Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The day before Thanksgiving, Roy Moore’s communications director, John Rogers, resigned from his position. Alabama’s U.S. Senate special election is two weeks from tomorrow.
* Donald Trump, meanwhile, continued over the holiday weekend to take steps to boost Moore’s right-wing candidacy, even as other Republican leaders distance themselves from the Alabaman.
* That said, a White House official told the Associated Press this morning that the president will not campaign in person on Moore’s behalf before the election. Trump, you’ll recall, did travel to Alabama to campaign for appointed Sen. Luther Strange (R) before the GOP primary. Strange nevertheless lost badly.
* On a related note, if you happen to be reading this from Alabama, if you’re planning to vote in the Dec. 12 election and you’re not registered to vote, today is the registration deadline.
* In Minnesota, a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll conducted last week found that Sen. Al Franken’s (D) approval rating has plummeted and 33% of respondents said he should resign. A 36% plurality, however, are prepared to wait for the results of Senate Ethics Committee investigation. * On a related note, Franken said in a Thanksgiving message that he intends to stay in office and hopes to win back Minnesotans’ trust. * And in South Dakota, where Sen. John Thune (R) won’t seek re-election until 2022, the Republican senator has raised so much money through campaign contributions that his Friends of John Thune campaign committee is invested in securities. In the most recent quarter, according to the Rapid City Journal, “the securities generated $151,129.72 of interest and dividends for Thune.” Plenty of politicians didn’t raise that much last quarter from actual donors. [Update: This item originally said Thune wouldn’t seek re-election in 2022. The above text has been corrected.]
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
