Lil Durk is going free.
The “All My Life” rapper was found not guilty of all charges in a murder-for-hire trial on Sept. 11, with a Los Angeles jury determining that the 33-year-old was not…
E! Online (US) – Top Stories
Category: News Feeds
Jordyn Woods is still soaking in the title of newlywed.
The fashion entrepreneur gave NBA player Karl-Anthony Towns another ring two months after the New York Knicks won the NBA Championship,…
E! Online (US) – Top Stories
Lady Gaga and Michael Polansky are gonna keep it cool with their new baby.
Two years after getting engaged, the Grammy winner and her fiancé recently welcomed their first child together. And,…
E! Online (US) – Top Stories
Alaska gubernatorial candidates appeared at a Sept. 9, 2026 fisheries debate in Kodiak. From left are former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, former Attorney General Treg Taylor, business owner and radio talk-show host Bernadette Wilson and former state Rep. Konathan Kreiss-Tomkins. (Photo by Brian Venua)
Alaska candidates for governor defended their financial disclosure reports this week, following a review by the Alaska Department of Law that claimed several possible omissions.
In a Labor Day news conference, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom said her decision to restore Republican governor candidate Treg Taylor to the general election ballot was based in part on the report, which indicated that many other candidates for office had the same kinds of errors in their financial disclosure reports.
In August, the Alaska Public Offices Commission recommended Taylor’s disqualification for failing to report his rent-paying tenants at several properties. Dahlstrom has followed that recommendation disqualifying him, then reversed the decision on Sep. 4
Among the candidates listed in the Department of Law report were all four governor candidates and three of the four lieutenant governor candidates:
Dave Bronson and Josh Church
Republican Dave Bronson responded to the report Monday night, immediately following the governor’s news conference.
“Josh and I take our financial disclosure obligations seriously and have made every effort to comply with APOC’s POFD requirements,” he said in an email.
Bronson emphasized there is an “important difference” between non-compliance with disclosure laws initially cited by Dahlstrom in disqualifying the candidates and “a technical disclosure question, accidental omission, or information that is factually incorrect,” he wrote.
Bronson responded to each issue flagged in his disclosures saying it was incorrect.
The department said Bronson’s POFD failed to disclose he was the manager of Piper LLC, that he is the director of an Arizona-registered corporation called Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Foundation and is the director of the nonprofit Alaska Governor’s Prayer Breakfast.
Bronson said Piper LLC generates no income and is for “asset purposes only.” A campaign spokeswoman said the LLC simply holds his plane.
He said his participation with the nonprofits, including the one in Arizona, is “entirely voluntary and unpaid.”
“I received no compensation or financial benefit for serving. I served as a volunteer committee member of the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast and resigned before running for office,” he wrote.
The department said after reviewing land records it flagged Bronson “having an interest in an Eagle River property” that was not disclosed.
Bronson said he co-signed a mortgage on a house for his son in 2025, and was “subsequently removed from the property in February” this year.
“I received no compensation, payment, or other financial benefit from that property and had no financial gain from it,” he said.
The department said Bronson’s lieutenant governor candidate, Josh Church, had failed to disclose being a director of the Amanita Heights Subdivision Homeowners Association Inc., a nonprofit in Fairbanks.
Bronson said that is wrong and Church had never served on that board.
The department also said Church failed to list financial interests in properties in Fairbanks and North Carolina sold last year. But Bronson said that was also an error.
“Josh sold the first listed property in North Carolina in or around 2016, while he was serving in the Marines. The second property is listed on his POFD,” he said. “That property has two known addresses as it spans a city block.”
“None of the issues being raised involve hiding income, clients or receiving an undisclosed financial benefit,” he reiterated. “There was no compensation from nonprofit service, no financial gain from the property in question, and no income generated through Piper LLC.”
“Our record reflects our commitment to transparency. We will continue to be transparent, cooperate with APOC, and let the facts speak for themselves.”
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Zac Johnson
Democratic Republican candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins responded Tuesday through a campaign spokesperson who defended his campaign disclosure filings and those of his running mate Zac Johnson, an independent currently serving on the Anchorage Assembly.
One issue flagged by the department was that Kreiss-Tomkins failed to disclose a business interest as a director on the board of Outer Coast, a liberal arts undergraduate program in Sitka. He submitted an amended disclosure on Tuesday.
