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Thursday's Campaign Round-Up, 1.19.17

Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.* Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, told reporters yesterday that DC-area hotels are "sold out for miles." As of last night, that did not appear to be true.* When Donald Trump tweeted a picture of himself, ostensibly putting pen to paper to write his own inaugural address, he apparently was seated at the reception desk of one of his resorts. It's almost as if the picture had been staged and the president-elect isn't actually writing his own speech.* As hearings get underway for Steve Mnuchin, Trump's nominee for Treasury Secretary, a group of progressive organizations have launched a television ad featuring a woman who lost her home to Mnuchin's bank.* New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) now claims he was offered positions in the Trump administration, but he turned them down because his wife didn't want to move to DC. Christie, of course, ran a presidential campaign last year that would've required him to move to DC had he won.* Though Mike Pence had said Dick Cheney would be his vice presidential role model, yesterday, the incoming V.P. told NBC News' Chuck Todd yesterday, "When I think of the kind of president that I'll be serving, I've been paying special attention to then vice president George Herbert Walker Bush."* Avenue Strategies, the new DC lobbying firm created by former Trump aides Corey Lewandowski and Barry Bennett, has opened its doors. As Bloomberg Politics' report noted, firm is also taking "the highly unusual step ... of creating a pro-Trump super PAC," which will be called the "Great American Agenda PAC."* The seven leading candidates running to become the next DNC chair had a fairly low-key debate yesterday, hosted by the Huffington Post.* Billionaire Tom Steyer, a leading environmentalist, argued yesterday there's no real limit on the amount of money he's prepared to spend to fight the Trump administration's agenda.* Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), commenting on the Democratic boycott of the Trump inauguration, said this week, "I find it very troubling for the future of our country." Cramer skipped President Obama's inaugural four years ago, but he told his local paper he "didn't make a big deal" about his absence.