Senate

● AL-Sen: Surprise! Donald Trump supports Roy Moore! Two weeks ago, when the Washington Post first reported about Moore's history of predatory behavior toward teenage girls, the White House issued a half-hearted statement, saying, "Like most Americans, the president does not believe we can allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person's life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside." Now Trump has tossed even that weak sauce in the trash: On Tuesday, he simply declared outright, "We don't need a liberal person in there, a Democrat"—referring, of course, to Democratic nominee Doug Jones.

When asked if he believes the many allegations against Moore, Trump said, "Roy Moore denies it. That's all I can say." Trump also asked why it took so long for Moore's accusers to come forward, insisting that "40 years is a long time." Trump also said he'll announce next week whether he'll campaign for Moore ahead of the Dec. 12 general election.

Considering, of course, that Trump is the guy who was caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women and then insisted his accusers were all lying, it would have been out of character if he didn't side with Moore. And with Trump still popular in Alabama, a state he carried by a 62-34 margin last year, it's very possible that his endorsement will boost Moore with conservatives who like Trump but have so far been skeptical of the GOP's Senate nominee.

Still, Moore beat Sen. Luther Strange 56-44 in the September primary runoff even though Strange had the White House's support, so Trump's influence is by no means unlimited. However, at a time when most national Republicans have been urging Moore to drop out of the race or have talked about expelling him from the Senate if he wins, Trump's seal of approval could give reluctant Republican voters the permission slip they've been craving to cast a ballot for Moore.

At the same time, GOP operatives seem to have closed the books on the only not-utterly-lawless idea to keep both Moore and Jones from winning this race next month. The Daily Beast reports that Republicans have given up on attempting a write-in candidacy, resigning themselves to having Moore as their nominee. In theory, this hurts Jones' chances by preventing the GOP vote from getting split, though to win, he needs the votes of plenty of anti-Moore Republicans (more on that in a moment), so this may be a wash. And while some desperate Republicans are still talking about trying to postpone the election, GOP Gov. Kay Ivey has made it clear that this won't happen. Republicans seem to have accepted that they're stuck with Moore, and at least the one who works in the Oval Office doesn't seem upset by that at all.

Jones himself is trying to win over voters who very much don't want Moore as their senator but aren't sold on a Democrat. Jones' new TV spot uses the words of prominent Republicans to argue that Moore is unfit for office, with their quotes appearing on screen while a narrator reads them aloud. The spot quotes Ivanka Trump as saying, "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children," Attorney General Jeff Sessions declaring, "I have no reason to doubt these young women," and Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby stating that he will "absolutely not vote for Roy Moore." The spot closes by emphasizing how conservative women are "doing what is right" by "putting children and women over party." Another Jones ad notes that both Shelby and Sessions voted to confirm him as U.S. attorney

Gubernatorial

● CO-Gov: Last week, Colorado Politics obtained a poll from the Democratic group Keating Research that gives ex-state Treasurer Cary Kennedy a 50-34 lead over ex-GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo in a hypothetical general election. Keating does polling for Kennedy, but they say this question was part of a survey that they do of Colorado twice a year and was not done on the campaign's behalf. Several other Democrats and Republicans are running, and it's not clear if Keating tested any other possible general election matchups.

● IA-Gov: Democratic state Rep. Chris Hall had expressed interest in running for governor back in the spring, but he never made any obvious moves toward a bid since then. Hall took his name out of contention this week when he endorsed businessman Fred Hubbell's campaign.

● MI-Gov: While attorney and businessman Andy Levin expressed interest in seeking the Democratic nod last month, he announced that he would stay out of the race this week.

House

● IL-06, TX-23: EMILY's List, which that backs pro-choice Democratic women, has taken sides in two more crowded Democratic primaries. In Illinois' 6th District, EMILY has endorsed Kelly Mazeski, a member of the Barrington Hills Planning Commission.

Three other women are running against GOP Rep. Peter Roskam in this suburban Chicago seat: 2016 nominee Amanda Howland and Carole Cheney, a former aide to neighboring Rep. Bill Foster, are both pro-choice, while Naperville Councilor Becky Anderson doesn't appear to have any content related to abortion rights on her website. At the end of September, Mazeski had more cash-on-hand than any of her primary rivals, with $343,000 in her war-chest; behind her was clean energy businessman Sean Casten, who had $169,000 in the bank. This seat flipped from 53-45 Romney to 50-43 Clinton.

