The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● Wichita, KS Mayor: Kansas Democrats earned their chance to retake the mayor's office in Wichita, the state's largest city, on Tuesday when state Rep. Brandon Whipple pulled off an upset and won a spot in the Nov. 5 general election. Republican incumbent Jeff Longwell took first place in the nonpartisan primary with 32% of the vote, while Whipple came out narrowly ahead of businessman Lyndy Wells for second by a 25.9-25.2 spread. The remainder of the vote was split between six other candidates. Democrats held this office until 2015, when Longwell won an all-GOP general election to succeed termed-out Mayor Carl Brewer.
Campaign Action
Wells and Whipple shared views on key issues, such as transparency in city government, but Whipple's second place finish was somewhat of a surprise. Wells is well-connected in the city, having served on the board of several local organizations, and he received the backing of local institutions such as the Wichita Eagle, the largest newspaper in the state. Wells also hauled in more than double Whipple's fundraising total, which is partially why Longwell himself said he had expected Wells and not Whipple to be his opponent in the fall election.
Longwell has focused on his record as mayor, emphasizing infrastructure, quality of life, and public safety as core tenets of his platform. He's touted what he describes as the strong relationship between the city and other localities in Sedgwick County, where Wichita is located.
Whipple has focused on issues of public safety as well, specifically the crime rate and funding of the city's police force, but he's made education a priority as well. As a state legislator, he lobbied to restore funding that had been cut from higher education and has said improving Wichita schools is one of his top aims.
One issue that has been a major point of contention in the election is the city's new minor league baseball stadium. Under Longwell's watch, the New Orleans Baby Cakes, a Triple-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins, agreed to move to Wichita in 2020.
Longwell has been a champion of the move, but the negotiating process for building a new stadium, for which the city has promised to spend up to $73 million, has been controversial. Critics have charged that the city's shown a lack of transparency and engagement with the public on the specifics of the deal. Whipple has said he's in favor of the stadium, but he's joined in those criticisms, attacking the "rushed and secretive way our city leadership decided to push this project forward."
Senate
● AZ-Sen: Skincare company executive Daniel McCarthy has been considering challenging Sen. Martha McSally in the GOP primary, and he recently teased that he'd reached a "conclusion of the Due Diligence process." McCarthy held a conference call on Wednesday evening and he told supporters that he … was still deciding. That's not what "conclusion" means, dude.
What McCarthy did announce was that he'll embark on a statewide listening tour, which is apparently a whole other stage than his "Due Diligence process." McCarthy seems content to drag this out as long as possible, since he said, "There is a sense of urgency for me to make a decision here which I don't have. I'm going to take as much time as I need with my family, I'm going to take as much time as I need with my businesses, and we're going to enjoy this process." Arizona's filing deadline isn't until early April, so McCarthy can indeed spend a whole lot of time enjoying this process.
McCarthy was a key Donald Trump financial backer in 2016, and McSally and her allies at the NRSC got wind that he was considering challenging her a few months ago. Politico reported in June that national Republicans launched a "flurry of efforts" to convince Trump to endorse her, which he soon did.
The NRSC reportedly has also compiled some opposition research against McCarthy to try to deter him from running. McCarthy acknowledged this on Wednesday when he declared that national Republicans were digging up information on his business and personal life, saying, "The establishment are bullies," but insisting, "Frankly, they may have pushed me a little too hard ... I'm not intimidated."
Gubernatorial
● LA-Gov: Wealthy Republican businessman Eddie Rispone is out with another ad ahead of the Oct. 12 all-party primary, and he once again portrays himself as a pro-Trump political outsider.
Rispone tells the audience, "I'll stand with President Trump to ban sanctuary cities." Rispone continues by saying he'll "[r]equire work for welfare benefits. And give voters the right to approve serious tax reform," an agenda the narrator characterizes as, "A plan so easy, a career politician could do it." Rispone then laughs and insists, "They never will." The Rispone campaign seems to think this is a truly hilarious line, since the narrator responds, "Boom, there it is!"
House
● MA-06: While Rep. Seth Moulton sounded a bit iffy in late June about running for re-election if his longshot Democratic presidential bid ends in defeat, his team insisted this week that this was still the plan. Moulton's spokesperson said, "His record speaks for itself, [and] he'll be running for Congress again on that record," if his White House hopes don't pan out.
● TX-11: On Thursday, Midland City Councilman J.Ross Lacy became the first notable Republican to announce a bid for this safely red seat. Lacy has been involved in Midland's burgeoning space tourism business as the president of the Spaceport Business Park board, and GOP Gov. Greg Abbott also appointed him to the Texas Aerospace and Aviation Advisory Committee.
● TX-23: Republicans got their first candidate for this open swing seat last week when Navy veteran Tony Gonzales announced that he would drop his campaign against Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett in the safely blue 35th District and run here instead.
Gonzales quickly picked up endorsements from former Reps. Henry Bonilla and Quico Canseco, who represented previous versions of this seat. Gonzales didn't report bringing in any money for his campaign against Doggett through June, but the San Antonio Express-News wrote that July 31 was his last day in uniform, so he may not have been able to fundraise until this month.