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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* How eager is Donald Trump to punish Gov. Brian Kemp? The former president keeps endorsing little-known Republicans in down-ballot Georgia contests because they’re running primary campaigns against the incumbent governor’s allies.
* The Washington Post has advanced the story about former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ alleged voter fraud, noting that the Republican’s wife apparently filed three false voter forms. The article added, “There is precedent in North Carolina for seeking a severe penalty for someone who put false information on an early voting application.”
* In the wake of Rep. Don Young’s passing, the Anchorage Daily News reported that there’s a tentative plan in place to elect a successor: “The special primary election will be June 11, and the special general election will take place Aug. 16 — the same date as the state’s regular primary election.” This will apparently be a vote-by-mail election.
* On a related note, Republican Sarah Palin, who served half a term as Alaska governor more than a decade ago, has expressed some interest in the congressional seat.
* In Pennsylvania’s GOP gubernatorial primary, several of the leading Republican candidates have said they’re willing to participate in a debate, just so long as the moderator is a registered Pennsylvania Republican who has never “spoken negatively” about any of the candidates.
* In advance of the 2024 cycle, The Washington Post reports that Democratic Party officials are circulating plans for a new presidential nominating calendar that would “select up to five states to hold contests before March based upon a new set of criteria that appears designed to exclude a return of the Iowa caucuses to their first-in-the-nation status.”
* Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, is back in the news: NBC News reported that he’s apparently “developing software for Republican campaigns that would incorporate artificial intelligence into the tools used to target voters, raise money and advertise.” The project, called “Campaign Nucleus,” comes nearly two years after he was demoted on Team Trump.