Kreiss-Tomkins’ POFD lists Outer Coast as a tenant because he owns a tiny home near the campus which he rents to rotating staff and faculty, according to campaign spokesperson Shannon Mason.
“He received no compensation for serving on the Outer Coast board; the income disclosed was rent paid for use of the property,” Mason said.
The department flagged Kreiss-Tomkins as being a member of Borealis LLC, and having ties to a Sitka property. Mason said that is incorrect. Borealis LLC was dissolved in 2021, according to a search of state business licenses.
Likewise, the business interests that the department also flagged for Kreiss-Tomkins’ running mate — Charity Horse Shows Inc. and Traders Point Hunt Club in Indiana — were dissolved in 2023 and 2021, according to a search of Indiana state business records.
Mason said both businesses were tied to Johnson’s late grandmother and generated no revenue at the time of her passing. “As part of settling her estate, Zac worked with a local attorney to dissolve the two entities. That was his only association with either entity,” she wrote.
A complaint filed by Republican strategist Joel Borgquist against Johnson is currently being considered by APOC.
In the complaint, Borgquist alleges a range of issues in Johnson’s financial disclosures, including failing to disclose income and rent-paying tenants at horse properties in Indiana.
Johnson responded, filing a sworn affidavit with APOC that the complaint is factually inaccurate, and he has disclosed all income and business interests. He said he manages properties for his family, as well as a family trust, and disclosed all the income generated from those holdings.
“We’re confident APOC’s review will help clear up the confusion surrounding these issues,” Mason said by email.
APOC held a special hearing on Thursday to consider whether to take up an expedited investigation and hearing on the complaint, but it denied that request. Commissioners said staff will investigate over the next several weeks and a hearing is expected on Oct. 8.
Treg Taylor and Candi English
The Taylor campaign did not respond to a list of questions on Wednesday or Thursday about his financial disclosure reports.
Taylor has been in an ongoing dispute with APOC over a list of his rent-paying tenants at several properties in Anchorage. Taylor had not provided a list by the end of June, the deadline to do so.
APOC recommended in August that Lt. Gov. Dahlstrom not certify Taylor as a candidate for the general election, citing his failure to disclose his tenants on time.
Taylor filed a partial list of tenants’ first names and last initials in late July. He did not answer a question asking whether he would disclose the full list of tenants at his properties, including a large rental and extended-stay apartment complex, Inlet View Tower.
The Department of Law reviewed the financial disclosure reports of his running mate, Republican Candi English, and said she failed to disclose ties to properties in Big Lake, Anchorage, Seldovia and others in Alabama and Oregon.
Bernadette Wilson and Mike Shower
The Wilson campaign also did not respond to a list of questions about financial disclosure filings on Wednesday or Thursday.
The Department of Law identified Wilson as director, president and shareholder of Denali Disposal, an Anchorage based garbage disposal company, but her financial reports only list her as a general manager.
The issue was also challenged by Borgquist in a separate complaint filed with APOC, where he argued that she should disclose being a 75% owner and each customer that paid her more than $1,000 per year for services, as required by state law.
APOC also denied an expedited review of the complaint on Thursday, and directed staff to investigate and a hearing is expected on Oct. 8.
The Alaska Division of Elections director’s office in Downtown Juneau is seen on Aug. 26, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Rep. Andrew Gray of Anchorage is not a Swiss businessman. Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon is not selling fire sprinkler systems. Lieutenant governor candidate Zac Johnson isn’t running an equestrian fox-hunting club in Indiana.
Days after the Alaska Department of Law said it found possible gaps in dozens of political candidates’ financial disclosure forms, a review by the Alaska Beacon and interviews with the affected candidates found many of the problems identified by the department either don’t exist, rely on old information, or amount to minor errors.
“I’ve talked to probably 10 legislators, and probably eight of them had something on that list that was just bogus,” said Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage and one of the candidates in the report, “property they don’t even own anymore, businesses they don’t own, and yet they’re on the list.”
The department’s errors matter because Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who administers the state’s elections, used the Department of Law report on Sept. 4 as justification to restore Republican governor candidate Treg Taylor and state House candidate Jose Tagle to Alaska’s general election ballot.
