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RandySF's JournalNJ-11: After ending his own campaign, Dafis endorses Gill (D) instead
A week after ending his campaign for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, Maplewood Committeeman Dean Dafis is getting behind one of his erstwhile opponents, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (D-Montclair).
Joining Dafis in endorsing Gill today are Maplewood Mayor Victor De Luca and Committeemembers Malia Herman, Nancy Adams, and Jane Collins-Colding. The endorsements align the deeply progressive, frequently anti-establishment suburb’s entire governing body with the Essex County Democratic organization, which endorsed Gill in December.
“Since suspending my own campaign in this critical election, I’ve given serious thought about who I would endorse and why,” Dafis said in a statement. “Considering what’s at stake, knowing what it takes in government to deliver results for our constituents, and looking to continue uplifting my LGBTQIA+ community, I’m proud to throw my support to my fellow Essex elected leader and longstanding partner in public service, Brendan Gill.”
The new endorsements, which come just a few weeks before the February 5 Democratic primary to replace Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill, give Gill a major foothold in a town that punches well above its weight in local Democratic politics; while Maplewood has around 26,000 residents, it cast nearly one-tenth of the 11th district’s Democratic primary vote in 2024.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/after-ending-his-own-nj-11-campaign-dafis-endorses-gill-instead/
NJ-12: Sue Altman (D) seriously considering campaign
The Democratic field for retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)’s 12th congressional district has been steadily growing for months, but it could soon get a new contender who would reshuffle the entire contest: Sue Altman.
Altman, who was the Democratic nominee for the neighboring 7th district in 2024 and who now works for Senator Andy Kim, has not made a final decision on joining the race but is seriously considering it, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
If she were to launch a campaign, Altman would bring national connections and fundraising skills that few of her scattered opponents, most of whom have made their careers in local and state politics, can match; she, unlike them, has run for Congress before and knows what it entails. But Altman is also less of a known quantity in the diverse, deep-blue district than many of those other Democrats, and her current home in Lambertville is located a few miles outside the boundaries of the district.
A native of Hunterdon County and a former college basketball star, Altman first became known in state political circles for her work as an activist and rabble-rouser at the New Jersey Working Families Party, where she criticized the state’s Democratic establishment and called for an end to the county line. Relations between her and Democratic power brokers were so bad that, in 2019, she found herself being forcibly dragged out of a State Senate committee hearing by State Police while South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross looked on.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/sue-altman-seriously-considering-nj-12-campaign/
RELEASE: DLCC Spotlights Majority-Deciding Special Election in Minnesota
WASHINGTON — Today, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) announced Meg Luger-Nikolai as a Spotlight candidate ahead of her majority-deciding special election to the Minnesota House on January 27th. Democrats won four majority-deciding elections in Minnesota in 2025, and a DFL win in this race would preserve a tie and prevent Republicans from seizing the majority in the chamber.
Both the Minnesota House and Senate are top DLCC priorities on our 2026 target map as we aim to protect Democratic power through special elections and gain majorities in November.
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams issued the following statement:
“Special elections are crucial opportunities to build and preserve power ahead of the midterms, and winning this race is essential to ensure we keep Republicans out of the majority in Minnesota. As the GOP’s affordability crisis worsens, we need Democrats empowered in the states to fight for working families. Meg Luger-Nikolai is the candidate poised to hold the line. With so much at stake, Minnesota will remain a priority for the DLCC throughout 2026 to win majorities in both battleground chambers.”
Meg Luger-Nikolai (HD-64A) is a union-side labor attorney running to defend a St. Paul seat in the Minnesota House in a January special election that is a must-win for keeping Republicans out of the majority. Meg has focused her career on fighting for the rights of Minnesota teachers and believes in the power of legislation to improve people’s lives. Now, at a time when right-wing extremism threatens our most fundamental freedoms, Meg is ready to step up to defend working families and all Minnesotans.
https://www.dlcc.org/press/release-dlcc-spotlights-majority-deciding-special-election-in-minnesota/
SPOTLIGHT RCE: Meg Luger-Nikolai for MN-HD64A (Special Election)
Meg Luger-Nikolai has spent her career fighting for workers, strengthening public schools, and standing up for the values that make Minnesota a great place to live. Now, she’s stepping forward to bring that same smart, passionate, and relentless energy to the Minnesota Legislature – because our community deserves a representative who delivers for our schools, our workers, and our families.
As a labor lawyer for the statewide teachers union Education Minnesota and mother, she understands there is no shortage of work to do on workers’ rights, education funding and policy, health care that works for all, immigrant protections, support for aging Minnesotans, climate action, and more.
Meg and her husband, Pete, have called this district home since 2002. It’s where they’ve raised their three kids who attend St. Paul Public Schools. The DFL has been her political home for her entire adult life. She has spent years knocking doors, organizing voters, and helping elect leaders at the local, state, and national level who make life better for working people.
A lifelong Minnesotan, Meg attended the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate, a law student, and as a graduate student in public policy. As an attorney, she has fought for workers and unions in nearly every sector and helped advance policy changes that make it easier for workers to organize. Her legal work has given her a deep understanding of how decisions at the Legislature shape people’s lives – and why we need leaders who will stand firm when our rights are under attack.
Meg is recognized as a Certified Labor and Employment Specialist, and was most recently elected a fellow in the College of Labor Employment Lawyers by her peers. She is recognized as a builder of bridges, who balances dedicated advocacy with pragmatic consensus building. In 2019, the Governor appointed her to the Public Employment Relations Board as a labor representative.
