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
* As if the Dem primary for Minnesota’s open Senate seat weren’t crowded enough, wealthy real estate developer Kelly Doran has thrown his hat into the ring<\/a>. For many in the state, there’s a sense of d\u00c3\u00a9j\u00c3\u00a0 vu — retiring Sen. Mark Dayton (D) was a novice in 2000 who tapped a personal fortune to run for the Senate. Doran is poised to follow a similar path. Other Dem candidates include Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, child safety advocate Patty Wetterling, and philanthropist Ford Bell, while Republicans have rallied behind Rep. Mark Kennedy.<\/p>\n * Speaking of Minnesota, a new statewide poll<\/a> suggests voters have completely abandoned support for Bush. Despite the president’s relatively strong showing last November, Bush’s approval rating has dropped in the state to an all-time low of 42%, which is down from 49% in January.<\/p>\n * As expected, Scott Maddox, former chairman of Florida’s Democratic Party, announced his campaign<\/a> for governor yesterday. Maddox was the mayor of Tallahassee before taking the helm of the state Dems two years ago. He’ll face Rep. Jim Davis and state Sen. Rod Smith in a Dem primary.<\/p>\n * State Sen. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) made his congressional campaign official yesterday<\/a>, announcing his bid to replace retiring Rep. Henry Hyde (R). He may, however, face a primary fight, with state Sen. Carole Pankau (R) considering the race. Roskam’s political experience includes working as an aide to Hyde and Tom DeLay.<\/p>\n * Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), best known for championing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, won re-election in 2004, but by a much smaller margin<\/a> than expected, prompting some Dems to believe she might be vulnerable in the next cycle. State Rep. Angie Paccione (D-Colo.), chairwoman of the Democratic Caucus in the Colorado House, is weighing the race<\/a>.<\/p>\n * Maj. Gen. Martha Rainville (R), the head of the Vermont National Guard, is planning to run for the state’s open U.S. House seat now that Bernie Sanders is running for the Senate. Rainville, however, has told reporters she’s considering trying to do both — heading the state Guard while also serving in Congress — if elected next year. Some have questioned whether she could do both effectively, but the Rutland Herald has brought up an even more important point: the separation of powers<\/a>. “Civilian control of the military is a fundamental principle of democracy,” the paper offered in an editorial. “If the military were to occupy positions of power in the civilian government, a profound conflict of interest would be the result.” <\/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: * As if the Dem primary for Minnesota’s open Senate seat weren’t crowded enough, wealthy real estate developer Kelly Doran has thrown his hat into the ring. For many in the state, there’s […]<\/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-4220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220","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=4220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}