Hotline Sort: McCotter's Mess

By Julie Sobel  //  August 9, 2012 | 8:22 a.m.

Welcome back to Hotline Sort. Donnelly internal poll shows a dead heat in Indiana, Friends of Democracy is launching an ad campaign against four vulnerable House Republicans, Adelson files a libel suit, and Pawlenty's Wikipedia page is locked down.

9) Another politically-damaging story for Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. The New York Times reports that the lawmaker, already under scrutiny for fundraising-related issues, didn't publicize a trip he took to Cyprus last year. The Times:

In fact, Mr. Grimm did not file required paperwork about the trip, which was paid for by a private organization, with the House clerk, according to Congressional records. Nor did he initially report the Cyprus trip on his Congressional financial disclosure filing in May, even though he did list the Israel trip, according to the records.

But in June, Mr. Grimm amended his financial disclosure filing to report the Cyprus trip, the records show. The amended filing came one day after his host on the trip, Peter Papanicolaou, the president of the Cyprus Federation of America, which paid for the $6,890 visit, was arrested in Brooklyn on federal corruption charges.

8) Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson filed a $60 million libel suit against the National Jewish Democratic Council, charging them with falsely claiming he approved of prostitution at casinos his company owns in Macau, CNN reports.

He had threatened the same against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in, prompting an apology from the group.

7) Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is slated to announce criminal charges this morning coming out of the investigation of allegedly fraudulent petitions submitted to qualify former Rep. Thad McCotter for the ballot.

It's not clear whether McCotter personally was among those being investigated.

6) It's all Linda Lingle, all the time: The New York Times highlights the Hawaii Senate candidate's cable channel, LL12, which is fully launching on Saturday. Democratic candidate Mazie Hirono on the station: "It's Linda Lingle 24-7. ... I think I saw a couple of seconds of it when I was trying to change the channels. It's not a station I would watch."

5) House Majority PAC and AFSCME are launching a six-figure ad buy targeting Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, the Washington Post reports. 4) The new liberal super PAC Friends of Democracy launched their first television ad campaign today. The ads will target GOP Reps. Dan Lungren in California, Chip Cravaack in Minnesota, Sean Duffy in Wisconsin and Charlie Bass in New Hampshire. The $700,000 buy will run for two weeks in each district, and the ads accuse the lawmakers of being focused on lobbyists rather than their constituents. 3) An internal poll conducted for Rep. Joe Donnelly's Senate campaign shows the Indiana Democrat in a dead heat with Republican state Treasurer Richard Mourdock: Donnelly has 41 percent of the vote to Mourdock's 40 percent. 2) Amid the craze of analyzing potential VP contenders' Wikipedia pages for recent changes, the site locked down former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's page. 1) Healthcare focus in the White House race: President Obama talked about women's health care issues while campaigning in Colorado Wednesday. Obama, in Denver: "The choice between going backward and moving forward has never been so clear." Meanwhile, Mitt Romney and the RNC released a new television ad Thursday morning. The ad's announcer: "President Obama used his health care plan to declare war on religion."

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Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief
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