Category: Politics

Adam Hamilton on faith, Trump and the fight for Kansas

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​Politics

WORKING OUT THE KINKS: New York’s Department of Health began transitioning more than 147,000 Medicaid and Medicare Savings Program enrollees to an upgraded case management system about a year ago.

Since then, state officials say only a third of them have been able to automatically renew their coverage without assistance.

The shift is part of a $1.1 billion contract aimed at creating an automated system for Medicaid enrollees to receive real-time determinations on their eligibility for the two programs. While the new system is intended to create a seamless enrollment process, for many consumers it’s been riddled with challenges.

The initiative is part of a broader effort to move the Medicaid program away from local social services departments that still rely on paper applications and an outdated system in desperate need of overhaul. The state wants to transition the program to one centralized system run through its public health insurance marketplace, New York State of Health, according to officials.

Lindsay Heckler, managing attorney for policy at the nonprofit Center for Elder Law & Justice, said her firm has seen a surge in inappropriate denials.

“I’m not saying the new system shouldn’t be in place,” Heckler said. “But the concern is that the training and processes that are in place are preventing people from becoming eligible. My concern is that in the coming year they are moving more people into a system that doesn’t have the kinks worked out for the people that are in the system right now.”

The state began rolling out the new Medicaid Eligibility and Client Management system in September 2025. A second wave of more complex cases is expected to migrate to the new system between November 2027 and February 2028. And while state officials say the system — which was created by Deloitte Consulting through a $1.1 billion contract — was thoroughly tested by both the Health Department and the company, they concede that problems remain and are being addressed as they’re flagged.

Advocates describe the situation in starker terms. They say errors have put health care coverage in jeopardy for people who are 65 years and older, blind or disabled. They also told POLITICO they’ve discovered inaccurate information being transferred, a flawed automated asset verification tool and state workers’ inability to manually override inappropriate denials.

Deloitte did not respond to a request for comment.

New York entered into a $177 million contract with Deloitte in August 2023. But that projected outlay has grown to $1.18 billion after the state quietly filed four amendments to the initial deal, which ended on March 31, 2025. The latest amendment included an $866 million extension along with a work plan modification, according to details of the contract listed in the Open Book New York database.

The Health Department said the contract extension will complete the migration of Medicaid enrollees to the new system, which includes more complex cases in the next wave, such as long-term care and nursing home patients. The contract also includes additional funding for Deloitte to conduct testing and ensure compliance with new federal requirements.

“This multi-year transition to a centrally administered model will replace the outdated, expensive, error-prone and inefficient paper-based system with a streamlined, user-friendly platform that better supports the health coverage needs of New Yorkers while reducing the potential for waste, fraud, and abuse,” Health Department spokesperson Cadence Acquaviva said in a statement. “At every step of the way, this transition and contract were subject to extensive federal review and approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”

Read more in POLITICO Pro from Katelyn Cordero. 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Join POLITICO’s New York Outlook: Affordability, Industry & The Economy on Oct. 14 for live conversations about the business and policy decisions being made today — from City Hall to the State Capitol — that will shape the city’s economic future. The lineup includes New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, New York City Economic Development Corp. CEO Anthony Shorris, Partnership for NYC CEO Steven Fulop, Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein, Charles H. Revson Foundation President Maria Torres-Springer, and more. Register now to attend in person or watch the livestream.

From the Capitol

JACOBS WINS: State Democratic Committee Chair Jay Jacobs handily won a new two-year term on the job, receiving 82 percent of the weighted vote at a party gathering in Westchester today.

Jacobs — who angered the left last year by declining to endorse then-Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani in the general election — faced a challenge from Otsego County chair Caitlin Ogden. He preached unity as his victory message, inviting Ogden to join his leadership team in a “substantive” role.

“This party has got to come to an understanding that our first priority is electing Democrats in whatever districts they’re in, and speak the language of the people in those districts,” Jacobs said. “All sides of our party need to learn to listen, to understand, to respect each other. There should be no vitriol inside the Democratic Party tent.”

Party members have traditionally supported the governor’s choice for chair. Gov. Kathy Hochul never publicly wavered in her support for Jacobs, making clear in recent weeks he was still her pick.

“I want to thank him for accepting the weight, the responsibilities,” she told party officials today. “Not the easiest job in the state. But he has done it in a way that has brought us together.”

Jacobs, who also heads the Nassau County Democratic Committee, has chaired the state party under the past three governors, serving from 2009-2012 and since 2019. If he completes his new two-year stint, he’d be just one term away from surpassing FDR kingmaker James Farley as the longest-tenured chair in the history of the New York Democrats. — Bill Mahoney

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

POLL POSITION: Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic challenger Cait Conley are locked in a tight race, per a new Emerson College/PIX11 poll.

Conley earned 48% of support to Lawler’s 46%, with 7% of respondents undecided.

Lawler has more crossover support than Conley does, and independents break for him. But the pollsters note the percentage of Democratic backing for him fell from an Emerson survey in October 2024, while Conley’s GOP support increased compared to Lawler’s 2024 opponent, former Rep. Mondaire Jones.

