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:
* Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) may generate excitement with the GOP base following her role in “fixing” Florida’s presidential vote count in 2000, but top Republican leaders are not exactly happy about her Senate campaign. The Orlando Sentinel reported today that Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and White House officials are pushing House Speaker Allan Bense (R) to challenge Harris in a GOP Senate primary.
* A reliable source in Missouri told me yesterday that former Missouri Speaker of the House Jim Kreider (D) is gearing up to challenge Rep. Roy Blunt (R) in next year’s campaign. It’s a conservative district, but Blunt is burdened by lingering ethical questions and Kreider could give him a real fight.
* Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) is the first candidate in Tennessee’s open Senate campaign to start airing TV ads, buying time on network affiliates around the state for a 30-second commercial about the war in Iraq. Ford’s campaign called the ad buy “substantial.”
* In the race to succeed Eliot Spitzer as New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo has a nine-point lead over Mark Green in a statewide poll out this week.
* Republicans and Democrats in Colorado agree that Rep. Bob Beauprez (R), who is running for governor, stumbled badly this week with comments many perceived as anti-Mexican. In expressing frustration about the extradition of suspected cop-killer Raul Gomez-Garcia, Beauprez said, “I’ve vacationed in Mexico before. I know exactly what ‘Mexican time’ is.”
* Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D) will likely face a primary challenge next year in her reliably-liberal California district because term-limited State Assemblyman Joe Nation (D) is looking for work. “He’s said publicly that he’s running because he’s term-limited and needs a job,” the congresswoman said in an interview. “I take him at his word.”
* With Pat DeWine (R) doing so poorly in Ohio’s 2nd district GOP primary this week, some Dems are reassessing whether Sen. Mike DeWine (R) is vulnerable next year. DSCC spokesman Phil Singer said Democrats are speaking with “two or three” possible Senate contenders, whom he declined to name. Democratic Reps. Sherrod Brown and Tim Ryan seem to be the most likely contenders. Singer added that Pat DeWine’s defeat “suggested [the senator is] going to have a much harder go of it in the 2006 campaign than he thinks he might.” A poll out this week bolstered that notion — DeWine’s approval rating is only 44% statewide.