Morning Digest: The campaign to restore abortion rights to Idaho faces its first big test

A prominent hardliner threatens to undermine the drive to end one of the nation's most restrictive bans

An early supporter of the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act (credit: Idahoans United for Women & Families Facebook)

Leading Off

ID Ballot

The campaign to end Idaho's near-total abortion ban filed a lawsuit last month accusing hardline Attorney General Raul Labrador and other state officials of crafting a "misleading, inaccurate and prejudicial" official summary of their proposed ballot measure. Idahoans United for Women and Families argues that, unless the state Supreme Court intervenes, this language will make it harder to pass its plan.

This citizen's initiative, known as the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, would establish "a right to make private reproductive health care decisions, including abortion up to fetal viability and in medical emergencies."

However, Idahoans United's suit faults Labrador's summary for referring to "fetus viability," which they say is not a commonly used term and is "likely to confuse voters." (Fetal viability, which refers to when a fetus can survive outside a womb, is generally viewed as beginning at around 23 to 24 weeks.)

That's hardly the only problem Idahoans United has with the attorney general's wording. The suit argues that the summary omits mention of "the medical emergency exemption and the right to privacy in reproductive decisions." The group further alleges that state officials crafted a fiscal impact statement that's both unclear and "based on unfounded budgetary assumptions and references."

Labrador, a former congressman who co-founded the nihilistic House Freedom Caucus, was the defendant in a similar lawsuit two years ago over a ballot measure to introduce a top-four primary system to the state. The Idaho Supreme Court unanimously sided with the plaintiffs and ruled that Labrador's summary, which included a term the justices said seemed to be "one of the attorney general's own creation," had to be rewritten.

Proponents, however, feared that the long legal battle, which cost them vital weeks to gather signatures, would still keep them from getting their initiative on the ballot. The measure ultimately qualified but lost in a landslide—an outcome Labrador celebrated on election night.

Idahoans United, though, believes reproductive rights will be a more popular cause even in one of the reddest states in America. The organization last year launched its effort to place an initiative before voters in 2026, which will mark four years since the state implemented what NPR calls "one of the strictest" abortion bans in the country. Because only the Republican-dominated legislature can place constitutional amendments on the ballot, this proposal is statutory.

If Idahoans United gets an acceptable ballot summary, they'll have until the end of April 2026 to collect almost 71,000 signatures, a figure that represents 6% of the state's registered voters; the group would also need to hit geographic targets in 18 of the state's 35 legislative districts. It would take a simple majority to approve the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act in next year's general election.

New York Dems consider playing hardball on special elections

Senate

GA-Sen, GA-Gov

Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene didn't rule out running for either Senate or governor next year when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution quizzed her Thursday evening.

"Of course I'm considering all possibilities," she replied. "No decisions have been made, but I would be telling a lie if I didn't say I wasn't considering it."

Greene added she wasn't sure which post she preferred, though she sounded inclined to defer to Gov. Brian Kemp should he challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Kemp, who Greene said "would be a very solid [Senate] candidate," cannot seek a third term as governor in 2026.

MI-Sen

The Democratic firm Blueprint Polling finds former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg defeating Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel 40-16 in a hypothetical Democratic primary for Senate, with none of the other options hitting double-digit support. The survey, though, finds Nessel beating state Sen. Mallory McMorrow 41-7 when Buttigieg is not presented as an option.

Blueprint, which began polling two days after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters announced his retirement, did not mention any client in its release. No major Democrats have announced they'll run for his seat, though the Associated Press reported last week that McMorrow has decided to enter the race.

Governors

FL-Gov

Casey DeSantis is now open to running to succeed her husband, termed-out Gov. Ron DeSantis, NBC's Matt Dixon reports.

"I have heard donors have been urging her to run," an unnamed source told Dixon. They added, "[W]hile it's not something she has wanted to do, they are causing her to at least stop and listen."

Another person who spoke to Dixon said that there's "a real possibility" that Florida's first lady, a former local TV anchor in Jacksonville, seeks the Republican nomination. This source, though, said they weren't sure if it's a "probable scenario." Neither of the two DeSantes (or is the plural DeSanti?) have said anything publicly about her interest in the governorship.

One Ron DeSantis ally who will not be campaigning next year is Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, who confirmed Friday that she would resign her current post this month to become interim president of Florida International University. DeSantis and Nunez, however, seem to have decided long ago that she wouldn't be running for the state's top job: The chair of the school's board of trustees acknowledged that DeSantis' office "contacted me and suggested we consider" Nunez.

Political observers have speculated that DeSantis, who is rapidly running out of friends in Sunshine State GOP politics, will decide who he wants to succeed him and boost their statewide profile by appointing them lieutenant governor. However, there's no deadline for him to pick his new number two—the office was vacant for 308 days from 2013 to 2014—so the governor could take his time as his wife mulls her plans.

