DL Open Thread: Thursday, March 5, 2026

Look Who’s Funding Speaker Mimi Minor-Brown’s Slush Fund:

Phil Shawe, the polarizing New York executive whose financial largesse helped propel Gov. Matt Meyer to victory in 2024, is now throwing his weight behind a new political action committee controlled by Delaware House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown.

Shawe has become a controversial figure in Delaware after he began a decade-long war with the Court of Chancery following a contentious ruling that forced the sale of his company, TransPerfect. In the last few years, his aim has moved from the courts to politics in the small state, where his fortunes carry great weight.

Amended campaign finance reports filed last month show that a political organization funded by Shawe is the sole contributor, so far, to Minor-Brown’s Back on Track PAC.

While the roughly $50,000 donation is not an immense amount – even for little Delaware – the contribution signals a transformation in Shawe’s relationship with Delaware politics, from a longtime outside agitator to an individual with growing ties to the state’s establishment.

Though she might not face a challenge to her own New Castle-area seat, Minor-Brown’s fortunes as House speaker could depend on the outcome of her legislative allies’ races – some of whom already face primary challengers. Following the November election, the new members of the Delaware House of Representatives will vote for their next speaker.

Asked if she has established an alliance with Shawe, Minor-Brown pushed back against the characterization. She said she intends to raise money from other donors as well.

‘Intends’.  Kids, the only reason why this PAC exists is because of the alliance between Shawe and Minor-Brown.

Minor-Brown also asserted that anyone donating to the PAC will be supporting the Democratic Party broadly, and not her individually.

That is a, what’s the word, lie.  They will only be contributing to Democrats who want to keep this prevaricator as Speaker.

A major shout-out to Karl Baker for this reporting.

Senate Gives Trump Carte Blanche On WW III:

A resolution to require President Trump to seek congressional approval for any further action in Iran failed to advance in the Senate, five days after the U.S. and Israel launched a military campaign against the Iranian regime.

The vote was 47-53, largely along party lines. If passed, the resolution would have blocked further U.S. military action in Iran without congressional approval under the 1973 War Powers Act. That legislation passed during the Vietnam War to give Congress a legal check on executive war authority. The 1973 act also requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying U.S. forces into hostilities and to end the deployment within 60 days unless Congress authorizes or extends it.

Only R to support the resolution?:  Rand Paul.  Only D to oppose?: John Fetterman.  Every endangered R voted with Trump.  That, um, could come back to haunt ’em.

Trump Poised To Endorse Cornyn?  Looks that way.  Gonna piss off a lot of MAGAts:

President Donald Trump said he would “soon” endorse a candidate in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate and, in doing so, call on whomever he does not endorse to drop out of the race — though he did not specify whether he would back Sen. John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the stakes of Texas’ Senate race in November are too high to allow the Cornyn-Paxton contest to go on. The two Republicans finished just over one point apart in Tuesday’s primary, but neither reached the majority threshold to win outright, forcing a May 26 overtime round.

“The Republican primary race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas, a State I LOVE and won 3 times in Records Numbers (the HIGHEST vote ever recorded, by far!!!), cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer,” Trump wrote. “IT MUST STOP NOW!”

Paxton says he’ll stay in.  But, you know, that’s today.  Tomorrow…?

More R’s To Exit:

In a shocking last-second move, Republican Sen. Steve Daines withdrew his name from the ballot mere minutes before candidate filing closed Wednesday evening in Montana and sought to hand off his seat to U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme.

Donald Trump, who had backed Daines for reelection last April, quickly blessed the senator’s abrupt exit by endorsing Alme, who had also served as the state’s top federal prosecutor during his first administration.

Daines, who had just led Senate Republicans back to the majority as chair of the NRSC in 2024, had already filed to seek a third term and had given no indication he was looking to retire. Alme, whose second stint as U.S. attorney began in October, had also shown no interest in running for office this year.

The switch came hours after former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar announced that he would run as an independent against Daines, whom he dubbed a Washington insider “protecting a system that works for the wealthy and connected, and nobody else.”

Bodnar’s entry came two months after Democrat Jon Tester, who lost reelection to Republican Tim Sheehy in the 2024 contest for Montana’s other Senate seat, urged his party to consolidate behind Bodnar rather than field its own candidate.

Also:

Utah Rep. Burgess Owens said Wednesday he’s not running for re‑election, exiting before a newly drawn, Salt Lake County–centered district rated “solid Democratic” reshapes the state’s congressional map—and his electoral options.

“After careful reflection, I have concluded that to continue this work, the next chapter of my mission would be best pursued outside elected office,” Owens said in a statement posted online Wednesday afternoon.

His exit follows a massive shift in Utah’s congressional map that carves out a Salt Lake County-centered congressional seat the Cook Political Report pegs as “solid Democratic” (D+12).

Has AIPAC Become Toxic?:

The televised debate for an open House seat in the Chicago area was zipping along smoothly, even politely, until the moderator turned from health care, housing and immigration to the knottiest issue of the campaign, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“It’s dark money,” Laura Fine, an Illinois state senator, said last week, struggling to explain how she had received hundreds of thousands in donations from super PACs tied to AIPAC. “Our campaign does not coordinate.”

One of her opponents, Mayor Daniel Biss of Evanston, Ill., shot back, “Your campaign is bankrolled by AIPAC and MAGA donors.” Then Kat Abughazaleh, a third candidate running to the left of both Mr. Biss and Ms. Fine, jumped in to attack them for what she called “the lying, the bickering over who likes AIPAC more.”

AIPAC, the hard-line pro-Israel lobbying organization that once commanded bipartisan fealty, has increasingly become a boogeyman in Democratic circles, with scores of candidates distancing themselves from the group. Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, said he “never will” accept money from AIPAC.

AIPAC is Netanyahu’s proxy.  Netanyahu is the current top War Criminal on the planet.  Meaning, I think, that AIPAC becomes even more toxic every day.  As well they should.

Kathleen Jennings Fights The Good Fight.  Man, check out this lawsuit over mailing guns:

Meanwhile, Jennings joins Attorneys General for New Jersey and New York to intervene in a federal lawsuit to prevent guns from being mailed with very few limits.

The states intervened to defend a federal firearms law Congress passed in 1927 that bars the U.S. Postal Service from mailing certain concealable firearms.

That statute was challenged last year in a federal court in Pennsylvania, and in January, the U.S. Department of Justice stated it will no longer enforce the statute and instructed the USPS to issue conforming regulations.

“If you needed any more confirmation that this Administration is bought and paid for by the gun lobby, look no further,” said Jennings. “There is no good reason – none – to do away with a nearly century-old common-sense gun safety measure like this one. If the White House isn’t going to step up to keep this law in place, then we will.”

The states are filing an intervention motion asking the court to allow them to step in and a summary judgment motion explaining why the statute is constitutional.

They argue if this statute was struck down it would risk allowing those prohibited from owning firearms to get a gun through the mail, and they could also get weapons illegal to possess in their states.

That’s because the USPS has no obligation to ensure the packages it carries complies with state laws, creating those loopholes.

What do you want to talk about?