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
* John Edwards sounded rather emphatic recently when he said he’s not interested in being Barack Obama’s running mate, but he sounded a little more open<\/a> to the idea yesterday. “Well, I’d take anything he asked me to think about seriously, but obviously this is something I’ve done and it’s not a job that I’m seeking, ” Edwards told George Stephanopoulos.<\/p>\n * Speaking of VP speculation, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, currently the leading candidate for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, indicated Friday that he will not be<\/a> on the presidential ticket. “Let me be clear about this: I have been working very hard these last few months to ask the people of Virginia to give me the honor of being their United States senator,” Warner said. “I will not seek, and I will not accept, any other opportunity.”<\/p>\n * The Obama campaign will take Ohio and Florida seriously, but it also believes it can get to 270 electoral votes without these two battleground states<\/a>.<\/p>\n * A new Rasmussen poll in Arkansas shows John McCain leading Obama by nine, 48% to 39%<\/a>. That may sound like a lot, but Rasmussen showed McCain leading Obama a month ago by 24 points, so this is a big step in the right direction.<\/p>\n * A new Mason-Dixon poll in Nevada shows a very close contest, with McCain edging Obama by two points, 44% to 42%<\/a>. Oddly enough, the poll, commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, showed Obama worse off if he picked Clinton as a running mate, despite Clinton’s success in the Nevada caucuses in January. * Speaking of Republican Senate campaigns, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), chairman of the NRSC, was asked late last week whether the Republican Party was going to give up on open contests in Virginia and New Mexico, where Dems are favored. Ensign said bluntly<\/a>, “You don’t waste money on races that don’t need it or you can’t win.”<\/p>\n
\n
\n* Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.) are all considered potentially vulnerable this year, and all have adopted a new strategy to shore up in-state support: they’re running ads bragging about the pork<\/a> they’ve brought to their respective states.<\/p>\n