The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with extra contributions from the Day by day Kos Elections staff.
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Main Off
● UT-Gov: Utah’s three-way race for governor took one other sudden activate Thursday when Democratic state Rep. Brian King debuted a marketing campaign video co-starring far-right state Rep. Phil Lyman, the election conspiracy theorist who’s waging a write-in marketing campaign months after dropping the GOP major to Gov. Spencer Cox. However Cox is strictly what’s uniting the 2 legislators in a bit parodying the governor’s “Disagree Better” marketing campaign.
“Now, Phil and I disagree better about most issues,” King tells the viewers with a wink after the on-screen textual content identifies him because the “Democratic candidate for Utah governor” and Lyman as “Former (or current depending on who you ask) GOP candidate for Utah governor *litigation pending*).” The 2, although, reply in unison that they’re united within the perception that “Spencer Cox should not be our next governor.” The state representatives go on to politely argue whether or not voters ought to write in Lyman’s identify or forged their poll for King.
Cox generated nationwide consideration with a business 4 years in the past the place he and his Democratic rival, Chris Peterson, agreed they have been “both equally dedicated to the American values of democracy, liberty, and justice for all people,” and would settle for the outcomes of the 2020 presidential race. Cox, who went on to simply win his basic election on this darkish purple state, has continued to draw nationwide consideration by calling for extra civility in politics, and he used his yr as chair of the Nationwide Governors Affiliation to launch his “Disagree Better” initiative.
The governor’s critics, although, have argued that Cox himself is the one who must be persuaded by these messages. Cox, who touts himself as “an ally to the LGBTQ community,” signed a invoice to ban gender-affirming care, which he denounced as “genital-mutilation surgery” at a February “Disagree Better” occasion.
Skeptics have additionally highlighted how the governor signed off on a GOP-drawn congressional redistricting plan that even Cox acknowledged was a gerrymander. “You signed off on gerrymandered maps without an ounce of remorse,” Democratic state Sen. Nate Blouin tweeted final yr upon seeing one other information story the place Cox referred to as for saving American democracy. “This is the problem with ‘disagree better.’ You shouldn’t get credit for saying nice things if you consistently do the wrong thing.”
Democrats took discover once more final month when, days after saying he’d be casting a write-in vote for president, Cox responded to the tried assassination try in opposition to Donald Trump by declaring his assist for his occasion’s chief. “I fear that America is on the precipice of unmitigated disaster,” Cox wrote to Trump, whom he’d beforehand instructed to resign following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol. “We need to turn down the temperature and find ways to come together again before it’s too late.” The governor stays in Trump’s nook even after it turned clear as soon as once more that he had zero curiosity in reducing the temperature.
Lyman additionally isn’t any fan of the governor’s venture, although for very completely different causes. “Our state is slowly slipping away towards becoming something most Utahns don’t recognize,” wrote Lyman. “We don’t need to ‘disagree better,’ we need to Stand for Something!”
Lyman himself demonstrated throughout that marketing campaign that he stood for far-right speaking factors, which included his responding to the collapse of Maryland’s Francis Scott Key Bridge by retweeted a publish claiming {that a} Black girl on the state’s Port Fee was a “diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) auditor and consultant.”
The state consultant went on to carry Cox to an unimpressive 54-46 margin, and he is spent the following seven weeks refusing to simply accept that defeat. Lyman launched his write-in marketing campaign on Monday, shortly earlier than the Utah Supreme Courtroom rejected his lawsuit insisting that as a result of he decisively beat Cox on the state occasion conference earlier than dropping the first, the governor and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson needs to be faraway from workplace and changed by state Senate President Stuart Adams. The justices discovered that Lyman “offered no viable factual or legal basis for the remedy he requests.”
And even earlier than he appeared on this video with King, Lyman acknowledged he’d want to see the Democrat lead Utah as an alternative of Cox. Exhausting-line U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, although, rapidly made it clear he didn’t see this as an appropriate end result when he declared his assist for the incumbent.
