| POTUS
Romney: The two Republican leaders in Congress, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, endorsed Romney. Both men stayed unsurprisingly neutral while the primary outcome was still in doubt. Expect the endorsement floodgates to open one final time.
Obama: In equally unsurprising news, Obama will roll out the endorsements of the big environmental groups this afternoon. When you think about this, these are clearly very important backers for Obama campaign, as he has passed on some popular programs (like Keystone) to keep the green left happy.
Veepstakes: Consider the door very much open to a VP bid by the Big Fella. Chris Christie said he's "not looking" to be on the ticket, but "would listen if Romney called" him about an opportunity. This contrasts with Marco Rubio, who has repeatedly shot down any VP talk.
2016: One thing I do like about PPP is that they run a lot of fun hypotheticals, and now they've taken a very early look at 2016. For Democrats, Hillary Clinton has overwhelming support if she runs (wait, have I heard that one before?), and Joe Biden leads Andrew Cuomo and assorted others if she doesn't. The GOP field (presuming Romney loses, or isn't running) is closer, with Christie narrowly ahead of Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush.
Senate
Indiana: Dick Lugar gets a badly-needed endorsement from the Chamber of Commerce, which can help him in two ways. First, the CoC is a trusted name among the center-right Republicans that Lugar needs to win renomination, and secondly, they have plenty of money to spend if they're so inclined. It's been a bad stretch for Lugar and it's becoming tougher to see him winning with only 20 days to go.
Missouri: Todd Akin won the quarter on the GOP side, taking in a decent $416K to Sarah Steelman's $179K and John Brunner's $168K. However, the deep-pocketed Brunner also tossed in $1.2M of his own money, so he's well ahead in the cash race.
Nebraska: Jon Bruning looks like a frontrunner in his new ad, speaking directly to the camera about his record as AG. NWOTSOTB, but Nebraska is a pretty cheap state. Less than a month to go until this primary.
Wisconsin: Eric Hovde, the self-funding late entry to the GOP field here, is up on TV with an introductory 60-second spot backed by a huge $450K buy. Wisconsin hasn't elected a self-funding Republican businessman to the Senate in almost 18 months now, so it will be interesting to see how Hovde pans out.
House
FL-26: Some rare good news for Rep. David Rivera: state prosecutors have completed an 18-month investigation of his finances and will not charge him with any criminal or ethical violations. There's still the matter of an FBI investigation into another shady-looking financial deal, but might Rivera actually be in the clear now? His Democratic opponents are lackluster, and no Republicans are stepping up to challenge him.
MD-06: A John Delaney internal gives him a 48-39 lead over Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, whom redistricting has made one of the half-dozen most vulnerable Republicans in the country.
TX-16: Silvestre Reyes (yeah, he's a Congresssman; I had to look him up too) is facing a strong primary challenge from the awesomely-named Beto O'Rourke, and Bill Clinton is endorsing him because....surprise! Reyes was a Hillary backer in 2008. Bubba has also endorsed Mark Critz and Brad Sherman, both Clinton loyalists facing fellow Members.
WA-01: Suzan DelBene picked up two endorsements this week: from Rep. Rick Larsen, who represents a good portion of the new 1st, and Gov. Chris Gregoire, who narrowly won the district in 2008. DelBene is one of 5 Democrats running here.
DCCC: The Dems are out with the initial blueprint for their fall IEs: $32M over 36 districts, beginning after labor day. Note that these are reservations and not buys, and can be modified or cancelled as races progress. The full list is at the link; I find the North Carolina and Central Florida buys to be particularly interesting.
States
North Carolina: In this video, Bev Perdue responds to the ongoing sexual abuse scandal in the NCDP and demonstrates the leadership qualities that have served her so well in her term as governor. (As with Perdue's term, things starts to unravel about 45 seconds in.) Perdue pulled things together later on and called for Chairman David Parker to resign.
Utah: The Utah Foundation has a comprehensive poll of delegates to Saturday's state GOP convention, which has lots of goodies for us. Orrin Hatch is flirting with the 60% he needs to avoid a primary, as is RRH enemy Gary Herbert, whose closest challenger is Morgan Philpot. On the House side, Chris Stewart and David Clark lead the rest of the field in the new UT-02 and look like good bets to make the primary ballot. In Matheson's UT-04, Mia Love has a moderate lead over Carl Wimmer and Steve Sandstrom.
Washington: I suppose this is the kind of stuff that happens in a top-two system: Rob McKenna (R) insisted he's "not Scott Walker" and called the Wisconsin governor's impact on the GOP "unfortunate." Yes, McKenna is running in a close race in a tough state, but does he really have to go out of his way to bash one of the most ardently supported governors in his party?
Wisconsin: Democrats and unions have already spent over a million dollars on TV ads for their upcoming gubernatorial primary: $758K for Kathleen Falk and $313K for Tom Barrett. The unions would probably prefer to save their money for Scott Walker, but appear worried that their preferred candidate, Falk, will lose the primary. Meanwhile, Walker and the RGA have reserved $4.4M in air time for May and June.
More Wisconsin: The Dems are also trying one more round of Senate recalls, and PPP/Kos finds Republicans leading in all four (which is good, because we need to hold them all to keep the chamber). The only close race is SD-23, where Van Wanggaard's lead is 48-46. |
