Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Despite evidence of widespread election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, Mark Harris (R) filed an emergency petition this morning with the state Board of Elections, asking that board members certify him as the representative-elect.
* On a related note, North Carolina’s Republican-led state legislature yesterday overrode a gubernatorial veto of a bill that would, among other things, allow GOP officials to dump Mark Harris and choose a new nominee if there’s a do-over election in the 9th congressional district.
* As former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg moves closer to a Democratic presidential campaign, he’s reportedly prepared to invest well over $100 million of his own money into the race.
* Reid Hoffman, who helped finance “Russian-style social media deception” in Alabama’s U.S. Senate special election last year, apologized this week. Hoffman, a LinkedIn co-founder, said he had not signed off on the details of the operation and opposes the tactics.
* Ahead of Mississippi’s U.S. Senate runoff election, several companies asked Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) to return their campaign contributions, unwilling to be associated with her suspected racism. As of this week, some of those companies still haven’t gotten their money back. * A new USA Today/Suffolk poll was released this week on Democratic voters’ 2020 preferences, and the results weren’t altogether clarifying: while they’d like someone new, former Vice President Joe Biden was also the likely candidate Dems were most excited about. * And how badly did Republicans fare in California this year? McClatchy reported this week that “in interviews with both outgoing and returning state House Republicans, none could offer a specific message or path forward.”
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
