RESEARCH TARGETS (As of 12/5/19)

RESEARCH TARGETS (as of 12/5/19)

We’ve set a really ambitious goal of 300 opposition research targets for the 2020 cycle. These are the first 40.

2020 SENATE RACES

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate and Democrats must pick up four seats for an outright majority. This is achievable.

States included in this cohort: Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

{TARGET: COREY LEWANDOWSKI}

New Hampshire

Note: Citizen Strong had tremendous success in New Hampshire in 2018: In the State House, we took out eleven of our GOP targets (including one race decided by six votes!!) – contributing to the Democrats taking the majority in that chamber. In the State Senate, three of our GOP targets were successfully defeated (one of these races being decided by fewer than 150 votes!) – contributing to the Democrats going from a 10-14 minority to a 14-10 majority. Right now, our New Hampshire focus is on the U.S. Senate race but we will select state legislative targets when those races take shape.

Trump campaign operative and influence-peddler/unregistered lobbyist Corey Lewandowski has announced that he is considering a U.S. Senate run against Democratic incumbent Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Three Republicans have already declared that they are running and there are several others besides Lewandowski waiting in the wings. The scant polling shows Lewandowski leading the field but with ~50% of GOP voters undecided.

Initial research tasks include: documenting Lewandowski’s ties to the state, documenting his educational and professional experience prior to the Trump campaign, uncovering any pre-Trump political beliefs and activities, checking public records for a complete list of businesses & corporate entities associated with Lewandowski, checking through campaign finance records for all payments to Lewandowski and his businesses (not only from the Trump campaign but from the full range of Trump-land PACs), comparing lobbying records against Lewandowski’s public statements describing

1 himself as essentially a lobbyist and media coverage of his clients. We’ll also submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for White House visitor logs and Air Force One passenger logs to accurately determine Lewandowski’s level of access to the White House.

[TARGET: SUSAN COLLINS]

Maine

Susan Collins is New England’s last Republican member of Congress. Her political skills should not be underestimated. She has brilliantly marketed herself to Mainers by playing up her instances of political independence from the Washington establishment and the GOP base. She has successfully explained away or refused to discuss the many instances where she’s backed hardline right-wing policies that hurt typical Mainers (like the 2017 tax bill) or undermine principles that Collins has claimed are important (like her vote to promote Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court). Successfully holding Collins accountable will be an “all hands on deck” effort. Here are our initial lines of research:

Susan Collins and Donald Trump: We are going to drill down into when (and why) Collins criticizes Trump vs. when Collins gives Trump a pass. She still refuses to say whether or not she voted for Trump for President in 2016. Is this normal for Maine Republicans or is Collins the only GOP officeholder in the state who refuses to level with Mainers? Is Collins going to skip the 2020 GOP Convention? Is she voting for Donald Trump in 2020? The bigger issue isn’t whether or not Collins supports Trump – but that she refuses to level with voters.

Susan Collins and the Federal Judiciary: Her Supreme Court votes and position on reproductive freedom will rightly receive lots of focus in 2020. We are focusing on issues of economic justice – consumer rights, employee rights, patients’ rights, corporate wrongdoing – and assess the damage that has been done by far-right judges that Senator Collins has supported.

If Collins has been voting for the kinds of judges who make it easier to cheat retirees out of their pensions and harder for consumers to hold banks accountable when they get ripped off – then Mainers have the right to know. It will be a lot of work – but a really important contribution to the debate in Maine and will be the template for doing similar work to hold Senators in other states accountable.

Susan Collins and Wall Street: Collins seems to have made peace with accepting massive campaign contributions from Wall Street (the executives, the corporate PACs, the lobbyists) and defending “independent expenditures” on her behalf by Wall-Street funded political groups. What has Susan Collins given Wall Street in return? We are going to add up all of the dollars Wall Street has spent on Collins (or against her opponents) throughout her political career. We’ll do a deep dive into the legislative record to understand whether Collins has voted for tax gimmicks, deregulation, and other things that Wall Street has asked for. (We won’t have to guess because the websites, public statements and lobbying records for various Wall Street interests will tell us exactly what they have been asking for and when.)

Susan Collins and NAFTA: How does NAFTA impact Maine as a border state? Have you seen Senator Collins in the mix as the NAFTA renegotiations continue to drag on? We haven’t either. What were Mainers’ gripes about the old NAFTA (if any)? What were Susan Collins’ previous actions on those issues? And what has she done this time around?

In 2014, Collins was re-elected with 67% of the vote but those days are long gone. Not only has Collins lost much of her “independent” cred, she is facing a far more serious Democratic challenger this time in Speaker of the Maine House, Sara Gideon. The race is considered a toss-up.

[TARGET: JOHN JAMES]

Michigan

John James is an African-American conservative who won the Republican nomination for the Senate in 2018. Democratic incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow was re- elected by a 6.5% margin. Although he lost, James made a positive impression with enough GOP bigwigs in Michigan and D.C. and now they are running him again. In 2020, Mr. James faces off against Michigan’s junior Senator, Democrat Gary Peters. Peters leads in the polls but James is building momentum. For example, in Q3 of 2019, JJames outraised Peters in campaign contributions.

In 2018, James never got close enough to Stabenow in the polls to draw intense scrutiny. Additionally, both James’ record as a veteran and the fact that he is African- American tempered the on-the-record attacks Democrats might have launched. The strategic logic was essentially: leave him alone because we are going to win this race.

Today, James has the benefit of statewide name recognition and but enjoys the presumption of having been vetted. He just ran for Senate, of course he’s been vetted, right? Wrong!

We are going to start with his business record (he currently runs a transportation and warehousing business that was started by his father), financial ties and any political activity before his 2018 Senate race. We are also going to go through James’ statements and build a running list of every media or political figure that he has verbally attacked – particularly on social media and at GOP rallies, rightwing fundraisers, gun- raffle BBQs and county GOP chapter meetings. (Given James’ broad-brush attacks on the entire Democratic party and on all Democrats, it’s hard to imagine him successfully representing all Michiganders.)

We are going to assess James’ interactions with the black community during his 2018 race: we’ll fact-check the statements or promises made and evaluate whether there are inconsistencies or contradictions between what James is promising to voters and what he has said to well-heeled and conservative donors or indicated on candidate questionnaires for right-wing special interest groups.

