Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* I’ll have more on the quarterly totals later, but for now, Hillary Clinton raised $22 million in primary funds in the last three months, outpacing Barack Obama’s $20 million. No one in either party came close to these two.
* Of the most competitive presidential hopefuls, no one has had to work harder than Mitt Romney to boost his name recognition. He’s never run for national office, he hasn’t been a media fixture (appearing on the Sunday shows), and few outside of Massachusetts know his name. With that in mind, perhaps it’s not too surprising that this week, Romney will have run his 10,000th political ad, most of which have aired in Iowa and New Hampshire. No other candidate is expected to come close to this figure anytime soon.
* Hillary Clinton picked up a helpful endorsement yesterday, when Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums offered the New York senator his support. Dellums, a widely admired African-American leader, was reportedly “anguished” trying to choose between Clinton and Obama.
* John Edwards’ chief media consultant, Marius Penczner, quietly left the campaign recently. “The Edwards campaign confirmed Penczner’s departure but offered no further comment. Senior strategists Joe Trippi (himself a media consultant by training) and Jonathan Prince will take over the development and production of Edwards’s ad campaign.”
* Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), one of the chamber’s nuttier members, has drawn a credible Democratic challenger — former Minnesota Transportation Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg.
* And National Review suggested yesterday that Virginia Republicans should recruit Gen. Peter Pace, recently forced by the White House to give up his post as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to run for the Senate next year. No word on whether Pace is interested.