Some Things Money Can’t Buy

Today’s notice: A decidedly mixed result in Illinois for outside spending groups. What to watch for at Mullin’s DHS confirmation hearing today. Ethics questions at the Federal Highway Administration. And: A small change has a big impact on the lives of some service members.

THE LATEST

What we learned in Illinois: Crypto, AI and AIPAC dumped a fortune on four Democratic primaries that wrapped up last night, and ended up with a 50% success rate. The groups saw their preferred candidates win in the 2nd and 8th Congressional Districts, and saw candidates they tried to bury in negative ads win in spite of them in the 7th and 9th Districts.

Depending on where you stand — and whether it was your money that was involved — the glass is half empty, or half full.

A very clear loss for these groups came in the Senate race. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton defied public polling and millions of dollars in AI- and crypto-funded negative ads to win the nomination to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin.

Stratton is not exactly an outsider, having won the endorsements of the most powerful Democrats in the state including Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Gov. JB Pritzker. She proved it’s possible to win against these big-money groups by taking them on directly — not a great look for them.

Regular readers will note that Stratton had her own outside support, as she’s one of several candidates benefitting from a program backed by the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association to launch members into higher office. The DLGA is the only similar association that does this. The idea is that lieutenant governors represent the party’s bench, so members should work together to propel each other onto bigger and better opportunities.

That effort continues. “With Lt. Gov. Stratton as their nominee, Illinois Democrats have a clear path to victory in November, and the DLGA looks forward to supporting her campaign in the months ahead,” the group said in a statement.

Open tabs: Why (and how) everyone is cold-calling the president (Semafor); Postmaster Says Service Will Be ‘Out of Cash’ in Under a Year (NYT); Trump administration expands Medicaid fraud crackdown to Florida (The Hill); Judge questions Trump aides’ ‘brazen’ claims on White House ballroom (WaPo)

From the Hill

DHS hearing preview: Members of the Senate’s homeland security committee plan to grill Donald Trump’s nominee to lead DHS, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, about his approach to FEMA, NOTUS’ Torrence Banks reports. Bipartisan concerns over how Kristi Noem, the first DHS secretary of Trump 2.0, managed the agency have senators hoping Mullin will take a different tack.

FEMA veterans feel the same way. “I would hope that he would look at this from a different light and say, ‘I’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do following Kristi Noem’s tenure,’” one former FEMA official told Torrence.

From the Federal Highway Administration

Not so fast: A government watchdog is raising a red flag over the stock portfolio of Trump’s federal highway administrator, NOTUS’ Dave Levinthal reports. Sean McMaster purchased between $30,002 and $100,000 worth of stock in Grab Holdings Limited, a Singaporean company that provides various transportation services, according to a financial disclosure. It’s not his first investment in the firm.

Federal ethics rules say high-level executive branch officials are allowed to trade individual stocks so long as the investments don’t pose a conflict of interest with their public duties, and a spokesperson for McMaster said there isn’t one. But for Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the acting vice president of policy and government affairs for the Project on Government Oversight, “This investment at least gives the appearance of impropriety and conflict of interest.”

Check out our new reporting initiative, Capitol Gains, to dive into the wealth in Washington. And keep scrolling for another story from Dave about U.S. political leaders’ personal finances.

From the White House

To be or not to be: the imminent-threat version. The director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, will find herself in the hot seat today when she sits before the Senate Intelligence Committee for its annual worldwide-threats-assessment hearing. Her appearance comes just a day after her close adviser and director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, released a stunning resignation letter that said “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.” He is the first senior Trump administration official to speak out against the war with Iran.

The White House moved to quickly discredit him, with one administration official telling Jasmine that Kent was removed from the daily presidential brief on suspicion he was leaking.

But all eyes from the MAGA right will be on Gabbard, one Republican strategist close to the White House told NOTUS. “[Kent is] the first of many” to leave, the strategist predicted. “Tulsi is inevitable.”

Gabbard, in an attempt to preempt questions, wrote on X that it was the president who “is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary.” She said her job is solely to help “coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions.”

Missing from her three-paragraph statement? Whether she agreed with the president that Iran posed an imminent threat, and whether the intelligence supported the conclusion that Iran posed an imminent threat. No doubt she will be asked today.

NEW ON NOTUS

STOCK Act violated: One of Congress’ most prolific advocates against members trading individual stocks has violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. Progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal failed to properly disclose a stock sale she made in 2023, a review of congressional financial records conducted by Dave indicates. She joins dozens of lawmakers on both sides who didn’t comply with a requirement mandating they publicly reveal personal stock trades no later than 45 days after making them.

In an email to NOTUS, Jayapal said she received stock in the consumer goods company Newell Brands more than a decade ago from a family member as a gift.

Hegseth head scratch: Members of the military told NOTUS’ Adora Brown they are confused and concerned over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s February decision to cancel fellowships for senior military officers at elite institutions, despite him being a graduate of multiple. Once a point of pride in the military and a stepping stone for promotions, service members now fear that attending such institutions will be seen as a disadvantage.

“I think the bigger fear is that it could grow in the next couple of years to include more programs that people are sort of counting on attending or planning their whole family life around,” an active duty military officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Adora.

More: Federal Judge Reinstates More Than 1,000 Employees at VOA Parent Agency, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

NOT US

• A journalist reported a missile strike. Then came the death threats. By Will Oremus and Jeremy B. Merrill for The Washington Post
  
• Oil regulators found hundreds of wells violating Oklahoma rules. Then they ignored their findings. By Nick Bowlin for The Frontier
  
• Brendan Carr’s ‘equal time’ curveball crashes the midterms, by John Hendel for Politico

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