We’ll also take a close look at James’ activities between his Senate defeat on November 6, 2018 election and his June 2019 announcement that he was running for the Senate again. How much was left in his 2018 campaign committee and affiliated PACs and how was it spent? What political events did James attend? Did he receive any speaker or consulting fees during this time? This is all with an eye on making sure John James and his political allies are playing by the rules.

[TARGET: JONI ERNST]

Iowa

When Joni Ernst was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, she ran a campaign ad promising to go to Washington, face down the powers that be and “make ‘em squeal” like the hogs she castrated on her farm (her analogy).

As we look ahead to 2020, it seems that Washington On House of Cards, political fixer Jane Davis became the collateral has bested Senator Ernst: damage of a chaotic President’s chaotic foreign policy. Joni Nobody’s squealed, Ernst can relate. nobody’s castrated. The 4

Trump’s Administration’s ongoing trade war with China is probably the biggest factor in Ernst’s vulnerable status. Our initial research efforts will focus on the local impact of the trade war. We’ll submit FOIA requests for Ernst’s correspondence with the U.S. Trade Representative and the Agriculture Dept., White House and agency visitor logs (to verify and count how many times the Senator and her staff have actually sat down to meet with the relevant policymakers). We’ll also track Ernst’s direct engagement with Chinese officials (if any). We’ll match this with the public statements Ernst and her office have made – including combing through archives of local radio and television interviews - and build a timeline of what Ernst has said and done.

To paraphrase a line from the final season of House of Cards: “‘Getting out’ is such a quaint concept when the only way to ‘get out’ was never to get in in the first place.” Senator Ernst will try to keep the focus on her efforts to get out of the trade war and win trade war relief for Iowa farmers. Our focus is on how and why Senator Ernst allowed us to get into a trade war in the first place. Later on, there will probably be a historical research aspect to this as we find the right foil for Senator Ernst – a farm state Senator who successfully stood up to a President of their own party in defense of their state’s economic interests.

Beyond the trade war, another major line of research will be digging into Joni Ernst’s fundraising. Sen. Ernst campaigned in 2014 on a platform of “reining in federal government spending” and we’ll take a close look at whether any of her donors benefit from federal largesse (tax breaks, government contracts, agricultural subsidies, etc.).

We’ll also add up the total dollars in federal spending that Ernst has cut. If she’s been successful here, we want to know the truth so we can fact-check and prevent her from exaggerating. And if she hasn’t been very successful here, then it will have been worth the work of tediously digging through these records to get the truth.

There will be a contested Democratic primary – held in June 2020 – our early efforts are intended to make sure Sen. Ernst doesn’t get a free pass between now and then. Among the Democratic candidates, a farmer and small business owner named Theresa Greenfield outraised Sen. Ernst during Q3 of 2019.

[TARGET: MIKE POMPEO]

Kansas

GOP Senator Pat Roberts is retiring and this open seat could be competitive despite the state’s strong Republican tilt. In 2018, Democrat Laura Kelly won the Kansas Governor race taking 48% of the vote over Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach with 43% (and Independent Greg Orman with 6.5%). The unpopularity of the term-limited Republican Governor Sam Brownback and Kobach’s controversial record in his own right were both factors in this race. Kobach intends to run for the Kansas Senate in 2020 – this has prompted Republicans in Washington to encourage Mike Pompeo to run. (Pompeo spent six years representing the Wichita-area 4th District in Congress before joining the Trump Administration, first as CIA Director in January 2017 and then as Secretary of State beginning in April 2018.)

Pompeo has yet to announce his candidacy but we aren’t waiting for that. Our primary research tasks focus on his tenure as CIA Director and Secretary of State – his hiring decisions, budget decisions, records of his travel and meeting schedule, as well as his continued participation in GOP politics. To the extent that Pompeo has shaped State Dept. policy decisions, grant-making and consulting contracts under the influence of the right-wing evangelical political movement – we’ll dig into lobbying disclosures to identify who has lobbied Pompeo and to confirm that everyone who was paid to lobbied Pompeo on policy issues has actually lobbied. (Our hunch is that some of this reporting has been lax). To the extent that PACs, tax-exempt non-profits and political consultants have ties to Pompeo, we’ll investigate their finances and leadership to determine whether they’ve received taxpayer funds during Pompeo’s tenure as Secretary of State.

Pompeo’s role in the unfolding Ukraine/impeachment scandal could impact the race but our initial research efforts will be focused elsewhere. It’s entirely possible that Ukraine- gate is one of several DC swamp scandals that Pompeo is part of – but we won’t know unless we dig.

The likely Democratic opponent: State Senator Barbara Bollier – a moderate who was a lifelong Republican and Republican office-holder until leaving the GOP in December 2018 and joining the Democrats’ Minority Caucus. (Two other GOP state legislators, both women, also left to join the Democrats that same month.) Senator Bollier’s record as a moderate and former Republican helps put this seat in play – even in a Presidential election year where Trump is expected to easily carry Kansas. Former Governor and

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ endorsement of Bollier has strengthened Bollier’s position as the front-runner in the Democratic primary.

[TARGET: LINDSEY GRAHAM]

South Carolina

Our first research assignment is a deep dive into how (and where) Senator Lindsey Graham has spent his time over the last six years. He ran for President in 2015-2016 and he’s a regular on the TV political circuit. How much time has he spent in South Carolina vs. Washington, D.C. and elsewhere? And when the Senator is in South Carolina where does he spend his time? Campaign finance Over the last four years, Lindsey has hired at least FIFTEEN media consultants. Maybe he should become one? records, press releases, congressional travel and staffing records, congressional office expense records, social media – we’ll be drawing from the full range of resources to piece together Senator Graham’s calendar – and with it, his true priorities.

Lindsey Graham has never been a popular figure statewide. In 2014, Graham was re- elected to a third term with 55% of the vote – but on that exact same ballot, Tim Scott won the special election for South Carolina’s other Senate seat with 61% of the vote. Several Democrats with political experience have already announced their candidacies. Our posture here is that we are essentially calling Lindsey Graham’s bluff – we don’t think he is as strong as the “R” by his name.

