Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Late last week, Sen. Bob Menendez officially ended his independent re-election campaign. The move comes on the heels of a jury finding him guilty on 16 felony counts. The New Jersey Democrat is also poised to resign, and Gov. Phil Murphy will fill the vacancy with his former chief of staff, George Helmy, who’ll serve until early January.
* The latest national and battleground state polling offered a fresh round of good news for Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic National Convention gets underway in Chicago. There’s also fresh polling pointing to increased Democratic enthusiasm about the 2024 race.
* There are quite a few primary races in Florida, Alaska and Wyoming this week, and as is usually the case, Bolts has a very helpful rundown on the contests worth watching.
* Missouri’s U.S. Senate race isn’t expected to be competitive, but actor John Goodman narrates a new ad for Marine veteran Lucas Kunce in his race against Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, and the video has generated some conversation.
John Goodman is a born-and-raised Missourian. He's got a message for you about family values. * The New York Times reported that the Harris campaign is reserving $370 million in advertising “to begin after Labor Day and run through the November election, including $200 million on digital ads.” At least for now, the focus is on seven battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. * On a related note, it was of interest to see Donald Trump’s campaign also book TV airtime in Georgia — a state the GOP saw as slipping away from Democrats — for the remainder of the campaign season. * Cornel West is struggling to get onto the presidential ballot in Arizona, but in a sign of the times, the far-left professor is getting some help from a group of lawyers with deep ties to the Republican Party.
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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All that noise from Josh Hawley? That's something else. Help us break through it so we can give Missourians a real choice in this race: https://t.co/QVflbJMAu7 pic.twitter.com/6THgnKxwPz
