Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, hasn’t changed his mind about Roy Moore’s candidacy in Alabama. “Roy Moore will never have the support of the senatorial committee,” Gardner told the Weekly Standard. “We will never endorse him. We won’t support him.”
* The Washington Post reports that Stand Up Republic, a group co-founded by former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin, is “spending $500,000 on digital and TV ads that ask Alabama conservatives to reject Republican nominee Roy Moore’s Senate bid.”
* Media Matters, meanwhile, points to evidence that the National Rifle Association has invested in support of Moore’s Republican campaign.
* Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio doesn’t intend to run for the U.S. House seat Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) is poised to give up, but he told the Daily Beast he’s “seriously, seriously, seriously considering running for the U.S. Senate.”
* Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) hasn’t faced intra-party pressure to resign following his sexual-harassment controversy, but Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Business Insider yesterday, “I think the filing deadline hasn’t happened in Texas and Blake Farenthold has some thinking to do about whether he wants to run for re-election or not.” * Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) hasn’t officially said whether he’ll run for another term, but he’s reportedly sent out notice of a re-election fundraiser he’ll hold in early January. * And Steve Curtis, the former chairman for the Colorado Republican Party who complained about Democrats and voter fraud, was found guilty yesterday of committing voter fraud.
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