This race is currently rated as a “Safe Republican” seat. However, let’s remember that at this point in the 2018 cycle, there were conservative members of Congress representing Republican strongholds like Mimi Walters and Dana Rohrabacher who were also considered “Safe Republicans.”

But with a lot of work and sustained focus we helped to send them packing. Shying away from taking the fight to “safe Republicans” simply becomes a self-fulfilling 7 prophecy. Further, even if we are unsuccessful in defeating Senator Graham, we will achieve an important tactical victory if we can force Graham and his GOP allies to spend millions of dollars that would have otherwise gone to other races, and especially if Graham comes under enough pressure that President Trump has to divert his campaign trail for a South Carolina rally (as every hour Trump spends in South Carolina is an hour he could have spent in Wisconsin).

[TARGET: MITCH McCONNELL]

Kentucky

It’s been reported that Mitch McConnell’s approval rating in Kentucky has dipped as low as 16%. It’s not quite that bad – it’s 23% (unfavorable: 48%). But even as Kentuckians recently chucked their unpopular Republican Governor, Matt Bevin, Mitch McConnell is still a strong favorite for re- election. The good news is that there is still enough time for this to change – and Democrats have a In 1967, Kentucky Senator John Cooper sought an accelerated military discharge for his former employee, Mitch McConnell – star candidate in Marine claiming McConnell was heading to NYU Law School – but this fighter pilot Amy McGrath was untrue. Who lied? And who would McConnell be today had he (who, in 2018, gained actually spent that year in Greenwich Village (pictured above)? campaign experience and exposure in her narrow loss to GOP Congressman Andy Barr in Kentucky’s Lexington-area 6th District).

Given the level of resources that will be devoted to this race our research efforts here are going to be surgical. At the top of our list: sorting out Mitch McConnell’s educational and military record - including a wire that then-Senator John Cooper wrote to a commander at Fort Knox to get young Mitch McConnell an accelerated discharge so that he could enroll in NYU Law School. McConnell was, at this point in 1967, heading into his third year of law school at the University of Kentucky and, although he did get that accelerated discharge from the military, he never showed up as a transfer student at NYU Law. Fortunately, American universities (like the American military) keep pretty good records – and if McConnell actually was planning to enroll in NYU – it won’t be hard to prove.

It’s hard to imagine that at such a young age, Mitch McConnell was already having U.S. Senators tell bold-faced lies on his behalf. Besides, if it’s a crime to furnish false information to the U.S. military, wouldn’t it be a double-crime to furnish false information to a sitting Senator so that he unwittingly passes it on to the U.S. military? And hasn’t McConnell exploited and supported politically-motivated attacks on other politicians’ Vietnam draft / service records?

Also on our early agenda: a comprehensive look at the overseas business empire of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s family (Chao is McConnell’s current and second wife). We are also tracking down video of McConnell earlier in his political career when he was a middle-aged moderate – decrying the kind of politician that he has now become.

Also: a deep dive into Kentucky’s VA facilities – because if Mitch McConnell is the most powerful (or second-most powerful) Republican in Washington, this should surely be reflected in the care McConnell has secured for the veterans of his state.

Also: Mitch McConnell and the opioid epidemic. What did he know? When did he know it? How long did it take him to say the word opioid in public? How often has he visited the most ravaged parts of the state? And how much Big Pharma cash has he taken along the way?

2020 HOUSE RACES

After 2018’s historic gains, Democrats hold a 233-197 advantage over the Republicans - with one independent, former Republican Justin Amash of Michigan, and four vacancies.

States included in this cohort: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas

[TARGET: DAVID SCHWEIKERT]

Phoenix suburbs, Arizona 6th District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and a key Senate race!

Schweikert was one of our targets in 2018 and he is back on the list for 2020 (Indeed, we never stopped researching him). The House Ethics Committee is formally

9 investigating Schweikert for misspending official funds (i.e., taxpayer dollars) and taking illegal campaign contributions. When these issues first surfaced in late 2017 and early 2018, Schweikert claimed that the errors were simply “clerical” in nature and put the blame squarely on his (now former) Chief of Staff, Oliver Schwab.

The duration of the investigation – and the fact that Congressman Schweikert’s team has spent well over $100k in related legal fees – belie the non-“clerical” and extremely serious nature of these allegations.

The Democratic field of challengers lining up to take on Schweikert is stronger than in 2018. While this is a traditionally Republican district (Schweikert was re-elected in 2018 with 55% of the vote, down from 62% in 2016), Arizona’s hard-fought Senate race and status as a genuine Presidential “swing state” may accelerate this suburban district’s shift away from the GOP. After all, Trump only carried 52% of the vote in 2016, compared to Romney’s 60% in 2012.

Our research effort into Schweikert will leave no stone unturned. From filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for his Congressional office’s correspondence with federal agencies to vetting each and every financial / accounting record from his Congressional office, Congressional campaign, leadership PAC, legal defense fund … we have a lot of work to do here. But this is critically important because although Schweikert has not (yet) been federally indicted and although the House Ethics Committee has not (yet) issued a formal decision – the evidence that is publicly available looks pretty bad and Schweikert has remained unapologetic and steadfast in his denials. Schweikert’s strategy is working for him now but may ultimately rob Republicans of the opportunity to field an uncompromised candidate.

[TARGET: DEVIN NUNES]

Central Valley, California 22nd District

Congressman Devin Gerald Nunes is the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, a perch he’s used to defend Trump Administration misdeeds and promote conspiracy theories. But the Congressman may now have landed himself in legal hot water over allegations that he used taxpayer-paid trips to Europe to gin up false accusations and investigations into Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian company, Burisma, with which he was affiliated. (By the way, there is zero evidence of any illegal activity on the part of Burisma or Hunter Biden).

Our theory on Congressman Nunes is that he fails to distinguish between campaign activity and the people’s business and has spent too much time playing politics and far too little time on the bread-and-butter issues that matter most to the voters in his District.

We are going to scrutinize his Congressional office and travel records, the records of who he has hired and their qualifications, as well as submit FOIA requests for his correspondence with various federal agencies.

