New Jersey Plans July 7 Primary Mostly by Mail: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey will hold its July 7 primary largely by mail, as states around the country look into expanding vote-by-mail options during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state will send vote-by-mail applications to every registered voter ahead of the primary, but there will still be in-person polling places, Governor Phil Murphy announced Friday.

New Jersey had already postponed the June primary in hopes of allowing more in-person voting. “We know there are other voters who prefer to cast their ballot in person,” Murphy said.

The effort would stop short of full vote-by-mail elections in places like Oregon and Colorado, in which every voter is automatically sent a ballot. But it goes farther than Ohio, which sent voters a postcard with instructions about how to request a mail-in voting application.

Voting by mail has turned into a partisan issue, with President Donald Trump declaring without evidence that it is rife with voter fraud while many Democrats say it will ensure turnout amid the coronavirus pandemic. More than 143,000 residents of New Jersey have been diagnosed with the virus, with nearly 10,000 deaths so far.

With Biden Gains, GOP Warns Georgia Now in Play (2:27 p.m.)

A Republican campaign fundraising group is sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump’s prospects in Georgia, a once reliable GOP state they now worry could be in play for Democrats for the first time since 1992.

A poll by the Republican State Leadership Committee has Trump leading presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Georgia by just 2 points, 48% to 46%. The poll has a 3.7 percentage point margin of error.

“Democrats have been making gains in Georgia for years. The 2018 results were no fluke,” said the committee’s Austin Chambers in a polling memo Thursday. “If Republicans convince themselves otherwise and don’t take the threat seriously, we will quickly see big wins for the Democrats. Georgia is absolutely a swing state in 2020 -- up-and-down the ballot, everything is in play.”

A similar poll earlier this week, by the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies, had Biden and Trump in a “dead heat” in the state, with Biden up by 1 point. A third GOP poll, conducted by House Republicans in April, put Trump ahead by 1 point.

Although internal partisan polls should be taken with a grain of salt, the GOP’s consensus assessment on Georgia is even gloomier than the available independent polling. A University of Georgia poll March 4 had Trump up by 8 points. He won the state by 5 points in 2016. -- Gregory Korte

Veterans Group Calls On Biden to Pick Duckworth (12:05 p.m.)

A political action committee that backs liberal veterans running for office called on Joe Biden to consider Senator Tammy Duckworth to be his vice presidential pick.

“Joe Biden should consider a veteran to be his running mate, and Tammy Duckworth should be top of the list,” VoteVets.org tweeted along with a video. Biden has vowed to choose a woman for the role.

Duckworth, a veteran of the Iraq War, lost both of her legs when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in action. She represents Illinois in the Senate and is the first disabled woman to be elected to Congress and the first senator to give birth while in office.

Duckworth has sparred with President Donald Trump and criticized him for avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War. The video posted on Twitter features clips of Duckworth calling the president “Cadet Bone Spurs,” along with a photo of her receiving a Purple Heart for her service. -- Emma Kinery

Sanders Camp Says Biden Losing Progressives (11:36 a.m.)

Bernie Sanders’s former campaign manager has a warning for the Joe Biden campaign: Sanders supporters are “unsupportive and unenthusiastic” about his candidacy.

Jeff Weaver made that assessment in a new memo Friday to supporters of his new America’s Promise PAC, which aims to rally Sanders supporters to vote for Biden. Sanders, who has campaigned against the influence of big campaign contributors, has disavowed the PAC.

“If all of Sanders’s base turned out for Joe Biden in November, he could defeat Trump and take back the White House for Democrats. Here’s the problem: significant portions don’t currently plan to,” Weaver said.

A recent Suffolk University/USA Today poll showed 61% of Sanders supporters said they’re not enthusiastic about voting for Biden.

Weaver acknowledged Biden has shown a willingness to move to the left on economic issues, but said the Biden campaign isn’t doing enough on digital organizing and other efforts to reach out to young and Latino voters in Sanders’s coalition. -- Gregory Korte

Coming up:

Oregon is to hold its Democratic primary on May 19. The state has conducted all statewide contests by mail since 1998.

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