“On the basis of that additional information, the Lieutenant Governor will certify the two candidates,” said a statement released by Dahlstrom’s office at the time.
That restoration reversed one Dahlstrom took just five days before. On Aug. 31, Dahlstrom followed recommendations from the Alaska Public Offices Commission and disqualified Taylor and Tagle based on the fact that they had not submitted full Public Official Financial Disclosure forms within a 30-day deadline set by state law.
Taylor, a former attorney general who used to lead the Department of Law, had been asked in 2025 to provide a list of tenants at his rental properties in Anchorage. He did not provide a partial list until late July, about three weeks before the primary election.
“My biggest issue is that APOC never reached out to me with any discrepancies when I filed the disclosure,” Coulombe said. “And so the difference with Treg (Taylor) is that he knew that there was an issue and chose not to change it.”
The Department of Law’s review was extraordinary. When they register to run for office, candidates are required to submit a form listing their personal finances from the previous year. If they don’t submit one, they cannot run. Normally, any gaps in a disclosure only come to light when someone files a complaint with the commission.
Officials with the Department of Law said at a Monday news conference with Dahlstrom and Gov. Mike Dunleavy that they initiated their review last week, expediting it ahead of ballot printing deadlines.
Rachel Witty, director of the civil division of the Department of Law, said the review was done in the course of a day and a half.
“So I can’t emphasize enough that this is a preliminary review. We didn’t have time to contact candidates. We didn’t have time to verify every apparent match. Nor is it our role to do that. There might be mistaken identities. It was not conducted with the kind of due diligence that APOC would do before making a determination that someone had violated the law.”
Witty said paralegals, not attorneys, conducted a search by reviewing business licensing databases, property records, and a large national database called TLOXP.
It’s unclear whether APOC, the agency that regulates financial and political disclosures, will follow up with candidates or take any enforcement actions.
Among the candidates flagged for review were all four lieutenant governor candidates and all four candidates for governor.
Republican candidates Dave Bronson and Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, through a campaign spokesperson, denied the department’s findings, and defended their financial disclosures. Kreiss-Tomkins immediately corrected one error that was identified.
Taylor and Republican Bernadette Wilson did not respond to requests for comment.
“This is getting more absurd by the moment,” said Edgmon when informed by the Beacon that the Department of Law had identified him as director and president of Inland Empire Fire Protection, a fire sprinkler company in Spokane, Washington.
That company is a subsidiary of Choggiung, Ltd., an Alaska Native corporation based in Dillingham.
Until 2017, Edgmon served as chairman of the board for Choggiung, but he hasn’t been in that role for almost a decade.
“I’ve never had a personal relationship with them,” he said of the fire sprinkler company.
The Department of Law report also said Edgmon failed to properly disclose some rental properties in Dillingham — they’re listed, but in the “debts” section of the report, rather than under “interests.”
The Department of Law flagged Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, as possibly being the owner of William B Stapp LLC but also noted that the firm was dissolved in 2015, five years before Stapp first ran for office.
“I’m not actually sure why they even flagged me,” Stapp said on Friday.
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, published a video on social media after the report listed him as owning a business in Switzerland. Gray said he’s both never been to Switzerland and never owned a business.
In a comment posted by Fairbanks writer Dermot Cole, independent state House candidate Joy Beth Cottle of Fairbanks said that the Department of Law review incorrectly flagged her as having an out-of-date disclosure form.
Cottle filed to run for office in 2025, a year ahead of the deadline, and thus filed a form covering the 2024 tax year. State law doesn’t require an updated POFD in that case. Several other candidates were dinged for the same reason.
Cottle also noted that she was linked to a property she “sold in 2013 and has since burnt to the ground and changed owners several times. I drove by and took a picture of it — it’s a vacant lot.”
In Anchorage, Coulombe said she was faulted for not listing her husband’s last name. After 40-plus years of marriage, she said, she thought it would be assumed that they had the same last name.
She was also faulted for listing only the zip code of a rental property. She’s since submitted a revised form to fix the problem.
“If a mistake or something happened, then OK, email me and I’ll fix it,” Coulombe said. “But you know, the whole idea of putting this big list out like we’re all hiding something is just — I have no words for that.”
