By
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* A Pennsylvania court recently ruled that state election officials had to count mail-in ballots from voters who failed to fill in the date on their ballot envelopes. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court put that ruling on hold. The outcome of this legal fight might very well determine who won the commonwealth’s Republican U.S. Senate primary.
* On a related note, as the recount process gets underway in Pennsylvania, hedge fund executive Dave McCormick’s campaign team said yesterday that it will request a hand-recount in 12 counties. An NBC News report added that the campaign wants to target specific precincts where there are undervotes “outside the norm.”
* In Ohio’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll found Republican author J.D. Vance with a narrow lead over Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, 42 percent to 39 percent.
* Though it seems unlikely that Donald Trump will ever forgive Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for honoring his state’s 2020 election results, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the Republican governor, facing a competitive re-election campaign,” is hoping for a détente that could at least scale down the vitriol” from the former president.
* New Hampshire finally completed its post-census redistricting process yesterday, with a court-appointed special master leaving the existing map largely intact. The New Hampshire Supreme Court unanimously approved the minor tweaks.
* On a related note, the post-census redistricting process is now over in every state.
* To the relief of incumbent Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, local media anchor Cory Hepola is no longer moving forward with a third-party gubernatorial campaign in Minnesota.
* And in New York’s newly drawn 10th congressional district, the Democratic primary just got a little messier: Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who served as counsel for House Democrats during the first Trump impeachment inquiry, has joined a field that also includes incumbent Rep. Mondaire Jones, former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou.