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:
* Deval Patrick, the top civil rights enforcer in the Clinton administration, announced this morning he will run for the Dem nomination for Massachusetts governor. It will be his first run for elective office. State Attorney General Thomas Reilly has been informally running for months and is widely considered the frontrunner, while Secretary of State William Galvin has also expressed interest. Patrick will be the Massachusetts’ first major African-American candidate for governor.
* Speaking of gubernatorial races, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox is prepared to launch her campaign to become Georgia’s first female governor.
* The House Dem campaign committee may have fallen a little short of its Republican counterpart in the first quarter of 2005, but Senate Dems are in excellent shape. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised $9.5 million in Q1, which is the best start in a non-election year since the elimination of unregulated soft money. Better yet, the DSCC ended the quarter with more than $5.6 million left in the bank and no outstanding debt. The NRSC took in slightly more through March, raising $9.8 million, but with just $2.4 million in the bank, ending the quarter with less than half the money the Dem committee has.
* Speaking of lucrative fundraising, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine (D) and former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (R) collectively raised almost $5 million in the first quarter, bringing their fundraising totals to more than $15 million and adding further proof to the importance both sides are putting in the Virginia governor’s race. Kaine is exceeding expectations and outraising his GOP rival — at the end of Q1, Kaine had raised $8.1 million and had $5 million cash on hand while Kilgore has raised $7.4 million to date and has $4 million cash on hand.
* Yesterday, DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) met with Richard Morrison, the candidate who took on Tom DeLay last year in Texas 22nd, and who seems anxious to do so again. Emanuel declined to offer Morrison an early endorsement, instead giving the potential candidate a proposal for how the DCCC wants the race to unfold.
* Nearly everyone expects Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) to announce his retirement next week, leading many would-be candidates to scramble for position. State Sen. Peter Roskam (R) is considered the leading GOP candidate and has already begun building a campaign team. Dem consultant Christine Cegelis, who surprised many with a strong showing against Hyde last year, is rumored to be mobilizing for another run.
* Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger (D-Md.) announced yesterday he will not be running for Maryland’s open Senate seat next year. Dem Reps. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen added that they’re continuing to think about the race.
* Six months after a very narrow defeat, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said yesterday he will join Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute this fall as a visiting professor.
* And, finally, in a quirky campaign story, Pittsburgh mayoral candidate Bob O’Connor (D) has come up with one of the more clever pieces of campaign kitsch in recent memory: pillboxes bearing his name. One in six Pittsburgh residents is a senior citizen. “Every day they pop their pills, they’ll think about Bob O’Connor,” said Joseph Sabino Mistick, a professor at Duquesne University School of Law.