Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Facing accusations of sexual harassment from several women, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) announced this morning that he’s resigning from Congress, giving up a seat he’s held since 1965. There will be a special election to fill the vacancy and the outgoing congressman this morning endorsed his son, John Conyers III, for the seat.
* Now that Donald Trump and the RNC are backing Roy Moore’s (R) Senate candidacy in Alabama, America First Action, the pro-Trump super PAC, is reportedly investing $1.1 million in the race. The special election is a week from today.
* Moore’s opponent, Doug Jones (D), launched two new television ads this week, one arguing that Moore’s radicalism threatens Alabama’s business climate, and another that emphasizes Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R) opposition to Moore’s candidacy.
* Interesting piece of trivia: Alabama’s Senate special election will be only the third U.S. Senate election ever held in the month of December.
* To the surprise of no one, former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray (D) is kicking off his gubernatorial campaign in Ohio today. Cordray has previously served as the state’s attorney general, treasurer, and solicitor general, and served in the state legislature. * In Colorado, Steve Curtis, the former chairman of the state Republican Party, said Democrats were responsible for “virtually every case of voter fraud” he could think of. Curtis is now facing a criminal charge for voter fraud, accused of forging his ex-wife’s signature on a mail-in ballot. * More than a year after the 2016 presidential election, the Republican National Committee released its latest anti-Hillary Clinton press statement yesterday. * And updating a story from last week, two National Republican Senatorial Committee staffers have resigned after they took donor information from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
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
