NY-AG: James leads Maloney 25-16. Teachout trails at 13%

In the race for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James has the support of 25 percent of likely voters, compared to 16 percent for Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, 13 percent for Zephyr Teachout and four percent for Leecia Eve, with 42 percent of likely Democrats saying they are undecided. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul leads New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams 30-21 percent, with half of Democrats undecided in the primary race for Lieutenant Governor.


https://www2.siena.edu/assets/files/news/SNY_July_2018_DEM_Primary_Poll_Release_--_FINAL.pdf

NY-GOV: Cuomo Holds Massive Lead In Democratic Primary

“Andrew Cuomo, viewed favorably by two-thirds of Democratic voters, has a commanding 31-point lead over Cynthia Nixon, who’s viewed favorably by a plurality of Democrats, with one-quarter not knowing enough about her to have an opinion,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “Cuomo leads by 21 points upstate, 29 points in New York City and 58 points in the downstate suburbs, where he leads 74-16 percent.

“Democrats under 35 years-old back Cuomo by a comfortable, low double-digit 14 points, and Democrats 35-54 years-old favor him by 17 points. However, voters 55 and older, likely to make up the majority of the electorate, support Cuomo 64-25 percent, or by 39 points,” Greenberg said.

“Liberal Democrats are strongly with Cuomo, while moderates are overwhelmingly with Cuomo. Nixon trails among men by 26 points and an even larger 34 points with women. Cuomo has the support of three-quarters of black Democrats and two-thirds of Latinos,” Greenberg said.
“More than 80 percent of Democrats supporting Cuomo say they are voting for him more than voting against Nixon, however, 60 percent of Nixon voters say their vote is more against Cuomo than it is for her,” Greenberg said. “Nixon has the anti-Cuomo Democrats but she’ll need to expand on that to make this race competitive.


https://www2.siena.edu/assets/files/news/SNY_July_2018_DEM_Primary_Poll_Release_--_FINAL.pdf

Nevada Democrats lead in two key statewide races

Democrats lead in the two other races tested by Gravis marketing. For Lieutenant Governor, Democrat Kate Marshall leads Republican Michael Roberson 45%-36%. For Secretary of State, Democrat Nelson Araujo leads incumbent Republican Barbara Cegavske 37%-36%.


http://orlando-politics.com/2018/07/02/gravis-marketing-2018-nevada-poll/

AZ-SOS: Democrat Katie Hobbs running neck and neck with incumbent Michele Reagan

The race between incumbent Republican, Michele Reagan and Democrat Katie Hobbs for Secretary of State is also tight. Voters back Hobbs over Reagan by a narrow 38%-37% margin with 25% undecided.


http://orlando-politics.com/2018/07/09/gravis-marketing-battleground-poll-arizona-survey-results/

MI-13: Brenda Jones, Rashida Tlaib and Bill Wild lead race to replace John Conyers

WASHINGTON – With a week to go until the Aug. 7 primary, the race to replace former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, appears to have come down to three candidates — Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones, former state Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Westland Mayor Bill Wild.

An automated poll conducted last week by EPIC-MRA of Lansing for the Free Press showed those three candidates separated by no more than 7 percentage points and accounting for about two-thirds of all those surveyed, making it too close to call at this point. Nineteen percent remained undecided.

Conyers stepped down in December, ending a congressional career dating to 1965, after being accused of mistreating and harassing female staffers over the years. Conyers denied the allegations.

With his seat open, more than a dozen candidates looked at or announced runs — including the congressman’s son, John Conyers III, who did not make the Democratic ballot and has had his request to be listed as an independent candidate denied. In the predominantly Democratic district, which includes parts of Detroit, Downriver and western Wayne County, that party’s primary is almost certain to decide the winner.

The EPIC-MRA poll, which used automated calls to contact 700 active and likely voters or those who have already cast absentee ballots in the district, last Wednesday and Thursday showed Jones leading with 24 percent, followed by Tlaib with 21 percent. Wild trailed those two with 17 percent.

The survey — which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points — showed state Sen. Coleman A. Young II next with 9 percent; state Sen. Ian Conyers, the former congressman’s grand-nephew, with 6 percent; and former state Rep. Shanelle Jackson with 4 percent.

Asking undecided voters a second time to choose changed the outcome slightly, with Jones moving to 26 percent support, Tlaib at 22 percent and Wild at 20 percent. The others were all in single digits and 11 percent still declined to select a candidate.


https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/07/30/leading-race-replace-john-conyers/860978002/

Leaked private Twitter message shows WikiLeaks wanted Republicans to win 2016 election

An activist has published 11,000 direct messages on Twitter between the Wikileaks account and a group of its supporters.

The direct messages were published by Emma Best on her own website. Her Twitter account states that she is a journalist on the East Coast. Best has been critical of Wikileaks and has advocated for government transparency.

Some of the direct messages were previously published, but this is the first time all of the direct messages have been posted.

The messages show that Wikileaks wanted the GOP to defeat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential elections.

"We believe it would be much better for the GOP to win," the Wikileaks account states to a supporter named "Emmy B" in one of the messages from 2015.

Another Twitter message from the Wikileaks account describes Clinton as a "bright, well-connected, sadistic sociopath."


http://thehill.com/policy/technology/399547-activist-publishes-11000-wikileaks-twitter-direct-messages

KS-03: Melissa Ethridge endorses Sharice Davids for Congress

MI-09: Fight for Sander Levin's seat turns into progressive battle

Democrat Andy Levin has run into a harder-than-expected battle in his bid to succeed his father U.S. Rep. Sander Levin in Congress.