Hochul’s favorability is underwater in the district — 40% of respondents approve and 49% disapprove — though the pollsters acknowledge she’s on better footing than she was in 2024. President Donald Trump is also unpopular, with 43% approving his performance and 53% disapproving. The poll did not ask about Mamdani, a favorite foil of Lawler’s on the trail.

The survey was conducted among 400 likely voters from Sept. 27-29. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.9 percentage points. — Madison Fernandez

TRUMP TO CNY: Trump is considering a trip to upstate New York on Oct. 9 to appear alongside Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

The event is being considered for central New York, but has not been finalized, said a fourth person. The people were granted anonymity to disclose the private conversations about the potential trip.

Blakeman’s campaign did not comment and the White House did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Trump previously appeared on Long Island this summer to rally with Blakeman and Republican House candidates.

Read more from POLITICO’s Nick Reisman.

FROM CITY HALL

BILLIONAIRE’S ZO: Mamdani hosted fifteen business leaders — several of them billionaires — at Gracie Mansion yesterday for the inaugural meeting of his Business Advisory Council.

The council brings together business executives across industries to help guide the city’s economic policy and shepherd growth and innovation. Despite decrying the ultra wealthy, Mamdani welcomed input from billionaires such as Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya and Jefferson River Capital Chairman Tony James on how to address the affordability crisis, which has inhibited their ability to recruit top talent.

The council also discussed potential plans to convert unused office space across the city into arts and research hubs, according to a spokesperson for the mayor.

While he was welcoming other business execs to his home, one of the mayor’s biggest billionaire foes, Ken Griffin, was announcing his $3 billion donation to Carnegie Mellon University, the largest single donation in the history of American higher education.

Most of that money is earmarked to build the university a new campus in Miami — months after Griffin said the mayor’s rhetoric prompted him to “double down” on investments in Florida, rather than New York.

The Mamdani-Griffin beef swelled this spring when the mayor posed in front of Griffin’s $238 million penthouse in a social media video promoting his pied-à-terre tax. In the post, Mamdani framed the billionaire as a prime target of his tax-the-rich agenda.

Griffin responded by calling the video “creepy and weird,” saying his plans to further invest outside of New York were “an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor’s poor decision.”

“We will welcome anyone’s support, anyone’s involvement, and we will always do so because this is a city that belongs to all who live here,” Mamdani said when asked about Griffin’s historic donation. — Molly Reinmann

IN OTHER NEWS

— RETREAT: NYC first lady Rama Duwaji reportedly sojourned at an Islamic wellness retreat with a history of calling for the destruction of Israel, as her husband was rolling out his blueprint to combat antisemitism. (Washington Free Beacon)

— CHATBOT GOVERNANCE: The Mamdani administration is planning to unroll new AI safeguards, including cracking down on chatbots used in customer service and launching a formal study of AI assistants. (POLITICO Pro)

— SPEEDING THINGS UP: Mamdani’s administration unveiled 12 districts where housing will be fast-tracked. (POLITICO Pro)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics

Republicans know President Donald Trump’s unpopularity poses a big problem for them in November. They also recognize he may be their only option to avoid a wipeout.

Five weeks before Election Day, many Republicans are facing a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t dilemma. Some candidates in close races are wary of alienating undecided voters by campaigning alongside Trump and the baggage that comes with him: high gas prices, voters’ persistent economic concerns and the prolonged war in Iran.

But keeping the president at arm’s length could make it harder to turn out the low-propensity base voters they need — voters that only Trump has been able to bring to the polls.

“These guys are in a pickle,” said one national GOP operative granted anonymity to speak candidly about the landscape, like others in this article. “They may not want Trump to come to the district, but there are still things that Trump can do to help.”

Asked what would happen if Trump campaigned in a battleground state where their candidates were running, another GOP operative working on midterm races said: “I suspect my candidates would come down with COVID.”

But the candidates may not have much of a choice. Trump is increasingly inserting himself into the election in the closing stretch, ramping up his campaign travel with a slate of stops scheduled in red states, repeatedly imploring voters to “pretend” he’s on the ballot and, most recently, appearing in taxpayer-funded campaign-style ads that the White House has claimed are public service announcements.

Some Republicans have encouraged Trump’s team not to send the president to a blue-leaning Omaha district and other key districts where his approval rating is underwater ahead of Election Day, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Brinker Harding is running in the Omaha seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.); his campaign didn’t respond when asked if he’ll attend Trump’s upcoming rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, about a two-hour drive away.

Others have said similar things.

“They’ve called me four times now to see if we want him to come, and I’ve said no,” one senior Republican involved in a House GOP battleground race in a district Trump safely won in 2024 told POLITICO.

Another Republican operative familiar with Republican midterm strategy said the party views its role — and Trump’s — primarily as driving GOP turnout, while the work of persuading moderates, independents and other swing voters falls more heavily on individual candidates.

“Where the president is going is being decided very strategically, to areas where we are trying to boost turnout among Republican voters,” the operative said. “We’re not going to be sending him into areas where it would necessarily be hurtful to our candidates.”

