Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.* Add House Democratic candidates to the list of Dems targeted by Russia for cyber-attacks this year.* Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), probably Congress’ most conservative Democrat, considered joining Donald Trump’s cabinet, but announced yesterday that he’ll instead remain in the Senate.* At his latest self-indulgent rally, Trump told a Wisconsin audience last night he’s “in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets — certainly the cabinet with the highest IQ.” I think he was serious.* Politico reports that Trump’s team is “already being roiled by divisions,” and Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon appeared headed “for an inevitable clash.”* Labor Secretary Tom Perez will launch his bid for the DNC chairmanship today or tomorrow.* With Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) poised to become the Secretary of the Interior in the Trump administration, Republicans will have to look elsewhere for a challenger to take on Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in 2018.* On a related note, with Zinke leaving Congress, there will be a special election to fill his seat. Keep an eye on State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau (D), who ran a decent race against Zinke this year.* And though Public Policy Polling has already polled national Democrats about their 2020 presidential preferences — Joe Biden apparently remains quite popular — it’s worth noting that such polls are historically unreliable, and tend to only reflect name recognition.
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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."