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:
* Missouri’s back-and-forth Senate race has swung back in the Dems’ direction. According to the latest St. Louis Post-Dispatch/KMOV poll, state Auditor [tag]Claire McCaskill[/tag] (D) is ahead of incumbent Sen. [tag]Jim Talent[/tag] (R) by six points, 49% to 43%. McCaskill is polling particularly strong among Missouri’s independents, with whom she enjoys a 14-point lead. McCaskill’s six-point lead is a three-point gain since earlier this year.
* In Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, incumbent Gov. [tag]Ed Rendell[/tag] (D) has a big lead over retired football player [tag]Lynn Swann[/tag] (R), but how big depends on which poll you believe. The most recent Quinnipiac poll shows Rendell cruising, with a 55% to 31% lead. Clay Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said, “The Lynn Swann campaign is dead in the water while the Rendell juggernaut continues to charge forward. Swann is gaining no ground on the popular Democratic Governor and, in fact, is having trouble within his own party, where more than a quarter of Republicans are supporting Rendell.” According to Rasmussen, however, the race isn’t quite as one-sided. In the Rasmussen poll, Rendell still leads comfortably, but not quite by the same margin, ahead 50% to 36%.
* Speaking of Pennsylvania, Sen. [tag]Rick Santorum[/tag] (R) continues to struggle badly against [tag]Bob Casey[/tag] (D), no matter which poll you read. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Casey ahead, 52% to 34%, while the latest Rasmussen poll shows a similar margin, 52% to 37%.
* Wisconsin Gov. [tag]Jim Doyle[/tag] (D) is considered a top GOP target this year, but according to a Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll, the incumbent enjoys a relatively comfortable 49% to 37% lead over Rep. [tag]Mark Green[/tag] (R). As Taegan Goddard noted, the key seems to be an in-state gender gap: Green leads among men (46% to 40%), while Doyle has an enormous lead among women (57% to 30%).
* Five-term Rep. [tag]Chris Cannon[/tag] (R-Utah) has heard grumbling from his party before, but this year may prove to be more serious. In light of Cannon’s less-than-right-wing approach to immigration, the incumbent is facing a primary challenge tomorrow, and according to the latest poll from the Salt Lake City Tribune, Cannon’s lead has essentially evaporated. Some observers now consider the race a toss-up.
* And in one of the stories that I didn’t get a chance to mention late last week, Montgomery County Executive [tag]Doug Duncan[/tag] (D) dropped out of Maryland’s gubernatorial race last week, citing his battle with clinical depression. Duncan threw his support behind his primary opponent, Baltimore Mayor [tag]Martin O’Malley[/tag] (D), despite lingering bad-blood between the two. Republican Gov. [tag]Bob Ehrlich[/tag] had hoped to sit back and watch the two Dems pummel each other all summer, making last week’s announcement a major race-changing development.