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:
* Over six months after the election, a state judge has rejected a challenge to Gov. Christine Gregoire’s (D) victory in Washington’s gubernatorial race. The judge agreed that nearly 1,700 illegal votes had been cast, but ruled that Republicans offered no evidence of fraud and had no proof as to who benefited from those votes. Gregoire’s Republican opponent, Dino Rossi, has decided not to appeal the decision.
* Speaking of Rossi, now that Gregoire will officially be the governor until 2008, GOP pressure is mounting on Rossi to take on Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) next year. He continues to say he’s not interested in the Senate campaign and has already begun raising money for the next governor’s race.
* Mark McKinnon was responsible for crafting Bush’s campaign advertising in 2000 and 2004, but now McKinnon has a new client: John McCain.
* Whether Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is in a position to seriously challenge Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) next year depends entirely on which partisan poll you believe. A Republican pollster released data last week showing Capito trialing Byrd by only three points, 46% to 43%. This week, a DSCC poll has Byrd leading Capito 51% to 41%. In the meantime, Capito has not yet indicated whether she’s interested in the Senate campaign or not.
* As part of a White House effort to recruit a top-tier challenger for Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven (R) will be in DC this week to discuss next year’s campaign.
* With Rep. Chris Cox (R) moving on to the Securities and Exchange Commission, State Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman (R) appears poised to be the top Republican choice to fill the House vacancy.
* There’s no shortage of candidates anxious to take on South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) next year. On the Dem side of the aisle, Florence mayor Frank Willis launched his gubernatorial campaign yesterday. He’ll face State Sen. Tommy Moore in a primary. Among Republicans, Oscar Lovelace, who was the chairman of Sanford’s health care task force, formed an exploratory committee last week to take on the incumbent governor in a GOP primary.