, gruesomely gunned down by gang member Norman Smith,” begins the narrator in an ad from Lombardo’s allied PAC that began airing late last month. She continues by declaring that Ford “personally asked the pardons board to grant this killer an early release,” saying the attorney general was “siding with the criminals, ignoring the victims.” The attorney general’s office responded with a statement from a spokesperson, John Sadler, saying that Ford received a “sentencing modification” request from Smith’s mother regarding her son, who was sentenced to 18 to 59 years in prison after being convicted of killing a pregnant woman and a series of armed robberies. Sadler added that Ford decided to put the matter before the pardon board, a body that includes the attorney general and governor, but said Ford told Smith’s mother that the move did not mean he would take her side. Ford missed the meeting in question because of a family emergency, Sadler said, but would have voted against altering Smith’s sentence. The board ultimately denied the application. Ford also answered with an ad of his own, with a narrator accusing Lombardo of leveling “sleazy lies.” The spot continues, “Ford agreed, no clemency, no pardon, same as Lombardo. … On the pardons board, Ford and Lombardo voted the same way almost every time.” This commercial, though, did not mark the end of the matter. Republicans have spent the ensuing weeks hitting Ford over what the Nevada Independent last week called the “clemency request [that] took over the Nevada’s governor race.” Democrats, meanwhile, are hoping that the state’s economic challenges, as well as Donald Trump’s weak approval ratings, will have voters looking to shake up the status quo. “You can’t buy a house, gas over five bucks a gallon,” says the cast in a new DGA ad, with three different people each reciting a segment. “But all Lombardo cares about are donors, billionaire donors, and doing whatever Trump wants: backing tariffs, building data centers, and cutting health care.” OK-GovThe Republican Governors Association is spending $3 million to help former state Sen. Mike Mazzei win Oklahoma’s open governorship, the Oklahoman reported on Tuesday. The news came just hours after the Democratic Governors Association announced it was sending $500,000 to aid state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson’s campaign to lead one of the most conservative states in the nation. Attorneys GeneralFL-AGThe Republican Party of Florida withdrew its lawsuit Wednesday to stop the state Democratic Party from running an ad attacking Attorney General James Uthmeier over the Hope Florida scandal, but it hasn’t eased up on its threats to prosecute TV stations for airing the ad.
Two state attorneys from central Florida recently warned stations of “the potential criminal consequences” of running ads quoting a grand jury report that state judges ordered expunged. The state GOP mentioned that warning in its notice of dismissal, which concluded, “RPOF is dismissing this case so that the work of the State Attorneys can continue without distraction.” Ballot MeasuresMD Ballot, MD-GovGov. Wes Moore is redirecting $750,000 worth of advertising that was intended to bolster his reelection campaign to instead support a ballot measure that would make it easier for Maryland Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map, the Washington Post reports. Moore is on a glide path to a second term as he faces the same opponent he defeated in a 65-32 landslide four years ago, Republican Dan Cox. The only public poll conducted since the summer, a late September survey from the University of Maryland, found him leading Cox 51-24 in their rematch. Moore has also dominated Cox in fundraising. Yet the ballot measure, which would clarify that rules for redistricting found in the state constitution do not apply to congressional maps, does not appear to be faring as well with voters as the governor is. A trio of polls last month all showed the proposal, known as Question 3, earning well below a majority, with the “no” side leading in two of them. A new outfit is even trying to draft off Moore’s popularity by running ads asking Marylanders to vote “yes on Wes” but “against Question 3,” the Baltimore Banner reports. Moore’s campaign swiftly sent a cease-and-desist letter to the group, noting that the governor supports Question 3. Poll PileAll polls must comply with The Downballot’s requirements.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.