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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania asked the Supreme Court to block redistricting maps selected by state courts. Yesterday, the justices rejected the appeals, which is the outcome Democrats were hoping for.
* Another new poll shows President Joe Biden’s approval rating improving: The latest Morning Consult/Politico poll showed the Democrat with 45 percent approval, which isn’t amazing, but which is up from 41 percent a week earlier.
* In Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial primary, the latest InsiderAdvantage poll for the Fox affiliate in Atlanta found incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp leading former Sen. David Perdue by nine points, 44 percent to 35 percent. In December, the same outlet showed the governor ahead by 19 points.
* The Republican Governors Association has made its first major ad buy of the 2022 cycle, investing $31.4 million in five states that are expected to have competitive gubernatorial races: Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin. The investment in the Grand Canyon State — the only one of the five where there’s a GOP incumbent — is the largest: The Republican Governors Association has reserved $10.2 million in airtime in Arizona.
* The Associated Press reported that roughly 10,000 mail-in ballots “were tabulated but not counted in Texas’ most populous county on the day of last week’s election, officials said, adding to the delay in determining some winners in the nation’s first primary of the 2022 midterms.” Election officials in Harris County said there’d been an “oversight.”
* Raising fresh questions about his electoral intentions, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has now invested more than $660,000 into ads criticizing the sexual misconduct allegations against him. One of the commercials tells New Yorkers they lost “a proven leader” when he stepped down.
* Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman John Bennett has kicked off a congressional campaign, hoping to succeed retiring GOP incumbent Rep. Markwayne Mullin. Bennett has an unfortunate rhetorical record, including an incident last summer when the Oklahoma Republican compared private-sector vaccine requirements to Nazis forcing Jews to wear the yellow Star of David on their clothes.