带走里克·克莱因
这个国家不会因为新冠肺炎而再次关闭——至少不会很快关闭。
但是联邦政府可能会，而且可能很快。
这表明了疫情政治状况的重要意义，尽管病毒产生了新的令人不安的变种，但政治状况一直在发生变化。周四，乔·拜登总统将概述他对抗新冠肺炎的冬季计划，其中有许多计划围绕疫苗的熟悉步骤，助推器和测试-包括免费的在家测试-但也发誓要避免进一步的封锁或关闭。
与此同时，国会为资助政府而反复进行的斗争出现了新的转折:众议院保守派要求任何联邦支出的延长都必须消除拜登强加的疫苗命令。众议院自由核心小组希望参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔使用“他所掌握的所有程序工具”，将此作为避免周五关门的条件。
白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)将这一策略描述为支持特朗普的努力，允许少数拒绝接种疫苗的人“自由感染他们的同事，我们的孩子。”
但是反对授权其他政府命令的限制比这更广泛。这是一个事实，拜登白宫至少默认取消封锁，放松围绕联邦工作人员疫苗授权的执法规定。
与...的关系阿维·哈珀
斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯州长竞选通告与州长布莱恩·坎普进行一场可能比她第一次尝试更激烈的复赛。
艾布拉姆斯如果当选，将成为美国第一位黑人女州长。自2018年输给坎普仅1.4个百分点以来，艾布拉姆斯在全国范围内赢得了广泛的关注。自从她周三在推特上宣布以来，共和党人已经抓住了这个事实。
坎普声称艾布拉姆斯正在进行一场“永无止境的权力运动”，共和党州长协会也有类似的目标。该组织的女发言人玛蒂·安德森说:“斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯再次利用佐治亚州来提升自己的明星地位，同时为自己的真正职业目标——美国总统——规划了一条道路。”。
该州的共和党人几个月来一直在组织起来反对她的竞选。坎普和前共和党参议员凯利·洛夫勒的盟友在2月份发起了“阻止史黛西”组织，可以说说明了人们对候选人艾布拉姆斯这次会有多强的担忧。
除了深刻的党派决定之外，自艾布拉姆斯2018年竞选以来，桃州发生了很大变化，即由于佐治亚州的限制性投票，选举的参与规则发生了变化法律。虽然有些人担心这项法律会对该州蓝色地区的选民产生不成比例的影响，但其他人认为投票限制是逃避投票的潜在动机——为艾布拉姆斯投票。
小费亚里沙·维尔塞马
马萨诸塞州州长查理·贝克决定不再寻求连任，这标志着州一级共和党政治的一个潜在转折点。
贝克是特朗普执政期间少数几个管理民主党州的共和党高管之一，也是这位前总统任期内的直言不讳的批评者。即便如此，在日益紧张的政治环境下，这位连任两届的州长还是能够超越党派偏见，并在选民中广受欢迎。
马萨诸塞州支持民主党的历史悠久，所以下一个领导湾州的州长候选人很可能来自左翼。但即将到来的公开竞争也提出了一个问题，即一个奉行财政保守和社会温和(甚至是自由)政策的传统共和党候选人是否有可能走出困境后特朗普时代初级-即使在友好地区。
与此同时，共和党州领导层正在抓紧时间表达他们对未来州长候选人走向的偏好。
“我们在马萨诸塞州翻开了新的一页，”马萨诸塞州共和党主席吉姆·莱昂斯在一份声明中说，并补充说，“我们的政党仍然致力于自由、个人自由和个人责任的强大保守价值观。我们期待着继续与特朗普总统合作重建马萨诸塞州共和党。"
Mandate backlash complicates COVID-19 politics: The Note
The TAKE withRick Klein
The country won’t shut down again because of COVID-19 -- at least, not anytime soon.
But the federal government just might, and possibly very shortly.
That says something significant about the state of pandemic politics, which have been shifting even as the virus has been producing new and troubling variants. President Joe Biden on Thursday will outline his winter plans for confronting COVID-19, with manyfamiliar steps around vaccines, boosters and testing -- including free at-home testing -- but also having made a vow to avoid further lockdowns or shutdowns.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters, FILE
President Joe Biden responds to a question from a reporter after speaking about coronav...
Meanwhile, Congress’ recurring fight to fund the government has a new twist: House conservatives are demanding that any extensions of federal spending defund the Biden-imposed vaccinemandates. The House Freedom Caucus wants Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to use "all procedural tools at his disposal" to make that a condition of avoiding a Friday shutdown.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki cast that strategy as a pro-Trump effort to allow a minority of people who refuse to get vaccinated to be "free to infect their coworkers, our children."
Butopposition to mandatesand other government-ordered restrictions is broader than that. That’s a fact that the Biden White House is at least tacitly acknowledging in taking lockdowns off the table and easing enforcement provisions around vaccine mandates for federal workers.
The RUNDOWN withAveri Harper
Stacey Abrams' gubernatorial campaignannouncementsets up a potential rematch with Gov. Brian Kemp that could be even more bitter than her first attempt.
Abrams, who would be the nation’s first Black female governor if elected, comes to this statewide race after amassing a prominent national profile since her 2018 loss to Kemp by only 1.4 percentage points. It’s a fact Republicans have already seized on since her Twitter announcement Wednesday.
Kemp has claimed Abrams is on a "never-ending campaign for power," and the Republican Governors Association took similar aim. "Stacey Abrams is once again using Georgia to boost her own star while she plots a path toward her real career goal: president of the United States," Maddie Anderson, a spokeswoman for the group, said.
Republicans in the state have been organizing for months to push back against her run. Allies of Kemp and former Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler launched the group "Stop Stacey" in February, arguably illustrating concerns of how strong a candidate Abrams could be this time around.
In addition to deep partisan decisions, much has changed in the Peach State since Abrams’ 2018 run, namely the rules of engagement around elections because of Georgia’s restrictive votinglaw. While some worry the law could disproportionately impact voters in blue areas of the state, others see the voting restrictions as a potentially motivating factor in get-out-the vote efforts for Abrams.
The TIP withAlisa Wiersema
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's decision not to seek another term in office signals a potential turning point in state-level Republican politics.
Baker was one of a handful of Republican executives governing Democratic states throughout the Trump years and was a vocal critic of the former president during his tenure. Even so, the two-term governor was able to transcend partisanship amid an increasingly tense political environment and remains broadly popular among constituents.
Massachusetts has a long history of backing Democrats, so it's very possible the next gubernatorial candidate to lead the Bay State comes from the left. But the imminent open contest also raises the question of whether a traditional GOP candidate who runs on fiscally conservative and socially moderate (or even liberal) policies could ever make it out of apost-Trump eraprimary -- even in friendly territory.
In the meantime, Republican state leadership is wasting no time voicing their preferences regarding the direction future gubernatorial hopefuls take.
"We’re turning a new page here in Massachusetts," Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons said in a statement, adding, "Our party remains committed to the strong conservative values of freedom, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. We look forward to working with President Trump as we continue torebuildthe Massachusetts Republican Party."
