Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With 33 days remaining before Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff elections, a new SurveyUSA poll found Jon Ossoff (D) narrowly leading incumbent Sen. David Perdue (R), 50% to 48%, and Raphael Warnock (D) leads appointed incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R), 52% to 45%.
* The avalanche of Republican money rolling into Georgia is a sight to behold. Politico reported overnight, “Party officials have tapped into the full national network of Republican donors with an aggressive schedule of fundraising events … that have already yielded tens of millions of dollars. Significantly more money is expected in the coming weeks as the GOP ups its fundraising goal.” The Georgia Battleground Fund, led in part by Karl Rove, raised more than $30 million in three weeks.
* As Rachel noted on last night’s show, Sidney Powell and Lin Wood — who’ve played active roles of late pushing bizarre pro-Trump conspiracy theories — held a rally in Georgia yesterday arguing that far-right voters shouldn’t reward Republicans with their votes, unless those Republicans are willing to go along with Trump’s anti-democracy crusade. This morning, however, Team Trump’s official Twitter feed started questioning Wood’s motivations.
* Bill Price, a Republican lawyer in Florida, is reportedly under investigation after appearing on video giving other Florida Republicans instructions on how to commit voter fraud in Georgia’s upcoming Senate races.
* In one of the closest congressional races in American history, election officials in Iowa this week certified Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ (R) six-vote victory over Rita Hart (D) in the state’s 2nd congressional district. Yesterday, as Roll Call reported, Hart said she plans to appeal to the U.S. House to consider ballots not included in the recount. * We don’t yet know whom California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will choose to replace Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced her support yesterday for California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D), a top contender for the job. If chosen, Padilla would be California’s first Latino U.S. senator. * And House Democrats this morning chose Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) to lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over the next two years, narrowly defeating Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.) for the job. Maloney’s task will be enormously challenging: House Dems will be defending a tiny majority in 2022, and the incumbent president’s party usually loses seats in the cycle following a presidential election.
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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