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:
* According to Bob Novak, top GOP leaders are watching Pennsylvania’s Senate race and they’re not happy. “Republican insiders in Washington fear that Sen. Rick Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, is in serious danger of losing his seat next year to his Democratic challenger, Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob Casey, because of a poorly planned and ill-conceived campaign,” Novak reported. He added that Paul Begala, who worked on the successful gubernatorial campaign of the late Robert Casey Sr., may join Casey’s campaign.
* Former Rep. Chris Bell (D) formally kicked off his campaign for governor yesterday, focusing on failed attempts to reform school finance and saying his patience for Gov. Rick Perry (R) has run out.
* Ameritrade executive Pete Ricketts (R) confirmed rumors in Nebraska and launched his Senate campaign Saturday against incumbent Sen. Ben Nelson (D). Ricketts will face former Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg and former state GOP chairman David Kramer in the state’s Republican primary.
* Adding to the list of Democratic Iraq war veterans considering congressional campaigns, Tim Dunn, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves who returned from Iraq late last year, has expressed serious interest in taking on Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) next year. Dunn, who spent six months in Baghdad helping the Iraqi Special Tribunal investigate and begin prosecuting Saddam Hussein and other former Iraqi leaders, told reporters, ” When I got back from Iraq, my intention was to go back … But I feel now is the time for a different type of service.”
* In the race to replace new Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox (R) in California’s 48th Congressional District, a new, more controversial, Republican has stepped up: Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist (R). Gilchrist, who has organized a group of anti-immigration activists into a self-appointed border patrol, is described as being “seriously” interested in the race.