The 57-year-old Levin of Bloomfield Township has received the backing of high-powered unions such as the United Auto Workers and many party establishment officials, including his dad and uncle, former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit. But he is facing a well-financed challenge from former state Rep. Ellen Lipton of Huntington Woods in the three-candidate Democratic primary.

Like other areas of the country, the fight in the Democrat-leaning 9th Congressional District is revolving around who is the most "progressive" or left-leaning candidate to represent parts of Oakland and Macomb counties in the age of President Donald Trump. Lipton, a 51-year-old patent lawyer who is endorsed by Democratic abortion rights group Emily's List, has raised about $1.09 million to Levin's about $901,000.

"You have a leaning toward progressives and newcomers" among candidates, said David Dulio, who chairs the political science department at Oakland University. "That's why we are seeing challengers to Levin, whose name would have likely been enough to carry him in the recent past.

"But Lipton's ability to raise money — it speaks to the 'year of the women' narrative."

Martin Brook, a labor and employment law attorney from Bloomfield Township and former Bloomfield Hills school board member, is complicating the race. He has raised about $35,000, according to campaign filings.

"You have another candidate who is likely a long shot to win, but the impact is that it's drawing candidates to the left," Dulio said.

Trump carried Michigan in 2016 by a slim margin and defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by 12 percentage points in Macomb County by campaigning against trade deals that he said cost Americans their jobs. Two years ago, Democrats weren't "the obvious choice of the working class," said Levin, who voted for Clinton in the Michigan primary and general elections.


https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/07/31/fight-sander-levins-seat-turns-into-progressive-battle/821098002/

Hillary Clinton steps up her involvement in the midterms

Clinton, through her political organization Onward Together, donated the maximum of $5,000 to 19 Democratic House candidates and four secretary of state candidates in June, according to the group's filings with the Federal Election Commission. The donations represent the most concentrated midterm effort the former Democratic presidential nominee has made to date and further thrust Clinton into an election that will be the most potent judgment on Trump since he defeated her two years earlier.


Eleven of the House candidates who received donations from Clinton are vying to flip districts represented by Republicans in Congress that she won in 2016.

Representatives from Clinton's team and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee worked together to target which candidates Clinton should back to stay in line with the party's 2018 strategy, officials with both groups tell CNN.

While the former Democratic nominee has publicly endorsed Democrats on the ballot in November, she has yet to publicly hit the campaign trail and has largely kept her distance from 2018 campaign politics. One reason is strategic: Republicans are eager to tie Democratic candidates, especially those running in districts that lean Republican, to national figures like Clinton, a fact people close to the former secretary of state is well aware of.

These donations give Republicans a chance to hang Clinton's lack of popularity with Republican voters over Democratic challengers. Clinton, though, remains popular with Democratic voters, meaning her backing of a House candidate could help with base supporters.

"All along the goal has been singular. Do whatever it takes to lift up candidates and organizations who will be terrific stewards of Democratic values," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told CNN. "That's what we have done with our partner organizations at OT, and it's what our objective is when it comes to supporting individual candidates. There has never been a more important midterm election, and Secretary Clinton is going to do her part to lift up the next generation of leaders."

The only expressly political event Clinton has headlined this year, according to a Clinton official, is a July fundraiser in New York for Lucy McBath, the reluctant gun rights activists who became a "Mother of the Movement" after her 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was shot and killed by a white man in 2012 after a dispute over loud music. McBath, who recently won her runoff in Georgia, was a fervent supporter of Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

The coordination between Clinton and the DCCC is apparent in her list of recipient candidates. All but four of the candidates Clinton cut checks for are on the group's "Red to Blue" list, a assemblage of candidates that Democrats believe have the best chance to win Republican districts in November.

Those Democrats -- who all received $5,000 from Clinton's organization -- are:

Aftab Pureval in Ohio's 1st Congressional District Sean Casten in Illinois' 6th Congressional District Gina Ortiz Jones in Texas' 23rd Congressional District Harley Rouda in California's 48th Congressional District Jason Crow in Colorado's 6th Congressional District Josh Harder in California's 10th Congressional District Katie Hill in California's 25th Congressional District Lauren Underwood in Illinois' 14th Congressional District Mike Levin in California's 49th Congressional District Steven Horsford in Nevada's 4th Congressional District Katie Porter in California's 45th Congressional District Scott Wallace in Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District Susan Wild in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District TJ Cox in California's 21st Congressional District Jennifer Wexton in Virginia's 10th Congressional District

Clinton's donations did not exclusively go to candidates on the DCCC's list however. She also donated $5,000 each to Deb Haaland in New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, McBath in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, Mary Gay Scanlon in Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District and Talley Sergent in West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District -- all of whom are not on the "Red to Blue" list.

Sergent worked for Clinton in 2008 and then during the former first lady's stint as Secretary of State.

Clinton also donated to $5,000 each to four Secretary of State candidates -- Nelson Araujo from Nevada, Deidre DeJear from Iowa, Jocelyn Benson from Michigan and Kathleen Clyde from Ohio -- and three congressional PACs -- the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' Bold PAC, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus ASPIRE PAC and the Congressional Black Caucus PAC.



https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/politics/hillary-clinton-steps-up-her-involvement-in-the-midterms

OH-12: Troy Balderson embarrasse himself in front of Mike Pence by telling cowd to vote August 8