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:
* After all the turmoil, Rep. [tag]Katherine Harris[/tag] (R) still managed to win her Senate primary race in Florida yesterday, beating her largely unknown GOP rivals with 49% support. She’ll now face incumbent Sen. [tag]Bill Nelson[/tag] (D), who leads Harris in the latest Rasmussen poll, 57% to 34%. (The poll found that one in three Republicans in Florida plan to support Nelson.)
* Speaking of Florida, the two major parties chose their gubernatorial candidates yesterday, with Rep. [tag]Jim Davis[/tag] beating state Sen. [tag]Rod Smith[/tag] to get the Dems’ nod, and state Attorney General [tag]Charles Crist[/tag] beating state CFO [tag]Tom Gallagher[/tag] for the GOP nomination. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Crist leading Davis in a general election match-up, 45% to 41%.
* In Kansas, Gov. [tag]Kathleen Sebelius[/tag] (D) still enjoys a double-digit lead over Republican challenger [tag]Jim Barnett[/tag], but the margin is not quite where it was. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, Sebelius is now ahead, 48% to 37%. The 11-point gap is six points smaller than it was in July.
* In Illinois’ gubernatorial race, incumbent Gov. [tag]Rod Blagojevich[/tag]’s (D) recent ad blitz has driven up the negative numbers on his GOP rival, [tag]Judy Baar Topinka[/tag], but the ads haven’t expanded his lead much. The latest Research 2000 poll now shows Blagojevich leading Topinka, 47% to 39%.
* And in 2008 news, The Note reported this week that former House Majority Leader [tag]Dick Armey[/tag] (R) is going to visit Iowa soon, ostensibly as a presidential aspirant, as a way to get his ideas and agenda some additional attention. Armey said, however, that he has “absolutely no interest in Dick Armey as President.” (Oddly enough, neither does anyone else.)