Morning Digest: A Georgia Republican says he alone can raise unlimited sums. His rivals have other ideas

The courts forbade similar shenanigans once before, but will they do so again?

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (credit: Burt Jones campaign Facebook)

Leading Off

GA-Gov

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones hasn't yet announced his long-anticipated campaign for governor of Georgia, but he's already taking advantage of a state law allowing him to raise unlimited sums of money—something none of his would-be rivals can do. And despite a previous ruling clamping down on this one-sided state of affairs, Jones insists he can spend this windfall in his quest to win next year's Republican primary—a question that may wind up back in the courts.

Jones, who is one of Donald Trump's top allies in the state, enjoys this advantageous position thanks to a 2021 law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp authorizing powerful new entities called "leadership committees."

Candidates for statewide office are limited to accepting $8,400 from individual donors for the primary and the same amount for the general election. They're also barred from fundraising when the legislature is in session. By contrast, there are no such restrictions for leadership committees. These groups, unlike federal super PACs, are also allowed to coordinate directly with the campaigns they're supporting.

The law allows the sitting governor, lieutenant governor, and leaders of both parties to create these special committees. Everyone else is out of luck, though nominees for governor and lieutenant governor who don't currently hold those offices can establish their own leadership committees after they win their party's nomination.

Kemp took advantage of the law he signed during his fight against former Sen. David Perdue in the 2022 GOP primary. Both Perdue and Democrat Stacey Abrams, who couldn't yet form leadership committees, argued that Kemp had an unfair advantage. Federal Judge Mark Cohen barred the governor's committee from spending money until he won the primary, but he did not invalidate the law.

Kemp went on to beat both Perdue and Abrams, and he's continued to utilize his leadership committee to advocate for allied candidates—including Trump. State Democrats sued to strike down the law last year, but they dropped their suit after Cohen ruled they lacked standing to bring a challenge.

Jones's committee, called the WBJ Leadership Committee, finished January with $2.6 million in the bank. (The lieutenant governor's full name is William Burton Jones.) Cohen's ruling against Kemp in 2022 would seemingly bar his allies from spending that money on his behalf in the upcoming primary to succeed Kemp, but unsurprisingly, he and his rivals sharply disagree on whether it still applies.

Attorney General Chris Carr, who launched his own campaign for the GOP nod in November, believes the answer is no. A strategist for Carr—who does not have access to a leadership committee—told the Associated Press that Cohen's earlier decision means that cash raised by WBJ "cannot be spent on anything that furthers his Republican primary campaign for governor."

Carr, it so happens, defended the law in his capacity as attorney general against the challenge brought by Perdue and Abrams, calling their attempt to restrict leadership committees a "nakedly political effort."

Jones, unsurprisingly, is now the one taking that position. An aide tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "The Attorney General should know that this ruling was confined to the 2022 race as he argued strongly in favor of it, one of the few fights he's actually picked while in office." Even if Jones is correct, though, Carr or another opponent could bring a similar lawsuit to once again rectify this imbalance in the law.

Direct spending in the primary, however, isn't the only way WBJ could boost its candidate. The AJC notes that Jones' committees could also run ads designed to bolster his name recognition more generally or to help his allies. The lieutenant governor is also wealthy and can invest his personal resources into furthering his bid, leadership committee or no.

Dave Weigel on surviving the news onslaught

Election Results

DE State Senate

Delaware Democrats easily won two special elections for the state Senate in the Wilmington area on Saturday night, with one candidate outperforming the results of last year's presidential election and the other just short of that mark.

In Delaware's 1st Senate District, Democrat Dan Cruce held the seat previously occupied by Sarah McBride, who won a promotion to Congress in November, defeating Republican Steven Washington 77-21. Kamala Harris carried the district 73-26 last year, meaning Cruce exceeded her margin by 10 points.

Meanwhile, Democrat Ray Seigfried successfully defended the neighboring 5th District, which had been held by newly elected Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, beating Republican Brent Burdge 65-35. Harris won the district by a similar 65-33 spread, 2 points better than Saturday's showing.

Both sets of results are still unofficial, so the final tallies could still shift slightly. Following these victories, Democrats now once again control the chamber by a 15-6 margin.

The outcomes mark the sixth time in seven tries this year that Democrats have improved on the presidential baseline in special elections nationwide. On average, they're performing 9 points better than Harris, according to calculations by The Downballot.

That's similar to their performance during the first two years of Donald Trump's first term, when Democrats exceeded Hillary Clinton's margins by an average of 11 points across 119 special elections. Those results heralded 2018's blue wave, which saw Democrats flip 40 seats to take back the U.S. House.

Special election results, taken in aggregate, typically correlate closely with results for general elections for the House. Last year, however, they missed the mark, with Democrats generally performing well in specials but Republicans winning the national House vote. It remains to be seen whether that historic correlation will once again resume next year.

Senate

GA-Sen

A top advisor to Rep. Rich McCormick now says that a Senate bid by Gov. Brian Kemp would keep his boss out of the race, just a few days after failing to acknowledge Kemp at all in a statement saying McCormick was interested in running himself.

Ryan Mahoney—who used to work for Kemp—called the governor an "absolute powerhouse" in comments to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein but indicated that McCormick would be eager to run against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff if Kemp declines.

