🤫 Scoop - Progressive behemoth

Plus: Murkowski's bellwether | Sunday, March 27, 2022

Open in app View in browser     Axios Sneak Peek By the Axios Politics team ·Mar 27, 2022 Welcome back to Sneak. 📅 It's getting closer! Join Axios virtually at our inaugural What's Next Summit on April 5, a week from Tuesday. Register here to attend the livestream sessions.   Smart Brevity™ count: 1,061 words ... 4 minutes. Edited by Glen Johnson.     1 big thing: Scoop - Progressives' digital behemoth Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios   Progressive strategists have quietly built a massive network of social media communities in political battleground states that can activate ahead of elections and policy fights, Axios' Lachlan Markay has learned. Why it matters: The network, operating under the name Real Voices Media, uses apolitical, nonideological content to build up audiences. It then leverages the crowd on behalf of clients in what experts say is a potent persuasion strategy. President Biden and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are beneficiaries. During an interview with Axios, RVM managing director Heather Holdridge provided previously unreported details about its mission and structure. What's happening: Facebook and Instagram users in Michigan started seeing ads last month promoting stories by a new news site, the Main Street Sentinel. The aggregated content — from both news sources and the White House itself — touched on skyrocketing gas prices and broader price inflation blaming corporate price gouging and Russia's invasion of Ukraine and mirroring lines from the Biden administration. It's also run multiple stories touting key presidential legislative efforts, including infrastructure spending and domestic manufacturing support. But most of its content is aimed at backing Whitmer, a fellow Democrat — and attacking her Republican challengers. It's not clear who's behind the site. Its listed publisher, Star Spangled Media LLC, was formed last month in New York and lists a registered agent service as its only officer. The Sentinel did not respond to requests for comment. Keep reading.     2. Alaska special election: Murkowski's "best poll" Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the late Rep. Don Young. Photos: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images (left) and Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images   The election to replace the late Rep. Don Young will put a new person in Alaska's lone House seat for the first time in nearly half a century. It'll also test a pioneering new voting system — and the re-election prospects of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Axios' Andrew Solender writes. Why it matters: Murkowski is the only Senate Republican up for re-election this cycle who voted to convict former President Trump. She also animated the 50-50 Senate by voting for many of Biden's nominees and working with Democrats on infrastructure and election reform. How it works: Candidates from any party will run in a nonpartisan primary, and the top four vote-getters will advance to the general election. This new system was narrowly approved by Alaska voters in 2020. The general election will be ranked-choice: the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes will be eliminated and their votes reallocated to their voters' second choices. The process will repeat — with trailing candidates' votes reallocated to the other candidates — until one wins an outright majority. Gov. Mike Dunleavy set the special primary for June 11 and the general election for Aug. 16 — the same date as Alaska's regular primary election. In one more change, the special election primary will be entirely conducted by mail. The state faces a challenge in recruiting poll workers on such short notice, especially in a state with so many isolated communities, officials said this month. The candidate who wins Young's seat, if they want to seek a full congressional term, will have to immediately turn around and run again in the regular election in November. The special election is viewed as a bellwether for Murkowski because the ranked-choice system is specifically designed to elect consensus candidates rather than party extremists. A spokesperson for Murkowski's campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Keep reading.     3. Charted: House outside spending Data: OpenSecrets; Chart: Thomas Oide/Axios Democratic House candidates are getting big-money boosts from political action committees and other outside groups, with over $16 million pouring into 10 races alone, according to financial data compiled by OpenSecrets and reviewed by Axios' Alexi McCammond. Why it matters: Super PACs, nonprofits and party committees can pump unlimited sums into key states and districts to boost a candidate or wound an opponent. While outside money has influenced politics and campaigns for decades, this year's midterms could feature the most spending yet. Between the lines: The numbers reflect the total amount of money, so far, special-interest groups have spent both in support of or against these 10 candidates whose campaigns have received the most outside attention. Nina Turner, a Democrat running in Ohio's 11th district, has sworn off taking any corporate PAC or lobbyist money. That hasn't stopped special-interest groups from spending over $1.7 million against her campaign, and others dropping roughly $650,000 to promote her. So far, all of the Republican House candidates reviewed have only had outside money invested in support of their campaigns. Go deeper: In Virginia, Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger's campaign has received mostly positive attention from outside spending. Only $1,153 of the more than $1 million being spent has been in opposition to her candidacy, OpenSecrets found. ✅ We'll chart outside Senate spending tomorrow night.     A message from Axios Recruit top talent with Axios     Axios now has job boards to recruit top remote and local talent in the fastest growing cities in America. Reach smart professionals that visit Axios daily to make decisions about where to work, what to do and where to live. Post your job opening on Axios.     4. Worthy of your time Secretary of State Antony Blinken met today with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, West Bank. Photo: Palestinian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images   🇮🇱 Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel for a summit tomorrow with the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, Axios from Tel Aviv author Barak Ravid reported over the weekend. Two Israelis were killed and six wounded today in a terror attack in the city of Hadera that cast a pall over the event. 💵 The president's soon-to-be unveiled 2023 budget request will include a 20% minimum tax rate on households worth more than $100 million, called the "Billionaire Minimum Income Tax," Andrew notes the Washington Post reported this weekend. (subscription) 🗣️ Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on Biden to "stay on script" during a CNN "State of the Union" interview. "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," the president said of Russian President Vladimir Putin — before a walkback from the White House. ⚖️ Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) joined Democrats in calling for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6 and upcoming elections because of the political activism of his wife, Ginni. Klobuchar stated during an ABC "This Week" interview "the entire integrity of the court is on the line here." 🐘 Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) criticized members of his party during a CBS "Face the Nation" appearance, calling out "a handful of senators [who] acted like jokers" in their questioning of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. He asserted "a good chunk" of the GOP is "blindly loyal" to former President Trump. 📊 An NBC News poll found 67% of Americans have a positive view of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, compared to 37% for Biden, 36% for Trump and 1% for Putin.     5. Tweet du jour Via Twitter   Cleaning up nine words is proving to be a 24-hour effort, as co-founder Mike Allen noted in today's Axios AM.     A message from Axios Recruit top talent with Axios     Axios now has job boards to recruit top remote and local talent in the fastest growing cities in America. Reach smart professionals that visit Axios daily to make decisions about where to work, what to do and where to live. Post your job opening on Axios.   🚀 Thanks for starting your week with us! Please tell your family, friends and colleagues they can subscribe to Sneak or any of Axios' other free local and national newsletters through this link. Like this email style and format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 200 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: