Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* When the FBI searched Rep. Henry Cuellar’s home in January, it took a toll on the Texas Democrat’s re-election campaign. The Associated Press reported yesterday, however, that the congressman’s lawyer said federal authorities have informed him that the lawmaker is not the target of an investigation.
* Donald Trump has generally been reluctant to dip into his massive, multi-million-dollar war chest, but Politico reported that the former president’s Save America PAC has transferred $500,000 to a super PAC devoted to defeating Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia.
* The Democratic National Committee invited states to make their pitch for early presidential nominating contests, suggesting Iowa’s special first-in-the-nation status is in serious jeopardy, at least far as Democratic politics is concerned.
* Now that Florida’s Republican-led legislature has handed its redistricting powers over to Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor has unveiled a new, gerrymandered map that would expand the GOP’s edge — in large part by carving up a Black-held district that DeSantis has been desperate to destroy.
* In Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate race, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman appears to be in a strong position in the Democratic primary: A new Franklin & Marshall College Poll shows him leading Rep. Conor Lamb, 41 percent to 17 percent. * On a related note, the same poll showed television personality Mehmet Oz with the smallest of advantages over former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary, 16 percent to 15 percent. Meanwhile, 43 percent of GOP voters in the state remain undecided. * And in Nebraska, Charles Herbster, the apparent frontrunner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, is facing groping accusations from eight women. Among the accusers is a sitting Republican state senator, who claims Herbster reached up her skirt, without her consent, at an event in 2019. The gubernatorial candidate has denied any wrongdoing. Primary Day in Nebraska is May 10.
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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