(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Morning Digest: Progressives score huge wins, capped by flipping Wisconsin Supreme Court [1] ['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-05 Though the race was officially nonpartisan, the ideological battle lines were unmistakable. Protasiewicz’s victory in this $45 million contest―which shattered the record for the most expensive state Supreme Court race in American history―now gives liberals a 4-3 majority on the Badger State’s highest court. Kelly’s allies, including Republican megadonors Dick and Liz Uihlein and the powerful business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, tried to avert this outcome by running a barrage of ads attacking Protasiewicz as weak on crime, but their message failed to have a big enough impact. 1Q Fundraising Senate ● WV-Sen: The deep-pocketed Club for Growth on Tuesday backed its old ally, Rep. Alex Mooney, who is the candidate GOP Senate leaders reportedly do not want as their nominee against Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. Politico reports that NRSC Chair Steve Daines has been trying to recruit Gov. Jim Justice, while the Senate Leadership Fund in February released a poll touting him as "far and away the strongest Republican candidate in the U.S. Senate race in West Virginia." The head of the Club, though, previously characterized the governor as someone "in what we would call the moderate camp." Governors ● WV-Gov, WV-Sen: Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Tuesday announced that he'd enter the 2024 primary to succeed his fellow Republican, termed-out Gov. Jim Justice, rather than seek a rematch against Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. While Morrisey waited until now to reveal his plans, prominent donors had already been preparing to support his campaign for governor. A group called Black Bear PAC said last month that it already had $2 million in the bank, and MetroNews' Hoppy Kercheval reported that about half of that came from megadonor Dick Uihlein. The PAC also previously publicized a late February internal from National Research Inc. that showed Morrisey beating state Delegate Moore Capito 28-15 for the GOP nod. The New Jersey-reared Morrisey first sought elected office in the Garden State in 2000 when he took last in the four-way primary for the 7th Congressional District behind the eventual winner, Mike Ferguson; that field also included Tom Kean Jr., who holds the current version of the 7th. Morrisey, after working as a D.C. lobbyist for interests that included pharmaceutical companies, found considerably more electoral success in West Virginia: In 2012 he narrowly unseated five-term Attorney General Darrell McGraw, a victory that made Morrisey the first Republican to hold this office since 1933, and he convincingly won re-election four years later. Morrisey aimed for bigger things in 2018 when he won the primary to take on Manchin, but the senator held him off 50-46 after emphasizing the Republican's Jersey roots and work on behalf of pharma companies in a state dealing with the brunt of the opioid crisis. That loss, though, didn't stop Morrisey from claiming another term as attorney general without trouble in 2020, and he's betting it won't hold him back in next year's contest for governor. Morrisey joins a GOP primary where he stands out as the only major candidate who is not from a notable West Virginia political family. Capito is the son and namesake of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito as well as the grandson of the late Gov. Arch Moore; auto dealer Chris Miller's mother is Rep. Carol Miller; and state Auditor JB McCuskey and Secretary of State Mac Warner also have relatives in state politics. House ● AZ-03: Phoenix City Councilmember Yassamin Ansari has announced she will run for Congress, becoming the first notable Democrat to launch a bid to succeed Senate candidate Ruben Gallego. Ansari first won election to the City Council in 2021, which made her the first Iranian American to win public office in Arizona, and she has served as vice mayor since January. ● CA-47: The far-right Club for Growth has endorsed former Orange County GOP chair Scott Baugh as he makes his third bid for Congress, just as it did during his unsuccessful run last cycle when it spent $2.3 million on his behalf. Baugh also issued a press release saying he'd raised $528,000 during the first quarter, emphasizing that the figure included no self-funding. One Democrat in the race, former Rep. Harley Rouda, announced on Monday that he'd brought in $1.25 million during the quarter, but his campaign did not respond to an enquiry as to whether that figure included any of the candidate's own money. Rouda self-funded almost $1 million in his first congressional run in 2018 when he unseated Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. ● ME-02: Republican Robert Cross, who ran for state Senate last year but lost