Lipinski challenger squeezed by DCCC vendor policy

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— The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's vendor policy is already putting the squeeze on one of the most prominent incumbent challengers: Marie Newman, who is taking a second run at moderate Rep. Dan Lipinski in IL-03.


— A three-judge federal district court panel struck down Michigan’s congressional and state legislative maps were unconstitutional gerrymandered — but with partisan gerrymandering cases already pending at Supreme Court, it’s uncertain whether the state will have to redraw the maps before the 2020 elections.

— Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign launch Thursday came under quick scrutiny, with Anita Hill saying she "could not be satisfied" with Biden's apology for his handling of now-Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearings, and further criticism of the campaign's launch video and its Charlottesville-heavy messaging.

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Days until the NC-03 primary election: 4

Days until the NC-09 primary election: 18

Days until the Louisiana gubernatorial primary election: 169

Days until the Kentucky and Mississippi general elections: 193

Days until the 2020 election: 557

NEWMAN VS. DCCC — The DCCC's announcement that it would not do business with consultants or vendors who work for candidates challenging sitting members is already reverberating through one of the most closely watched primaries of 2020, still 11 months away. Newman told Campaign Pro’s Laura Barrón-López that a consultant dropped her campaign as recently as Wednesday due to DCCC chair Cheri Bustos' (Ill.) new enforcement of what was considered a long-unwritten rule.

“I've had four consultants leave the campaign,” Newman said. “We've now had two mail firms say that they couldn't work with us because of the DCCC issue, and then a [communications] group, a compliance group and several pollsters.” Consultants who planned to work with Newman said that the DCCC delivered the warning in the nicest terms possible — but that it was a very clear threat to their ability to do business with the DCCC.

Insurgent liberals are stepping up their criticisms of the policy. “By putting the protection of right-wing coddling incumbents ahead of our shared progressive values, the DCCC not only hurts the clarity of Democrats' messaging heading into 2020 — they risk our chances of holding the House, winning the Senate and retaking the White House," said Charles Chamberlain, chair of Democracy for America.

“The DCCC’s blacklist will have the net effect of sidelining talented consultants who want to help flip red districts blue, but also want to flip this district to being truly blue,” added Marissa Barrow, of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Progressive challengers like Marie Newman will see more of this cronyism, but the progressive grassroots will have their backs.”

Meanwhile, Bustos met with leaders of Our Revolution, the group that formed after Bernie Sanders' 2016 run, on Thursday. Our Revolution delivered a petition with 30,000 signatures asking the DCCC to end its policy, but the DCCC remains firm. “The DCCC has worked to change how Washington works, increase transparency in politics and be perfectly clear with all its partners about the standards It expects of them,” said a DCCC aide.

THE MAPS — Michigan is the latest state to have a federal court declare its election maps unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. “A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan ruled that Republicans who drew districts for Congress, state Senate and state House violated the 1st and 14th Amendment rights of Democratic voters by packing some into overwhelmingly Democratic districts, while others were ‘cracked’ into Republican-leaning districts,” POLITICO’s Steve Shepard reported. “The court struck down nine of the state’s 14 congressional districts — the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th districts — as unconstitutional gerrymanders.”

Republicans in the state legislature vowed to appeal, and the Supreme Court is already considering the issue after hearing partisan gerrymandering cases from Maryland and North Carolina last month.

PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD — The reviews for Biden's launch video? Mixed. "Some hailed it as stroke of genius that distinguished Biden from the crowded Democratic field by announcing in stark terms his intention to take the fight to [President Donald] Trump in a way no one else has dared," POLITICO's Marc Caputo and Natasha Korecki write. "Others, however, viewed it as a serious miscalculation, an exercise in stepping on his own message as the heir to Obama’s inspirational legacy."

Missing from Biden's launch? Former President Barack Obama. A spokesperson for Obama released a statement praising Biden, per POLITICO’s Caitlin Oprysko, but stopped short of endorsing his former vice president (he didn’t release statements for the rest of the 2020 field). Biden told reporters he “asked President Obama not to endorse” him (okay, sure) and a source close to Obama told Marc and Natasha that “it’s unlikely that [Obama] will throw his support behind a specific candidate this early in the primary process — preferring instead to let the candidates make their cases directly to the voters.” But Biden did pick up a bunch of congressional endorsements out of the gate, including the entirety of the Delaware congressional delegation, Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and more (check out our tracker).

Biden spoke to Anita Hill earlier this month (and 28 years after the hearing). A Biden spokesperson said “he shared with her directly his regret for what she endured and his admiration for everything she has done to change the culture around sexual harassment in this country.” But Hill left the conversation unsatisfied. “I cannot be satisfied by simply saying I’m sorry for what happened to you. I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose,” she told The New York Times.

On the fundraising front: Biden’s campaign won’t accept general election funds and isn’t taking federal lobbyists’ money or corporate PAC donations, per The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher.

"But he's still getting help from K Street in other ways," writes POLITICO's Theo Meyer. "Biden held his kickoff fundraiser at the home of a Comcast executive who, while not registered as a lobbyist, oversees the company's lobbying efforts. Stuart Eizenstat, a Washington lawyer who was registered to lobby until recently, told POLITICO he planned to advise the campaign on foreign policy. And several of Biden's former aides now work on K Street."

And some staffing news for Biden: Greg Schultz is his campaign manager and Kate Bedingfield is his deputy campaign manager and comms director, per POLITICO Playbook (which has much more of his senior staff). Symone Sanders, who was Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) lead spokesperson in 2016, is a senior adviser (Campaign Pro’s Daniel Strauss noted that Symone Sanders gave to Pete Buttigieg in March). He is also staffed up in South Carolina, per The State’s Emma Dumain.

— Where does the 2020 field stand on the big issues? POLITICO’s Beatrice Jin and Caitlin Oprysko have a handy guide on everything from marijuana to free college.

— Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is largely running a campaign on an island: She has just one full time staffer, and the rest of her campaign staff were paid as contractors, The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein and Lachlan Markay reported.

HACK ATTACK — The FBI will meet with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) soon “to discuss the agency's suspicion that Russians had hacked at least one county in Florida” in 2016, per POLITICO Florida’s Gary Fineout.

WHAT’S IN A PLEDGE? — A lot of Democrats have sworn off corporate PACs, but are still finding corporate cash somehow. “Many of the candidates on board the ‘no-corporate-PAC’ train still welcome money from cooperatives or trade associations, even if they have ties to big business,” the Center for Responsive Politics’ Camille Erickson wrote.

A NEW LOOK — The Chamber of Commerce is shifting gears from its recent trend of almost exclusively siding with GOP candidates. “We need to be more accessible and more bipartisan than we were,” Chamber board chairman Tom Wilson told The Washington Post’s James Hohmann. More from Hohmann: “Senior Chamber officials have launched a charm offensive on Capitol Hill, reaching out to freshman Democrats from swing districts whom they perceive as reasonable to set up meetings and highlight areas of common ground.”

CODA — PAC OF THE DAY: A super PAC based in Auburn, Ala., called “Coach PAC” was created this week. A request for comment to an email address associated with the PAC went unreturned … but remember that former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville is seeking the GOP Senate nomination.

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