| | | | | |  | | By Zach Montellaro | Editor's Note: Weekly Score is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Campaigns policy newsletter, Morning Score. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | — There will be a push-and-pull on voters' access to the polls, with Republicans in several states looking to restrict it after a string of losses, while national Democrats struggle to navigate a slim Senate majority. — A handful of companies said they would pause political contributions to Republicans who backed objections to the election results. But how long will the pledge last? — President Donald Trump may be impeached for a second time, due in part to his call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and his role instigating last week's riot. But that call wasn't the only way Trump meddled in Georgia. Good Monday morning. Flipping the order in Score going forward: The downballot section will now come before the presidential one, which will still contain the last gasps of this administration and the early 2024 maneuvers. (Ugh!) Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com, or follow me on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro. Email the rest of the POLITICO Campaigns team at sshepard@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com, amutnick@politico.com and srodriguez@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @POLITICO_Steve, @JamesArkin, @allymutnick and @sabrod123. Days until the LA-02 and LA-05 special elections: 68 Days until the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: 295 Days until the 2022 midterm elections: 666 | | | | HAPPENING THURSDAY - THE COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT: What are the logistical challenges facing the coronavirus immunization campaign? Who is overseeing the process and working to overcome obstacles to ensure that vulnerable groups have access to the vaccine? Join POLITICO for a virtual discussion on the outgoing Trump administration's plan to prioritize lower-income, rural, and communities of color for vaccine distribution and what the Biden administration can do to streamline plans and fill in any gaps. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | TO THE POLLS — The coming month will demonstrate a significant push and pull on voters' access to the polls across the country: Republicans in a handful of states will look to restrict it, sometimes citing Trump's bunk election conspiracy theories, while national Democrats who are eager to restore the Voting Rights Act and federalize aspects of elections have to grapple with the narrowest possible Senate majority. Republicans in some states have set their sights on mail voting, after Democrats disproportionately used it this election. The pressure point will be states with unified Republican control, like Georgia. Today marks the opening session of the state legislature in the Peach State and, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Mark Niesse reported last week, Republicans are expected to introduce legislation to end no-excuse absentee voting (which has been used in the state since 2005) and ban drop boxes, among other changes. (Notably, state House Speaker David Ralston, one of Georgia's most powerful Republicans, seemed skeptical about entirely ending no-excuse absentee voting.) Lawmakers in other states have floated changes as well: In Pennsylvania, some are pushing to also end no-excuse mail voting , while in Kentucky lawmakers are looking to strip the governor and secretary of state from jointly making changes to election law during an emergency, which was used to much acclaim last year, per the Louisville Courier Journal's Joe Sonka. Meanwhile, national Democrats are looking to push legislation that would, broadly, do the exact opposite. Right now, Democrats' push can be looked at through two pieces of legislation: the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act and H.R. 1. The bill named after the late civil rights icon, which passed out of the Democratic-controlled House in 2019 (then called the Voting Rights Advancement Act), would re-establish a formula for what jurisdictions must get preclearance before making changes to election practices, after the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder ruled the previous formula was unconstitutional, neutering much of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explicitly named the bill as something Democrats needed to pass following the party's wins in the Georgia Senate races, POLITICO's Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle reported last week. The second bill — H.R. 1 — would amount to a sweeping, federalized overhaul of nearly every aspect of American elections, from public financing of campaigns (which popped up in a couple GOP ads this cycle), mandating redistricting be done through commissions, requiring every state offer no-excuse mail voting and a heck of a lot more. (Seriously, it is a long bill.) The bill, which passed through the House in 2019 , was reintroduced in the lower chamber last week. But Democrats face significant barriers to getting either bill signed into law. First, you must presume they can pass through the House, where Democrats have a much tighter margin than last Congress. (H.R. 1 passed on a pure party-line vote, and Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was the only Republican to join Democrats to vote for the VRAA.) Democrats have the slimmest majority possible in the Senate — meaning there can be no defections. And even if that's the case, the Senate filibuster would likely stand in the way. Former President Barack Obama called for the Senate to scrap the filibuster during his eulogy for Lewis in July in order to protect voting rights — but POLITICO's Caitlin Emma reported that nixing the 60-vote threshold is likely