Others in red states that are increasingly competitive acknowledge that if they want to rally the MAGA base to the degree necessary to hold onto key seats, no one can deliver like Trump.

“He’s a turnout machine for the Republican Party, the president is,” said Ohio GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou, who will welcome Trump to his state Saturday. “I certainly know what some of the national polling and some of the pundits have to say about this. But he is always welcome to Ohio because we know that he fires our people up.”

Not everyone thinks Trump is a net-positive even in places he comfortably won.

A national GOP operative, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said there are “no indications that there are enough turn out voters to overcome dropping some persuasion voters.”

Outgoing North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn’t think it would be helpful for Trump to campaign in his state — which the president won in all three of his presidential runs, and where former RNC Chair Michael Whatley is struggling to tighten the race against former Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

“Not in my opinion — just if you take a look at the votes — you take a look at the independents. I don’t think he’s the one who’s going to get them out,” he told POLITICO.

“I think [Trump’s] job is to get the people out who traditionally vote for him and don’t show up in off-year elections,” he added. “Our job [as candidates] is to then … create some separation. It’s not like you’re breaking your loyalty to the president. … So there are states I think he should go to, there are states I don’t think he should go to.”

The Whatley campaign, however, feels differently. “Who drives R turnout right now in NC — Trump or Tillis? We would welcome Trump back to NC,” said Whatley’s senior adviser, Jonathan Felts. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been to North Carolina to campaign with Whatley in recent weeks.

Trump’s upcoming stop in a red corner of Ohio outside Dayton is part of a broader campaign swing that reflects the political bind. Other stops scheduled include in deep-red states like Oklahoma and Alabama, as well as in red states with key Senate contests including Ohio, Nebraska and Alaska.

Ironically, the expanding battleground map could make Trump more useful to Republicans in some of the places they are most worried about. As the fight has spread into states and districts he won by double digits, simply turning out more of his base may be enough to make a difference.

The White House argued Trump is the “unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party.”

“No one can dispute the fact that President Trump has created one of the most robust coalitions in political history with the MAGA movement, and the President understands how to communicate with them,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said.

The Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee also said Trump is still a valuable turnout tool, and their candidates are eager to have the president visit their districts and to appear with him on the campaign trail. The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

But some of the voters Republicans most need Trump to activate — especially blue-collar white voters in rural areas who came out to vote for him but often skip voting in the midterms — are themselves unhappy with his presidency.

Recent POLITICO polling found that even some of Trump’s strongest supporters — those who identify as MAGA — are souring on his handling of key issues. A POLITICO Poll in August found that a 44% plurality of MAGA Trump voters said the Iran war has made things more expensive for them, while 38% said the war has had no real impact on their costs.

“It’s really Trump’s voting base that’s feeling the pain of Trump the most,” said another Republican operative involved in several battleground races across the country, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the landscape.“They have to turn those people out. But those people are pissed at Trump, so it’s this weird dynamic of like: ‘Does he help? Does he hurt? Can he go and encourage the disenfranchised, the really pissed off Republican Trump voter?’” the operative said. “That’s really going to be what decides the outcome of this election.”

It’s noteworthy which GOP candidates are enthusiastically coming out to Trump’s rallies — and which are sitting out or staying mum on their plans.

A spokesperson confirmed that Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), who is locked in a tough race in a state Trump won by double-digits, will attend Trump’s upcoming rally outside of Dayton; a spokesperson for Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, did not respond to an inquiry about Ramaswamy’s attendance plans, nor did spokespeople for the trio of GOP House candidates running in Ohio’s competitive 1st, 7th and 9th districts.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP Senate candidate in Iowa, recently said the Iran war needs to be “brought to a successful and immediate end,” in a rare public break with Trump. Hinson also did not attend a campaign rally Vance held in western Iowa in mid-September. She did, however, appear in the Oval Office behind Trump earlier this week when he announced a plan to build a $15 billion steel plant in Iowa.  

But with an ever-darkening environment, some Republicans see any efforts to reverse course as better than nothing.

“Everybody sees the polling,” said Daniel Garza, a Texas Republican strategist and president of the conservative LIBRE Initiative. “Is the polling accurate? I have no idea. All I know is that turnout is going to be key to this, and anything helps right now, at this point.”

Jordain Carney and Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.

​Politics

The Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to restrict mail voting. But for Democrats trying to turn out voters, the uncertainty seems harder to put to rest.

Fewer Democrats say they plan to vote by mail in November’s midterms than at the same point in 2024, according to a new NBC News poll, as a separate survey finds declining confidence that the Postal Service will deliver election mail on time. That represents an about-face for a party that has increasingly embraced mail voting since the 2020 pandemic election, forcing Democratic strategists to rethink how they get voters to the polls — and how to convince them their ballots will count.

Quentin James, founder and president of the Collective PAC, said his group is hearing concerns from Black voters about whether their mailed ballots will be secure and counted.

“I think there’s confusion,” James said. “We know that the president has spent six months talking about changing the rules regarding mail-in voting, and a lot of folks are concerned about their ballot being secure.”