MA-Gov

Democratic Gov. Maura Healey confirmed Friday that she'll seek a second term as leader of this dark blue state. Healey said last month she hadn't "given it much thought" if she'd run again, but there was otherwise no indication she might call it quits after just one term.

SC-Gov

Disgraced treasurer-turned-disgraced reality TV star Thomas Ravenel tweeted on Thursday night, "I'm running for Governor of South Carolina and none of the lightweights currently in the race are going to stop me."

Ravenel, whose missive came at 11:02 PM ET, is the first candidate of any weight to enter next year's race. The former Republican officeholder, who unsuccessfully challenged GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham as an independent in 2014, did not specify if he'd campaign under a party label this time, though his social media profile identifies him as a "Libertarian." Ravenel, however, did tell the South Carolina Daily Gazette he'd self-fund.

Ravenel, whose late father is the namesake for a prominent Charleston bridge, resigned as state treasurer in 2007 shortly before pleading guilty to a federal cocaine charge. After a 10-month prison sentence, Ravenel gained a national audience as a star of Bravo's "Southern Charm." He departed the show in 2018 after his nanny accused him of sexual assault and ultimately reached a plea deal that saw him plead guilty to a lesser charge, issue an apology, and make an $80,000 donation to a nonprofit.

Judges

NC Supreme Court

A Wake Superior Court ruled against Jefferson Griffin's claims on Friday, but the Republican's team quickly confirmed he'd appeal. Republicans hold majorities on both the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court, and Democrats fear that partisan judges will overturn Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs' electoral victory.

Mayors & County Leaders

Cobb County, GA Board of Commissioners

Democrats lost their majority on the Cobb County Board of Commissioners Wednesday when the Georgia Court of Appeals declined to halt a lower court decision declaring Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson's seat vacant ahead of an April 29 special election. The party, however, is likely to regain their 3-2 majority that day by holding her seat—even though a GOP gerrymander and residency requirements have prevented Richardson from running for it.

Richardson was part of the 2020 Democratic ticket that ended 36 years of GOP rule of this populous suburban Atlanta community, which for decades had a well-deserved reputation for being safely Republican turf. The wins for Richardson, Commissioner Monique Sheffield, and Commission Chair Lisa Cupid also meant that a majority of the body's members would be Black women, something that once would have been unthinkable in a place that was a destination point for conservative voters in the era of white flight.

However, the Republican state legislature worked to prevent Democrats from making any further gains by passing a gerrymander in 2022 to protect the seats held by the two Republicans, JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill. (GOP legislators also implemented their own commission maps for nearby Gwinnett County, another former GOP stronghold that has become Democratic-friendly turf.)

This action also moved Richardson's home into Birrell's constituency, and residency requirements meant that the Democrat couldn’t seek a new four-year term.

The Board of Commissioners responded by adopting its own map, and for the next two years, no one was sure which boundaries would get the green light. Richardson launched a bid for Congress in 2023 when it looked like the Atlanta area might gain a new Democratic seat, and she decided to keep running even after she learned that, thanks to yet another Republican gerrymander, she'd be facing Rep. Lucy McBath in the primary. McBath had no trouble beating the commissioner in an 85-9 blowout.

A state judge finally ruled last July that the state legislature's map for the Cobb County Commission was valid. The long delay, though, meant that only Cupid, who holds a countywide seat, would be on the ballot in 2024. The races for Richardson and Sheffield's redrawn constituencies were postponed until April, while the two GOP-held seats were already scheduled to be up in 2026.

Cupid's 55-45 win all but ensured Democrats would have a majority following the special elections, as both the 2nd and Sheffield's 4th Districts are heavily Democratic under this map. Sheffield, who is running for her revamped seat, lives within its boundaries and remains a commissioner in the interim. Four Democrats, meanwhile, are running for Richardson's seat.

Until last week, though, it wasn't clear if residency requirements would prevent Richardson—who now has no seat to run for this spring—from continuing to serve until her successor is elected. A lower court ruled at the end of last year that the seat is vacant because Richardson doesn't live in the new 2nd District. The Democrat appealed, but she finally ran out of options Wednesday when a higher court wouldn't take up her case.

New York, NY Mayor

Emerson College and the conservative Manhattan Institute are the latest outfits to release polls showing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo leading Mayor Eric Adams 33-10 and 30-14, respectively, in the June Democratic primary. The Manhattan Institute also simulated the ranked-choice process and shows Cuomo outpacing Adams 53-25 in the seventh round of tabulations, with another 22% going to City Comptroller Brad Lander.

The former governor has not yet announced his long-anticipated comeback, and his detractors hope these early leads will fade once he's on the receiving end of attacks. Ross Barkan predicts in New York Magazine that such an offensive will have plenty of money behind it, writing that "progressive interest groups will unite in an anti-Cuomo campaign." Cuomo's side, though, will also have the resources to make its case.