The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.
Embedded Content
Leading Off
● Los Angeles, CA County Ballot: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to advance a proposed ballot measure to create what would likely be one of the most impactful elected positions in the country. Under this plan, voters would elect an executive by 2028 to lead America's most populous county, a heavily Democratic community that is larger than 40 different states.
However, plenty of obstacles remain ahead for this proposal, which would also expand the Board of Supervisors from five members to nine by 2032 and make other changes to county government. The supervisors must still vote once more next month to get the plan on the general election ballot. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, a Democrat who co-authored the proposal, previously said this final vote would take place on Aug. 6, three days before the deadline.
And as Tuesday's vote demonstrated, there's plenty of opposition to this proposal. The Los Angeles Times' David Zahniser writes that two supervisors, Republican Kathryn Barger and Democrat Holly Mitchell, voted "no" after unsuccessfully trying to persuade their three colleagues to remove the text creating an elected county executive.
Several public safety and public worker unions have also argued that the passage of this ballot measure would have unpredictable consequences for county government and finances. Derek Hsieh, who leads the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, argued to Zahniser that while his group hadn't decided on the entire proposal, an elected executive would just come into conflict with the supervisors. Hsieh also declared that while this plan might not raise taxes, "they’ll be reducing other services to fund it."
Like almost everywhere else in California, Los Angeles County has five elected supervisors who together have the power to appoint and remove the county's top administrator. (In Los Angeles County this role is called the chief executive officer.) The only one of the Golden State's 58 counties that operates differently is the City and County of San Francisco, which directly elects its mayor and has an 11-member Board of Supervisors.
A spot on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, whose members were once dubbed the "five little kings" (women have held all five seats since 2020), has long been a coveted post. Supervisors, who each represent around 2 million people, together are responsible for a massive $40 billion budget. Former Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky likened the role to a "five-headed executive" even as he acknowledged that after 20 years of service, "there’s some things that I couldn’t figure out" about the role.
While voters approved a 2002 ballot measure that restricted supervisors to three consecutive four-year terms, the job remains an appealing one to prominent Southern California politicians. One current supervisor, former Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis, launched her successful 2014 bid after stepping down as the Obama administration's secretary of labor. Another Democrat, Janice Hahn, decided to give up her safe seat in the U.S. House of Representatives two years later to claim the job that her late father, Kenneth Hahn, held decades before.
But not everyone is happy with the status quo, and the California state legislature considered a bill in 2017 that would have created an elected executive office and added two new supervisors. That legislation failed, but Hahn, Horvath, and Solis all voted Tuesday to advance the plan to similarly reshape county government. Horvath told Zahniser that a single county executive would make local government more efficient by requiring department heads to answer to a single leader.
Solis, who noted that she's the one Hispanic supervisor for a county where close to half of all residents are Latino, also argued that a larger body would be more diverse. "There are a lot of people who are afraid, thinking they are going to lose power," Solis said, "thinking that they’re going to lose some kind of position." Asian American groups have also highlighted that there has never been an Asian American supervisor.
Barger and Mitchell, who cast the two "no" votes, agreed that a larger Board of Supervisors is essential, but they said they weren't sure why their colleagues settled on nine members instead of a different number. They also argued that the process was rushed and, in Barger's words, "anything but transparent."
If voters pass this plan in November, though, the effects could be felt well outside of Los Angeles County. Whoever eventually became county executive would serve about one-quarter of the state, something that could one day prove to be a big asset in a statewide race.
Governors
● DE-Gov: The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association has spent at least $200,000 on ads to support Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long ahead of her Sept. 10 primary against New Castle County Castle Executive Matt Meyer and National Wildlife Federation leader Collin O'Mara. Delaware Spotlight's Carl Baker reports that a super PAC named People for a Healthy Delaware, which has connections to Hall-Long and is funded at least partly by organized labor, recently contributed $475,000 to the DLGA.
House
● FL-01: While retired Navy officer Aaron Dimmock is challenging far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida's Aug. 20 Republican primary, the Florida Phoenix's Mitch Perry reports that Dimmock is still employed full-time in Missouri, where he leads the Missouri Leadership Academy in St. Louis.
