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 California, a new Rasmussen poll shows Gov. [tag]Arnold Schwarzenegger[/tag] (R) leading Democratic [tag]Phil Angelides[/tag] by six points, 48% to 42%. Angelides hasn’t lost or gained any ground since last month’s poll, which showed Schwarzenegger ahead, 47% to 41%. The poll, of course, was taken before California’s new initiative to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
* In Minnesota’s closely-watched, open Senate race, a new Rasmussen poll shows [tag]Amy Klobuchar[/tag] (D) maintaining an edge over Rep. [tag]Mark Kennedy[/tag] (R), leading 47% to 40%. The seven-point margin is closer than a similar poll from last month, but it’s still a bigger lead than Klobuchar enjoyed as recently as June.
* California’s Senate race continues to be one of the least-competitive contests in the country. A new Rasmussen poll shows Sen. [tag]Dianne Feinstein[/tag] (D) leading former state Sen. [tag]Richard Mountjoy[/tag] (R), 56% to 34%. The race is five points closer than it was last month, but when you’re ahead by 22, it doesn’t seem to matter.
* In Virginia, Senate candidate [tag]Jim Webb[/tag] (D) will miss the Labor Day weekend parades, picnics and speeches that traditionally mark the unofficial beginning of the campaign season, but he’ll have a good excuse. Webb’s 24-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jimmy Webb, is deploying with his unit to combat duty in Iraq next week. The AP reported, “Because Webb knows combat firsthand as a Marine who fought in some of the bloodiest engagements of the Vietnam War, the experience is particularly painful. When asked about it in an AP interview, tears glazed his eyes and he was momentarily unable to speak.”
* And in 2008 news, Massachusetts Gov. [tag]Mitt Romney[/tag] (R) is so anxious to garner support among far-right activists, he lashed out against stem-cell research yesterday, saying new restrictions on the research would help prevent an “Orwellian” future. “I believe it crosses a very bright moral line to take sperm and eggs in the laboratory and start creating human life,” Romney told reporters. “It is Orwellian in its scope. In laboratories you could have trays of new embryos being created.”