Friday, October 16, 2026

BREAKING NEWS: Five days after its debut, Trump White House cancels the Katie Zacharia Clown Show

 

Shawn McCreesh. Tyler Pager, and Hamed Aleaziz report without speculating on why Trump hired her in the first place:
President Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired Friday, after less than a week on the job, according to three people familiar with the matter. 
Neither the White House nor Ms. Zacharia responded to requests for comment. [emphasis added]
But Mr. Trump told reporters on Friday that he had encouraged Ms. Zacharia to “reconsider” the job. 
“Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider,” he said, recounting his conversation with his press secretary. He added: “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.”
Which would have been easy enough to do.  The speculation, that is.

As seen all over social media

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Wisconsin 2026 elections: Assembly Democrat Jenna Jacobson challenges 3-term, 72-year-old Republican incumbent Howard Marklein in 17th Senate District

 
Prior to redistricting, the ducky GOP gerrymandered 17th Senate District sprawled south to north across all or portions of 8 counties, an agglomeration drawn solely to protect Howard Marklein: 
  • all of Grant County
  • all of Lafayette County
  • towns of Cadiz, Clarno, Jordan and Monroe, including the CIty of Monroe, in Green County
  • western half of Iowa County
  • western half of Sauk County
  • all of Richland County
  • all of Juneau County
  • towns of Glendale, Oakdale, and Byron in Monroe County  

Redistricting created compact, fair maps design.  It now includes all of Crawford, Grant, Lafayette, Iowa, and Green counties, and the southwestern corner of Dane County.  

Maps:  2021-2022, 2025-2026
Election results and newest map:  Ballotpedia
 

At a glance at the graph, this looks like a difficult district for Democrats to flip.   But for GOP incumbent Howard Marklein, he is now running for re-election in a district that no longer include the conservative areas of western Sauk County, Juneau County, and southeastern Monroe County.  The district now includes reliably blue Green County, and the southeastern corner of very liberal Dane County.  Democratic challenger Jenna Jacobson won her 2024 election in the 50th Assembly District, which includes all of Green County and southeastern Dane County, by nearly 13 percentage points.  She has a good chance of flipping the 17th.




The primary elections that took place on August 11th provide an apples-to-oranges comparison.  Running against two other candidates, Jacobson received 11,775 votes (59.1%) out of  19,931 cast.   Running unopposed, Marklein received 10,213 votes out of 10,239 cast.  Democrats need to maintain their enthusiasm through Election Day and hope that many Republicans decide to sit this one out.




Related reading:
Wisconsin Applied Population Lab, 6/18/2018

Malia Jones explains:
Two core concepts of gerrymandering were central to the arguments presented to the high court: cracking and packing. A third process, known as stacking, also crops up in gerrymandered political maps, but was not the focus of Gill v. Whitford.
Cracking and packing both refer to specific ways of drawing legislative boundaries with the outcomes of elections in mind. These two processes operate in tension with one another, but both can be implemented by a party in power seeking to maximize its electoral chances through gerrymandering. 
Packing refers to the practice of drawing particular districts in such a way as to ensure that another party's candidate wins that seat by a tremendous margin. Although the opposing party is all but guaranteed the seat, packing makes surrounding districts less competitive, and thus tips the balance of power in the legislative body overall toward the ruling party. 
Cracking involves drawing districts in such a way as to divide a concentration of specific types of voters across several districts such that they are a minority in each one, with practically no hope of achieving representation in any of the districts. This practice also helps make districts less competitive. [emphasis added]

Other Wisconsin 2026 election posts:
1st Assembly District.  (6/11/2026)
2nd Assembly District.  (6/14/2026)
3rd Assembly District.  (6/15/2026)
4th Assembly District.  (6/17/2026)
5th Assembly District.  (6/18/2026)
6th Assembly District.  (6/20/2026)
7th Assembly District.  (6/21/2026)
8th Assembly District.  (6/21/2026)
9th Assembly District.  (6/22/2026)
10th Assembly District.  (6/23/2026)