But beyond this, given the Congressman’s penchant for interrogation and investigation, we have no qualms about scrutinizing the entirety of his public adult life. His family’s dairy farm and other local business interests are also fair game. Aspects of Nunes’ record that haven’t received rigorous public scrutiny also include Nunes’ abbreviated career as a USDA rural development office director – any special favors he did for powerful interests and any critical projects he left undone when he abandoned this political patronage post in order to run for Congress.

Nunes (not Nuñez) is of Portuguese-Azorean descent in a district that is almost 50% Latino and Nunes’ likely Democratic challenger, Phil Arballo, is Latino (unlike in 2018). The pollsters currently rate this as a “Safe Republican” district but Nunes’ margins of victory have steadily fallen from 72% in 2014 to 68% in 2016 – down to 53% (!) in 2018.

[TARGET: VERN BUCHANAN]

Sarasota, Florida 16th District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and key state legislative races!

In 2018, Rep. Buchanan was re-elected with 54.6% of the vote. Next year, Buchanan faces State Rep. Margaret Good (who, incidentally, defeated Congressman’s Buchanan’s son to win that Florida State House seat in a special election). Buchanan benefits from a multi-million dollar fortune that he can tap as well as the GOP partisan lean of the district. But Buchanan has consistently staked out positions in Washington that are well to the right of the average voters in his district and State Rep. Good will be the most effective political campaigner Buchanan has faced (and probably the best- funded challenger he has faced as well).

Our research into Rep. Buchanan begins with his personal finances and business record and after that, we will do a deep dive into his record on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Back in 2012, the Justice Department opened an investigation into Buchanan’s campaign finances that dragged until 2016 – ultimately no charges were filed. We will be closely scrutinizing the financial records for Buchanan’s campaign and his Congressional office (as well as looking back at the campaign records for his son’s unsuccessful state legislative race in 2018).

[TARGET: ROSS SPANO}

Tampa suburbs, Florida 15th District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and key state legislative races!

Congressman Ross Spano was first elected to the House in 2018. It didn’t take him very long to get into trouble: in November 2019, the Justice Department announced that Rep. Spano is under criminal investigation for alleged campaign finance violations. (Because the DOJ is investigating Rep. Spano, the House Ethics Committee has agreed to hold off on their own investigation.) It is alleged that Spano accepted $180,000 in loans from friends – then spent it on his campaign as if it were his own money.

Our research efforts begin with Spano’s personal and campaign finances stretching back to his days in the Florida state legislature and his network of close friends and fundraisers.

Spano insists that he has already repaid the loans and that any mistakes that he made were unintentional. That said, Spano is an attorney who served on the Judiciary Committee of the Florida State House – this makes his claims less credible. The District is reliably Republican but Spano only took 53% of the vote in 2018, following a bruising GOP primary where he only took 44% of the vote. Our hunch is that there’s more to Ross Spano than this one scandal.

[TARGETS: IRINA VILARIÑO & MARIA SALAZAR]

Miami / Dade County, Florida 26th and 27th Districts

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and key state legislative races!

Heading into November 2018, the Miami-Dade area was represented in Congress by three Cuban-American Republicans. Today, Congressman Diaz-Balart (FL-25) is the only one of the three still in office. In the 26th District, Congressman Carlos Curbelo was defeated by Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (who was born and raised in Ecuador). In the 27th District, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was replaced by Democrat Donna Shalala whose family is of Lebanese descent.

Congresswoman Mucarsel-Powell’s likely challenger is Irina Vilariño whose campaign pitch hearkens back to Miami’s long-time anti-Castro politics: “My grandparents emigrated to Cuba from Spain to escape socialism. My parents came to the United States from Cuba to escape communism.” Vilariño’s family owns a chain of restaurants: her business record (restaurant tax records, health inspection records, employment records) and history of political activity are our initial research priorities.

Congresswoman Shalala is likely facing a rematch against Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban-American journalist who has local name recognition from her years as a Spanish-language journalist on Telemundo. Salazar’s 2018 campaign made much of the fact that Shalala doesn’t speak Spanish and although Clinton carried this district by double digits in 2016, Shalala squeaked by with 52% of the vote. Our focus on Salazar begins with her efforts to simultaneously criticize Donald Trump and the GOP … while eagerly accepting their financial support, strategic advice and talking points.

[TARGETS: KAREN HANDEL & BRANDON BEACH]

Atlanta suburbs, Georgia 6th District

In 2018, Democrat Lucy McBath, “a former flight attendant who was motivated to run for office after her son was killed in an act of gun violence,” was elected to Congress with 50.5% of the vote over Republican Karen Handel. (In 2017, Karen Handel won this seat in a special election against Democrat Jon Ossoff.) Handel is running for a re-match and this seat, once held by Newt Gingrich, is the kind of race that Democrats will need to win (and not take for granted) in order to maintain the current House majority.

The GOP primary is crowded: Former Rep. Handel is probably the front-runner right now but State Senator Brandon Beach is a potential threat. Handel needs to win 35% in the primary – otherwise, the top two finishers head to a run-off election. Our strategic goal is to maximize the chances of a run-off by finding and releasing accurate and critical information about both Handel and Beach. A GOP primary run-off forces them to exhaust their financial resources. A run-off also delays the point at which the GOP nominee can focus on the electorate as a whole and if a spirited primary and run-off

13 creates deep rifts among the District’s GOP fundraisers and activists, there may not be enough time for them to bridge those differences and attack McBath.

[TARGETS: SUE REZIN & TED GRADEL]

Chicago suburbs, Illinois 14th District

In 2018, Democrat Lauren Underwood, an African- American nurse who worked in the Obama Administration, defeated GOP incumbent Rep. Randy Hultgren, taking 52.5% of the vote. Republicans are already lining up eager to reclaim this traditionally- Republican seat.

Illinois State Senator Sue Rezin has been in the Illinois legislature since 2010 and has amassed a far-right voting record. Last year, she voted against establishing an age limit to buy semi-automatic & assault-style weapons and was endorsed by both the NRA and the Illinois State Rifle Association.

Ted Gradel was a field goal kicker for Notre Dame and leaned into this part of his biography by having former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz narrate his campaign announcement video. Although he’s cast himself as a political outsider, Gradel was able to quickly raise over $500,000 in campaign contributions and has been named part of the GOP’s “Young Guns” program.

