How bad are things for Republicans?
This spring, the Michigan election board kicked Matt Morgan off the ballot. He was the only Democrat running in the first congressional district, which covers the Upper Peninsula area. The district was last held by a Democrat in 2010 (by Bart Stupak; remember him?).
He was kicked off for a technicality related to his petitions, which you can read about in the story, but on Tuesday, with the help of Michael Moore and hundreds of volunteers, he pulled off a Michigan miracle, drawing some 30,000 write-in votes, way more than enough to force election officials to put him back on the ballot. And he did it not as a Blue Dog, anti-choice Dem like Stupak, but as a pro-choice, anti-war, Medicare-for-all candidate endorsed by Justice Democrats. He also retired from the Marines as a Lt. Col.
I think this guy can win. My story is here.
Remember the story we published Monday about Lori Swanson, the Minnesota attorney general running for governor? Rachel Cohen reported, based on one on-record source and multiple people speaking anonymously, that Swanson pressured government staff to do campaign work for her in a major and systematic way. She denied it, calling the story “dirty pool.”
Now we have a follow up, with her former longtime deputy coming forward to speak on the record and admit to what he did at the behest of Swanson. He told Rachel that he is coming forward because what he did has long been on his conscience and he is hoping for some measure of forgiveness from those he hurt. It’s a genuinely moving story -- and the primary is on Tuesday.
Aida Chavez and I took a closer look at the upset election in St. Louis County, where notorious Ferguson prosecutor Bob McCulloch was ousted by criminal justice reformer Wesley Bell. We went through the campaign finance disclosures and added up more than $25,000 that local unions -- not police unions, but the AFL-CIO and other locals -- gave to McCulloch. Why were these labor groups on the wrong side of this fight, and what does it mean for the insurgent movement going forward? These are some uncomfortable questions, but it’s an important conversation.