Coulombe and other legislators named in the report said they are suspicious of the way the Department of Law and Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration handled it.
Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel was surprised to hear she was flagged by the review. The department said she failed to disclose being a director of Anchorage Community Mental Health Services, Inc., but that is the old name of the Anchorage Behavioral Health which was changed in 2020. Giessel is president of the board, which is listed on her disclosure report.
“Well, see, the Department of Law is going after anyone that is not a staunch radical right Republican,” she said. “So that is really immaterial to me.”
The list of candidates in the department’s review include 24 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 17 independents.
“I have huge concerns about what the Dunleavy administration is doing with the departments under its control,” she said. “This is unbelievable — the overreach that’s happening, the inappropriate behavior, the obvious interference in elections. It’s no wonder, many of my constituents, as I knock door-to-door, don’t trust this election system because they’re seeing all of this, very — I’ll call it ‘very unusual’ in quotes — behavior by state government and the federal government.”
Witty responded to Giessel’s comment by email on Friday.
“I have worked for the Department of Law for 20 years, through five administrations, and I can tell you unequivocally, that what occurred last week was not motivated by politics. The informal review was done completely internally by line level staff who only want to do good work for the people of Alaska,” she said. “The list includes candidates from all party affiliations and does not target one political party over another. By its nature, it had to be done on an extremely expedited timeline and could not be as thorough as anyone would have wanted it to be. We have been very open that the list likely contained errors and we have consistently messaged this to the candidates and to the public. However, the preliminary findings contained enough potential discrepancies to raise questions about whether the law was being applied fairly across the field of candidates. The bottom line is that candidates were added back onto the ballot and the field remains broad — allowing voters to have the final say.”
When Lady Gaga’s mom was first introduced to Michael Polansky, she didn’t exactly keep a poker face.
Because Cynthia Germanotta just had a hunch that the investor and her daughter would have…
E! Online (US) – Top Stories
Sarah Short, Republican candidate for House District 13, is seen in a photo from 2025. (Sarah Short photo)
Sarah Short, a Republican candidate for House District 13 in Anchorage, sued the Alaska Public Offices Commission and the Alaska Division of Elections on Thursday, arguing that she was improperly disqualified from running in the primary after failing to file a personal financial disclosure form on time.
Short is representing herself in the case. An official with the Alaska Department of Law said on Friday afternoon that the state had not yet been served with the suit. Thursday was the deadline to file an election-related challenge.
Part of her complaint is based on Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom’s decision to allow state House candidate Jose Tagle and governor candidate Treg Taylor to run in the general election despite filing problematic Public Official Financial Disclosure forms.
“I request my name be put on the 2026 general election ballot for Alaska House Seat 13 as a remedy for this wrongful, arbitrary and capricious denial, given that several candidates have submitted far less “complete” POFD forms, one in fact (Jose Anthony Tagle) had NO FINANCIAL information on it whatsoever,” she wrote.
By phone on Friday, Short said she had attempted to submit a disclosure on June 1, the deadline to run for office, but technical problems meant the commission — which handles disclosures — never received her signature.
When they register to run for office, candidates are required to submit a form listing their personal finances from the previous year. If they don’t submit one, they cannot run.
Because Short was on the East Coast, settling the estate of her grandmother, she could not act in person, she said. That issue, other family matters, and a lack of support from the Alaska Republican Party, kept her from filing a legal challenge earlier, she said.
Currently, Democratic candidate Lisa Keller is the sole remaining candidate running in House District 13. The seat was vacated by Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, who is retiring and did not seek re-election.
Short said that if her lawsuit is unsuccessful, she intends to run a write-in campaign for the seat.
“My platform is super simple: faith, family, freedom, and fighting fraud for future generations,” she said.
Short said she has been alarmed by the rise in the number of unhoused Anchorage residents and she says that the situation is causing both safety and humanitarian issues.
“I have a daughter that needs to be protected. We already have an egregious amount of sexual assaults against both men and women, and we have a failure of the system to address or hold those people committing those crimes accountable,” Short said. “We have substances like fentanyl and heroin on the streets in epic proportions, and people are dying, and it doesn’t matter if you are red or blue. Doesn’t matter what your politics are. Those people out there on the street are somebody’s family, and we’re not taking care of them and getting them back on the road. And when we don’t, every fractured family is a fractured community.”
