Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country (and in today’s case, outside the country) . * Despite an 11th-hour cyber-attack against his campaign, Emmanuel Macron cruised to an easy victory over Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election yesterday. Barack Obama endorsed the centrist winner, while Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had expressed support for the far-right Le Pen. * In the wake of defeat, Le Pen’s National Front party is poised to change its name . * Save My Care, a progressive health care advocacy group, is launching a six-figure ad campaign targeting 24 House Republicans who voted for their party’s health care legislation last week. Here’s a sample of one of the commercials. * There hasn’ t been much in the way of independent polling in Georgia’s congressional special election, but the latest WSB-TV, Landmark Communications poll Karen Handel (R) leading Jon Ossoff (D) by about three points. The election is June 20. * On a related note, Politico reports that the Georgia race is now the most expensive U. S. House race in the history of the country. * A week from today, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will travel to Georgia’s 6th congressional district to campaign with Handel. * In Ohio, state Treasurer Josh Mandel (R) remains under fire for using taxpayer money to promote himself ahead of his Senate campaign next year, a move even GOP lawmakers in the state weren’ t comfortable with. A Columbus Dispatch editorial noted on Friday, “It’s embarrassing when a state officeholder has to be stopped from abusing taxpayer funds with a measure inserted into state law, by his leaders of his own political party, in a public smackdown.” * And in West Virginia, there’s a new Republican super PAC which was created to attack Sen. Joe Manchin (D) ahead of his re-election bid next year.
