The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●PA-06, PA-09: No member of Pennsylvania's congressional delegation has behaved quite as badly in response to the state's new map as supposedly "moderate" Republican Rep. Ryan Costello. Costello not called the lines "1,000 percent partisan," a Democratic gerrymander in "disguise," and "racist". But most disturbingly, he threw all pretense at believing in the rule of law out the porthole and declared, "It's just another reason why these Supreme Court justices should be impeached,"joining a growing chorus of top-ranking state Republicans who have floated the idea.
Campaign ActionCostello is miserable, you see, because the new map shifted his 6th District from a seat that Hillary Clinton carried by barely half a point to one she won by a much heftier 53-43 margin. But Little Red Whining Hood does have a way to escape the clutches of Big Bad Governor Wolf: He could instead run in the new 9th District, which is solidly red (Trump won it 65-31), is home to no GOP incumbent, and is made up of about a quarter of his old seat.
About this possibility, Costello says, "I haven't done any political evaluation," but hey, we just did it for him. (No need to return the favor.) And the Democrat Costello was most likely to face in the old 6th District, former Air Force officer Chrissy Houlahan, also just gave Costello a nudge by announcing she'd already raised $340,000 at the halfway mark of this quarter, so Costello would be wise to take the hint—unless he wants to get eaten.