President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in Philadelphia Wednesday to launch Black Voters for Biden-Harris, an outreach campaign with an eight-figure investment in programming with Black student groups, community centers and faith-based organizations nationwide. The effort underscores the importance of Black voters, who broke decisively for Biden in 2020 but have drifted away this cycle, jeopardizing his chances in a handful of key swing states, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported.

                                                                              This was in Virginia, but you get the gist. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“We will continue to be aggressive, innovative, and thorough in our work to earn the support of the very voters who sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020 and will do so again in 2024,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.

The initiative is a formal continuation of outreach efforts that stretch back to last fall, with a $25 million ad buy that included a spot geared specifically toward Black voters in battleground states. Among the most crucial is Pennsylvania, where Biden and Harris have made a combined 12 appearances so far this year. Last week, Harris gave the keynote address at the Service Employees International Union convention, where the group elected its first Black female president; a month earlier, Biden traveled to Philadelphia to accept an endorsement from members of the Kennedy family.

“In 2024, with your voice and your power, we will win again,” Harris told the audience Wednesday. “We beat Donald Trump once and we’re going to do it again.”

Campaigns are more of a casual side hustle in Virginia, where state legislative staffers receiving taxpayer-funded salaries are free to also work on political campaigns — a no-go for their federal counterparts, the Virginia Mercury reported.

                                                                               The Virginia Capitol, where your side gig is your own business. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury)

Congressional staffers can still engage in political activity, but only on their own time, without pressure from their bosses and without altering their official job duties, according to guidance published by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics. The longstanding rule aims to prevent incumbent lawmakers from diverting government resources, including staff time, toward reelection efforts or to boost their chances of clinching a higher office. But there is no such clear-cut policy for staffers in the part-time Virginia General Assembly, even if their bosses are vying for congressional positions.

That’s the case for state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam, a Democratic candidate vying for an open congressional seat in Northern Virginia’s 10th District with the help of five campaign staffers, four of whom also worked as legislative aides in his General Assembly office. Salaries for those four — previously listed on the campaign’s website as finance director, field director, outreach director and finance assistant — were not disclosed on federal campaign finance reports, though at least two are being paid for their work. According to the campaign, that money was part of a $7,200 payment routed through a consulting firm owned by campaign manager Ajay Mohan and thus could not be disclosed as individual expenditures.

“Our campaign has complied with all laws and regulations, and no state funds or resources have been used to benefit the campaign in any way,” Mohan said in a statement.

The fancy job titles, he added, don’t necessarily reflect the volume of work given to each employee.

“We’re happy to give both volunteers and staff campaign titles in the hope that helps in their careers,” Mohan said.

                                                                          Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who does not consider himself a political gadfly, thankyouverymuch. (Photo by Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent)

Campaign expenditures are causing different problems for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, whose gubernatorial campaign committee may have coordinated illegally with a political action committee to distribute a letter attacking his political opponents, according to a complaint filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission. The cost of the missive — about $10,500 — was split evenly between Ashcroft for Missouri and the Committee for Liberty, suggesting that the groups worked together on the letter in violation of a state law that bars candidates from directing expenditures or messaging from PACs, the Missouri Independent reported.

The $5,244.84 funded by the Committee for Liberty should have been reported as an in-kind campaign contribution, which would have exceeded the state’s $2,825 donation limit, according to Jane Dueker, a Democratic attorney and lobbyist who filed the complaint.

“It’s no longer independent when it agrees on a message with the campaign,” Dueker said. “If they are jointly expending money on something, I believe that is coordination.”

The letter, dated March 8, described Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe as a closeted Democrat and dubbed state Sen. Bill Eigel a “political gadfly,” The Republicans, two of nine running in the Aug. 6 gubernatorial primary, are the only candidates registering in the polls besides Ashcroft, who has led both consistently.

                                                                                                     Typing “gadfly” under the cover of night. (Photo Bill Hinton/Getty Images)

The letter harps on the polls, highlighting Ashcroft’s lead but bemoaning his fundraising total, which lagged behind Kehoe’s. A barrage of criticism followed, attacking Kehoe for tax increases, budget expenditures and his support for foreign ownership of domestic farmland. Eigel’s only mention came later in a section focused entirely on poll results that noted 13% for the “political gadfly.”

A consultant for the Ashcroft campaign denied the allegations.

“We’re not doing voter persuasion,” said Jason Roe, a Michigan-based political and communications strategist. “We’re doing fundraising, so she’s trying to take one form of political activity and label it a different form of political activity.”

The campaign echoed that sentiment in an email Wednesday attacking Dueker for using the law to attack Ashcroft over his attack email. (Attack!)

“Their tactics will not intimidate me and I will continue to fight the liberals who are trying to destroy our country,” the email read.