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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As Wisconsin’s closely watched state Supreme Court elections draw closer, Democrats are turning to a familiar strategy: The party is boosting right-wing — and presumably unelectable — candidates in the hopes of that they’ll lose in the general election.
* Perry Johnson’s Republican gubernatorial campaign in Michigan failed for procedural reasons, but he’s apparently parlaying that experience into a GOP presidential campaign. As NBC News noted, Johnson aired a television ad in Iowa and New Hampshire during the Super Bowl.
* It’s not common for legislators to switch parties, but in New Jersey, state Sen. Samuel Thompson has left the Republican Party to become a Democrat. The move gives the Democratic Party 25 members in the 40-member state Senate.
* In one of the bigger surprises of the 2022 midterm elections, Democrat Adam Frisch very nearly defeated far-right Republican incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 3rd congressional district. Now, Frisch is seeking a rematch in a race that’s likely to generate far more national interest than their first contest.
* New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has apparently decided to ignore the Democratic Party’s new presidential nominating calendar, declaring that the Granite State will hold both parties nominating primaries on the same day, ahead of other states. “It doesn’t matter what the Democrat [sic] Party says,” the governor said, adding, “We’re going first.”
* And in Virginia, voters in the 4th congressional district will vote a week from today to fill the vacancy left by the late Rep. Donald McEachin. If Democratic state Sen. Jennifer McClellan prevails, as seems likely, she’ll be the first Black woman ever elected to Congress from the commonwealth.