National:
Bloomberg/FL-7: Orlando-area D Rep Stephanie Murphy has endorsed, of all people, Michael Bloomberg for President. She cites his “machine” (i.e. his endless well of money with which he could fund the entire economy of a small US State) and his work on gun control. Murphy chairs the “Blue-Dog” D Caucus, though at this point we might as well start calling them the “New-Dogs” since the group has very little in common with the congressmen who used to make up that group aside from generally being more moderate than the rest of the D caucus. This is further evidence that Bloomberg is pinching the moderate D support that Buttigieg was probably hoping to coalesce by this point.
Buttigieg: “Mayor Pete” has scored an important endorsement in New Hampshire Congresswoman Annie Kuster. This comes as no real surprise since she has appeared at a number of Buttigieg events over the last year, but her making it formal is a sign that Buttigieg’s campaign is trying to surge in the home stretch after a bit of a stall in momentum over the last month or so.
CNN/Sanders: Sanders supporters are very upset with CNN’s handling of the D presidential debate, claiming bias against Sanders and in favor of Warren (and of better debate ratings). The idea of Sanders supporters getting upset that “A one-source pony is now factual ‘according to several people familiar with the matter.’” is hilarious after 2+ years of the Russiagate circus, but it’s hilarious to see Left-wingers essentially parroting word-for-word what have been Conservative talking points about the media since the 1990s the second the axes came out for their guy.
Sanders: The Clark County Black Caucus has endorsed Sanders for President. This is not too surprising as while Biden is ahead with Black voters overall, most of that lead probably comes from Black voters in the South who tend to be far more culturally and politically moderate (or even borderline Conservative) than the ones in the rest of the country, but this is still a great story for Sanders since most of the media Common Wisdom is that Biden has locked up the Black vote. Nevada’s Black Population is also generally under-appreciated politically, as they make up about 10% of the state’s population and a significant chunk of the D primary electorate.
Congress:
AZ-Sen: Martha McSally had a testy exchange with a CNN reporter in the halls of Congress, telling him to his face that he was a Liberal hack and that she wasn’t going to answer any of his questions. Naturally this set off a string of pearl-clutching from the network over how a US Senator could attack the media so shamelessly, but it seems to have endeared McSally to the GOP a bit as she got a bit of a fundraising bump afterwards….
Arizona looks like a Democratic US Senate ‘get’….
Should balance off Alabama?
AL is far more likely to switch than AZ.
CO is probably more likely than AZ.
N.B. Clark Count [Nevada]’s population is mostly concentrated in Las Vegas.