This is Gradel’s first run for political office and State Sen. Rezin is relatively unknown to the majority of voters in the Congressional District (the Congressional district is much larger than Rezin’s state senate district). On his campaign website, Gradel describes himself as a self-made businessman who achieved success without any connections or help along the way. He doesn’t mention that he’s actually a commodities futures trader or that he also holds a 33% ownership stake in a Florida-based stem cell clinic being investigated by the FDA for harming its patients. On her campaign website, Rezin doesn’t mention her previous endorsements from the NRA but does push false claims about Rep. Underwood’s voting record in Congress.

Our goal in rigorously vetting both of these candidates early is to insure that they aren’t able to pull the wool over voters’ eyes and misrepresent themselves as someone other than who they really are. We’ve just started researching these two and we’re already finding a great deal that Gradel and Rezin would prefer to keep hidden from the voters.

[TARGET: ASHLEY HINSON]

Cedar Rapids / Dubuque, Iowa 1st District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and a key Senate race!

Iowa’s 1st Congressional District is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Abby Finkenauer who defeated Republican incumbent Rod Blum in 2018 with 51% of the vote. State Representative and former news anchor Ashley Hinson is among the Republicans angling to recapture this seat for the GOP. In 2016, Trump carried this District with 48% of the vote (in 2012, Obama took it with 56% of the vote).

Our efforts begin with combing through Hinson’s voting record in the Iowa State House and tracking down transcripts and video for her floor speeches. We will also get a comprehensive understanding of her non-political career including all of her media work. Accessing these records can be expensive and time-consuming and that’s part of why we are starting on this one early).

[TARGETS: MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS, CHRIS COURNOYER & ROBY SMITH]

Davenport / Iowa City, Iowa 2nd District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and a key Senate race!

Democratic Congressman Dave Loebsack is retiring in 2020. The GOP has already put this open seat at the top of their list of pick-up opportunities. Our strategy for this District is simply to fact-check and correct the record during the Republican primary. All three of these Republican candidates have an actual record that we can point to (votes cast in the state legislature, campaign contributions from special interests, etc.).

Dr. Miller-Meeks is a medical doctor now running for Congress for either the fourth or fifth time. This time around she has the endorsement of Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. Cournoyer is relatively new to politics – she was first elected to the State Senate in 2018. Roby Smith has served in the State Senate since being elected in 2010 (after running unsuccessfully in 2006). 15

First order of business will be for us to gather up everything these individuals have said on their previous campaigns – especially Miller-Meeks because homegirl has some howlers. For example, during her 2008 Congressional run, Dr. Miller-Meeks stated: “Abortion should not be the primary method of birth control” – puzzling most voters but incensing the anti-abortion flank of her party. She was promptly accused (by her fellow Republicans!) of having performed abortions – falsely it seems. In previous campaigns, she has also argued for cutting current Social Security benefits to retirees – which has gone over better with local GOP activists although it must be said: even Donald Trump knows better than to run a campaign on slashing Social Security.

Like some of the other races we are targeting early, this is one where we’ll be monitoring (and sometimes shaping) the progress of a contested GOP primary in real- time.

[TARGET: DAVID YOUNG]

Des Moines, Iowa 3rd District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and a key Senate race!

Former Congressman David Young is running for rematch against Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne, who beat him in 2018 taking 49.3% of the vote. Our research efforts begin with identifying how the former Congressman has spent his time since being booted from office (including research into any income he has earned). This was not a race that we focused on in 2018, so we will need to get up to speed quickly on how Young’s rhetoric may have shifted towards the end of the 2018 election – or to put it bluntly: whether he got desperate towards the end and began telling lies that, with the benefit of time, we are now in a position to debunk. While he was in Congress, Rep. Young earned a reputation as a right-wing hardliner and the activists and potential extremists surrounding Young’s comeback campaign will merit early focus as well.

Why We Aren’t Focused On Rep. Steve King (IA-04, Sioux City, Ames) Right now, our assumption is that Rep. Steve King is going to lose the GOP Primary: his Republican colleagues in the House have stripped him of his Committee positions (which is salient as he used to sit on the Agriculture Committee) and at least one of his primary challengers has drastically outraised him in campaign donations.

If he wins his June 2020 primary, we will certainly add him to our list of targets but in the meantime, we have enough research in Iowa to keep us busy. Also, we are keen to avoid dropping oppo on the Congressman’s Republican challengers right now because Rep. King is so patently unfit for office.

Some would say that the best strategy would be to undermine Rep. King’s GOP challengers in the hopes of insuring that King is on the ballot again in November – but this is cynical. The best thing for the 4th District and for our country is for Steve King to be separated from political power as quickly as possible.

Also, we don’t want to short-circuit the Iowa GOP’s accounting for King’s heretofore success in electoral politics. He has been in elected office since 1996 – and has had the same poisonous views all along but it literally took 25 years for Republicans to unequivocally condemn and punish him. We will be paying close attention to how King’s opponents talk about or around his bigotry – and how 4th District GOP voters respond – because this is an opportunity to find out what they really think! So while we won’t be doing oppo research, we will be paying close attention.

[TARGET: AMANDA ATKINS]

Kansas City metro area, Kansas 3rd District

In 2018, Democrat Sharice Davids defeated the incumbent Republican Congressman, Kevin Yoder, taking 53.6% of the vote. A Cornell Law grad and member of the Ho- Chunk Nation, Rep. Davids is also the first openly LGBT person to represent Kansas in Congress. In November, Congresswoman Davids will likely face Republican lobbyist and political operative Amanda Atkins. Our research begins with Atkins’ statements and tactics as former head of the Kansas GOP and her working relationship with (the extremely unpopular) recent Governor Sam Brownback.

We’ll also scrutinize Atkins’ record as a registered lobbyist and track down the work she did as a health care policy analyst earlier in her political career at various right-wing think tanks. Our hunch is that Atkins’ politics are well to the right of this district. We also think there’s probably some lobbying work or political deal-making on health care issues like prescription drug prices, rural hospital solvency and insurance coverage for pre- existing conditions that – if made known to most voters will disqualify Atkins in their eyes.

