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Presented by Facebook: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels and Eli Okun | | | | 
The Senate Leadership Fund is pumping $28 million into TV and radio ads to bolster J.D. Vance in the Ohio Senate race after Labor Day. | LM Otero/AP Photo | THE UNEMPLOYMENT PICTURE — New jobless claims last week dipped slightly to 250,000, per new Labor Department data out today. It’s another indicator that the robust jobs market is holding pretty steady. More from the AP WEISSELBERG PLEADS GUILTY — Longtime Trump Organization executive ALLEN WEISSELBERG pleaded guilty to 15 felonies today, “admitting that he conspired with [DONALD] TRUMP’s company to carry out a scheme to avoid paying taxes on lavish perks — even while refusing to implicate the former president himself,” per the NYT. The fallout: “Despite not securing Mr. Weisselberg’s cooperation [against Trump himself], the Manhattan district attorney, ALVIN L. BRAGG , may still gain a victory from the deal. Prosecutors now can point to Mr. Weisselberg’s admissions that he conspired with the Trump Organization — damning evidence against the company — when they face off at trial. And Mr. Weisselberg, an accountant who served a vital role as the company’s financial gatekeeper, will be branded as a felon.” ON THE MAR-A-LAGO SEARCH — Magistrate Judge BRUCE REINHART’s hearing on whether to unseal the affidavit underpinning the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search has just gotten underway. Our colleagues Nick Wu and Andrew Desiderio have a good preview from West Palm Beach. — NYT’s Maggie Haberman today examines the possible reasons why Trump, a man who considered the federal government “an extension of his private real estate company,” refused to return government documents he’d taken to Mar-a-Lago in the first place. Among the possibilities she sees: Trump was excited about the documents, they contained personal information, he resisted government protocols to protect such materials, and — a classic — his sense that “L’état, c’est moi.” BATTLE FOR THE SENATE — Wowza: The Senate Leadership Fund is pumping $28 million into TV and radio ads to bolster J.D. VANCE in the Ohio Senate race after Labor Day, per the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Andrew Tobias. The move “clearly reflects deepening concerns among national Republicans over [Rep. TIM] RYAN’s significant fundraising advantage over Vance.” — The Cook Political Report today shifted its ratings in three Senate races, moving Pennsylvania from toss-up to leaning Democratic (!), Colorado from likely to leaning Democratic (!) and Utah from solid to likely Republican. Overall, writes Jessica Taylor, Republicans’ advantage has largely been erased and control for the chamber looks like a toss-up, thanks to weak GOP candidates in key races ( as we wrote about this morning ). The likeliest outcomes range from a Republican net gain of three seats to a Democratic net gain of one. — The Colorado sleeper race wakes up: As moderate Republican JOE O’DEA mounts a real challenge to Democratic Sen. MICHAEL BENNET, the incumbent is launching his first attack ad — hitting O’Dea on abortion in a two-week TV campaign, reports The Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul. While O’Dea has tried to stake out some middle ground on abortion, the ad criticizes his positions and support for Trump’s Supreme Court nominees. Watch the ad But O’Dea’s campaign is hitting back with a new ad today that throws into relief how different he is from most Republicans this year: “Michael Bennet isn’t telling the truth,” O’Dea’s daughter says, direct to camera. “My dad supports same-sex marriage. He will defend a woman’s right to choose. He will protect access to contraception for all women.” — More ad wars: The DSCC is attacking GOP Arizona Senate nominee BLAKE MASTERS as “too out there”: “He’s called cocaine smugglers heroes, praised the Unabomber … and, after 9/11, called Americans ‘security craving sheep.’” … Sen. PATTY MURRAY’s (D-Wash.) first general-election TV ad highlights Jan. 6: “Our democracy is in real danger.” Good Thursday afternoon.