Short said she has requested that the Anchorage Superior Court take up her case on an expedited basis.
The Alaska Division of Elections has said that it expects to begin sending ballots to military and overseas voters on Sept. 18.
Correction: The initial version of this article included an incorrect filing date. The lawsuit was filed Thursday.
When Consumer Reports set out to find the top-performing drip coffee maker on the market, the winning model came from this lesser-known brand.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
After eight and a half years of work, a production reclaiming Lingít epic storytelling through emotional historical accounts of war in Sitka will come to life onstage for the first time Friday.
“Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit – Russian Battles” was commissioned by Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Kaaháni Worl to further Lingít voices in Western performing arts, harkening back to ancient forms of oratory and dance performed in natural amphitheaters. Ḵutulagaaw loosely translates to “the war…
BEST FRENEMIES: Didn’t see this one coming.
At Friday’s ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani — he of the recent anti-Muslim tirade — shook hands with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the subject of that rant.
The former Republican mayor even offered prayers for Mamdani during their brief exchange, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who was granted anonymity to discuss it.
“Rudy told him he knows it’s a tough job and he’s praying for him,” the person told Playbook.
After attending a memorial service at a church near ground zero later in the day, Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, told reporters he and Giuliani “exchanged pleasantries” when asked what they discussed.
In another unexpected clasp, NBC News reported former Mayor Bill de Blasio was seen hugging and amicably chatting with his longtime tormentor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Republican Vice President JD Vance milled about among Democratic foes including former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. And a Giuliani aide publicly defended both Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from allegations they were laughing throughout the ceremony (they were not).
What does it all mean?
It seems — despite an unprecedented buildup of partisan rancor directed, for the most part, at the current New York City mayor ahead of the Lower Manhattan ceremony — that the gravity of the event and the desire to focus on the 2,983 victims was enough to bring beefing politicians back down to earth, for a few hours at least.
“This is a moment of common humanity and that’s what I saw on display from people who may say things in the moment. But at that moment, we were united,” Gov. Kathy Hochul told CNN.
New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks told Playbook he believes Giuliani was “following in the steps of Jesus” by offering prayers to Mamdani. “He asks us to pray for not only those we love and who we agree with, but to pray for everyone,” he said. “So I just really believe that it’s following in his footsteps, and prayer is a powerful sign of unity, and however that exchange was between them, hopefully it’s a great reflection of Christ.”
The idea that a sitting New York City mayor would skip a 9/11 commemoration ceremony is farfetched, and 74% of New York voters told a pollster recently the mayor should go. But Mamdani was asked to stay away anyhow for reasons ranging from his association with a Twitch streamer who once said “America deserved 9/11” to his own religion. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman urged first responders to turn their backs on the young democratic socialist.
At Friday’s ceremony, however, none of that happened. And in fact, the elected officials were mostly an afterthought.
Family members read out the names of every victim over the course of several hours in a ceremony interspersed with moments of silence to denote milestones in the terror attacks, including the moments when two commercial jets slammed into the twin towers.
All living presidents and mayors — with the exception of President Donald Trump and former Mayor Eric Adams — attended.
Throughout the proceedings, Mamdani and the crowd of officials largely observed the recitation in silence, with Mamdani staying after the event to speak and take photos with several families.
The political comity, however, gave way to an arch warning once the memorial was over.
In an interview following the event, Cuomo said the memorial service should, in part, serve as a reminder to remain vigilant for a younger generation of political leaders like Mamdani, the man who defeated him in last year’s hotly contested mayoral election.
“They should be thinking that this is not a page of history,” he said, pointing to the war in Iran and rising concerns over antisemitism. “This is a present-day threat. It wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. This could happen again. The circumstances for it happening again are much more real than they’ve been in a long time.”
And outside the World Trade Center memorial, a heated clash between two elements of the far-right was a stark reminder of the country’s messy and increasingly fractured political landscape, with white nationalist Jake Lang staging an anti-Muslim rally that was counter-protested by a man shouting “Allahu akbar” and men dressed as Nazis shouting antisemitic slogans. — Joe Anuta, Nick Reisman and Chris Sommerfeldt
From the Capitol
SCHOOL VAX: New York is seeing a spike in parents seeking exemptions from the state’s school vaccine mandates, with one of those challenges potentially headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A mother looking to preserve her unvaccinated child’s kindergarten enrollment at the Waverly School in Eastchester is challenging the state’s vaccination laws, which only allow students with an approved medical exemption to attend school without the required vaccines, according to court documents filed last month.