Unfortunately, Atkins is politically-savvy enough to successfully airbrush away her political past better than most. She will also have the campaign dollars and GOP establishment support to help make her version of reality stick. Therefore, we are going in early and, in anticipation of their lies, we are going to master Atkins’ entire public record to prevent them from successfully rebranding right-wing extremism as commonsense conservativism.

This is a traditionally Republican district that has, like other well-educated suburban districts across the country, shifted against Trump and towards Democratic candidates. In 2012, Romney won this district with 54% but Clinton edged Trump 47%-46% in 2016.

This race is going to require more work than the average race but it’s important that we “show up” as allies for Rep. Davids and it’s critical that we prevent an experienced right- wing operative (and corporate lobbyist to boot!) from sliding into Congress.

[TARGETS: NICHI FARNHAM & ERIC BRAKEY]

Bangor / Lewiston, Maine 2nd District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and a key Senate race, as well as key state legislative races!

In 2018, Democrat Jared Golden carried this district, narrowly defeating the Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin. Former State Senators Nichi Farnham and Eric Brakey are the leading GOP candidates. Farnham was Mayor of Bangor and then represented a Bangor- area State Senate District from 2010 to 2012 – then was defeated in her 2012 reelection bid.

Eric Brakey served in In one YouTube video, Eric Brakey clowns around, dancing the “Harlem Shake” in his underwear (left). On his campaign website Maine’s State Senate from (right) and social media, Eric Brakey has found his shirt and pants 2014 to 2018. In 2018, but his rhetoric is as cringe-worthy has his dancing. Brakey gave up his State Senate seat and unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate (against Sen. Angus King).

Both of these challengers have name recognition from previous campaigns and a substantive record for us to dig into – our research will focus first on gathering everything we can related to Farnham and Brakey’s previous runs for office, including candidate questionnaires, endorsements, videos from 2010 Tea Party rallies, archived text they have since removed from their campaign websites, Brakey’s very active social media presence, etc.

Once we have a solid sense of how Farnham and Brakey have portrayed themselves to the voting public, we will then look at their record in office (for Farnham this includes her record as Bangor Mayor, Bangor City Council Member, Bangor School Committee Member and Maine State Board of Education Member).

Although Obama carried this district 53%-44% over Romney in 2012, Trump beat Clinton 51%-41% in 2016 (Gary Johnson took 6%). Both Farnham and Brakey have shown poor judgment – Farnham exited the State Senate amidst a campaign finance scandal back in 2012 and in November 2019, Brakey doubled-down on his take-no- prisoners social media persona by announcing an AR-15 giveaway on Twitter. Yes, for a $1 contribution to Brakey’s campaign, everyone on Twitter who saw and responded to Brakey’s message was entered into a raffle to win a brand new AR-15. But hey, at least he’s wearing his clothes. Progress!

[TARGET: NIKKI SNYDER]

Detroit area / Lansing, Michigan 8th District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales in both the Presidential and a key Senate race!

In 2018, the voters of Michigan’s 8th sent Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense, Elissa Slotkin, to Congress and sent the Republican incumbent packing. The district tilts Republican: even in 2018’s historic “blue wave,” Slotkin only carried 51% of the vote – more than enough votes to win but not enough electoral support to scare off strong 2020 challenges from the right.

Mike Bishop, the right-winger who Congresswoman Slotkin defeated, may want a rematch – but our focus right now is on Republican Nikki Snyder. Snyder is a mother of three, registered nurse and disabilities advocate elected to the State Education Board in 2016. She doesn’t live in the 8th District (but did in the past) which suggests to us that she has been recruited by the Michigan GOP to run for this seat. (On that note, she doesn’t appear to be related to ex-Governor Snyder.) We are – as always going to be fair and careful – our initial research efforts are focused less on Snyder and more on the GOP operatives who are working on Snyder’s behalf (and whether Snyder is willing to disavow their efforts and/or policy positions).

Substantively, there appears to be a serious contradiction between some of Snyder’s health care and education policy goals and values and her rhetoric on fiscal and tax issues. We are going to dig into her record on the Education Board to see if we can gain a better sense of her views.

[TARGET: MICHELLE FISCHBACH]

Western Minnesota 7th District

Fiction: The Handmaid’s Tale portrays a dystopia where women have lost reproductive freedom.

Fact: If elected, Michelle Fischbach will be the most anti-choice Member of Congress, seeking to ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest and make it extremely difficult to access abortion even in instances when a woman’s life is at risk.

Democratic Congressman Collin Peterson has held this seat since 1990 and is currently the Chair of the Agriculture Committee. He is a “Blue Dog” Democrat with a bipartisan reputation in a district that has steadily trended towards the GOP on the national level (Romney took 54% in 2012, Trump took 61% in 2016). Peterson hasn’t announced his re-election vs. retirement decision yet. If Peterson does run, Fischbach will give him one of his toughest races yet.

Fischbach isn’t from this district but has name recognition as the former Lieutenant Governor. Part of the Minnesota GOP establishment in her own right, Fischbach’s also married to it: her husband, Scott Fischbach, is the head of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (the largest and arguably most effective anti-choice organization in the state).

Michelle Fischbach is opposed to any taxpayer funds being used to make birth control more accessible. She thinks your pharmacist has a “right” to decide whether to fill your birth control prescription based on his personal religious beliefs or moral opinions. Fischbach says that even in cases of rape or incest, abortions should be illegal. In a candidate questionnaire, Fischbach said she would only make abortion legal “when the life of the woman is endangered.” 20

For the voters in the 7th district, this election carries the real risk of replacing a “kitchen table” issues pragmatist with a hardcore ideological firebrand. For the rest of America, this race carries the risk of Fischbach bringing her radical right politics to Washington and swiftly moving up the political ladder into House leadership or a Senate seat.

There are other Republican candidates in this race but our priority is on Fischbach and digging into her history of extremist rhetoric, her political support for political extremists, aggressive campaign finance tactics and reliance on tax-exempt non-profits for political support. We will also assess Fischbach’s level of awareness and passion (or lack thereof) for agricultural and rural issues back when she was a state legislator representing wealthy suburban St. Cloud, Minnesota, a few hours drive away.

