JUST SPECIAL — Women Vote!, the independent-expenditure arm of EMILY's List, is going on air to boost state Sen. Karen Carter Petersen, a Democrat, ahead of the April 24 special runoff in LA-02. The group placed a $341,000 TV buy, with broadcast in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, according to tracking from our friends at AdImpact. Peterson's runoff opponent is state Sen. Troy Carter (also a Democrat), who is backed by the seat's former incumbent, now-White House aide Cedric Richmond A second group has also waded into the race: A super PAC called American Jobs and Growth PAC, which has reported spending against Peterson. The group reported receiving $50,000 from a nonprofit called "American Advancement" in its pre-runoff FEC report. (The filing deadline is today.) Curiously, this group has largely supported Republicans in the past, spending to boost Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and now-Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), and attacking Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) in 2020. — Brian Harrison, who was a senior health official in the Trump administration, is one of the roughly two-dozen people running in the special election primary in TX-06. And his candidacy is infuriating some other Trump alums, POLITICO's Adam Cancryn writes, "prompting complaints that he's inflating his record and trying to co-opt Trump's brand." In an interview, Harrison dismissed complaints about his record and pointed to contributions from prominent Trump administration officials. THE CASH DASH — We're just a couple days away from the filing deadline! Quarterly federal filers are due on Thursday, and monthly filers next Tuesday. — FIRST IN SCORE — VA-Gov: Republican Glenn Youngkin said his campaign brought in $7.5 million since he launched his campaign on Jan. 27. Youngkin's campaign did not disclose how much of that total was self-funding. Youngkin's primary rival, Pete Snyder, who said he raised $6.4 million, also did not announce how much of his haul was self-funding. (Virginia candidates are required to report their fundraising on Thursday.) — NV-Sen: Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto raised $2.3 million and had $4.7 million in the bank. ELECTION ADMINISTRATORS — Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, was censured by the state GOP central committee "for disregard of her oath of office," The Nevada Independent's Riley Snyder reported, the latest Republican election official targeted by believers of former President Donald Trump's false election fraud narrative. The censure resolution , which The Independent reported passed on a narrow margin, rehashed unfounded allegations of widespread fraud in the state, calling Cegvske's claims the state had a fair election "an arrogant claim." And while she's escaped much of the national ire that her counterpart Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has gotten from Trump and his supporters, it is the latest example of Republicans taking aim at a member of their own party for saying the election was a free and fair one. Nevada will elect a new secretary of state next year: Cegavske is term-limited. She is the only statewide elected Republican currently serving in Nevada, with Democrats holding down the rest of the offices in the battleground state. "My job is to carry out the duties of my office as enacted by the Nevada Legislature, not carry water for the state GOP or put my thumb on the scale of democracy," she said in a statement. "Unfortunately, members of my own party continue to believe the 2020 general election was wrought with fraud — and that somehow I had a part in it — despite a complete lack of evidence to support that belief." FIRST IN SCORE — MESSAGING MATTERS — Emerging American Majorities, a nonprofit arm of the DLCC, is launching a six-figure digital campaign in Arizona, Nevada and Virginia, tying Biden's American Rescue Plan to state legislative battles. "Here in Virginia, the Democratic majority in the House of Delegates are doing their part, working across the aisle to fully reopen schools," the Virginia ad narrator says. (Here's the Arizona ad and Nevada ad.) NOMINATING CALENDAR — A bill to move the New Hampshire (non-presidential) primaries to the end of June from mid-September passed out of the state House last week, the Concord Monitor's Paul Steinhauser reported. GOP Gov. Chris Sununu — who is considering running in next year's Senate race — opposes the legislation, and its fate in the Republican-controlled state Senate is uncertain. BLOOD IN THE WATER? — Rep. Matt Gaetz (F-Fla.) insists he isn't resigning amid a federal investigation (and House ethics inquiry). But if he does bow out, expect there to be a heated race for his Florida Panhandle seat, POLITICO Florida's Gary Fineout reported, listing several could-be candidates. (Click through to find out who!) DONOR DOLLARS — A lot of donor groups don't publicize their spending. But Way to Win, a progressive group of donors, is out with a report on its 2020 donations that at least gives a peek behind the mirror of where $110 million went. The state that attracted the most money in 2020 was Georgia, followed by Texas and Arizona. Way to Win said it directed money to 265 state-focused organizations and 109 national organizations. THE PROCESS — The Wisconsin state Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit from a conservative group that sought to have about 69,000 people removed from the voter rolls, Wisconsin Public Radio's Shawn Johnson reported. The group, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, wanted people removed from the voter list who may have moved, according to a multi-state database, with the state Supreme Court ruling it wasn't the state election commission's responsibility to remove those names, but local officials'. — Dozens of business leaders spoke over the weekend to plan what big businesses should do about restrictive voting laws making their way through states like Texas, The Wall Street Journal's Emily Glazer, Chip Cutter and Te-Ping Chen reported, with some executives planning on putting out a collective statement sometime this week. THE GOVERNATORS — Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) announced that he raised $1 million for his gubernatorial bid within a day of launching, per POLITICO New York's Bill Mahoney (for Pros). — Former Prince George's County (Md.) Executive Rushern Baker, a Democrat, announced he'll run again for governor after finishing second in the 2018 primary, The Baltimore Sun's Pamela Wood reported. Baker was defeated by Ben Jealous for the Democratic nomination, and Jealous was handily defeated by now-term-limited GOP Gov. Larry Hogan. — Former Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican, is considering a run for his old office, the Omaha World-Herald's Paul Hammel reported last week, citing "three people who have spoken to the former governor in recent days." ENDORSEMENT CORNER — The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC run by allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, announced its endorsement of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Trump has insisted he would go to Alaska to campaign against Murkowski, and Republican Kelly Tshibaka has hired top former aides of Trump's 2020 campaign. |
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