| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | Presented by The National Association of REALTORS® | | 
Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) is joining the procession of House members calling it quits. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | TAKE A LOAD OFF, ANNIE — Rep. ANNIE KUSTER (D-N.H.) will not seek reelection this year, retiring after six terms in the chamber. She said she will continue to serve as head of the centrist New Democrat Coalition until the end of her term. Kuster “has championed several issues during her time in Washington and is known for her willingness to openly share her personal experiences — disclosing her status as a survivor of sexual assault in her youth; more recently, she has been candid regarding the trauma of being trapped in the House Chamber during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol,” WMUR’s Adam Sexton writes. Kuster, in a statement: “This work has been many things — rewarding, frustrating, inspiring, and challenging. But, more than anything, it has been an honor.” The announcement “sends a shockwave through New Hampshire politics, creating an open race for the 2nd Congressional District seat she has held since 2013,” Sexton writes. “NH-02 covers a wide and diverse swath of the state from Nashua to the Canadian border, and it’s possible several Democrats will step forward to run.” Five Republicans — MARK KILBANE, ROBIN NG, JASON RIDDLE, PAUL WAGNER and LILY WILLIAMS — have already announced campaigns for the seat. Prior to Kuster’s election in 2012, the seat had changed hands between Republican CHARLES BASS and Democrat PAUL HODES for a handful of years.
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Ken Buck criticized the House’s dysfunctional and toxic environment as he leaves the chamber. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | EXIT INTERVIEW — Meanwhile, former Rep. KEN BUCK (R-Colo.), another one of the many House members to head for the exits this year, sat down with our colleague Olivia Beavers last Friday — his final day in office — to talk about his decision and the state of the chamber. Buck “continued to insist he was leaving due to the House’s dysfunctional and toxic environment, describing it as the worst he’s seen over the course of his five terms in office,” Olivia writes. He stood firm in his denial that his decision to leave had anything to do with Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-Colo.) — who has accused him of trying to influence her prospects of reelection in November. “I feel really strongly that we have a lot of good candidates … and I’m not going to interfere in that process,” Buck said, vowing to stay out of the race in any official capacity. Buck also denied having any sort of TV deal or other job lined up already. “No TV contract, no radio contracts, no contract with any corporation or any other entity. I don't have a contract. I do have a number of conversations on that, but none of them involve a contract with TV — which is a rumor,” said Buck. “But he added that he ‘certainly will be speaking my mind about all kinds of issues when I get outside.’” BALTIMORE BRIDGE LATEST — “NTSB secures ship’s ‘black box’; recovery efforts begin as 6 presumed dead,” WaPo FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: BIDEN BOOK BUST CASUALTY — In a further reflection of the soft market for books about President JOE BIDEN, publisher Simon and Schuster has withdrawn its contract with ALEX THOMPSON, Axios’ national political correspondent, for a book about the Biden administration, two people familiar with the matter told our Daniel Lippman. The proposed book was originally scheduled to be published early this year. Playbook reported in February 2021, when the deal was first inked, that it would be "a comprehensive book on Biden's presidency” and "filled with fresh reporting and informed by his work covering the president and the White House transition." Thompson, a former POLITICO reporter known for his deep coverage of Biden’s administration, declined to comment, as did a Simon and Schuster spokesperson. Simon and Schuster’s decision comes as a series of Biden books have sold relatively poorly — compared, at least, to the standards set by a number of best-sellers about predecessor DONALD TRUMP. Thompson is now actively engaged in talks with other publishers and is still working on the draft, according to a person close to him. GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI’s “The Long Alliance” has sold around 1,500 hardcover copies, according to NPD BookScan, while CHRIS WHIPPLE’s “The Fight of His Life” has sold around 5,000 and FRANKLIN FOER's "The Last Politician" around 12,000. That compares to the nearly 1 million copies that MICHAEL WOLFF’s Trump-focused “Fire and Fury” sold, also per NPD BookScan, and the more than 400,000 copies sold of BOB WOODWARD and ROBERT COSTA’s “Peril.” Good Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
| | | | A message from The National Association of REALTORS®: The National Association of REALTORS® is fighting for housing affordability and availability before Congress.
The lack of affordable housing supply is hurting the middle class and depriving first-generation and first-time homebuyers of the financial security that homeownership provides.