off the table. So, without ten Republican votes to end a filibuster, both bills remain a longshot even in a Democratic-controlled Senate. — And in the case of Democrats having unified control: In New York, Democrats have secured a supermajority in the state Senate, and are moving to pass a series of election reforms … regardless of what Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo asks for. POLITICO New York's Bill Mahoney , on what to expect in the opening session in the state, which generally has relatively restrictive voting laws despite longtime Democratic control: "Monday's session will focus mostly on bills that aim to improve the way absentee ballots are handled. … On Tuesday, the [state] Senate is also expected to pass a number of constitutional amendments that first passed in 2019 and 2020. Once they are passed by the Assembly, they'll be slated to appear on the ballot as referenda in November. They include an amendment to let the Legislature authorize voting by mail. … Another would allow people to register to vote up to Election Day. And a third would make changes to the way district lines are drawn, reducing the ability of Senate Republicans to block Democratic-drawn maps." | | | THE CASH DASH — A handful of companies announced that they'd pause donations to Republicans who supported a challenge to electoral results on Wednesday — but how long will that last? A few companies contacted by Popular Information's Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria said that their corporate PACs would pause donations to those Republicans, including Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and Marriott International. The majority of companies contacted by PI did not respond. (Popular Information is a political newsletter founded by Legum, the founder of ThinkProgress.) JPMorgan also said it'd pause all corporate PAC donations for the next six months to all politicians, The Wall Street Journal's Emily Glazer, Theo Francis and Chip Cutter reported. The question is how long said pauses last. JPMorgan put a timeline on theirs, but are the other pauses indefinite? Or are they only temporary, until there's some distance from the riot? To steal a line from fellow campaign finance reporter Julie Bykowicz of The Journal: "FEC filing cycles are long, while memories are not." The next filing deadlines to look out for (and we certainly will): year-end filings, which cover through Dec. 31, 2020, are due at the end of this month, and the first quarterly report of 2021 (which cover donations post-insurrection) will first be disclosed in mid-April for candidates. — The online payment processor Stripe said it'd no longer serve the Trump campaign's website, The Wall Street Journal's AnnaMaria Andriotis, Peter Rudegeair and Glazer reported. NEVER ENDING ELECTION — The legal battle in NY-22, in the still-undecided race between Democrat Anthony Brindisi and Republican Claudia Tenney, continues, and the latest hearing revealed a serious screw-up from a county. Syracuse Post-Standard's Patrick Lohmann : "The Oneida County Board of Elections failed to register 2,418 residents who applied on time, rendering them unable to vote on Election Day." It isn't clear how many of those voters tried to vote in the election. — Brindisi isn't waiting for a conclusion to the court battle, however: He's filed to run for election/maybe reelection in 2022. (Tenney filed back in November.) ON MY MIND — Former GOP Sen. David Perdue conceded the election to Democraitc Sen.-elect Jon Ossoff on Friday, without mentioning Ossoff by name. He congratulated "the Democratic Party and my opponent for this runoff win." The Atlanta-Journal Constitution's Mark Niesse has more on the timeline for when Ossoff and his batterymate, Democratic Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock, will be sworn in. (Not until results are certified.) THE KEYSTONE STATE — The battle for retiring Sen. Pat Toomey's (R-Pa.) Senate seat will potentially be the most intense of the 2022 cycle, and we had some big developments in the field over the weekend. On Friday, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman started raising money for a potential bid, POLITICO Campaigns' Steve Shepard reported, but didn't completely commit to running. "I'm confident we can win if we go for it. But before we make the call to announce a campaign, I want to get an idea of just how many of you would be with us," Fetterman wrote in an email to supporters. Former GOP Rep. Ryan Costello is also expected to form an exploratory committee soon, Punchbowl News' John Bresnahan, Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman reported. (Costello teased a run on Twitter in some smack talk against Fetterman.) THE HIGH COURT — The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments for a case challenging a California policy that requires nonprofits to disclose donors to the state attorney general. The court consolidated a pair of cases from two conservative nonprofits: Americans for Prosperity Foundation and Thomas More Law Center. SCOTUSBlog's Amy Howe has more on the case, while law professor Rick Hasen has a bit of commentary on what the case could mean on his Election Law Blog : "Although this case involves only disclosure to government bodies for law enforcement purposes, it could start the newer, more conservative Supreme Court majority down the road of striking down more campaign finance disclosure laws." THE GOVERNATORS — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is under siege as his state struggles with the pandemic and more. POLITICO's David Siders and Carla Marinucci: "The pandemic has given Republicans, long sidelined in this heavily Democratic state, a rare opportunity to wound him. And Newsom is laboring to keep the state — and his own political future — intact." The effort to recall