Bill Scher
@billscher
Politics Editor for @washingtonmonthly.com
Today: OMG even Crowley’s internals show him getting smoked! Two weeks from now: OMG Crowley’s internals show huge Crowleymentum!
In case you are wondering why the AZ-01 Democratic primary isn’t called yet
I have no dog in the WI-GOV Dem primary but I am opposed to pollsters with stated candidate preferences being taken seriously
In another timeline, the Lindsey Graham-John Kerry cap-and-trade bill is signed by President Obama, Graham loses the 2014 GOP primary, the planet is saved and we never hear from him again. archive.nytimes.com/green.blogs....
Katz, after the tattoo disclosure, "pushed a six-figure ad campaign to be produced by his firm" and "was furious" when "a staffer paused the funding"
Paige Loud worked on the campaign before running for Congress and told Platner directly, "Hey, you have a very sexist, misogynistic staff"
🧵 From WSJ: Platner and Fifield texted BEFORE he launched. Fifield mentions "she kept diaries during their relationship." Platner replies "The days of having to worry about something… unflattering…about me out there in the world are well and over" www.wsj.com/politics/ele...
You know a race is close when the candidates are fighting over who won a website poll like we’re in 1997 and don’t understand how the Internet works
El-Sayed has had the savvier online campaign to date but it’s only Stevens cranking out real time debate clips
Kudos to @michellegoldberg.bsky.social . More pundit accountability please.
This speaks to the mistake Platner diehards made in the first place: assuming he was indispensable to the cause thus requiring rationalization or dismissal of transgressions & red flags
Yesterday Stevens was mocked for not explicitly inviting McMorrow supporters to join her campaign in her first statement like El-Sayed did, then cleaning up with a subsequent statement a few hours later. How many hours til we get a clean up statement here?
X is rife with Platner rumors, which have seeped into the Bangor Daily News
Kavanaugh's lonely concurring opinion in the birthright citizenship case (rejecting that birthright citizenship is broadly protected by the Constitution) goes full living Constitution in arguing for the overturning the the 1898 Wong precedent
Number of times Beto O’Rourke tied or led Ted Cruz in 2018 polls: 0 Number of times James Talarico tied or led Ken Paxton in 2026 polls (through June): 5
This is a thin data point so I wouldn’t overstate it, but it’s curious that in this poll the 5-term incumbent has a bit more room to pick up non-supporters than the fresh-faced outsider
In the NYT ME-SEN poll, Platner is up by 2 because he’s running up the score with college grads, not because of any working-class pull