That confusion comes as Democrats and voting groups weigh how to reassure voters after Trump’s latest effort to restrict mail voting. The president signed an executive order in March seeking to crack down on mail-in voting, citing unproven claims that the process is insecure and vulnerable to electoral fraud.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s gone on,” Trump said during an Oval Office signing ceremony. “I think this will help a lot with elections.”

Still, the rules for mail ballots — at least nationally — will be effectively the same as 2024 after the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to enforce the new mail-in ballot delivery regulations in a ruling earlier this month. The high court left in place a lower-court decision that blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing the new proposed requirements in the weeks before the midterm election.

Despite that, Democratic voters have signaled they are changing how they’ll vote.

In the NBC poll, 23% of registered Democrats said they plan to vote by mail, down from 34% in September 2024. Thirty-six percent said they plan to vote early in person, up from 30%, while another 36% expect to vote on Election Day.

A Marist poll found that 58% of registered voters were confident the Postal Service would deliver election-related mail to voters and election officials on time, down from 71% in October 2024. Marist also found that Democrats remain more likely than Republicans to plan to vote by mail or absentee ballot, 32% to 12%, respectively.

James said his organization has long encouraged early in-person voting through its Rides to Vote program, which provides transportation to voters without a vehicle. But despite the Supreme Court ruling, his organization is also encouraging people considering voting by mail to use a ride voucher to return their completed ballots directly to the required location.

“The bigger threat is confusion and fear,” he said. “That is the thing that a court case will not solve, and that’s what we’re really concerned about.”

In Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said municipal clerks have reported voters canceling absentee ballot requests, including requests to receive ballots automatically in future elections.

Bellows cautioned against a blanket message to vote in person. “We would discourage advocates from telling people not to vote by mail if, for those voters, that’s their only option,” said Bellows, a Democrat who ran this cycle for governor and in the rapid-fire Senate primary, pointing to older and disabled Mainers who rely on absentee voting.

Her office is instead urging voters to make a plan that works for them, return mailed ballots early and use Maine’s online absentee ballot tracking system to check whether a clerk has received and accepted them.

“Our public education efforts have been focused on encouraging voters to make a plan that’s right for them, and recognizing that they have the peace of mind of tracking their absentee ballot and the backup option of voting on Election Day if, for any reason, the ballot is delayed by the mail,” Bellows said.

Indivisible, one of the party’s largest grassroots groups, is mounting its own early-vote push and nudging people to cast their ballots early, regardless of how they vote. Co-founder Leah Greenberg said that the group is helping organize an Oct. 17 national day of action to encourage people to vote early under their states’ rules.

“So we were absolutely hearing concern,” Greenberg said. “But more importantly, what we’re hearing is people trying to figure out what they can do and how they can organize locally in order to protect elections.”

Greenberg said Indivisible is urging voters to get their ballots in early and emphasizing that a court rejected the administration’s attempt to restrict mail voting.

Still, the ruling hasn’t erased the uncertainty organizers say they are hearing from voters. Greenberg and James described a similar mix of relief and concern among voters.

“People are glad to hear it, but still wary,” Greenberg said.

Democrats, including state election officials who oversee the process, are also looking for ways to boost confidence in the mail system. Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar has asked his state’s congressional delegation to arrange election observers at postal facilities handling Nevada’s ballots.

In letters to the state’s congressional delegation, Aguilar identified sites in Las Vegas and Reno, as well as facilities in West Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Aguilar said nearly 670,000 Nevadans voted by mail in 2024 and argued that having observers present could strengthen confidence in ballot handling. In an interview, he said observers would also signal to postal workers that they have support in the process.

“By having observers there, it gives them the support to say: ‘Hey, we got your back,’” Aguilar said. “We also want to be helpful if there are any concerns — we want to make sure that leadership knows we are not going to stay quiet. We’re going to be proactive. We’re going to be engaged, and we’re going to hold them accountable when we need to hold them accountable.”

Aguilar said Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) has requested observers following his letters. Lee’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

USPS said it had received correspondence regarding Aguilar’s request and was reviewing it. “The Postal Service has successfully delivered America’s election mail, and we are confident that we will do so again this year,” said Nikolaj Hagen, a Postal Service spokesperson.

Hagen pointed to USPS figures showing it delivered 233.3 million pieces of election mail through Aug. 28 in fiscal year 2026, with 97.94% arriving on time. In the 2022 election, USPS handled 105.4 million ballots and delivered 99.93% of those sent by voters to election officials within seven days. In 2024, it handled 222.39 million pieces of ballot mail, with 99.88% delivered to officials within seven days.

Meanwhile, Bellows said Maine is taking a different approach. Local USPS representatives have proposed weekly meetings with her election staff, she said, and her office has relationships with workers at the state’s two distribution centers.

But she noted congressional observers could be useful in larger states where those relationships are less established.

“Maine is a small enough place where, if there were a problem, we would probably know very quickly through union representatives or simply word of mouth,” Bellows said, noting that congressional observers at postal locations could be particularly useful in places “where those relationships may not be as strong or well established.”