Newsom also announced it has roughly 2/3rds of the signatures it needs. — Some musical chairs in Maryland? Aruna Miller, a former Democratic state lawmaker, filed paperwork to run in MD-06 … but not to primary current Democratic Rep. David Trone. Bloomberg Government's Greg Giroux and Bennett Roth reported that she filed in case Trone seeks a gubernatorial bid, and the seat opens up. A Trone spokesperson said the congressman and Total Wine mogul was focused on his role in Congress. TOLD YOU SO — Former Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) feels vindicated in his early opposition to Trump — and he may return to the political arena. In an interview with POLITICO's Burgess Everett, Corker didn't rule out another run for office. The state's governorship is up in 2022 … and there's the 2024 presidential primary. FIRST IN SCORE — STAFFING UP — Jesse Hunt will be the communications director for the Republican Governors Association, POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt writes in. Hunt was previously comms director at the NRSC.
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| | | MEDDLING, CONTINUED — Trump very well may be impeached a second time, both because of his role in instigating the riot at the Capitol and for his call pressuring Raffensperger. Rhode Island Democraitc Rep. David Cicilline said his articles of impeachment — which mentioned the Raffensperger call — had 210 House cosponsors on Sunday evening, just a tad shy of the 218 needed to impeach. On Sunday, Pelosi told members that the chamber would attempt to pass a resolution on Monday calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. If Pence then doesn't act, they would then move forward with impeachment, POLITICO's Sarah Ferris, Heather Caygle and Kyle Cheney reported. But that wasn't the only election interference Trump undertook in Georgia. The Washington Post's Amy Gardner reported that Trump urged Georgia's lead elections investigator to "find the fraud" in a call on Dec. 23. Raffensperger confirmed that Trump called the investigator (The Post did not disclose the person's name to protect their safety) but said he was not familiar with the specifics of the call. The White House also pushed out a U.S. attorney in Georgia because Trump felt he wasn't doing enough to investigate his bunk voter fraud claims, The Wall Street Journal's Aruna Viswanatha, Sadie Gurman and Cameron McWhirter reported. More: "A senior Justice Department official, at the behest of the White House, called the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak late on the night of Jan. 3. In that call the official said Mr. Trump was furious there was no investigation related to election fraud and that the president wanted to fire Mr. Pak, the people said." Pak resigned on Jan. 3. THE RIOTS — The Rule of Law Defense Fund, an arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, sent a robocall encouraging people to march to the Capitol after the rally that preceded Wednesday's riot, but the call did not advocate for violence or storming the building, NBC News' Laura Strickler and Lisa Cavazuti reported. (Jamie Corey of Documented , a self-described corporate watchdog group, first reported the call.) In a statement to NBC News, Alabama state Attorney General Steve Marshall said he was "neither consulted about nor informed of" his group's involvement and said he would open an internal review. CNBC's Brian Schwartz has more on groups that helped organize that rally, including Women for America First. — Derrick Evans, a West Virginia Republican state lawmaker who is facing federal charges for entering the Capitol, resigned from the House of Delegates, MetroNews' Brad McElhinny reported. LEADING THE PARTY — Allies of Trump skated to reelection to lead the RNC, even following the riots. More from Alex : "RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and co-chairman Tommy Hicks easily won reelection on Friday at the party's annual winter meeting on Florida's Amelia Island. With Trump eager to retain influence over the GOP and quash dissent as he leaves office, their victories ensure that two party officials who've been close with the president will oversee the Republican Party infrastructure for the next two years." McDaniel ran unopposed, and Hicks beat out several other candidates. — Florida Democrats elected former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz to be the chairman of a "shell-shocked" state party, POLITICO Florida's Gary Fineout reported. 2024 ALREADY? — Some allies of the president are privately saying he is unlikely to run again — and if he does consider it, they'd urge him not to, POLITICO's Anita Kumar wrote. POLITICO's Marianne LeVine, Holly Otterbein and Burgess Everett also have more on how Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) efforts to overturn the election results, widely seen as an attempt to gin up support for potential 2024 bids, backfired. — Trump was permanently banned from Twitter on Friday. Some in the Republican Party view the ban as a way to make Big Tech the new arch villain, POLITICO's David Siders wrote. But it also hampers Trump's post-presidency political apparatus, removing his megaphone to either promote himself or attack disloyal Republicans nearly instantaneously, Alex wrote. LEGAL EAGLES — Dominion Voting Systems, which has been at the center of much of the electoral conspiracy theories, is suing former Trump campaign lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell for defamation, seeking $1.3 billion in damages, per Bloomberg's Erik Larson. CODA — FUN HEADLINE OF THE DAY: "An Annotated Guide to Jon Ossoff's Extremely Online Twitter Feed" — From POLITICO Magazine. (A true millennial senator, folks.) | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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