in the primary, has filed paperwork with the FEC for a potential campaign against Democratic Rep. Jared Golden next year. Cross is the grandson of the founder of the large company Cross Insurance, and he recently said he was considering a bid and would decide in June. ● NY-03: Embattled Rep. George Santos has drawn his first Republican primary challenger after business executive Kellen Curry announced his campaign on Monday. Curry, an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan and until recently worked as a vice president at finance giant JPMorgan, appears to be making his first bid for public office. A number of other Republican names have come up in the months since Santos' many scandals first broke, but few have outright said whether they're considering it. ● RI-01: Businessman Don Carlson tells The Public's Radio that he's planning to enter the Democratic primary on April 16, though he adds that he hasn't made a final decision yet. Carlson in 2008 aided his friend, Connecticut Democrat Jim Himes, in his successful bid to unseat Republican Rep. Chris Shays, but he has not run for office himself. Meanwhile in the previous Digest, we failed to break out Democratic state Sen. Sandra Cano's self-funding from money raised from donors in the first quarter. Cano raised $45,000 from donors​ and self-funded an additional $80,000 during her first 11 days in the race​ Legislatures ● NC State House: Axios reported Tuesday that Democratic state Rep. Tricia Cotham in North Carolina planned to switch to the Republican Party the following day and give the GOP a three-fifths supermajority, news Democratic leader Robert Reives confirmed hours later as he called for her resignation. Since the Republicans already hold exactly a three-fifths edge in the state Senate (thanks to gerrymanders that were ruled unconstitutional in December), the switch would enable them to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes and put constitutional amendments on the ballot―a development that could lead to many significant policy changes such as new restrictions on abortion rights, voting access, and much more. Last week just two days after a mass shooting in Nashville made national headlines, Cotham and two other Democrats missed a vote where their absences enabled Republicans to override Cooper's veto of a bill that repealed a century-old requirement that handgun purchasers first get a permit from their local sheriff. Cotham claimed she was getting treatment for long COVID, but some Democrats alleged that she had purposefully missed the vote to allow it to pass. Local journalist Bryan Anderson reported that this backlash seriously irked Cotham and may have been what prompted the party-switch Unlike many previous Democratic lawmakers who became Republicans in the Tar Heel State in prior decades, Cotham changing parties makes very little sense on paper. She represents a Charlotte area district that would have backed Joe Biden 61-38 in 2020 and has been zooming leftward over the past decade like many other well-educated suburban districts. However, Cotham may be counting on the GOP drawing her a much redder district for next year, since the new Republican majority on North Carolina's Supreme Court recently reheard a case where the prior Democratic majority in December had ruled that gerrymandering violated the state constitution. Observers widely interpreted that as a sign that the GOP justices would reverse the decision and enable a new round of extreme Republican gerrymanders for the 2024 elections (Cooper can't veto most redistricting bills regardless). Even if Cotham does get a redder district to run in, though, she would have to survive a Republican primary first, and that's far from a given for a member who up until now has been aligned with mainstream Democrats on many major issues. Just earlier this year, Cotham had co-sponsored a bill to codify abortion rights, and her campaign website, as of Tuesday, still expressed support for a $15 minimum wage, treating health care as a right, protecting voting rights, LGBTQ equality, and more. If Cotham starts voting consistently with Republicans, though, her switch could have profound policy consequences. Until last week's gun bill, North Carolina Republicans hadn't been able to override Cooper's vetoes for four years, which itself came about after the courts curtailed their prior gerrymanders for the 2018 elections. But Cotham's vote may make it easier for the GOP to carry out an agenda that could include banning most abortions, stripping Cooper of even more executive power, and placing more obstacles to voting ahead of 2024, when North Carolina could again be a swing state. Mayors and County Leaders ● Philadelphia, PA Mayor: Former City Councilmember Cherelle Parker picked up an endorsement Monday from Rep. Dwight Evans, who represents close to half the city, ahead of the May 16 Democratic primary. 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