Legal battle over gerrymandering moves to the states

Quick Fix

— The first test of a new path for challenging partisan gerrymanders in the judiciary after the Supreme Court’s ruling last month kicks off today: a state-court case in North Carolina over state legislative maps.

— Liberals gathered in Philadelphia at the annual Netroots Nation conference — but Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was the only major presidential candidate to attend, a sign of wariness from the other Democratic White House hopefuls.


— President Donald Trump said his ambassador to Japan, Bill Hagerty, will run for Senate in Tennessee — offering Hagerty his endorsement via a Friday afternoon tweet.

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TopLine

CHANGE OF VENUE — Just weeks after the Supreme Court said the federal judiciary can’t police partisan gerrymandering claims, Common Cause’s North Carolina branch, which lost the high court, is trying its hand in the state courts instead.

— The case centers around North Carolina’s state legislative maps, not its congressional lines, which had been thrown out by a federal court before the Supremes overruled that decision. The plaintiffs claim that the legislative map is so gerrymandered that it violates North Carolina’s state constitution — likely to be a popular gambit across the country for groups seeking to challenge voting districts they feel are stacked against one party.

— Call it the Pennsylvania Plan: While the North Carolina case centers around the state’s legislative districts, a challenge in state court to congressional districts worked for Democrats in Pennsylvania in 2018, when the state Supreme Court upheld that the map violated the commonwealth’s constitution. Because it was a state court’s interpretation of state law, the Supreme Court let it stand last year — and Chief Justice John Roberts even pointed to the case in last month’s ruling, describing other methods for addressing egregious gerrymanders without involving the federal courts.

— The North Carolina trial is expected to last nearly two weeks, according to Common Cause’s executive director in the state, Bob Phillips. The case will closely mirror earlier litigation over the congressional map, with one big exception: Plaintiffs will be able to present evidence from files that belonged to the late Tom Hofeller, who helped GOP state legislators draw maps to maximize their partisan advantage. “It’s the same players, and it’s a lot of the same evidence — except we do have the Hofeller files,” Phillips said.

— Win or lose, Phillips said, he expects the case to end up before the North Carolina state Supreme Court. North Carolina elects its state Supreme Court justices — and Democrats have a strong majority, with six justices to just one Republican.

— Republicans, who on the whole are skeptical of judicial efforts to crack down on gerrymandering, are on alert for these new state cases. Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the national finance chairman of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, sounded the alarm after the Supreme Court’s decision last month, predicting that Democratic groups will bring more state lawsuits and “double down” on flipping state supreme courts. “Now, more than ever, we need all Republicans to join us or we will find ourselves gerrymandered into perpetual minorities by liberal state supreme courts,” Walker warned.

Presidential Big Board

MEET ME ON SOUTH STREET — This weekend’s Netroots Nation conference in Philly featured the largest crowd in the confab’s 13-year history. But, as POLITICO’s Natasha Korecki and Holly Otterbein write, Warren was the only top-tier presidential candidate in attendance, as the others were wary of “the movement’s confrontational tactics and insistence on down-the-line, issue-by-issue adherence to liberal orthodoxy.”

THE ROSSLYN CAR WASH — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee became the second Democratic candidate to visit POLITICO HQ last week to discuss his campaign. Campaign Pro’s Daniel Strauss has the highlights from the interview, which featured lots of talk about how to fight climate change, Inslee’s signature issue.

— Inslee is also leaving the door open to running for a third term, Daniel writes. He told POLITICO in the interview that he hasn’t set a drop-dead date to cut the cord on his presidential bid, should it fail, and run for reelection. But he did say he’s inclined to run for governor again if that happens. “The presumption is if I was not chosen to help the country I'd maintain trying to help the state of Washington as governor,” Inslee said. A number of prominent Democrats throughout the state have been mentioned as potential candidates for the governorship, including King County Executive Dow Constantine, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and state Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz.

THE CASH DASH — Rep. Tim Ryan’s campaign raised $889,000 in the second quarter and had $335,000 in cash on hand as of June 30, according to the Ohio Democrat’s FEC filing.

POLICY PRIMARY — Former Vice President Joe Biden released a health care plan on Monday that, POLITICO Pro’s Dan Diamond writes, is “intended to preserve the most popular parts of Obamacare ... and build on them with a new government-run public insurance option.”

— New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker rolled out a proposal to address “access to long-term health care and the workers who provide such services,” POLITICO Pro’s Adriel Bettelheim writes.

