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
* California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s poll numbers have reached an all-time low<\/a> and his approval rating has now dropped below the magical 50% threshhold. The latest data from Public Policy Institute of California shows 45% of Californians approve of the way Schwarzenegger is governing, while 47% disapprove. “We’re seeing now several months of growing doubts about the governor’s leadership,” said poll director Mark Baldassare.<\/p>\n * Speaking of polls, a new Quinnipiac University poll shows a tight race<\/a> among the Republicans vying to inevitably lose to Jon Corzine in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. Garden State Republicans have businessman Doug Forrester ahead of the pack, but just barely. Forrester drew 36% in the poll, while Bret Schundler had 33%.<\/p>\n * Last month, a poll in Washington state showed incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) far ahead<\/a> of all of her potential rivals — except gubernatorial runner-up state Sen. Dino Rossi. Yesterday, Rossi bucked party pressure<\/a> and said he would not take on Cantwell.<\/p>\n * Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.), confirming months of rumors, said yesterday he will kick off<\/a> his campaign against Gov. Jim Doyle (D) this weekend.<\/p>\n * After several top-tier candidates rejected party overtures, former Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg (R) is expected to announce<\/a> today that he’s going to take on incumbent Sen. Ben Nelson (D) next year. If Stenberg is the nominee, it will set up a rematch of the 2000 race in which Nelson topped Stenberg, 51% to 49%.<\/p>\n * With Rep. Mark Kennedy (R) running for the Senate, Minnesota’s sixth district will be a very competitive open seat. Last week, the GOP’s far-right made its choice<\/a> for the seat clear. Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform sponsored a fundraiser for State Sen. Michelle Bachmann (R) at a suburban DC Ritz Carlton. Bachmann is one of at least eight Republicans in the race.<\/p>\n * Speaking of open, competitive midwestern House seats, there are now two Dems competing for the chance to succeed Henry Hyde in Illinois’ 6th. 2004 candidate Christine Cegelis has already indicated her intention to run, and yesterday, Wheaton arbitrator Peter O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Malley (D) tossed his hat<\/a> into the ring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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: * California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s poll numbers have reached an all-time low and his approval rating has now dropped below the magical 50% threshhold. The latest data from Public Policy Institute of California […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}