The midterms of scandal are underway

<!–> The midterms of scandal are underway.

Key points

• On the GOP side, Johnson and House Republican leaders took weeks to pull their backing for Gonzales.
• "It's not about the gravity of a scandal." Chris Marquette and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
• "There wasn't much of a push to yank him out, " remarked one national Republican operative working on House races.
• On Tuesday, Florida voters rejected Mills ' reelection bid, avoiding what would have been another headache.
• In Mills ' case, his loss brought Republicans private relief even as it meant a Trump-endorsed incumbent was ousted.

Both parties have navigated a range of scandals this year – and haven't discovered a uniform approach to handling them. <!–> [–> By Erin Doherty, Andrew Howard and Alec Hernandez.

Privately, plenty of Republicans wanted GOP Rep. Cory Mills to lose his primary in Florida. Like with so plenty of scandal-plagued candidates this year, they worried he would turn a safe seat into a battleground.

But rather than push him out of the race, they let voters decide his fate. With subdued fundraising and polling against the backdrop of allegations of sexual misconduct and domestic violence, party authorities believed he was going to lose anyway, saving them from having to intervene.

"There wasn't much of a push to yank him out, " remarked one national Republican operative working on House races. This person like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

On Tuesday, Florida voters rejected Mills ' reelection bid, avoiding what would have been another headache. This election cycle, both parties keep playing whack-a-mole as candidate after candidate becomes embroiled in controversy ranging from ethics scandals to sexual misconduct, including in key races that could determine who controls Congress. Neither party has settled on a clear playbook for when to step in or what counts as disqualifying – though they have drawn those lines differently.

Top Republicans are now quietly getting behind Ohio Rep. Max Miller, who is mired in allegations of domestic abuse involving his ex-wife and child, and defied calls to drop out. They declined to push out then-Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), whose staffer died by suicide after he had an affair with her. Facing an expulsion vote, he did not resign until hours after embattled Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) did, effectively evening out the margins. And GOP leadership eventually obtained behind scandal-ridden Ken Paxton, but after President Donald Trump and Texas voters embraced him in the Senate primary.

Plenty of Democrats additionally grappled with what to do regarding Graham Platner throughout a series of escalating scandals until POLITICO's report of a sexual assault allegation forced him out of the Maine Senate race. Their months of indecision, some worry, will continue to haunt them through the midterms. "We don't trust our instincts anymore, " one longtime Democratic strategist remarked.

"The laws of political gravity have just been so upended" since Trump won in 2016 over a series of scandals, the strategist remarked, adding: "We're reluctant to apply the old rules because. Are we handicapping ourselves or potentially punishing ourselves by adhering to the old standards that haven't been serving us, or certainly didn't stop the other side from winning the presidency twice?"

In Mills ' case, his loss brought Republicans private relief even as it meant a Trump-endorsed incumbent was ousted. The representative is facing an investigation by the House Ethics Committee and remains under a restraining order imposed last fall after a former girlfriend accused him of threatening to release sexually explicit videos of her. He has denied wrongdoing.

Trump, in the aftermath of the primary, wrote on social media that he asked Mills "to get out of the Race, but he wouldn't listen" and immediately backed the winner, Ryan Elijah.

Voters have increasingly displayed a willingness to tolerate controversy – especially when political power is on the line. Though Democrats were less tolerant than Republicans of sexual assault and domestic violence allegations, a recent POLITICO Poll demonstrates voters are willing to accept their preferred candidates having DUI convictions, being accused of using tax loopholes, concealing a terminal illness or exaggerating their military service.

" the gavel is on the line, people in both political parties have the. Highest tolerance for political weakness of their party, " remarked an Ohio-based GOP operative. "This is the year like no other where voters and political leaders and political parties are willing to look past blemishes and weaknesses of their own candidate."

Meanwhile, the GOP and Democratic Party have shown different responses to the most serious of allegations. Republicans like Speaker Mike Johnson have often pressed processes to play out and to let voters decide their future. And even as White House authorities or Trump himself placed a call to secure a scandal-plagued Republican like Mills or Miller to drop, they rarely followed through on pulling their backing.

Democrats have shown they're more willing to draw a line, particularly around sexual assault allegations. But their biggest example – Platner – is a complicated one: Plenty of in the party tolerated months of controversy, from a Nazi tattoo to reports of volatile prior relationships, before ultimately calling for him to suspend his campaign.

"They either didn't care about the scandal, were willing to turn a blind eye to it, " remarked a second Democratic operative working on Senate races. Democrats were so focused on beating Susan Collins they were willing to accept multiple scandals, they remarked, but "I am glad to see that credible allegations of a sexual assault were actually a red line for people."

Democrats did rapidly turn on Swalwell. This person suspended his bid for California governor days after sexual assault and misconduct allegations pushed his campaign into a tailspin. But Democratic leadership has not yet called on Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) to resign against the backdrop of allegations of sexual misconduct, instead pushing for a "thorough and swift" Ethics Committee investigation.

Gomez has admitted to extramarital affairs but remarked they were "consensual in nature, " a claim disputed Wednesday by lawyers of the woman interviewed by the ethics panel.

On the GOP side, Johnson and House Republican leaders took weeks to pull their backing for Gonzales. It wasn't until a day after POLITICO documented that independent House investigators identified a "substantial reason to believe" Gonzales had sex with his subordinate, a violation of House Rules, that they abandoned him.

But the GOP let the voters decide in Arizona, where Trump-endorsed Mark Lamb, the former Pinal County sheriff, lately won his congressional primary despite allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power.

And Republicans have quietly accepted Miller in Ohio. Once the Trump administration saw Miller was unlikely to abandon his reelection bid, they asked Ohio Republicans to refrain from waging a public pressure campaign to avoid a messy situation where they then have to defend a candidate they once tried to oust.

Democrats say that's a clear example that they are more willing to draw a line than Republicans.

" Graham Platner is not a candidate, and Max Miller is. That should tell you everything you need to know regarding the differences between the two parties, " stated Democratic ad maker Ian Russell.

"There are complicated situations that have definitely not been handled in retrospect by both parties as well as they could have been, but there is nothing the same in how Democratic leadership has responded to issues in our ranks versus our Republican leadership has responded to issues in their ranks, " Russell remarked.

Still, the calculus for scandal, a second national GOP strategist and a longtime senior House staffer argued, most often comes down to Congress' razor-thin margins.

"It's about numbers, " they remarked. "It's not about the gravity of a scandal." Chris Marquette and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.

For now, the midterms of scandal are underway remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.