Dimmock ostensibly moved about 700 miles south to Pensacola and filed to run as a first-time candidate right before the deadline this spring, and he told the Phoenix that he "hopped in because no one else did." He said he's working remotely but occasionally travels back to Missouri. Dimmock has been dogged by this issue ever since news of his candidacy first broke, when his LinkedIn profile still identified him as a resident of the Show Me State.
Despite the last-minute nature of his novice candidacy, Dimmock has benefited from $2.9 million in outside spending by Florida Patriots PAC, a group that has ties to Kevin McCarthy's "revenge tour" against the eight Republicans who ousted him from the speakership last year. (Perry highlights that the group's senior advisor is a longtime McCarthy ally.) Outside groups have only spent $180,000 to aid Gaetz, who spearheaded McCarthy's ouster, but the incumbent started July with a giant $1.8 million to $263,000 edge in cash on hand.
Gaetz recently publicized an internal poll from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates that gave him a wide 67-20 edge in the 1st District, and no one has released contradictory numbers.
● MI-13: Analyst Rob Pyers flags that the crypto-aligned super PAC Protect Progress is spending $1 million to aid freshman Rep. Shri Thanedar ahead of the Aug. 6 Democratic primary for Michigan's safely blue 13th District.
Thanedar, who has self-funded most of his effort, enjoys a massive financial advantage over Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters, who has not benefited from any notable outside spending. Instead, a group called Blue Wave Action, which has not disclosed its donors, has deployed another $1.5 million to defeat her.
● TX-18: Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says he'll announce Aug. 2 if he'll run to succeed his fellow Democrat, the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
● WA-06: Former Gov. Gary Locke, who served from 1997 to 2005, has endorsed Democratic state Sen. Emily Randall ahead of the Aug. 6 top-two primary. Randall previously picked up the support of Locke's immediate successor, Christine Gregoire, ahead of her showdown against the other prominent Democrat in the race, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz.
● WI-03: State Rep. Katrina Shankland has publicized an endorsement from Rep. Gwen Moore, who represents the Milwaukee-based 4th District on the other side of the state, ahead of the Aug. 13 Democratic primary to take on GOP incumbent Derrick Van Orden in the 3rd District. Shankland already had the support of the other Democrat in Wisconsin's House delegation, Rep. Mark Pocan of the neighboring 2nd District.
Ballot Measures
● CA Ballot: California's Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a 2020 ballot initiative called Proposition 22 that enabled "App-Based Transportation and Delivery Companies" such as Uber and Lyft to designate their drivers as independent contractors with fewer benefits than regular employees. The decision affects an estimated 1.4 million workers, roughly 8% of the state's civilian workforce.
Voters passed Proposition 22 by 59-41 after these rideshare giants spent more than $220 million, making it the most expensive ballot measure in U.S. history. Plaintiffs argued that the measure violated California law regarding workers' compensation benefits, claiming it overstepped the legislature's authority. However, the court rejected that position and held that voters retained the "initiative power to legislate on matters affecting workers’ compensation."
The ruling could make it practically impossible for legislators to change the law since the measure requires a seven-eighths supermajority for lawmakers to amend it by statute, effectively handing the Republican minority a veto. Although Democrats have more than three-fourths of seats in both chambers and could place a constitutional amendment on the ballot with a two-thirds supermajority to override Proposition 22, such a move would require voter approval itself.
● LA Ballot: GOP Gov. Jeff Landry's hopes to write and pass a new state constitution in 2024 came to an end this week when Louisiana's legislative leaders informed their members that they wouldn't hold the requisite special session this year.
● RI Ballot: The Ocean State will decide this November whether to hold a state constitutional convention, and the Rhode Island Current's Christopher Shea writes that "nearly 40 labor and civil liberties groups" have already begun an effort to encourage a "no" vote on this question, which automatically comes up once per decade. A senior regional Planned Parenthood official argued that such a gathering could endanger abortion rights, while the state AFL-CIO declared, "We are not going to let the corporate powers take away our rights."