11th Assembly District.  (6/23/2026)
12th Assembly District.  (4/17/2026)
13th Assembly District.  (6/25/2026)
14th Assembly District.  (6/25/2026)
15th Assembly District.  (6/25/2026)
16th Assembly District.  (4/17/2026)
17th Assembly District.  (6/30/2026)
18th Assembly District.  (6/30/2026)
24th Assembly District.  (4/19/2026)
26th Assembly District.  (4/17/2026)
29th Assembly District.  (7/10/2026)

30th Assembly District.  (7/11/2026)
31st Assembly District.  (7/12/2026)
33rd Assembly District.  (7/15/2026)
34th Assembly District.  (4/24/2026)
35th Assembly District.  (4/15/2026)
36th Assembly District.  (7.16.2026)
37th Assembly District.  (4/20/2026)
39th Assembly District.  (7/18/2026)

40th Assembly District.  (7/19/2026)
41st Assembly District.  (7/20/2026)
42nd Assembly District.  (7/21/2026)
45th Assembly District.  (7/23/2026)
46th Assembly District.  (7/24/2026)
47th Assembly District.  (7/25/2026)
48th Assembly District.  (7/27/2026) 
49th Assembly District.  (7/28/2026)

50th Assembly District.  (7/29/2026)
51st Assembly District.  (7/30/2026)
52nd Assembly District.  (7/31/2026)
58th Assembly District.  (4/12/2026)
59th Assembly District.  (4/10/2026)

61st Assembly District.  (8/16/2026)
62th Assembly District.  (8/11/2026)
63rd Assembly District.  (8/16/2026)
64th Assembly District.  (8/17/2026)
65th Assembly District.  (8/18/2026)
67th Assembly District.  (8/24/2026)
68th Assembly District.  (8/25/2026)
69th Assembly District.  (8/26/2026)

70th Assembly District.  (8/27/2026)
72nd Assembly District.  (8/29/2026)
73rd Assembly District.  (8/31/2026)
78th Assembly District.  (9/14/2026)
79th Assembly District.  (9/15/2026)

80th Assembly District.  (9/16/2026)
81st Assembly District.  (9/17/2026)
83rd Assembly District.  (9/20/2026)
84th Assembly District.  (9/21/2026)
85th Assembly District.  (9/22/2026)
86th Assembly District.  (9/23/2026)
87th Assembly District.  (9/24/2026)
88th Assembly District.  (9/25/2026)

90th Assembly District.  (9/27/2026)
91st Assembly District.  (9/28/2026)
92nd Assembly District.  (9/29/2026)
93rd Assembly District.  (9/30/2026) 
94th Assembly District.  (10/1/2026)
96th Assembly District.  (10/3/2026)
97th Assembly District.  (10/4/2026)
98th Assembly District.  (10/5/2026)
99th Assembly District.  (10/6/2026)

1st Senate District.  (10/7/2026)
3rd Senate District.  (10/8/2026)
5th Senate District.  (10/9/2026)
7th Senate District.  (10/11/2026)
9th Senate District.  (10/12/2026)
11th Senate District.  (10/13/2026)
13th Senate District.  (10/14/2026)
15th Senate District.  (10/15/2026)
17th Senate District.  (4/14/2026)
23rd Senate District.  (4/15/2026)
31st Senate District.  (4/15/2026)

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Adventures in geographic illiteracy: Portland Oregon is 3200 miles west of to Portland Maine

 
Headline:  New York Times, 10/12/2026

John Yoon reports:
A Republican super PAC trying to influence a crucial Senate race in Maine spent thousands of dollars running an attack ad in the wrong Portland, targeting voters thousands of miles away in Oregon. 
An ad funded by the super PAC, Defending Main Street, assailing Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee in Maine, was shown to more than a million viewers in Oregon and over 300,000 others in Washington State from Thursday to Sunday, according to Google’s advertising data. 
The super PAC’s chief financial officer, Sarah Chamberlain, pinned the blunder, which cost $25,900, entirely on its ad-buying vendor, Cross Screen Media. She added that the vendor had pulled the ads, which ran on YouTube, and began a new campaign targeting Mr. Jackson in Maine.

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