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Learn more about our work ahead. | | | ALL POLITICS THE GUBERNATORIAL LANDSCAPE — Kyle Kondik at Sabato’s Crystal Ball changed ratings for three governor’s races , shifting Oregon from leaning Democratic to toss-up (!) and moving Maryland and New York off the table as they become safe Democratic. He says to keep an eye on New England: “If things break right for Republicans down the stretch of the election, Connecticut or Rhode Island might be like New Jersey’s race was last year — surprisingly close and competitive. As of now, the hottest race in New England comes in Maine.” Speaking of Maine … Former Gov. PAUL LEPAGE, the Trump-before-Trump who’s seeking his old office again, is back to his old ways: “At a Sunday campaign stop, LePage threatened to ‘deck’ a Maine Democratic Party staffer who was filming him,” The Daily Beast’s Sam Brodey reports. “Six feet away, or I’m going to deck you,” said the 73-year-old LePage. “If you come into my space, you’re going down.” HERE COMES THE PITCH — Climate Power, the League of Conservation Voters and Future Forward USA Action are kicking off a $10 million ad campaign to promote the Inflation Reduction Act on national TV and try to lift Democrats’ fortunes in November, Elena Schneider scooped. The race is on to define the law in voters’ minds, and Democrats say they want to be on the front foot. The ad campaign will take two tacks, one highlighting lower costs for consumers and higher taxes on corporations and the other targeting voters under 30 around climate action. The DNC will also launch a reconciliation ad campaign. But, but, but: The reconciliation bill isn’t playing well with everyone on the left. Environmental justice advocates are saying the compromise legislation sold out their priorities and sacrificed bolstering low-income and minority communities, Zack Colman reports. “To the advocates, the message their communities are hearing is: Wait your turn. Again.” POLLS OF THE DAY — Vance up 3 over Ryan in Ohio, 45% to 42%, per Emerson. … Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER up 5 over TUDOR DIXON, 51% to 46%, per AARP . SUNSHINE STATE DISPATCHES — Punchbowl’s Max Cohen has some wild quotes in his look at the race to replace Rep. VAL DEMINGS in the House, in which former Rep. ALAN GRAYSON and young progressive MAXWELL ALEJANDRO FROST are top contenders. Grayson has sent out a mailer quoting Speaker NANCY PELOSI as saying, “I love Alan Grayson” (though she hasn’t endorsed in the race, and the quote came from 2018). Rep. MARK POCAN (D-Wis.): “I just wish that Alan would not think about Alan for a change.” Grayson on Frost: “He recognizes that he needs to validate himself in some way, shape or form since he is 25 years old, and without any practical experience whatsoever in public office or even campaigning.” — From Miami, WaPo’s Tim Craig dives into the Democratic primary to take on Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS, in which questions of electability dominate the dialogue. With the NIKKI FRIED/CHARLIE CRIST race in some ways mirroring the broader progressive/moderate divide, the campaign “has highlighted simmering fissures within the Florida Democratic Party and on the political left more broadly that could carry over into the general election campaign.” Fried has been gaining on frontrunner Crist in some polls, as the campaigns spar over who’s more vulnerable to DeSantis’ attacks. — An America Rising tracker accused security guards for Demings of pushing him down twice earlier this month as he tried to ask her questions, and Florida police are now investigating the matter, Florida Politics’ Jacob Ogles scooped. “Demings officials stood by the security team’s handling of the campaign tracker.” KNOWING SPENCER COX — From Salt Lake City, Time’s Molly Ball has a big new feature on the Utah governor, a conservative Republican who blasts TUCKER CARLSON (and then feels bad for being mean), vetoed a ban on transgender girls in sports and often shares his pronouns. His unusual brand prioritizes unity and bipartisanship while turning the dial down on culture wars. Her story has some fascinating anecdotes, including about his childhood in poverty and his quirky events in office, but this description jumped out at us: “High energy and bald-headed, Cox is an avid reader whose media diet skews Acela Corridor. Over the course of our interviews, he will name-drop the New York Times columnists THOMAS FRIEDMAN and EZRA KLEIN, the political theorist JONATHAN HAIDT and articles from The Atlantic. His conversation is littered with pop-intellectual buzz phrases: ‘deaths of despair,’ ‘happiness gap,’ ‘empathy crisis,’ ‘trust barometer.’ He’s the kind of politician who quotes GEORGE WILL in speeches and answers questions with an eager, ‘You want to hear my theory? Because I think a lot about this stuff.’” 2024 WATCH — The Iowa State Fair this month highlights how difficult a path anti-Trump Republicans face in the party, WSJ’s John McCormick writes in a dispatch from Des Moines: “Almost no one seemed to recognize [Maryland Gov. LARRY] HOGAN as he walked through the Iowa State Fair surrounded by three Maryland state troopers and his own camera crew.”