Judges
● OH Supreme Court: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart this week became the rare Democrat in a competitive race to earn an endorsement from the state Fraternal Order of Police, though as the Cincinnati Enquirer's Jessie Balmert explains, the police union has long had a bad relationship with her Republican opponent.
Republican Justice Joe Deters, Balmert writes, alienated the FOP in 2015 after the then-Hamilton County prosecutor indicted a University of Cincinnati police officer named Ray Tensing for murder following a fatal shooting of an unarmed driver. The police union was unhappy with Deters for his comments about Tensing, including that he "never should have been a police officer."
Deters ultimately dismissed the charges after two juries failed to reach a verdict. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine went on to appoint him to the state's highest court to fill a vacancy after the 2022 elections, but rather than campaign for the remaining two years in his term, Deters decided to take on Stewart for a full six-year term.
But while the FOP is rooting against Deters, it has a favorable view of the other two Republicans running for the state Supreme Court. The FOP is supporting Republican Dan Hawkins over Democrat Lisa Forbes in the contest for Deters' seat, while it's also backing Republican Megan Shanahan's bid to unseat Democratic incumbent Michael Donnelly. Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on Ohio's highest court, so for Democrats to flip control they need to win all three of these statewide contests.
Mayors & County Leaders
● San Francisco, CA Mayor: Mayor London Breed on Wednesday earned the sole endorsement of the San Francisco Democratic Party ahead of her difficult reelection battle in this fall's instant-runoff contest. The San Francisco Standard's Gabe Greschler writes that this nod gives the incumbent access to the "massive messaging campaign by the local party that will reach hundreds of thousands of the city’s registered Democrats."
Ad Roundup
Embedded Content
Leading Off
● Los Angeles, CA County Ballot: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to advance a proposed ballot measure to create what would likely be one of the most impactful elected positions in the country. Under this plan, voters would elect an executive by 2028 to lead America's most populous county, a heavily Democratic community that is larger than 40 different states.
However, plenty of obstacles remain ahead for this proposal, which would also expand the Board of Supervisors from five members to nine by 2032 and make other changes to county government. The supervisors must still vote once more next month to get the plan on the general election ballot. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, a Democrat who co-authored the proposal, previously said this final vote would take place on Aug. 6, three days before the deadline.
And as Tuesday's vote demonstrated, there's plenty of opposition to this proposal. The Los Angeles Times' David Zahniser writes that two supervisors, Republican Kathryn Barger and Democrat Holly Mitchell, voted "no" after unsuccessfully trying to persuade their three colleagues to remove the text creating an elected county executive.
Several public safety and public worker unions have also argued that the passage of this ballot measure would have unpredictable consequences for county government and finances. Derek Hsieh, who leads the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, argued to Zahniser that while his group hadn't decided on the entire proposal, an elected executive would just come into conflict with the supervisors. Hsieh also declared that while this plan might not raise taxes, "they’ll be reducing other services to fund it."
Like almost everywhere else in California, Los Angeles County has five elected supervisors who together have the power to appoint and remove the county's top administrator. (In Los Angeles County this role is called the chief executive officer.) The only one of the Golden State's 58 counties that operates differently is the City and County of San Francisco, which directly elects its mayor and has an 11-member Board of Supervisors.
A spot on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, whose members were once dubbed the "five little kings" (women have held all five seats since 2020), has long been a coveted post. Supervisors, who each represent around 2 million people, together are responsible for a massive $40 billion budget. Former Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky likened the role to a "five-headed executive" even as he acknowledged that after 20 years of service, "there’s some things that I couldn’t figure out" about the role.
While voters approved a 2002 ballot measure that restricted supervisors to three consecutive four-year terms, the job remains an appealing one to prominent Southern California politicians. One current supervisor, former Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis, launched her successful 2014 bid after stepping down as the Obama administration's secretary of labor. Another Democrat, Janice Hahn, decided to give up her safe seat in the U.S. House of Representatives two years later to claim the job that her late father, Kenneth Hahn, held decades before.
