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:
* The White House actively recruited Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) to take on Harry Reid last year, but Gibbons wasn’t interested — he has a different race in mind. Yesterday, Gibbons announced he will run for governor next year. Though he’ll likely face Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and state Sen. Bob Beers in a GOP primary, Gibbons immediately enters the race as the frontrunner.
* Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) may be floundering, but he’s still talking like a candidate who’s looking forward to a re-election campaign next year. “I am not here for the short run. I am a follow-through guy,” he said last week during a Sacramento radio call-in program. Schwarzenegger could announce his plans as soon as mid-September, around the state GOP convention and after the Legislature adjourns for the year
* According to a poll done by the New York Times, Dems in the city appear to be increasingly moving in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s direction. With two weeks to go before the Sept. 13 primary, half of Democrats said that if Bloomberg were in the Democratic primary they would vote for him, giving the mayor more than double the support of the next most popular candidate, Fernando Ferrer, in such a hypothetical matchup.
* While Republicans in New Mexico are having recruiting trouble — no one seems anxious to take on Gov. Bill Richardson (D) or Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) — they’ve got one candidate at least thinking about it. Allen McCulloch (R), a urologist known in local GOP circles for his conservative beliefs, has reportedly expressed interest in the state’s Senate race and recently held an exploratory meeting.
* Wesley Clark is still active on the trail, campaigning in Iowa yesterday, where he told voters that the war in Iraq was a “strategic blunder” that the Democratic Party needs to speak out against.