The Supreme Court declined to intervene in a Sept. 8 order, without offering any explanation. But Patricia Finn, the attorney representing the family, says the case will proceed at the federal trial court level, but the child won’t be allowed in school while the court deliberates. If they lose, they plan to petition to bring it before the Supreme Court.
The case represents a challenge to school immunization mandates that have been in place since 1996. The state Legislature eliminated religious exemptions after a deadly measles outbreak in an Orthodox Jewish community. Those mandates — which apply to all public, private and religious schools — require children to receive all age-appropriate required vaccinations in order to be admitted to or attend a school.
The state Education Department said it received more appeals requesting medical exemptions to required vaccinations during the 2025-26 school year than ever before. Both that agency and the state Health Department declined to provide data backing that claim, though.
However, the Health Department provided a dataset on the state’s school immunization survey. For the 2024-25 school year, 941 of 2,755 public schools outside New York City reported at least one student with a medical exemption, according to the data. Among private schools, 184 of 861 reported at least one student with a medical exemption.
Read more from POLITICO Pro’s Madina Touré and Katelyn Cordero.
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ENDORSEMENT CORNER: Hochul picked up an endorsement today from Everytown for Gun Safety.
The gun safety group touted Hochul’s work “banning 3D-printed ghost guns, getting illegal guns off our streets, and driving gun violence to its lowest levels in recorded New York history.”
Hochul, who’s running for her second full term this year, has been leaning into messaging about safety and frequently touts drops in crime under her leadership. In 2022, crime was a pain point for New York Democrats up and down the ballot.
In its endorsement, Everytown chided Trump, as well as Hochul’s opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, for “cowering to the gun lobby.”
Blakeman has pushed back against a state law prohibiting guns in sensitive locations, including places of worship. He said he has “always supported the Second Amendment,” and in an appeal to Second Amendment supporters, vowed to “vigorously defend the rights of law-abiding New Yorkers.” Democrats have gone after him for implementing a provisional special deputy sheriff program made up of armed citizens.
But Blakeman has faced skepticism from gun-rights advocates for previously saying he supports “reasonable restrictions” on gun ownership.
While the NRA Political Victory Fund gave Hochul an F rating, it lists a question mark for Blakeman — along with his running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, and GOP attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy. The group has not endorsed in any of New York’s statewide races. — Madison Fernandez
PAC IT UP: Major GOP groups are descending on the Hudson Valley to boost Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.
No Going Back PAC, a super PAC affiliated with the president’s political operation, has reserved a $4 million ad buy in the district, according to the ad tracker AdImpact. A separate group called Safety and Affordability PAC placed close to $3 million in ads. And that’s on top of close to $7 million from the Congressional Leadership Fund.
In addition, America PAC, the group backed by Elon Musk, has so far spent around $50,000 on calls and printing, according to Federal Election Commission records. Another group, America First Agriculture Action Inc., put in more than $300,000 for mail and digital advertising.
There hasn’t been significant outside spending in support of Democratic challenger Cait Conley yet.
Outside GOP spending is also ramping up in Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi’s Long Island district. CLF has placed $4 million in advertising, per AdImpact, and No Going Back PAC has put in more than $200,000 to support Suozzi’s GOP challenger, former state Assemblymember Mike LiPetri.
The substantial buys are a sign of which New York districts national Republicans are prioritizing this year. Last week, CLF pulled its reservations in support of state Sen. Peter Oberacker, who’s challenging Democratic Rep. Josh Riley upstate. — Madison Fernandez
IN OTHER NEWS
— MOTOR SKILLS: A version of Tesla’s autonomous Cybercabs — which have been modified to include a steering wheel and an option for a driver to intervene — have hit the streets of New York City. (Gothamist)
— ENDORSEMENT WATCH: On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Hochul secured the endorsements of three major firefighter unions. (City & State)
— BAR FLIGHT: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is among 1,000 lawyers suspended from practicing in New York. (Times Union)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Politics