MN-Sen

Attorney General Keith Ellison, who was mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for Minnesota's newly open Senate seat, confirmed Friday that he's thinking about it and would "say more in a few days," in the words of MinnPost reporter Peter Callaghan.

Governors

CA-Gov & Los Angeles, CA Mayor

Billionaire developer Rick Caruso has mostly been talked about in connection with a possible second bid for mayor of Los Angeles, but he now tells Puck's Peter Hamby he's considering a campaign for California's open governorship.

Caruso, who changed party affiliation several times before running for mayor as a Democrat in 2022, could potentially run as an independent, and he says that a possible campaign by Kamala Harris would not deter him. But, says Hamby, a rematch next year with Democrat Karen Bass "seems more likely."

Bass defeated Caruso by a 55-45 margin in a runoff, but the incumbent's standing has been tarnished due to widespread dissatisfaction with her handling of devastating wildfires that badly damaged the city last month. Caruso has repeatedly attacked Bass over the fires but has not laid out a timetable for making a decision about either race.

Meanwhile, Richard Grenell, a longtime aide to Donald Trump, told reporters he "wouldn't say no" to a bid for governor if Harris were to run. It would be wise not to take Grenell too seriously, though. He considered running in the 2021 recall of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom only to bail, then the following year teased that he might run for the House in Southern California but never followed through.

House

AZ-01

There's "chatter" that Democrat Marlene Galan-Woods could run for Arizona's swingy 1st Congressional District again, reports the National Journal's James Downs, who says he spotted the former candidate on Capitol Hill on Thursday. This constituency, which is based in northeastern Phoenix and Scottsdale, is held by Republican Rep. David Schweikert.

Galan-Woods, a former TV news anchor and the widow of one-time state Attorney General Grant Woods, finished a very close third in last year's primary, which former state Rep. Amish Shah won with 23.5% of the vote. In second was businessman Andrei Cherny with 21.3%, while Galan-Woods was just behind with 21.2%.

Schweikert went on to defeat Shah 52-48 following an expensive battle. According to calculations by The Downballot, Donald Trump carried the 1st by a similar 51-48 spread.

Obituaries

Jim Guy Tucker

Former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat who frequently jostled with Bill Clinton in the 1970s and 80s when the two were regarded as rising stars, died Thursday at the age of 81.

Tucker was elevated from lieutenant governor to the governorship in 1992 following Clinton's election as president, but he resigned four years later after being convicted of fraud.

Both men began their ascent in an era where Democrats were still the dominant party in Arkansas. Tucker first won office when he was elected attorney general in 1972, but he gave up that post in 1976 to successfully run for the U.S. House (terms for statewide office were only two years until the mid-1980s). That same year, Clinton won the race to succeed him.

Tucker sought a promotion in 1978 by campaigning for an open Senate seat, but he found himself locked in an uphill battle in the primary against Gov. David Pryor. Clinton, who was on a glide path to replace Pryor as governor, nevertheless took an intense interest in the Senate race.

As David Maraniss wrote in his biography of Clinton, "First In His Class," the future president saw Tucker "as his main competition as the rising star of state Democratic politics" and hoped Pryor would beat him. Pryor—who benefited from key strategic advice from Clinton—ultimately defeated Tucker in a difficult runoff.

The new governor, though, was humbled in 1980 when he lost his bid for a second term to Republican Frank White in what threatened to be a career-ending upset. Clinton aimed for a quick comeback by seeking a rematch in 1982, but Tucker and a third Democrat, former Lt. Gov. Joe Purcell, both had designs on the same office.

Clinton and Tucker spent most of the race attacking one another while avoiding Purcell, who largely appeared to be an afterthought. Purcell, though, surged ahead late in the first round of voting and cost Tucker a spot in the runoff. That wasn't welcome news for Clinton: One of his strategists later told Maraniss, "Tucker had a record we could run against. Joe Purcell was a lovable old slipper."

Clinton, though, ultimately won both the runoff and his rematch with White, while Tucker spent the next several years out of elected office in the law and business. Tucker briefly mounted another campaign for governor in 1990 with the hope that Clinton, whose presidential ambitions were well known, would step aside. However, he dropped down to the lieutenant governor's race after he realized Clinton would seek reelection.

Tucker won the contest for that post—which was and still is elected separately from the governorship—and spent much of the next two years acting as chief executive while the governor was out of the state campaigning. After Clinton's victory in 1992, he got to drop the "lieutenant" from his title when he assumed the top job.

But while the 1994 GOP wave didn't stop Tucker from easily winning the race to keep his new office, he soon found himself embroiled in his predecessor's troubles.

Independent counsel Kenneth Starr's probe into Clinton's ties to an Arkansas land development initially didn't involve Tucker, but Starr convinced a judge to let him broaden his scope. Tucker blasted Starr's sprawling investigation as a "witch hunt," but he ultimately resigned after getting convicted in 1996 of receiving fraudulent loans. He was replaced by Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran the state until 2007.

Both the New York Times and the Associated Press have much more about the developments that ended Tucker's career in their obituaries, including the chaotic events surrounding the governor's actual resignation.

In our last Digest, we failed to include Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy as one of the top contenders in the race to succeed Angela Alsobrooks. We've updated the item.