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:<\/p>\n
* On the superdelegate front, there’s been some movement since Friday at noon. If my count is right, Barack Obama has picked up four (Nevada’s Yvonne Gates, Virginia’s Jerome Wiley Segovia, Connecticut’s Nancy DiNardo, and Maine odd-on delegate Gwethalyn Phillips). Hillary Clinton earned two (Buddy Leach and Chris Whittington, both of Louisiana).<\/p>\n
* Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack<\/a>, a national co-chairman of Clinton’s campaign, told the AP that the race for the nomination is over. “It does appear to be pretty clear that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee,” Vilsack said. “After Tuesday’s contests, she needs to acknowledge that he’s going to be the nominee and quickly get behind him.”<\/p>\n * Turnout has soared throughout most of the Democratic contests, but yesterday’s turnout in Puerto Rico fell far short<\/a> of expectations: “A total of 380,000 ballots were cast, making up only a little over 16% of the island’s voters — well short of the 900,000 that both campaigns had once thought was a reasonable estimate.”<\/p>\n * In a move filled with symbolic significance, Obama will host a rally<\/a> tomorrow night in Minnesota — at the site of this year’s Republican National Convention: “Tuesday is the night of the final Democratic primaries, and the choice of venue is a mischievous, aggressive way for Obama to unofficially kick off the general election campaign against John McCain. The location gives huge meaning to the moment, with Obama likely to frame a tough case against his new opponent in the very hall where McCain will accept his party\u2019s nomination.”<\/p>\n * This was unexpected<\/a>: “A McClatchy computer analysis, incomplete due to the difficulty matching data from various campaign finance reports, found that hundreds of people who gave at least $200 to Bush’s 2004 campaign have donated to Obama.” * A SurveyUSA poll found Obama leading McCain in Wisconsin<\/a>, 48% to 42%.<\/p>\n * Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) told the Washington Times that Obama has asked him to “play a more prominent<\/a>” and “deeply involved” role in his campaign. Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Times, “I’ll do whatever he asks me to do.” <\/p>\n * Ron Paul fans are still rabble-rousing<\/a> at state GOP conventions.<\/p>\n * In a very unimpressive showing, James Gilmore (R) just barely won<\/a> the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate over the weekend at the Virginia GOP’s nominating convention. Running against an under-funded and largely unknown state lawmaker, Robert Marshall, the former Virginia governor and presidential candidate won with 50.3% support.<\/p>\n
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\n* Paul Kane, the WaPo’s congressional reporter, said on Friday<\/a> that he’s been watching Dems on the Hill for a while, and “the simple basic truth is that the super-delegates stopped paying attention to the Clinton-Obama race about a couple days after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. They’ve stopped paying attention to the primary, and instead they’re focused on an Obama-McCain matchup in November. That’s the basic, simple, definitive reality that has happened in this race.”<\/p>\n