But not everyone is happy with the status quo, and the California state legislature considered a bill in 2017 that would have created an elected executive office and added two new supervisors. That legislation failed, but Hahn, Horvath, and Solis all voted Tuesday to advance the plan to similarly reshape county government. Horvath told Zahniser that a single county executive would make local government more efficient by requiring department heads to answer to a single leader.
Solis, who noted that she's the one Hispanic supervisor for a county where close to half of all residents are Latino, also argued that a larger body would be more diverse. "There are a lot of people who are afraid, thinking they are going to lose power," Solis said, "thinking that they’re going to lose some kind of position." Asian American groups have also highlighted that there has never been an Asian American supervisor.
Barger and Mitchell, who cast the two "no" votes, agreed that a larger Board of Supervisors is essential, but they said they weren't sure why their colleagues settled on nine members instead of a different number. They also argued that the process was rushed and, in Barger's words, "anything but transparent."
If voters pass this plan in November, though, the effects could be felt well outside of Los Angeles County. Whoever eventually became county executive would serve about one-quarter of the state, something that could one day prove to be a big asset in a statewide race.
Governors
● DE-Gov: The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association has spent at least $200,000 on ads to support Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long ahead of her Sept. 10 primary against New Castle County Castle Executive Matt Meyer and National Wildlife Federation leader Collin O'Mara. Delaware Spotlight's Carl Baker reports that a super PAC named People for a Healthy Delaware, which has connections to Hall-Long and is funded at least partly by organized labor, recently contributed $475,000 to the DLGA.
House
● FL-01: While retired Navy officer Aaron Dimmock is challenging far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida's Aug. 20 Republican primary, the Florida Phoenix's Mitch Perry reports that Dimmock is still employed full-time in Missouri, where he leads the Missouri Leadership Academy in St. Louis.
Dimmock ostensibly moved about 700 miles south to Pensacola and filed to run as a first-time candidate right before the deadline this spring, and he told the Phoenix that he "hopped in because no one else did." He said he's working remotely but occasionally travels back to Missouri. Dimmock has been dogged by this issue ever since news of his candidacy first broke, when his LinkedIn profile still identified him as a resident of the Show Me State.
Despite the last-minute nature of his novice candidacy, Dimmock has benefited from $2.9 million in outside spending by Florida Patriots PAC, a group that has ties to Kevin McCarthy's "revenge tour" against the eight Republicans who ousted him from the speakership last year. (Perry highlights that the group's senior advisor is a longtime McCarthy ally.) Outside groups have only spent $180,000 to aid Gaetz, who spearheaded McCarthy's ouster, but the incumbent started July with a giant $1.8 million to $263,000 edge in cash on hand.
Gaetz recently publicized an internal poll from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates that gave him a wide 67-20 edge in the 1st District, and no one has released contradictory numbers.
● MI-13: Analyst Rob Pyers flags that the crypto-aligned super PAC Protect Progress is spending $1 million to aid freshman Rep. Shri Thanedar ahead of the Aug. 6 Democratic primary for Michigan's safely blue 13th District.
Thanedar, who has self-funded most of his effort, enjoys a massive financial advantage over Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters, who has not benefited from any notable outside spending. Instead, a group called Blue Wave Action, which has not disclosed its donors, has deployed another $1.5 million to defeat her.
● TX-18: Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says he'll announce Aug. 2 if he'll run to succeed his fellow Democrat, the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
● WA-06: Former Gov. Gary Locke, who served from 1997 to 2005, has endorsed Democratic state Sen. Emily Randall ahead of the Aug. 6 top-two primary. Randall previously picked up the support of Locke's immediate successor, Christine Gregoire, ahead of her showdown against the other prominent Democrat in the race, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz.
● WI-03: State Rep. Katrina Shankland has publicized an endorsement from Rep. Gwen Moore, who represents the Milwaukee-based 4th District on the other side of the state, ahead of the Aug. 13 Democratic primary to take on GOP incumbent Derrick Van Orden in the 3rd District. Shankland already had the support of the other Democrat in Wisconsin's House delegation, Rep. Mark Pocan of the neighboring 2nd District.
