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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In an odd approach to managing expectations, Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, suggested yesterday that his party is doing so well in the midterms that the GOP might end up with a 55-seat majority.
* In case Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign weren’t weird enough, the Pennsylvania Republican unveiled a new claim this week: Mastriano asserted that his Democratic rival, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, is standing aside while the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is grabbing homeless kids and kids in foster care, apparently, and experimenting on them with gender transitioning.” There’s no evidence to support any of this.
* Speaking of the Keystone State, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz promised voters he wouldn’t accept “one dime” from corporate political committees. According to a Philadelphia Inquirer report published yesterday, the GOP candidate has now broken that promise several times.
* The latest proof that New York’s gubernatorial race is tightening: The latest SurveyUSA poll found incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s lead over Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin shrinking from 24 points to 6 points over the last couple of months.
* Barack Obama isn’t just hitting the campaign trail, the former president is also the star of a new campaign ad for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers. In the spot, Obama tells voters the incumbent Democrat, if given a second term, will continue “protecting your right to vote, protecting access to abortion, and investing in our kids’ public education.”
* To no one’s surprise, Donald Trump is using a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee — which he has not yet received — as the basis for a new fundraising campaign.
* According to an analysis from NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, there’s a predictable problem with Texas Republicans’ new restrictions on voting by mail. According to a Houston Chronicle report, voters of color were 50% more likely than white voters to have mail ballots rejected.