​Politics

Sen. Jon Ossoff hosted a few hundred donors and supporters for a recent Washington fundraiser — but it wasn’t just for him.

Instead, the Sept. 16 gathering was geared toward raising money for the Democratic Party of Georgia and its coordinated campaign, according to an Ossoff aide and one attendee, who was granted anonymity to describe a private event.

It’s part of his broader effort to boost state Democrats as they look to flip the governor’s mansion for the first time in over 20 years and improve their margins in the Legislature. And the timing, just weeks before November, signals confidence in Ossoff’s own reelection prospects and the sizable war chest he’s raised for himself.

This month’s event was the latest of several similar fundraisers Ossoff has held over the last two years. He plans to host more fundraisers for Georgia’s Democratic Party and the coordinated campaign ahead of Election Day, according to one person familiar with his planning, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

If his moves are successful and November ushers in historic wins for Georgia Democrats, Ossoff will have cemented his status as a serious leader in the critical swing state. He would hold on to a crucial seat in the Senate as the party looks toward the South to shore up its future. He’d be credited in part with helping elect former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as the country’s first Black woman governor. And though Ossoff has said he’s not interested in joining a 2028 presidential race, leading a November sweep would ultimately raise his national profile.

“It would be hard to call him anything but a leader of the [state] party at that point. He’s already inching his way towards that kind of designation,” said Andrew Heaton, a Georgia-based Democratic strategist who supports the ticket. “But if there is the kind of success that a lot of people are predicting for the cycle, he would receive a large portion of the credit for that.”

Ossoff’s campaign did not comment beyond confirming the fundraisers.

The events are just part of Ossoff’s endeavor to help build out the Georgia Democratic Party’s apparatus after a rough 2024 election cycle.

The senator has transferred $3.6 million of his own campaign funds to the party’s coordinated campaign to date, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported. Since the effort was announced in July, the party has opened 30 field offices across the sizable state and employs more than 100 field staffers helping with grassroots organizing for races up and down the ballot.

The coordinated campaign is led by a former Ossoff political director, Kyle Tromley. Caroline Saudek, a longtime fundraiser for Ossoff’s political operation, also joined the state party in January in a fundraising-focused role.

Democrats across the state — from the densely populated Atlanta metro to Georgia’s small sliver of Atlantic coast — said they’ve seen a marked difference in the coordinated campaign’s involvement this cycle, from consistent communication to investment in smaller-profile races. That transformation, several noted, started when Chair Charlie Bailey took the helm.

Bailey, an attorney from rural Harris County and former statewide candidate for lieutenant governor, became the leader of the party in mid-2025 with Ossoff’s crucial support.

“It is definitely a stronger coordinated campaign than I’ve seen in years, and in previous cycles. And it feels like it is better staffed, they staffed up earlier,” said Heaton, the Georgia-based Democratic strategist.

Republicans are also taking note of the newly improved Democratic machine in a state that, until 2020, was a safe-red hold for the most high-profile races. Already, GOP fears are growing about Rep. Mike Collins’ ability to beat Ossoff. And polls show GOP gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson locked in a tight battle with Bottoms, despite having dropped tens of millions from his own bank account into the race.

Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon shrugged off Democrats’ fundraising efforts and said he feels “very good” about Republicans’ field resources.

“We’ve had a field program in place for months now. We have field staff on the ground all over the state,” he said in an interview, though he declined to provide details on the size of the Georgia GOP’s paid and volunteer operation.

Others aren’t as dismissive.

“The Democratic Party has deployed resources to hire staff that mobilizes and turns out voters. Republicans have not had this competitive of a race in a while, so they don’t have that type of muscle memory,” said Ryan Mahoney, a longtime Georgia-based Republican strategist.

“The Democrats are in such a great spot,” he added. “It’s because the apparatus has been tested and is working.”

​Politics

Facing his toughest election challenge in years, GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has blanketed southeast Pennsylvania with attacks on his Democratic opponent — many of them citing what appear to be independent local news reports.

“Bob Harvie calls himself a king,” reads one article quoted in a June television spot.

“Bob Harvie has his FBI files but refuses to release them,” reads another headline quoted in a September digital ad.

Another quotes, “Bob Harvie to independent voters: ‘join a political party or lose your right to vote.’”

These ads and five others all cite headlines from Patch, once a well-funded experiment in “hyperlocal” news that garnered hefty audiences in some communities but has since withered into a largely unedited volunteer operation.

That isn’t the only reason to question the reliability of coverage referenced in the ads: Each of the articles cited carry the byline of Dave Sommers, a Levittown, Pennsylvania, man with close ties to Fitzpatrick and a checkered history with law enforcement.

The battle for the 1st Congressional District has grown increasingly nasty as the five-term incumbent battles national headwinds for Republicans and tries to fend off a spirited challenge from Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner.

Central to the GOP defense strategy has been a costly ad blitz, with Fitzpatrick and allies trying to paint Harvie not as a devoted public servant but as an ethically compromised political operator — using Sommers’ headlines as key fodder.

