Good morning, it’s Friday, October 17, 2025. In today’s edition, the tech giant funding pro-regulation groups; North Carolina rolls out redistricting plan; poll-a-palooza in New Jersey, Alabama, Florida, New York City:
Top Stories
TECH LOBBYING: The Omidyar Network, launched by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, is increasingly spending on groups that support regulating the big tech industry, counterbalancing the growing lobbying spending by major corporations like Meta and Alphabet. Omidyar’s group has spent more than $10 million on groups in California, the epicenter of the tech lobbying fight. (Pluribus News)
REDISTRICTING: North Carolina House and Senate Republicans unveiled a proposed redistricting map that would target U.S. Rep. Don Davis (D) in his eastern North Carolina district. Davis, who won re-election by a slim two-point margin in 2024, would be drawn into a district President Trump would have carried by a 55% to 44% margin, according to the legislature’s data. (Pluribus News)
MORE: Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) will call lawmakers back to special session to consider changes to the state’s election schedule, plans and code. The special session will begin next Thursday, Oct. 23. Lawmakers may consider a new congressional district map after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the state’s boundary lines. (Associated Press) Kansas lawmakers are a few signatures short of the 84 they need to call a special session on redistricting. (Kansas Reflector)
HEALTH CARE: California’s first-in-the-nation program selling low-cost pharmaceuticals could soon expand to include vaccines, diapers and even GLP-1 drugs. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the state would sell insulin at $11 per pen, about a third of the market price, and that the CalRx program would expand to cover other drugs in the future. (Pluribus News)
ETHICS: California Gov. Newsom has signed legislation requiring elected and appointed officials to disclose when they accept a new outside job before their term in office ends. The law requires officials to tell the Fair Political Practices Commission when they have accepted a job, the position they will take and a description of what their new employer does. (CalMatters)
ENERGY: Attorneys general from more than a dozen states are suing the Trump administration over the termination of $7 billion in funding for affordable solar energy projects. The states argue the cancellation of the Solar for All program, approved under President Biden, violates constitutional separation of powers. (Associated Press)
TAXES: The Florida House will consider legislation to cut property taxes. House Speaker Daniel Perez (R) said his chamber would lay out a handful of options for voters to approve or reject in 2026. Two proposals would eliminate non-school homestead taxes, while a third would exempt those over 6 from non-school taxes. (Orlando Sentinel)
SHUTDOWN: New Hampshire officials are drawing up contingency plans if the state runs out of SNAP benefits amid the federal government shutdown. The state is 15 days away from running out of SNAP funds. (WMUR) Minnesota officials say they have halted new SNAP enrollments because of insufficient funds. (Minnesota Reformer)
In Politics & Business
NEW JERSEY: A new Fox News poll finds U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D) leading ex-Assemb. Jack Ciattarelli (R) 50% to 45% among likely voters. Sherrill’s lead was eight points in a September Fox News poll. (Fox News) An InsiderAdvantage/Trafalgar Group poll finds Sherrill leading by a single point, 45%-44%. (InsiderAdvantage)
FLORIDA: A St. Pete Polls survey of Florida Republicans finds U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R) leading the primary field at 39%. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins (R) takes 4%, while former House Speaker Paul Renner (R) takes 3%. More than half of primary voters say they remain undecided. (Florida Politics)
ALABAMA: A Quantas Insights poll of Republican primary voters finds U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) with a huge lead, taking 63% over activist Ken McFeeters (R), at 4%. (Quantas Insights)
COLORADO: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has written a $500,000 check to the super PAC backing U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D) bid for governor. Bloomberg also wrote a $1.5 million check to a committee working to ban flavored tobacco products on the ballot this year in Denver. (Colorado Public Radio)
NEW YORK CITY: A Fox News poll finds Assemb. Zohran Mamdani (D) leading the mayoral field at 52%, well ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (I) at 28% and activist Curtis Sliwa (R) at 14%. Mayor Eric Adams, whose name is still on the ballot even after dropping out of the race, takes 2%. (Fox News)
By The Numbers
$4.6 billion: The surplus with which Wisconsin finished the fiscal year, up $268 million over projections. Wisconsin has socked almost $2 billion away in rainy day funds. (State Affairs)
2: The number of test vertiports Florida plans to build at a Department of Transportation testing facility. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said the vertiports would test flying cars that can transport four or five people quickly across large distances. (News4Jax)
Off The Wall
A huge update to yesterday’s item on Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) gambling winnings: Pritzker said Thursday he won $1.4 million playing blackjack during a vacation to Las Vegas with his wife. Pritzker said he would donate the money to charity. (Associated Press)
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south-central Washington has begun converting radioactive waste into a benign glass, 16 years behind schedule. The plant is processing an initial batch of 25,000 gallons of waste. About a third of the site’s 177 underground tanks of nuclear waste are leaking. (Washington State Standard)
Quote of the Day
“A couple bought Garfield and a banana the other day, and I saw them on the news.”
— Robyn Adair, manager of Lippman Co., a 77-year old party supply store in Portland, on the booming business they’re doing in costumes bought by those protesting ICE officers. (Willamette Week)