New record for hottest temperature ever achieved by humankind.

We’re just over three four months out from the election, and Democrats are resigning themselves to the fact that, with the help of big dollar donations to outside groups, Republicans are going to handily out-raise them this cycle. President Obama is emailing supporters warning that he’ll be the first presidential incumbent to raise less than his opponent. Conservative SuperPACs and other groups fronting money from anonymous wealthy Republicans want to make examples of vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbents this November.

And yet, wealthy Democratic donors just haven’t stepped up — to the great frustration of party operatives.

Today, Sen. Sherrod Brown — one of the main targets of this spending tsunami — sat down with us and talked about why Democrats can’t reach parity with Republicans under prevailing circumstances. And I think his views get at two key differences between the parties. Read More

We have our first trickle of results out of NY-13 tonight, Charlie Rangel’s primary. Watch them here.

I’m also watching NY-8, Barron v Jeffries. Very curious to see what happens with this one, a Democratic primary battle to succeed Rep. Ed Towns. Sort of a classic big city politics kind of story, almost a cliche, but actually happening. Two African-American candidates: Charles Barron, longtime New York pol with deep roots in the community, a history of charged or incendiary comments vs. charl, younger, a bit more in the Cory Booker mold, with a lot of money from donors in Manhattan. Very, very different kinds of guys.

9:38 PM: Okay, if 2% of the vote was enough to call the election, Charlie Rangel would be in for a world o’ hurt. Espaillat 71%, Rangel 22.2% so far. Of course, it’s only about 700 votes total. So a bit longer to go.

10:10 PM: Still far too early to really know. But Espaillat is off to a decent start on Rangel. 51.4% to 35.8% for Rangel. We might know more if we knew where in the district those couple thousand votes were from. If you’re watching with us in NYC, let us know your thoughts, what you’re seeing.

A big chunk of votes just came in and put Charlie Rangel into a big lead in the NY-13 Democratic primary. Still only 15% reporting. Interestingly, Rangel is cleaning up in the Bronx while Espaillat is getting his votes in Manhattan.

We’ve now got 22% of precincts reporting in the NY-8 Dem primary. And Hakeem Jeffries has a massive lead, 72.9% vs 27.1%. Again, matters a lot where in the district those votes are from. But that’s a big, big lead. A lot of establishment Dems will be really happy to see Jeffries take this.

10:34 PM: Okay, 42% reporting, Jeffries 73.5% to Barron 26.5%. Think this one’s pretty close to done.

10:40 PM: And AP calls it. Jeffries in a walk.

Yesterday, Sen. Sherrod Brown appeared for the TPM Newsmaker Interview series. Today, a new poll has him up 16 points over his senate challenger. Coincidence? I think not.

Rand Paul injecting abortion politics into run-of-the-mill flood insurance bill. TPM talked to him late yesterday.

The political news universe is generally on hold until mid-morning Thursday when the Supreme Court will deliver its historic decision on the Affordable Care Act. After stuff I heard this morning I think there’s a tiny bit more chance Dems have a good outcome. (Sahil Kapur looks at just how much of ‘Obamacare’ Republicans would actually be able to repeal, regardless of the Court’s decision.) But there’s a raft of new polling news out with pretty good news for President Obama and a major corrective to recent spin about the state of the race. Read More

Suspended Politico reporter blames right-wing media for stirring up trouble.

“There are two parties here. Exactly what’s going to happen still remains unclear. I know that I pride my reputation as much as Politico prides theirs. And a way forward has to involve both sides” — suspended reporter Joe Williams. Watch.