Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The Republican tax plan is woefully unpopular now, but BuzzFeed reports that the political network “affiliated with billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch will launch a multimillion-dollar campaign to sell the just-passed GOP tax plan to voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.”
* In Alabama’s U.S. Senate race, a voter told a local Fox affiliate that people “from different parts of the country” had helped Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D). Alabama’s secretary of state hasn’t found any evidence of wrongdoing.
* Politico reports that RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel delivered a two-page memo to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly last month, “outlining the party’s collapse with female voters.”
* Because we are living in strange times, a pro-Trump PAC, America First Policies, has released a new ad thanking Trump for, among other things, “letting us say ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”
* In apparent reference to Steve Bannon’s role in Alabama’s Senate race, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this morning, “Let me just say this: The political genius on display throwing away a seat in the reddest state in America is hard to ignore.” * McConnell also described Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) as one of the GOP’s top recruits for 2018 Senate races. For the record, McSally hasn’t actually announced whether she’s running or not, so I suppose McConnell let the cat out of the bag. * In a bit of a surprise, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) announced this week that she’ll run for re-election next year, instead of running for governor. * And in California, a new poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that 41% of voters support Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D) re-election, while 27% back state senator Kevin de León (D). About a third of voters say they’re undecided.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
