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:
* Sen. Lincoln Chafee’s (R-R.I.) role in the “Gang of 14” negotiations complicate his standing in advance of next year’s re-election campaign. One the one hand, Chafee and the NRSC insist that it bolsters Chafee’s standing as a principled, independent-minded lawmaker who can stand up to the far right, as Rhode Island voters prefer. One the other hand, Roll Call is reporting it might prompt Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey (R) to challenge Chafee in a GOP primary.
* Lawyer Edward Cox, Richard Nixon’s son-in-law, will file papers with election officials today, making his campaign against Sen. Hillary Clinton official.
* Removing any doubt about his interest in seeking another term, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) tapped Paul Johnson, who has managed three successful Democratic Senate campaigns in Nebraska, to run Nelson’s re-election bid.
* Former Gen. Wesley Clark (D) is still active on the campaign trail, visiting Phoenix yesterday for a speech before 200 people at a local library. Clark argued that “we lost our sense of direction in world affairs” when the Cold War ended, and insisted we “move past those 19th-century balance-of-power ideas that set one nation against another and wound up in war.” Clark added that Democrats are the party with “big ideas” and “big vision.”
* With conservatives angry with Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) for his role in the “Gang of 14,” his son, Pat DeWine, has a new complication to his congressional campaign. The younger DeWine, a Hamilton County commissioner, is seeking to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Rob Portman, Bush’s pick to be the new U.S. trade representative. But with a crowded primary field, Pat DeWine has to walk a fine line — supporting his father while placating the right-wing base, which is angry with the senator.
* New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller’s (D) mayoral campaign has struggled lately against better-known rivals, but Miller is trying to turn things around. He hired Karen Hicks, a veteran political organizer who helped boost Howard Dean’s presidential campaign last year, to manage his campaign’s field operation.”