Governors
● DE-Gov: Newly launched emails present that Lt. Gov. Bethany Corridor-Lengthy’s authorities workplace employees had repeatedly communicated with key staffers working her marketing campaign for governor, reviews Randall Chase on the Related Press. Beneath state regulation, Corridor-Lengthy’s staff are permitted to conduct marketing campaign actions solely outdoors of their common work hours and can’t accomplish that utilizing public assets, however the emails point out that a few of them helped facilitate marketing campaign actions and used marketing campaign funds for sure expenditures.
Corridor-Lengthy’s husband, Dana Lengthy, beforehand served as her marketing campaign treasurer, and the emails embrace cases the place he seemingly coordinated along with her workplace employees throughout common work hours to schedule and pay for marketing campaign actions, equivalent to appearances at neighborhood occasions. Some correspondence concerned Matthew Dougherty, the lieutenant governor’s director of operations who not too long ago stepped other than that position to run her marketing campaign after her earlier marketing campaign supervisor stop.
Marketing campaign finance points have dogged Corridor-Lengthy’s marketing campaign since shortly after she joined the race final yr. Late final month, state officers launched a report concluding that her marketing campaign had violated state regulation by failing to reveal almost $300,000 in funds to Lengthy over a number of years. The couple claimed the funds have been reimbursements for private loans, although the documented sum of these loans was $33,000 lower than the overall cost quantities, in response to the state’s investigator.
The Sept. 10 Democratic major is rapidly approaching, however few polls have been launched publicly, significantly within the weeks for the reason that state revealed its report on Corridor-Lengthy’s marketing campaign funds. Nonetheless, the few out there polls in latest months have typically discovered Corridor-Lengthy working competitively with New Fort County Govt Matt Meyer, whereas Nationwide Wildlife Basis chief Collin O’Mara is way additional behind.
Senate
● NJ-Sen: A number of media retailers report that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy will appoint his former chief of employees, George Helmy, to fill the ultimate months of the time period of Sen. Bob Menendez, who is ready to resign on Aug. 20. Rep. Andy Kim, who received the Democratic major in June, is favored to defeat Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw within the fall basic election for a full six-year time period.
Menendez, a member of the Democratic caucus who was convicted on corruption fees final month, nonetheless has not stated if he’ll proceed his marketing campaign to maintain his seat as an unbiased. The deadline for Mendendez to withdraw is Friday.
Home
● AZ-01, MI-10, WI-03: The DCCC introduced Thursday that it was including three extra nominees to its Crimson to Blue program for prime candidates: Amish Shah in Arizona’s 1st District, Carl Marlinga in Michigan’s tenth, and Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin’s third. The trio are respectively difficult Republican incumbents David Schweikert, John James, and Derrick Van Orden.
Marlinga, who struggled to draw main monetary assist throughout his two bids in opposition to James, might have essentially the most to achieve from being included in this system. Marlinga held James to an unexpectedly tight 49-48 victory two years in the past regardless of being massively outspent by the Republican, and he did not increase a lot cash forward of his win in final week’s major. Marlinga’s allies, nonetheless, hope this may change and provides him the assets to flip a Macomb County seat that Donald Trump carried by a slender 50-49 margin in 2020.
● NH-02: Hillary Clinton on Thursday endorsed former Biden administration official Maggie Goodlander within the Sept. 10 Democratic major for New Hampshire’s 2nd District. Goodlander’s husband, Nationwide Safety Advisor Jake Sullivan, was a longtime Clinton aide for each of her presidential bids and through her interim as secretary of state.
● NY-18: Republican nominee Alison Esposito’s former profession as a New York Metropolis police officer concerned the town paying $120,000 to settle two misconduct lawsuits in opposition to her, reviews Metropolis & State’s Timmy Facciola. Moreover, Politico’s Nick Reisman not too long ago reported that Esposito had been reprimanded for failing to correctly safeguard her off-duty handgun after a thief reportedly stole it, her police badge, and bank cards from her unlocked automotive in a separate incident from 2016.