[TARGET: KATE GIBBS]

Burlington & Ocean Counties, New Jersey 3rd District

In 2018, Democrat Andy Kim ousted Republican Congressman Tom MacArthur to claim this swing district with 50.0% of the vote. It was a hard-fought campaign dominated by health care issues among an electorate that went for Obama by 52% in 2012 before giving Trump 51% of the vote in 2016. It’s no surprise, then, that the GOP and various right-wing organizations quickly targeted this seat as one of their top pick-up opportunities.

Some analysts note that a GOP path to victory requires running up the margin among older white voters in Ocean County (as a demographic, they didn’t warm to Andy in 2018).

There will be lots of resources thrown at this race including opposition research – probably millions of dollars spent on both sides. The only research projects we are planning here are deep dives into likely GOP challenger Kate Gibbs’ record in local office. What is her policy record on aging issues? How did her Burlington County policy proposals impact Ocean County, if at all?

In 2018, Gibbs was defeated in her bid for re-election as Burlington County Freeholder – given the expensive media markets in this area, we are also going to do a deep dive into Gibbs’ campaign finance records (former and current) as well as the records for the Burlington County Freeholders’ use of taxpayer funds on media, PR and outreach while Gibbs was campaigning for re-election.

Once a GOP stronghold, Burlington County replaced their last remaining GOP Freeholders with Democrats in 2019. On a practical note, it will be easier for us to get records from Gibbs’ tenure since both she and the Republicans who served alongside her have all been booted out of office.

[TARGETS: YVETTE HERRELL & CLAIRE CHASE]

Las Cruces / Roswell, New Mexico 2nd District

In 2018, this mostly-rural district narrowly elected Congresswoman Xochitl Torres Small over former State Rep. Yvette Herrell with Torres Small taking 50.9% of the vote. In 2016, Trump took 50% of the vote (compared to 40% for Clinton and 8% for Gary Johnson) and the district leans Republican. This race is considered a “toss up” and we are anticipating that after the GOP primary in June, both parties and a host of outside groups will spend significantly. At that point, our ability to shape the narrative here will be limited.

However, we have valuable work to do between now and the GOP June 2nd primary: divide and conquer. Claire Chase is an oil lobbyist (but in rural New Mexico, this isn’t considered a pejorative) and a GOP establishment type (pejorative) who used to condemn Donald Trump (with expletives on Facebook) but now claims he’s alright in her book. Our hunch is that this ain’t her first bald-faced lie.

State Rep. Herrell, on the other hand, speaks truth to power – her truth, anyway. She earned a reputation as a far-right legislator who took the fight to so-called moderate Republicans (plenty of whom are actually quite conservative – just not as far to the right as Herrell). But she’s also eager to take the fight to Torres Small and announced that she was running again as soon as the 2018 race was over and it was official that she’d lost. In a way, her announcement that she wanted a rematch was her concession speech.

Both Herrell and Chase have raised enough money to be viable candidates but who will win the primary? Will it be Yvette, the sincere extremist, or Claire, the disingenuous careerist? Our research will focus on playing fact-checker over the course of the GOP primary and stirring up the truth with the goal of encouraging GOP debate, GOP dissension and GOP depletion of resources.

[TARGETS: NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS & JOE CALDARERA]

Staten Island / South Brooklyn, New York 11th District

In November 2018, Democrat Max Rose thrashed GOP incumbent Dan “Safe Republican” Donovan, taking 53% of the vote.

We presume that when they asked “Safe Republican” Dan if he was up for a rematch, words failed but the look on his face said it all.

Nicole Malliotakis is in the state Assembly and recently ran for New York City mayor. Joe Caldarera has just moved back to Staten Island (where he grew up) and was as an assistant prosecutor in Brooklyn. Our first research tasks including vetting their social media and history of public remarks, assessing Caldarera’s record as a prosecutor and Malliotakis’ record in the state legislature.

Malliotakis’ campaign finance and staffing decisions are also a focus and wow this is going to be a wild one. In October 2019, her Community Affairs Director was indicted as part of a mob-linked scheme to rig college basketball games by bribing the players. (Is there nothing sacred to these people?). There are 20 individuals in the federal indictment, including Colombo family “mob boss” Joseph Amato. A few weeks later, in November 2019, Malliotakis announced a fundraiser hosted by “ex-mob wife,” Sandra Corda Sciano. (She’s the ex-wife of Mr. Carmine Schiandra of the Gambino crime family.) Our hunch is that Malliotakis’ 2017 NYC mayoral campaign didn’t receive much scrutiny because Democrat Bill DeBlasio’s victory was considered a foregone conclusion. We will be checking all of her receipts and who knows what we’ll find.

[TARGET: ELISE STEFANIK]

Watertown, Northern New York 21st District

First elected to Congress in 2014 as a 30-year-old, Rep. Stefanik has been groomed by the GOP establishment as one of their young stars. In 2018, Stefanik cruised to victory in this traditionally-Republican district with 56% of the vote but 2020 could be different. On the House Intelligence Committee, Stefanik has taken a prominent role in defending Trump’s abuse of power.

While Stefanik’s star turn in L’Affaire Ukraine garnered praise from Fox News, it prompted a swift backlash: Stefanik’s likely Democratic challenger, Tedra Cobb, raised

23 over $1 million over a single weekend. Cobb is seeking a rematch and will certainly now have more resources than she did in 2018.

Our research into Rep. Stefanik begins with her history as a GOP operative before entering Congress, her Committee work, and cataloguing the many promises she has made to her constituents (especially on economic development issues) over the last six years.

Additionally, Stefanik has taken tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from Betsy DeVos and her family – all while sitting on the House Committee with oversight responsibilities for the Dept. of Education. We’ll be submitting FOIA requests for Stefanik’s correspondence with DeVos’ office and scrutinizing the flow of federal education dollars to Stefanik’s district.

[TARGET: STEFANIE SALAVANTIS]

Scranton, Pennsylvania 8th District

Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright has represented this area since 2012 and was re- elected with 55% of the vote in 2018. Trump carried this electorate by ten points in 2016 and in terms of voter party ID, this is a slightly Republican district. As this point our only research task is to dig into the prosecutorial record of Republican Stefanie Salavantis, Luzerne County Prosecutor. She has not announced her candidacy but there are news reports that various Republican party bigwigs are hoping to draft her into the race.