Sommers has received sporadic payments and reimbursements from Fitzpatrick’s campaign, as well as from the campaign of his late brother, Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, dating back to 2010. As recently as 2022, Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign paid Sommers $500 for “office setup services,” according to Federal Election Commission records.

That year, Sommers was charged with stealing an election sign that expressed support for a GOP primary challenger, Alex Entin, according to a local news report.

Sommers has been pictured with Fitzpatrick at campaign and personal events. Fitzpatrick’s Facebook page shows Sommers posing next to the lawmaker at a March 2025 St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Sommers’ own Facebook has featured a stream of posts supporting Fitzpatrick, including one post from June where Sommers is seen sporting a tank top with the phrase “Team Fitz.”

Sommers also attended Fitzpatrick’s June wedding, according to multiple social media posts. In one wedding photo posted to Sommers’ Facebook, he poses with former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), also a guest.

Sommers did not respond to repeated requests for comment about his relationship to Fitzpatrick and his campaign. Spokespeople for the Fitzpatrick campaign also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Reilly Richardson, a spokesperson for the House GOP campaign arm, pointed in a statement to a Friday report that Harvie passed off “known Democrat activists” as “concerned voters” in his own ads and accused him of “lying to voters.”

“Now, he’s desperately trying to distract from his pathetic, flailing campaign, but Pennsylvanians won’t be fooled,” Richardson said of Harvie.

Sommers is a retired reporter who worked for the Bucks County Courier Times, the Trentonian and other local outlets.

He drew headlines of his own after he was prosecuted for trafficking in protected turtles. Prosecutors alleged he made more than $500,000 over six years selling diamondback terrapins online, running afoul of state and federal conservation laws. Sommers was handed a six-month prison sentence in 2019, along with six months of house arrest and a $250,000 fine.

Sommers opened a more recent chapter as a Patch contributor, posting eight articles dating back to late February. They all attack Harvie, slamming him for being “divisive,” “arrogant” and a “hack.” They feature messaging consistent with the Fitzpatrick campaign, including an Aug. 27 post which accuses Harvie of wanting “more data centers in Bucks County.”

Harvie in a statement called Fitzpatrick “a complete and total fraud” and said he’s growing “desperate.”

“Brian Fitzpatrick is worse than the rest of the Washington swamp because he pretends to be different, but the receipts show he is corrupt to the core,” he said.

Harvie has also repeatedly denied several of the Fitzpatrick campaign and its allies’ characterizations of his record, particularly that he was the target of any FBI investigation. Harvie testified before a federal grand jury with other officials in September 2022 as part of an apparent public corruption probe, according to a local report.

He sent a cease-and-desist letter to Fitzpatrick in July, claiming defamation in campaign ads. He also sued the pro-Fitzpatrick Defending America PAC in August for defamatory statements.

The use of headlines mined from self-publishing platforms in political ads is not unheard of, with outlets such as Medium and Substack offering opportunities for both parties to pass off politically motivated attacks as independent reporting. Campaigns around the country have drawn scrutiny for leaning on articles in their campaign materials from partisan sources or that misrepresent their origin — but rarely are they citing sources that have such direct ties to the candidate.

Posting on Patch, like those other platforms, requires only creating an account. An email associated with Sommers appears to be tied to a Patch account, prompting a “Welcome back!” message when it is used to try to open a new account.

​Politics

A slate of Democrats are running for Congress leaning on their Christian bona fides. Republicans are trying to portray them as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

In Texas, Republicans are running ads blasting seminarian James Talarico for saying he’s “a Christian who hates Christianity.” In Iowa, they are going after a pair of clergy in key House races as “PINOS” — “pastors in name only,” because they “don’t profess the true gospel of Jesus Christ.” In Kansas, Republicans pan megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton as “too woke and too weak.”

“His sermons are essentially a carbon copy of the Democrat National Committee platform,” said Brent Robertson, chief of staff to Hamilton’s opponent, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), pointing to a past sermon in which Hamilton urged followers to reduce their carbon footprint.

The closing arguments on these Democrats — as evidenced by the most recent ads — shows a concerted effort to turn their preaching against them to paint them as fake, corrupt or even blasphemous.

In Texas, MAGA Inc. is on air painting Talarico as a “liberal weirdo,” clipping Talarico’s controversial statements, like “Jesus Christ Himself was a radical feminist” and “God is non-binary.”

The Trump-aligned No Going Back PAC is on air in Iowa’s 2nd District hitting Presbyterian minister and Democrat Lindsay James as inauthentic: “When the cameras are on, Lindsay James goes into a character, a caring pastor who says what you want to hear, but when there’s no spotlight, Lindsay James shows just how radical she can be.”

And in Kansas, GOP Sen. Roger Marshall’s campaign is on air slamming Hamilton as a “slimy,” “millionaire megachurch CEO,” saying he “used faith to fatten his wallet” and “asked churchgoers to pony up for God, then use church resources for his own campaign.”

“The swamp’s got enough money changers,” the ad says.