That’s why REALTORS® are focused on fixing the affordable housing crisis and bringing relief to the American people. See our bipartisan plan at flyin.realtor. | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  Donald Trump's campaign is thus far slow in setting up infrastructure in key battleground states. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | 1. ALARM BELLS IN THE GOP: As Trump transitions to the general election, the buildout of his campaign infrastructure is lagging behind schedule, AP’s Steve Peoples reports. “Officials on the ground in top swing states are not panicking, but the disparity with the Biden campaign is stark.” Warning signs in Michigan: “The Trump campaign and its partners at the Republican National Committee haven’t yet made significant general election investments in the state, according to Michigan Republican Party Chairman PETE HOEKSTRA Hoekstra. The national committee, he said, hasn’t transferred any money to the state party to help bolster its operations heading into the general election. There are no specific programs in place to court voters of color. And there’s no general election field staff in place.” Zooming out on the new RNC leaders: “In fact, the former president’s team has rolled back plans under previous leaders to add hundreds of staff and dozens of new minority-outreach centers in key states without offering a clear alternative.” 2. ON THE BORDER: “Texas’ migrant arrest law is on hold for now under latest court ruling,” AP: “A Texas law that allows the state to arrest and deport migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. will remain on hold for now, a federal appeals court ruled. The 2-1 ruling late Tuesday from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will likely prevent enforcement of the law until a final decision on its merits, either by the 5th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court.” 3. SIGN OF THE TIMES: In a major shift, the FEC is moving toward letting federal candidates use campaign funds to pay for security measures, “a significant expansion of what campaign war chests can be used for amid a heated political environment,” Zach Montellaro reports. While the proposal isn’t yet final, the changes “would allow federal candidates to use their campaign accounts to pay for things like security personnel, equipment like cameras or motion detectors at their homes and cybersecurity services — so long as these purchases ‘address ongoing dangers or threats’ arising from their status as federal candidates or officials and they pay a fair market value.” 4. COMING TO THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: “What the IVF fight means for the battle for control of Congress,” by Madison Fernandez, Ursula Perano and Ally Mutnick: “for now, IVF has yet to dominate the political airwaves the way that abortion rights did after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Whether that remains true as the parties edge closer to November depends on how well Republicans can navigate tricky conversations about IVF — and if Democrats can successfully tie the fertility technology to broader reproductive rights. (It’s also early in the cycle, with the real cross-party fighting coming after the primaries.) “As both parties search for every advantage in the fight for control of Congress, the legal battles over personhood that Roe’s fall kickstarted on the state level are giving Democrats an opportunity to connect the Alabama ruling to the broader loss of a national right to abortion. And it doesn’t help that Republicans are still scrambling to apply the lessons they learned on abortion, with many admitting they lack a clear position on IVF beyond general support for it.”
| | | | YOUR GUIDE TO EMPIRE STATE POLITICS: From the newsroom that doesn’t sleep, POLITICO's New York Playbook is the ultimate guide for power players navigating the intricate landscape of Empire State politics. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest and most important stories from Albany, New York City and around the state, with in-depth, original reporting to stay ahead of policy trends and political developments. Subscribe now to keep up with the daily hustle and bustle of NY politics. | | | | | 5. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: “U.S. Pushes to Shape Israel’s Rafah Operation, Not Stop It,” by WSJ’s Michael Gordon and Vivian Salama: “While President Biden’s relationship with Netanyahu has frayed, the channel between U.S. Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN and [Israeli Defense Minister YOAV] GALLANT remains strong. Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the two defense chiefs have met several times and talked by phone about 40 times. In Gallant’s closed-door meetings in Washington, a more pragmatic conversation began to emerge in which the discussions were on conducting a phased operation to reduce the potential harm to civilians while still ensuring that Israel dismantles Hamas’s four battalions in Rafah.” Resignation revolt: ANNELLE SHELINE, a foreign affairs officer in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, resigned from her post today “in protest of U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, the latest example of dissent among government personnel bursting into public view,” WaPo’s Hannah Allam and John Hudson report. “In an interview, Sheline said her focus had been promoting human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, work that was complicated by Israel’s war in Gaza and a host of accompanying moral, legal, security and diplomatic implications for the United States. Sheline said she tried to raise concerns internally with dissent cables and at staff forums but eventually concluded that it was pointless ‘as long as the U.S. continues to send a steady stream of weapons to Israel.’” 6. KREMLINOLOGY: “In a Secret Game of Prisoner Swaps, Putin Has Held Most of the Cards,” by WSJ’s Aruna Viswanatha, Bojan Pancevski, Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson: “America once had only one prisoner it considered wrongfully jailed in Russia, the 54-year-old [PAUL] WHELAN. But through nearly six years of intense and combative negotiations, Putin has run up the score, stockpiling his prisons with Americans to swap for the very few Russians abroad he cares to bring back. “The unreported story of this escalating hostage crisis takes place in clandestine meetings in hotels in neutral capitals booked under false names. … The drama features walk-on roles by HILLARY CLINTON, media personality TUCKER CARLSON and former New Mexico Gov. BILL RICHARDSON, who became involved in the negotiations only to die before Whelan, now closing in on his 2,000th day in prison, could come home. As of today, the U.S. doesn’t have any Russians in its prison system of the category the Kremlin wants in return for the Americans it has jailed.” 7. MAN MAKES UP WITH MOUSE: “The Disney-DeSantis détente is here,” by Kimberly Leonard: “Disney on Wednesday reached a settlement in Florida and will no longer seek to retain its self-governance of Walt Disney World, a stunning turn in a battle with [Gov. RON] DeSANTIS that stretched more than two years. The settlement in state court — and DeSantis’ appointment of a new, technocratic administrator to the governing board overseeing the land surrounding the famous theme park — starts to put to rest a bitter feud that began after Disney publicly opposed the Parental Rights in Education Act, a bill it derided as ‘Don’t Say Gay’ because it forbade instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.”
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