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:
* In its election-eve poll in New Jersey, Quinnipiac shows Sen. Jon Corzine (D) leading Doug Forrester 52% to 45% among likely Garden State voters. The election, of course, is tomorrow.
* In Virginia, which will also pick a new governor tomorrow, Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore will accept a visit by President Bush this evening. Bush will make a campaign stop with Kilgore tonight on his way home from Latin America. Republicans are touting the visit as proof that Bush is still a GOP asset; I’m looking at this as the opposite — if Kilgore was so anxious to be seen with Bush, why is he waiting until 12 hours before the polls open to be seen with him?
* Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R) has long been seen as one of the nation’s most politically vulnerable incumbents, and now polls are bolstering this belief. A poll published today by the Baltimore Sun shows Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley (D) leading Ehrlich 48% to 33%. Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan (D) also leads Ehrlich, but by a much smaller margin. As for the primary fight, O’Malley leads Duncan among Maryland Dems, 42% to 23%, which is about where the race was in April.
* Speaking of Maryland, the same Sun poll shows Rep. Ben Cardin (D) with the best chance to win retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes’ (D) Senate seat. Cardin narrowly leads the Dem primary field over former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, 32% to 30%. Perhaps more importantly, though, Mfume trails Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) in a hypothetical general election match-up (39% to 38%), while Cardin leads Steele by a healthy margin (43% to 32%).
* St. Paul, Minn., Mayor Randy Kelly was the only Dem official in America last year to endorse Bush’s presidential campaign. Now he’s paying the consequences. Former city council member Chris Coleman (D) is not only poised to beat Kelly, he’s doing it with the support of John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Desperate, Kelly called a press conference last month to tell the city’s heavily Democratic majority, “I’ve heard your anger. I respect it. I understand it.” Asking his followers to move on, he said, “Voting against me won’t bring the troops home. It won’t stick it to George Bush.” (That’s true, but it seems like it’ll help a lot of voters feel better.)