Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With only a few days remaining before California’s gubernatorial recall election, the final SurveyUSA poll showed 54 percent want to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office, while 41 percent want to remove the Democratic incumbent from office. The final poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies showed an even bigger advantage for the governor, with 60% of likely voters opposed to the recall.
* In related news, President Joe Biden will campaign with Newsom in southern California on Monday, the day before the state’s recall election.
* In Pennsylvania’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, Sean Parnell, a leading Republican contender, is facing difficult new questions: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that his wife twice sought protection-from-abuse orders against him, as recently as a few years ago. Though the orders were later expunged, Jeff Bartos, a GOP primary rival, said this makes Parnell “unelectable.”
* The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a fundraising appeal yesterday, ostensibly written by former Vice President Mike Pence, in which he described President Joe Biden’s victory as a “contested takeover.” The NRSC soon after walked it back and conceded that Pence didn’t have anything to do with the message.
* In New York, former Democratic state Sen. Brian Benjamin was sworn in yesterday as the state’s new lieutenant governor. Assuming Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul seeks a full term of her own next year, Benjamin will also likely be her running mate. * In Wyoming, now that Donald Trump has endorsed Harriet Hageman in the Republican primary race against Rep. Liz Cheney, other GOP candidates are bowing out. * On a related note, while the former Republican president is targeting several congressional Republican lawmakers facing 2022 primary rivals, CNN reported that party leaders “are quietly working to prop up some of the GOP incumbents targeted by former President Donald Trump.” It’s a dynamic worth watching in the coming months.
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."
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