One of many misconduct lawsuits was filed in 2005 by three Black girls who alleged that Esposito and different officers engaged in racial discrimination and used extreme power when arresting them in 2003 on shoplifting fees, which have been later dismissed.
The opposite concerned a 2016 incident the place a girl sued Esposito and a fellow officer, claiming they “did unlawfully stop, assault, frisk, handcuff, detain, arrest, and imprison” her toddler daughter after coming into her residence with no warrant or possible trigger; that prosecution was dismissed later that yr. The plaintiff alleged discrimination relating to her “ethnic background.” (The criticism doesn’t specify the plaintiff’s ethnicity, however she and her daughter have Spanish surnames.)
Esposito denied the allegations in each lawsuits, and she or he has made crime one of many central focuses of her marketing campaign in opposition to Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan in a light-blue district within the decrease Hudson Valley situated north of New York Metropolis.
● TX-18: Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner instructed the Texas Tribune’s Renzo Downey on Wednesday that he wouldn’t run within the November particular election for the remaining two months of the late Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s time period and would as an alternative assist her daughter, Erica Lee Carter.
The management of the Harris County Democratic Social gathering selected Turner on Tuesday to interchange Jackson Lee’s identify on the poll for a full two-year time period in Texas’ darkish blue 18th District, however Turner, who will flip 70 subsequent month, has made it clear he would not intend to be in Congress very lengthy. Turner instructed the Houston Chronicle final week that he’d serve a most of two phrases, saying he needs to perform as “a bridge from where we are right now.”
● Home: The crypto-aligned tremendous PAC Fairshake not too long ago introduced that it might spend over $25 million in advertisements to assist 9 Home members from every occasion, and AdImpact reviews how a lot cash the group has booked in every of those 18 seats. The totals vary from $600,000 to assist Democratic Rep. Nikki Budzinski in Illinois’ thirteenth District to $2 million to again Democratic Rep. Don Davis in North Carolina’s 1st.
Ballot Pile
- AZ-Sen: Peak Insights (R) for the NRSC: Kari Lake (R): 46, Ruben Gallego (D): 46 (44-42 Trump with third-party candidates)
- MI-Sen: Fabrizio Ward (R) and Affect Analysis (D) for the AARP: Elissa Slotkin (D): 47, Mike Rogers (R): 44 (48-48 presidential tie in two-way, 45-43 Trump with third-party candidates)
- PA-Sen: Franklin & Marshall School: Bob Casey (D-inc): 48, Dave McCormick (R): 36 (46-43 Harris with third-party candidates) (March: 46-39 Casey)
The Prepare dinner Political Report additionally launched a number of polls on Thursday, performed by a Democratic agency, Benenson Technique Group, and a Republican pollster, GS Technique Group. Observe that these polls have been accomplished on Aug. 2.
- AZ-Sen: Ruben Gallego (D): 51, Kari Lake (R): 42 (48-46 Harris in two-way, 46-42 Harris with third-party candidates) (Could: 46-41 Gallego)
- MI-Sen: Elissa Slotkin (D): 50, Mike Rogers (R): 42 (49-46 Harris in two-way, 46-44 Harris with third-party candidates)
- NV-Sen: Jacky Rosen (D-inc): 54, Sam Brown (R): 36 (48-45 Trump in two-way, 47-42 Trump with third-party candidates)
- PA-Sen: Bob Casey (D-inc): 53, Dave McCormick (R): 40 (49-48 Harris in two-way, 48-43 Harris with third-party candidates) (Could: 49-41 Casey)
- WI-Sen: Tammy Baldwin (D-inc): 50, Eric Hovde (R): 43 (49-46 Harris in two-way, 48-43 Harris with third-party candidates) (Could: 49-37 Baldwin)
- NC-Gov: Josh Stein (D): 48, Mark Robinson (R): 40 (48-47 Harris in two-way, 46-44 Harris with third-party candidates) (Could: 37-37 gubernatorial tie)