[TARGET: BETH VAN DUYNE]

Ft. Worth suburbs, Texas 24th District

The Republican incumbent, Kenny Marchant, is retiring (part of the “Texodus”). Marchant was re-elected in 2018 with only 50.6% of the vote and was facing another difficult election in 2020. Beth Van Duyne is the leading GOP candidate in a race that is a prime pick-up opportunity for the Democrats. She served as Mayor of Irving, Texas from 2011 to 2017 and joined the Trump Administration in May 2017. Our research efforts begin with Van Duyne’s work serving as a Regional Administrator under Donald Trump’s controversial and scandal-prone HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

[TARGET: WESLEY HUNT]

West Houston and suburbs, Texas 7th District

In 2018, Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher unseated Republican incumbent John Culberson, winning 52.5% of the vote. This was one of several suburban districts across the country that flipped from supporting Romney in 2012 to supporting Clinton in 2016

24 and then extended the trend in 2018 by replacing incumbent Republican members of Congress with Democrats. Wesley Hunt, an African-American Republican seeking to challenge Fletcher, is an Iraq veteran and mortgage businessman who hasn’t previously run for office. Our initial research efforts will focus on Hunt’s work as a mortgage loan originator and his company’s regulatory record. What’s his history of political engagement? How was he recruited to run for this office? We’ll seek answers to questions like these as well.

State Legislatures

Florida State Senate In Florida, Republicans hold the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature, including a 23-17 majority in the State Senate. Of the 40 seats in the State Senate, only 20 are on the ballot in 2020 and these 20 happen to be split 10-10 between Republicans and Democrats. Can Democrats take a majority in the State Senate? It’s possible and requires holding those 10 currently Democratic seats plus picking up 4 of the 10 Republican seats. Florida sets an eight-year limit on state legislators’ terms in office, after which, they have to wait at least two years before serving again in that chamber. This dynamic has created a number of open seats for us to pursue.

Winning the State Senate would give Democrats a seat at the table when Florida redistricts following the 2020 census – all the more important as Florida is projected to gain two Congressional seats. Our target list will expand – we’ll have targets in the Florida State House (and other state legislatures) to announce soon – these are only the first four:

[TARGET: JASON BRODEUR]

Orlando area, Florida 9th Senate District

After sitting in the State House from 2010-2018, Jason Brodeur is now running for the State Senate. Brodeur’s old State House district sits within this State Senate district but it’s not a GOP stronghold. (The Republican who ran to replace Brodeur in 2018 won with only 51.3% of the vote.) Additionally, this State Senate district mostly sits within the 7th Congressional District which is currently represented by Democrat Rep. Stephanie Murphy.

We will be digging deep into Brodeur’s eight years in Tallahassee and connecting the dots between his official actions and the over $2,000,000 (!) in campaign contributions that Brodeur has gobbled up. And on that note, we do well to ask how the heck Brodeur has been spending it – particularly in the years when he didn’t have a serious election challenge. Brodeur’s strategy, as described by Florida Politics, is to quickly raise as much money as possible in order to “make the seat a hard sell to potential Democratic challengers.” As Brodeur has over $450,000 in campaign cash with another $500,000 in 25 a PAC, our efforts will help right the balance. The money he sees as an asset can become a liability – with your help! This State Senate seat is currently held by a term- limited Republican and is a Democratic pick-up opportunity.

[TARGET: JIM BOYD]

Tampa area, Florida 21st District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales for the Presidency, a key Congressional race, and another state legislative race!

Former State Rep. Jim Boyd has the backing of the GOP establishment and he’s cleared the GOP primary field. He’s also positioned to drastically outraise his likely Democratic opponent: high school teacher and mother of three, Amanda Linton.

Boyd made millions as an insurance salesman and he comes from a political family (one grandfather sat in the Florida House and an uncle sat in both the Florida House and Senate). This district leans Republican and sits within the 16th Congressional District (currently represented by Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan) – but is by no means a sure win for the GOP. Our work starts by digging into Boyd’s political and business record. This State Senate seat is currently held by a term-limited Republican and is a Democratic pick-up opportunity – but will require a lot of work.

[TARGET: ANA MARIA RODRIGUEZ]

Miami area, Florida 39th District

µ Be smart, be strategic! These swing voters will also tip the scales for the Presidency, a key Congressional race, and another state legislative race!

Republican Ana Maria Rodriguez was just elected to the State House in 2018, taking 50.4% of the vote over Democrat Javier Estevez. Now, she’s jumping at the opportunity to run for the State Senate seat being vacated by Anitere Flores, the term-limited Deputy Majority Republican Leader.

This state senate district sits within the 26th Congressional District (currently represented by Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell who defeated Rep. Carlos Curbelo in 2018). Democratic State Rep. Javier E. Fernandez, who was also just elected to the State House in 2018, is running for this seat and both he and Rodriguez have cleared the field as far as primary challenges. This is an ideal Democratic pick-up opportunity – put bluntly: if we don’t win this race, we aren’t taking the State Senate. (Spoiler alert: We will also be targeting the State House seats that Rodriguez and Fernandez are giving up in order to run for the State Senate.)

[TARGET: RAY RODRIGUES]

Ft. Myers / Gulf Coast, Florida 27th District

Here again, the Republican incumbent is term-limited. State Rep. Ray “Pay to Play” Rodrigues is a former leader of the Lee County Republican Party and former Majority Leader in the Florida State House.

“Pay to Play” Ray intends to fundraise his way to an uncontested victory, as he put it: “Our hope is that we continue to be successful in fundraising, anyone who would consider running would rather find an easier race in which to engage.” Our goal is to take the fight to Rodrigues before he and his “pay to play” pals buy the election.

(Even worse, if Rodrigues succeeds in raising so much money and doesn’t draw a serious Democratic challenge – he’ll turn around and donate a hefty amount of the campaign cash he’s raised to Republicans with tight races. Indeed, promises along these lines are probably part of why he has been able to raise so much money so quickly.)

This state senate district sits within the 19th Congressional District which is currently represented by retiring GOP Congressman Francis Rooney.