She has chaired the Labor and Employment Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association, led the Minnesota Urban Debate League for eight years and currently serves on the Board of Central Minnesota Legal Services.
Through every role, Meg has stayed focused on what matters most: improving people’s lives and building a Minnesota where everyone can thrive.
https://www.megfor64a.com
GOPers, anti-voting activists spread misinformation about Michigan's voter rolls
In recent weeks, anti-voting activists and a Republican county election official have made bold claims about Michigan’s voter rolls, alleging that an untold number of noncitizens were illegally registered to vote in the state.
But experts say the unverified claims rely on cherry-picked data to paint a misleading picture in an effort to attack Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the leading Democratic candidate for governor.
Anthony Forlini, the Macomb County Clerk and a Republican candidate for secretary of state, said this week that his office pulled the names of 239 alleged noncitizens who were picked for possible jury duty service in the past few months. Forlini added that he cross-checked that list with the county’s voter rolls, finding that at least 14 of the names were registered to vote at some point.
“The fact we have discovered this egregious flaw, indicates to me that there may be a much larger issue throughout the State that needs investigation,” he wrote
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/gopers-anti-voting-activists-spread-misinformation-about-michigans-voter-rolls/
California GOP appeals their redistricting loss to Supreme Court in last-ditch bid to block voter-approved map
Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and block California’s voter-approved congressional map after a federal court firmly rejected their challenge.
Late Thursday, GOP plaintiffs formally appealed a federal court ruling that refused to halt California’s voter-approved response to Texas’ mid-decade gerrymander. At the same time, they asked the same lower court that just ruled against them to issue an emergency injunction anyway, a request unlikely to be granted.
The appeal follows a sweeping defeat for Republicans Wednesday, when a three-judge panel concluded that the state’s new map was driven by partisanship, not race, and therefore could not be blocked under federal law.
That decision cleared the way for California to use the new districts in 2026, countering the GOP’s aggressive gerrymander in Texas that was designed to net Republicans five additional House seats.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/gop-appeals-their-california-redistricting-loss-to-supreme-court/
OH-09: ICE deputy director leaving agency to run for Congress in Ohio
Madison Sheahan, the deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is resigning from the agency to run for Congress in Ohio.
In a video launch on Thursday, Sheahan pitched herself as a pro-Trump conservative, touting her work on the president’s immigration crackdown
“In just one year, we’ve made history, recruiting 12,000 new ICE officers and agents, and deporting over 2.5 million illegal aliens. Ohio neighborhoods are safer thanks to President Trump and ICE,” Sheahan said.
“At ICE, I returned security to our communities. I’m ready to take that same mindset to Congress,” she said. She also shared her letter of resignation on the social platform X.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5690800-ice-ohio-madison-sheahan/
FL-GOV: Florida Republican candidate suggests 'sin tax' for OnlyFans creators
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Republican candidate vying to be Florida’s next governor has suggested imposing a 50 percent “sin tax” on OnlyFans incomes.
James Fishback, a hedge fund manager and gubernatorial hopeful, brought up the idea during an interview with Joel Webbon, the host of conservative podcast, NXR Studios.
According to People, Fishback suggested that all OnlyFans creators in Florida should pay 50 percent to the state on all earnings procured through the online platform. Fishback said the purpose of the tax would be to “disincentivize and deter a behavior,” while calling OnlyFans an “online degeneracy platform.”
“As Florida governor, I don’t want young women who could otherwise be mothers raising families, rearing children, I don’t want them to be selling their bodies to sick men online. And I don’t want young, impressionable men who have strayed from Christ, who have strayed from our Lord and Savior to be told, and to be drawn into lust, and have their entire brain rewired,” Fishback said on the podcast, per People.
https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/5691927-florida-governor-candidate-sin-tax/
NY-GOV: G.O.P. Candidate for Governor Says Renee Good's Killing Seems Justified
As the presumptive Republican nominee for governor of New York, Bruce Blakeman could be expected to find flaws in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address.
Appearing in the State Capitol on Wednesday, a day after the annual address, he criticized the Democratic governor’s record on crime, complained about taxes and derided her child care agenda as a New York City giveaway.
But perhaps the starkest difference between them was in their stances on the killing of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis last week, which Ms. Hochul has portrayed as an outrage.
“When you look at both videos, it looks like the individual that was shot, that person was engaged in trying to run down the ICE officer,” Mr. Blakeman told reporters in Albany, with the caveat that he would like to see a full investigation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/nyregion/blakeman-ice-minneapolis.html
NY-07: Nydia Velzquez Gives Mamdani a Warning as She Endorses a Successor
Representative Nydia M. Velázquez has a word of warning for Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor she just helped to elect: Back off city politics.
Tension has quietly been growing between the two Democratic allies for weeks over who should succeed Ms. Velázquez in Congress as she retires after 32 years representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
But Ms. Velázquez pushed it into the open on Thursday in an interview with The New York Times, when she formally endorsed Antonio Reynoso, the progressive Brooklyn borough president, as her successor, and cautioned the new mayor that his decision to campaign for Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, a fellow democratic socialist, could drive a wedge through the coalition that put him in office.
“Honeymoons are short, and people need to pay attention to the work at hand,” she said, when asked if she had any advice for Mr. Mamdani.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/nyregion/nydia-velazquez-antonio-reynoso-mamdani.html
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