The attacks are coming precisely because these candidates have proven to be formidable candidates in purple to red areas, using their faith backgrounds to bolster themselves against GOP accusations that they’re out of their state’s mainstream. Talarico poses Democrats’ best chance to flip a Texas Senate seat in nearly four decades. Hamilton has turned deep-red Kansas into a battleground. And James and Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister, are running tough in a pair of Iowa districts Trump won in 2024.

Voters “understand and appreciate authenticity, and they know that faith without works is dead,” said Chaz Molder, the Democratic nominee in Tennessee’s deep-red 2nd District who leads a Sunday School class with his wife. “And just posting scripture on Sunday morning to point out that they went to church is not enough.”

But with Democrats’ clerical credibility comes a practical challenge: years and years of on-camera sermons, a treasure trove for oppo researchers. It’s become a challenge in Hamilton’s race, where Vice President JD Vance joined the pile-on earlier this month: During a visit to Iowa, he took a shot at Hamilton as having “kind of a ‘gee whiz, I’m a nice pastor’ vibe,” but said he “tells his congregation not about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that they need to repent for their white privilege while eating beef.”

Democrats have largely brushed off the attacks. Talarico has said he’s “missed the mark” on some of his “cringey” past comments but has doubled down on his sermonizing: “When I take on the politicians who are serving themselves and not the people, I’m doing it on biblical grounds,” he said in a sermon last weekend. A James spokesperson criticized Republicans for “desperately attacking Lindsay’s deeply held faith commitments. If it wasn’t so insulting to other Iowa Christians, it would be laughable.” Hamilton has seen clergy run to his side: 120 fellow Methodist ministers across Kansas wrote an open letter to Marshall telling him to stop attacking Hamilton’s pastoral ministry, saying the attacks “tear at the fabric that is the body of Christ.”

“We’re not the first Christians to be attacked for our faith, and we won’t let smears and lies from a couple of Washington politicians stop us from living out our values in the world,” Hamilton said in a video after Vance’s speech.

In many ways, this election marks something of a faith resurgence for the Democratic Party. While only half of Democrat- and Democrat-leaning U.S. adults identify as Christian (a 24-percentage-point decline since 2007), Democrats this cycle are running clergy, Sunday School teachers, chaplains and other devout Christians across the map.

“As a person of faith, I think that it’s time for the Democratic Party to reassert that Democrats are a big tent, and we have many elected officials from different faiths for whom faith is something very important to them,” said Ben McAdams, the Democratic nominee in Utah’s 1st District and a volunteer Sunday School teacher in his Latter-day Saint congregation in Salt Lake City. “The Republican Party of Donald Trump does not seem to be reflecting the Christian values that I grew up with.”

Doug Pagitt, executive director of progressive group Vote Common Good, counts nine clergy running for federal office this cycle as Democrats — something he hasn’t seen before.

“The idea that a faith leader, especially a white faith leader, would run as a Democrat and be forthright about it … it’s really unusual,” Pagitt said. “We’ve had candidates [in the past] whose moms were pastors, and they were nervous about mentioning that in the Democratic Party circles. But that seems to have shifted and changed.”

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CITY HAL 9000: Amid a mad dash to try to regulate artificial intelligence, City Council Speaker Julie Menin is looking to make her mark.

The Manhattan lawmaker is planning to hold a hearing with all 51 members of the legislative body next week, and today confirmed the attendance of four major AI firms to discuss both the dangers the technology poses and a suite of Council bills that seek to protect New Yorkers.

“Leading experts and AI executives themselves are warning about the potentially grave risks of rapidly advancing AI, and governments have a responsibility to act,” Menin said in a statement announcing she issued a subpoena to SpaceXAI, the artificial intelligence company owned by Elon Musk, to compel the firm to attend.

Council hearings — even those run by lesser-known committees — are not known as concise affairs. And the notion of having all 51 members in the room to pepper AI executives with questions can only mean a marathon day with plenty of news coverage. (Remember Randy Mastro’s general counsel nomination hearing in 2024? No? You didn’t tune in for all 11 hours?)

Between the White House’s opposition to any type of AI regulation and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s desire for federal guardrails — though he has enacted an AI ban in elementary schools — a lane has opened for Menin to have her say in what has become one of the defining debates of the political moment.

Her muscular posture — her office dangled the possibility of subpoenas in front of the companies she sought for Monday’s hearing — shows she is not going to let it go to waste.

The package of bills being pursued by the Council includes a “kill switch” requirement and a new private right of action that would make it easier to sue AI companies. Menin is hoping to get input on that package Monday from artificial intelligence purveyors who agree that something needs to be done to slow the development of frontier AI models.

Google, which plans to be there Monday along with Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta, has released a white paper calling for a regulatory body that could develop safety standards along with audits for frontier AI models that are pushing the bounds of the technology. Separately, the firm has called for a regulatory framework for AI models like chatbots, which are already being used widely by the general public, and for the government to mitigate disruptions to the economy and workforce.

None of the firms have weighed in formally on the Council’s AI package, but one person with knowledge of the bills said there are early questions about how a “kill switch” activated in New York would affect a company’s services elsewhere around the globe, how the private right of action might interact with existing tort laws and whether there are downsides to retaining AI chat histories with consumers for extended periods of time.

