A new Morning Consult poll finds 57% of voters say they’d be more likely to support President Biden’s infrastructure plan if it were funded by tax increases on those making over $400,000 a year.
And 47% of voters say they’d be more likely to support the proposal if it were funded by increases to the corporate tax rate.
Just 27% support an infrastructure plan without any tax hikes, which appears to be the Republican party stance.
Gallup: “If it were up to Americans, what would they do? The immediate answer is straightforward. The data show strong public support for proposed legislative changes that would do such things as require background checks for all gun purchases, ban high-capacity ammunition magazines, require all privately owned guns to be registered with the police, and require a 30-day waiting period for all gun sales.”
New York Times: “Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election. Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.”
“As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a ‘money bomb,’ that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.”
“The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.”
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR — Billionaire investor Tom Steyer, who spent $250 million of his own money on a failed bid for the Democratic nomination for president last year, isn’t ruling out running in California’s likely gubernatorial recall election. In a new interview this week, Steyer told Bloomberg TV, “I have no plans to run for governor,” which as we always stress is entirely different from saying, “I will not run for governor”: The latter shuts the door; the former keeps it open.
Steyer added that he’s “opposed to the recall,” but allies of Gov. Gavin Newsom have been united in saying that the best way to fight the effort to oust the governor involves ensuring that no prominent Democrats run—and so far, none are. Last month, though, Politico reported that Steyer had commissioned a poll of the race, and a spokesman would only tell the publication to check back in “late April.”
FLORIDA GOVERNOR — State Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who’s been publicly considering a bid for governor since early January, said on Wednesday that she’s “very close to making a decision” about whether to challenge Republican incumbent Ron DeSantis next year. Fried, the only Democrat elected to statewide office in Florida, made her comments during an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, during which she lambasted her potential opponent as “egotistical,” said he “has not been rational from day one” about the pandemic, and blasted him for wanting to take “ownership of this Trump lane.”
MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR — Democrat Jay Gonzalez, who got crushed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker 67-33 in 2018, sounds unlikely to try a second time, telling WBUR’s Callum Borchers, “I would never say never, but I am not planning on” seeking a rematch. Another Democrat, former Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, struck a similar note, saying, “I don’t rule out running again at some point, but I’m not planning anything at the moment.” Murray won two terms as Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick’s running-mate and served in the second slot from 2007 until the middle of 2013, when he resigned office early to become head of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce. Baker has yet to say whether he’ll seek a third term next year.
NEBRASKA GOVERNOR — After briefly considering a bid for Nebraska’s open governorship, Republican Sen. Deb Fischer said on Thursday that she would not join next year’s race. So far, no prominent Republicans have announced bids to succeed term-limited Gov. Pete Ricketts, though many are considering.
WISCONSIN GOVERNOR — Republican lobbyist Bill McCoshen, who served as a member of former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s cabinet in the mid-1990s, confirmed to the Wisconsin State Journal this week that he’s considering a bid for governor next year but added he “won’t make a final decision until June.” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has yet to draw a notable Republican opponent to date, though a number of potential challengers are weighing the race.
LOUISIANA 2ND CD — Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams, who was elected last year on a platform emphasizing criminal justice reform, just endorsed state Sen. Troy Carter in the April 24 special election runoff for Louisiana’s 2nd District. Williams’ move might seem to cut against type, since Carter’s opponent, fellow state Sen. (and Democrat) Karen Carter Peterson, has campaigned as the more progressive option. However, when Williams faced his own runoff in December, Peterson was a major supporter of his opponent, Keva Landrum, who wound up losing 58-42.
Orleans Parish, which is coterminous with the city of New Orleans, makes up about 40% of the 2nd District and was responsible for 50% of all ballots cast in the first round of voting on March 20, which Carter led 36-23.
NEW YORK 12TH CD — Veteran Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who narrowly survived a difficult primary in 2020, announced on Wednesday that she would run for a 16th term next year. That prompted her main challenger the last two cycles, businessman Suraj Patel, to say he plans to run a third time. “I fully expect to be a candidate in this race,” said Patel in a statement.
Patel first ran against Maloney in 2018, losing 60-40 in a two-way contest. Last year, in a multi-way affair, Maloney held off Patel by a much closer 43-39 spread in a race that wasn’t decided until many weeks after the primary thanks to lengthy delays in counting absentee votes. New York’s 12th Congressional District and its predecessors have long been based on Manhattan’s East Side, but the boundaries are set to shift due to redistricting.
The 19th: “When Mallory McMorrow ran for a competitive Michigan Senate seat in 2018, a large glossy mailer from the Michigan Republican Party was sent to homes showing the first-time candidate holding a drink. Her photo was imposed alongside colorful silk materials, and a message to vote NO was written on an image of a curling iron.”
“McMorrow went on to win her race and is now the youngest person in the state Senate.”
Said McMorrow: “They’re attacking women in power because of who we are. It’s never about bills I’ve introduced or what I’m trying to push for in the legislature. It is about what I look like.”
TEXAS GOVERNOR — Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) told the Dallas Morning News that he is not planning to challenge Greg Abbott for Texas governor.
Said O’Rourke: “I’ve got no plans to run, and I’m very focused on the things that I’m lucky enough to do right now — organizing, registering voters and teaching. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing now.”
Reuters: “A push to attract young and diverse talent and global consumers is behind some of corporate America’s willingness to speak out on politically charged issues like Georgia’s new voting law.”
“The companies criticizing the law so far represent a sliver of the U.S. business landscape. Yet they are part of a growing group of companies shedding their reluctance to speak out on politically controversial social issues that matter to many of their employees and customers globally.”
Politico: “As the midterm campaign’s first fundraising deadline approached this week, several vulnerable House Democrats got an unwelcome surprise in their accounts: $5,000 from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”
“The New York Democrat sent the contributions to her colleagues to help keep the House majority ahead of a tough cycle without directly contributing to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with which she’s publicly clashed. But Ocasio-Cortez’s largesse — and an oversight at the campaign headquarters — has instead raised awkward questions among her colleagues as some swing-district Democrats fret over whether to return her money before the GOP can turn it into an attack ad.”
The NYT wrote an article last week really both-siding the state of voters laws in NYS and in GA. This NY-based voting rights lawyer and prof sets the record straight.
More — 50 Reasons Why Georgia’s New Voting Law Really Is That Bad