Down the Ballot

THE SENATE MAP — Hagerty is running for Senate in Tennessee — according to Trump. Trump’s tweet offered a presidential endorsement — no small thing in Tennessee — and veteran GOP strategist Ward Baker will head up Hagerty’s campaign team, Campaign Pro’s James Arkin reports.

— Former New Hampshire state House Speaker Bill O’Brien, a Republican, has hired Brent Littlefield as a “strategic and media consultant” for his likely Senate bid, WMUR’s John DiStaso reported. O’Brien is reportedly planning a July 23 announcement.

DUNCAN RUNS ON ISLAMOPHOBIA — California’s top-two primary is still more than seven months away, but indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is sending more racist mailers hitting his repeat Democratic challenger, Ammar Campa-Najjar, for Campa-Najjar’s grandfather’s alleged links to the 1972 Munich Olympics terror plot, Campaign Pro’s Laura Barrón-López and Zach Montellaro report.

— Campa-Najjar addressed these claims during the 2018 race (his grandfather died before he was born, and he rejects any violent ideology), but Hunter is reprising his old playbook as part of a fundraising solicitation. Remember: Hunter’s trial on charges of misusing campaign contributions begins Sept. 10.

— Campa-Najjar raised nearly $400,000 in the second quarter, Laura reports.

FIRST IN SCORE — THE (DOWNBALLOT) CASH DASH — Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican New York state Assemblywoman and 2017 candidate for mayor of New York CIty who’s now challenging Democratic Rep. Max Rose in NY-11, raised $250,000 in the second quarter, her campaign told Laura. Malliotakis had $475,000 in cash on hand as of June 30.

— Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) raised $1.1 million in the second quarter and had nearly $3.4 million in cash on hand, James reports.

— Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) raised just $160,000 in the second quarter of 2019 in MN-07, down from the $282,000 the long-time western Minnesota Democrat raised in the first quarter. Peterson, never a strong fundraiser, had $835,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.) raised $341,000 for his reelection campaign in AZ-01 and had $396,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) raised $282,000 for his reelection campaign in CA-07 and had $1.3 million in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) raised $432,000 for his reelection campaign in CO-06 and had $797,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) raised $734,000 for her reelection campaign in MI-08 and had $1.1 million in cash on hand, according to her FEC report.

— Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.) raised $197,000 for his reelection campaign in MN-01 and had $321,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) raised $491,000 for his reelection campaign in FL-18 and had $624,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) raised $422,000 for his reelection campaign in NE-02 and had $543,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) raised $124,000 for his reelection campaign in PA-10 and had $301,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) raised $378,000 for his reelection campaign in TX-22 and had $483,000 in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

— New York state Sen. Chris Jacobs, a Republican, said he raised $446,000 in the second quarter and added an additional $325,000 in a self-loan for the NY-27 seat currently held by indicted Rep. Chris Collins, The Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski reported. Collins, facing a trial date next February on insider trading charges, raised $511,000 in the second quarter and had $665,000 in cash on hand, per his FEC report.

— Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who is facing a primary challenge in CO-01, raised $207,000 in the second quarter and has $277,000 in cash on hand, per her FEC report.

PRIMARY PROBLEMS — Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) is facing a potential primary on his left. Gottheimer unseated Republican then-Rep. Scott Garrett in North Jersey in 2016, even as Trump carried the district narrowly. Then Gottheimer held the NJ-05 seat in 2018 without breaking much of a sweat, winning 56 percent of the vote. But his moderate posture has ticked off liberals in the district, and a leader of the group Indivisible NJ 5th District says it has a prospective candidate lined up, POLITICO New Jersey’s Matt Friedman reports.

— Beating Gottheimer won’t be easy: He raised $908,000 in the second quarter and has $5.7 million (!) in cash on hand, according to his FEC report.

COACH STAYS — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb officially rolled out his reelection bid on Saturday, holding an event at a venue that the Indianapolis Star’s Casey Smith notes was “made famous as the filming location of the Hickory Huskers’ home court in the 1986 film ‘Hoosiers.’”

CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Situations like this come up, you know? And you have to be on-site. I believe that. I’m governor of New York. I have been for eight years. I can count the number of times I leave the state, basically, on my fingers.” — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, asked Saturday night on CNN about New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s absence from the city during a blackout in Manhattan. (De Blasio was in Iowa, campaigning for president.)

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