Ballot Measures
● CA Ballot: California's Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a 2020 ballot initiative called Proposition 22 that enabled "App-Based Transportation and Delivery Companies" such as Uber and Lyft to designate their drivers as independent contractors with fewer benefits than regular employees. The decision affects an estimated 1.4 million workers, roughly 8% of the state's civilian workforce.
Voters passed Proposition 22 by 59-41 after these rideshare giants spent more than $220 million, making it the most expensive ballot measure in U.S. history. Plaintiffs argued that the measure violated California law regarding workers' compensation benefits, claiming it overstepped the legislature's authority. However, the court rejected that position and held that voters retained the "initiative power to legislate on matters affecting workers’ compensation."
The ruling could make it practically impossible for legislators to change the law since the measure requires a seven-eighths supermajority for lawmakers to amend it by statute, effectively handing the Republican minority a veto. Although Democrats have more than three-fourths of seats in both chambers and could place a constitutional amendment on the ballot with a two-thirds supermajority to override Proposition 22, such a move would require voter approval itself.
● LA Ballot: GOP Gov. Jeff Landry's hopes to write and pass a new state constitution in 2024 came to an end this week when Louisiana's legislative leaders informed their members that they wouldn't hold the requisite special session this year.
● RI Ballot: The Ocean State will decide this November whether to hold a state constitutional convention, and the Rhode Island Current's Christopher Shea writes that "nearly 40 labor and civil liberties groups" have already begun an effort to encourage a "no" vote on this question, which automatically comes up once per decade. A senior regional Planned Parenthood official argued that such a gathering could endanger abortion rights, while the state AFL-CIO declared, "We are not going to let the corporate powers take away our rights."
Judges
● OH Supreme Court: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart this week became the rare Democrat in a competitive race to earn an endorsement from the state Fraternal Order of Police, though as the Cincinnati Enquirer's Jessie Balmert explains, the police union has long had a bad relationship with her Republican opponent.
Republican Justice Joe Deters, Balmert writes, alienated the FOP in 2015 after the then-Hamilton County prosecutor indicted a University of Cincinnati police officer named Ray Tensing for murder following a fatal shooting of an unarmed driver. The police union was unhappy with Deters for his comments about Tensing, including that he "never should have been a police officer."
Deters ultimately dismissed the charges after two juries failed to reach a verdict. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine went on to appoint him to the state's highest court to fill a vacancy after the 2022 elections, but rather than campaign for the remaining two years in his term, Deters decided to take on Stewart for a full six-year term.
But while the FOP is rooting against Deters, it has a favorable view of the other two Republicans running for the state Supreme Court. The FOP is supporting Republican Dan Hawkins over Democrat Lisa Forbes in the contest for Deters' seat, while it's also backing Republican Megan Shanahan's bid to unseat Democratic incumbent Michael Donnelly. Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on Ohio's highest court, so for Democrats to flip control they need to win all three of these statewide contests.
Mayors & County Leaders
● San Francisco, CA Mayor: Mayor London Breed on Wednesday earned the sole endorsement of the San Francisco Democratic Party ahead of her difficult reelection battle in this fall's instant-runoff contest. The San Francisco Standard's Gabe Greschler writes that this nod gives the incumbent access to the "massive messaging campaign by the local party that will reach hundreds of thousands of the city’s registered Democrats."
Ad Roundup
- MD-Sen: Angela Alsobrooks (D)
- TX-Sen: Ted Cruz (R-inc) (in Spanish)
- NC-Gov: Josh Stein (D)
- MI-10: Emily Busch (D) - anti-Carl Marlinga (D)
- MT-01: Monica Tranel (D)
- NH-02: Maggie Goodlander (D)
- PA-07: American Action Network - anti-Susan Wild (D-inc)
- PA-10: American Action Network - pro-Scott Perry (R-inc)