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH CHENEY SPEAKS — In a new Q&A with The Dispatch’s Steve Hayes, Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) talks about her election loss, the possibility of former VP MIKE PENCE testifying before the House Jan. 6 committee and the existential stakes of her work: “Some people don’t see the danger because they don’t want to. Some people don’t see the danger maybe because they really don’t know history. Maybe they really haven’t studied the rise of authoritarianism in other countries around the world. Maybe they really just tell themselves it can’t happen here. But we saw it happen.” POLICY CORNER MONKEYPOX LATEST — The Biden administration today announced a sped-up timeline to distribute monkeypox vaccines, adding 1.8 million doses to the supply beginning next week, as CNN’s Betsy Klein and Jacqueline Howard scooped . The new steps include giving municipalities resources to transition smoothly to the new intradermal method of vaccine administration. “HHS will also launch a new program aimed at making vaccines available and engaging with at-risk communities at large events attracting LGBTQ communities. And the administration is pre-positioning doses of an antiviral treatment for individuals who test positive.” ABORTION FALLOUT WHAT LINA KHAN IS UP TO — The FTC is proposing to sue Kochava for allegedly revealing the personal tracking data of women who go to reproductive health clinics and more, WaPo’s Cat Zakrzewski reports. But the Idaho-based ad tech company is suing, saying the agency’s allegations are incorrect. “The action is an early indication of how the agency might assert itself as a defender of health-related data.” IN THE STATES — The overturning of Roe v. Wade has spurred plenty of chatter about whether red-state Republicans would do more to support pregnant women and mothers once they banned or restricted abortion. But from Jackson, Miss., the city that gave rise to Dobbs, NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg finds that “the conversations have barely begun, and many states are ignoring obvious possibilities. Even some conservatives say that not taking up the limited Medicaid expansion is a mistake.”
| | | | A message from Facebook:   | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY KEEPING TABS — It’s been over half a year since bomb threats targeted more than a third of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities, and law enforcement still hasn’t arrested anybody, named suspects or provided any updates about the motivations, Bianca Quilantan reports. The FBI says it’s still investigating, but “[t]o the school leaders, it seems as though the incidents that roiled their campuses have been forgotten.” AMERICAN VIOLENCE — It’s not just the huge mass shootings that draw national attention: Mass killings across America have killed more than 2,600 people since 2006, per a new analysis from the AP, USA Today and Northeastern University. “The number of mass killings in 2022 is about average compared with previous years despite recent shootings that captured public attention. The number of victims is somewhat higher than average but still below previous highs.” WAR IN UKRAINE THE NEW LANDSCAPE — The deluge of American weaponry pouring into Europe amid the war in Ukraine has remade the quiet Greek port city of Alexandroupoli through which much of it arrives, ticking off both Turkey and Russia, NYT’s Niki Kitsantonis and Anatoly Kurmanaev report . Locals, meanwhile, welcome the change and “hope that Americans will stimulate the regional economy and provide security amid rising regional tensions.” Now, American and Russian-linked firms are jockeying for supremacy as the port goes up for sale.
| | | | INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS IN MEMORIAM — NBC’s Richard Engel and Mary Forrest lost their 6-year-old son Henry, who died from Rett syndrome. “He had the softest blue eyes, an easy smile and a contagious giggle,” they wrote. “We always surrounded him with love and he returned it, and so much more.” More on how to support research in his memory MEDIA MOVE — Ken Bensinger will be a NYT reporter covering right-wing media on the politics’ desk democracy team. He most recently was an investigative reporter at BuzzFeed. Announcement TRANSITION — Channing Carreon is now finance and accounting manager at Zip Homes. He previously was director of finance at SKDK. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Margaret White, executive director of No Labels, and Matthew White, a lawyer at Janet, Janet & Suggs, welcomed Mary Katherine White on Tuesday. She came in at 7 lbs, 8 oz, and joins big brother Mack. Pic Correction: Wednesday’s Playbook PM mischaracterized one of the elections in Alaska on Tuesday. The top four candidates from the House primary advance to the general election.
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