Over in Texas' 23rd, EMILY has thrown its support behind Air Force veteran Gina Ortiz Jones in the primary to face GOP Rep. Will Hurd. One other pro-choice woman, former USDA official Judy Canales, is also running. At the end of September, former federal prosecutor Jay Hulings had a $189,000 to $74,000 cash-on-hand edge over Jones, while Canales had yet to file. This seat, which stretches from San Antonio west to the outskirts of El Paso, went from 51-48 Romney to 50-46 Clinton.

● MI-13: On Monday night, BuzzFeed reported that Democratic Rep. John Conyers had sexually harassed women on his staff, including engaging in unwanted touching, and had settled a complaint brought by one such staffer, who said she was fired for rejecting the congressman's advances, for $27,000. Bizarrely, Conyers at first denied everything, including the existence of any settlement, but later on Tuesday, he finally acknowledged the settlement, though he continued to dispute the allegations against him. The House Ethics Committee soon thereafter announced it would launch an investigation.

As we've seen so often in situations like these, BuzzFeed then reported that a second former staffer had accused Conyers of repeatedly harassing her and had filed a lawsuit against him but abandoned it after the court rejected her request to keep the suit under seal. The only comment a Conyers spokesperson had regarding this second set of charges was to tendentiously point out that the ex-staffer had "voluntarily decided to drop her case."

BuzzFeed's reporting offered two other disturbing revelations, first among them the fact that the hitherto confidential settlement with the first Conyers' aide was paid for with taxpayer dollars, funded by Conyers' office budget. And this incident is far from isolated. Last month, the Washington Post reported that Congress' Office of Compliance has quietly paid out over $17 million over the last 20 years to cover 264 settlements for violations of workplace rules, some unknown number of which include sexual harassment charges. As BuzzFeed explains, this secretive system has been used to cover up all manner of offenses with public funds.

But that also leads to another very troubling aspect of this story: how BuzzFeed found out about the matter in the first place. BuzzFeed's source for the documents it relied on was none other than Mike Cernovich, the racist and anti-Semitic far-right troll responsible for pushing the notorious "Pizzagate" hoax. Cernovich, it turns out, had publicly offered to pay $10,000 for these documents, though he wouldn't confirm to the Washington Post whether he had in fact paid anyone, and BuzzFeed (which didn't mention this important detail in its write-up) says it was unaware of Cernovich's offer and says it would "never pay for information."

But whether or not any money changed hands, this still means that someone in the federal government's employ is leaking secret materials to Cernovich. While this whole clandestine system needs to be blown up and abusers in Congress need to be exposed and held accountable, using Cernovich to spray disinfectant is a scary prospect, particularly since he's only likely to target one side. What's more, this could have the dangerous side effect of appearing to legitimize the irredeemable Cernovich as a reliable source in the eyes of some media organizations—an utterly revolting notion. Congress can easily forestall this by rejecting secrecy in favor of transparency, which is the only right thing to do.

Mayoral

● Atlanta, GA Mayor, GA-Gov: On Tuesday, ex-state Rep. Stacey Evans, one of the two main Democratic candidates for governor, endorsed City Councilor Keisha Lance Bottoms ahead of the Dec. 5 general election for mayor. Several other local Democrats recently backed Bottoms over independent City Councilor Mary Norwood in this officially nonpartisan race, and Evans is likely hoping that if she wins, Bottoms will back her bid for governor next year. Bottoms herself said on Tuesday that she'd endorse Evans "when the time is appropriate," adding, "I have a little race for mayor now." Ex-state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, Evans' rival in the Democratic primary, has not yet publicly taken sides.

Norwood herself picked up an endorsement from a former rival on Tuesday when City Council President Ceasar Mitchell backed her. Mitchell earned 9 percent of the vote in the crowded Nov. 7 nonpartisan primary, which was good for sixth place. Ex-City Councilor Cathy Woolard, who took third place with 17 percent, has not yet endorsed anyone, and she seems content to hold out for a while: Woolard will moderate a forum between the two finalists on Nov. 28.