Separately, there’s also the question of how the city’s AI bills would mesh with a separate AI regulation framework being pursued by Gov. Kathy Hochul. — Joe Anuta

From the Capitol

GATEWAY DREAMS: The long-awaited Gateway project reached a new milestone today: the start of tunnel boring under the Hudson River.

Hochul gathered with officials from New York and New Jersey to celebrate the latest stage of the development — which comes after more than a decade of planning and almost three years of construction work.

Following the “ceremonial launch” this morning, two hard-rock tunnel boring machines will be deployed this fall to construct a new rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York Penn Station. The machines are anticipated to clear about 30 feet of earth per day.

“We fought and beat efforts from the Trump administration to halt the Gateway project and today, that dream becomes a reality, with state of the art machinery operated by expert union workers starting their journey through soil and bedrock under the Hudson to Penn Station,” Hochul said in a statement. “This is a historic day for New York and a clear demonstration of our ambitions to once again be a state that dreams and builds big.”

Construction on Gateway began in late 2023, but the project previously faced a near-shutdown and temporary work stoppages after the Trump administration froze federal funds for it. The project resumed following legal action from New York and New Jersey. — Janaki Chadha

DON’T TRUST THE FILINGS: The state Democratic Committee is preemptively casting doubt on the accuracy of a disclosure report due to be filed by Republican opponent Bruce Blakeman on Friday.

If the past is any guide, the report won’t contain the definitive list of his financial activity. The campaign finance filing Blakeman submitted on July 15, for example, has since been amended on July 22, Aug. 13, Aug. 25 and Sept. 14.

As a result, a significantly different financial picture has formed compared to what was widely reported a couple months ago: Blakeman initially identified $3 million worth of contributions and $1.8 million in expenses over the spring; the latest amended version shows $4.5 million in contributions and $5 million in expenses. The total number of transactions disclosed went from 25,534 to 41,724.

Blakeman similarly resubmitted his March disclosure report four times and his January filing thrice.

“Either Blakeman wants to trick the press into reporting an inaccurate state of the race, or this guy sucks at math,” state Democratic Committee spokesperson Addison Dick said.

The Nassau County executive’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. — Bill Mahoney

FROM CITY HALL

‘NOT IN AN INSHALLAH TIMELINE’: Mamdani said today he’ll release a plan “soon” for disbanding the controversial NYPD unit he pledged to get rid of last year as a candidate — and he’s leaving god out of it.

“I will fulfill that promise. The only question is the timeline of it … It’ll be not in an inshallah timeline, but an actual one,” he told reporters at a press conference in Manhattan, using the Arabic phrase for godwilling. “The critical point of it is just how to ensure we’re doing so while protecting New Yorkers’ rights and keeping New Yorkers safe, and that’s something that we’re going to share more information about soon.”

Mamdani made the comments after Playbook asked what’s causing the holdup on breaking up the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, especially in light of the unit being deployed Thursday to arrest activists, including politicians close with the mayor, protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As a candidate last year, Mamdani was adamant that he would, if elected, abolish the SRG over concerns about its heavy-handed responses to protests.

But since taking office in January, the mayor has dragged his feet on the pledge. When asked about the status of it, he’s typically just said he’s continuing conversations with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch — making today’s comments stand out.

A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment on Mamdani’s remarks. But the spokesperson did note that video posted to social media showed the SRG officers who effected arrests at last week’s anti-Netanyahu demonstrations acted peacefully and were joined by NYPD Community Affairs personnel who informed protesters they would be detained.

A political moderate, Tisch has defended using the SRG, once even cracking a joke that seemed aimed at highlighting the static between her and the mayor on the topic.

The fate of the SRG is among a number of issues Tisch and Mamdani have clashed on. They also hold divergent views on the issue of the NYPD’s gang database, with Mamdani promising last year to abolish it while Tisch calls it a critical tool that her department uses “every day.” — Chris Sommerfeldt

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Hochul picked up an endorsement today from Planned Parenthood’s PAC in her bid for a second term.

In receiving the endorsement, Hochul touted her work in declaring the state as a “safe haven” for reproductive health care, creating a first-in-the nation paid prenatal leave program and increasing the child tax credit. Planned Parenthood Empire State Votes PAC Chair Robin Chappelle Golston said that the governor “understands what is at stake during relentless federal attacks.”

The group also backed Hochul, the first female governor of New York, when she ran for a full term in 2022.

Hochul’s opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has described himself as a “pro-choice Republican.” — Madison Fernandez

IN OTHER NEWS

— ZOHRAN’S SHADOW: Hochul is counting on Mamdani to stump for her reelection campaign, but the governor’s advisers are still figuring out the best way for him to do that. (The New York Times)

— SEX ED: A new study from the New York Civil Liberties Union found that many school districts have selected an abstinence-only sex education curriculum. (Times Union)

— JOB HUNT: As New York City government continues to reel from staff vacancies, Mamdani is opening a walk-in municipal jobs center to speed up hiring. (amNewYork)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics