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
* Adding further credence to months of rumors, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this week that Paul Hackett has “all but decided<\/a>” to run for the Senate next year against incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio). Hackett has been recruited by the party establishment in DC, and after receiving so much encouragement, he’s begun the initial groundwork on a statewide race, including hiring a campaign staff.<\/p>\n * Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) gubernatorial campaign seems entirely dependent on making the connection in voters’ minds between himself and popular Gov. Mark Warner (D). To that end, Warner is finally unloading on Kaine’s opponent, former state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (R), saying in a fundraising letter<\/a> that the Republican candidate threatens to “turn back the clock” and bust Virginia’s budget, while describing Kaine as a fiscally prudent centrist.<\/p>\n * Following months of appeals from the Illinois GOP establishment, former Gov. Jim Edgar (R) sounded like a man poised to reenter the political realm yesterday, telling reporters<\/a> that a decision about his political future should come “very soon.” Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich is considered vulnerable, but Republicans are yet to recruit a top-tier candidate. Edgar said the chances of him throwing his hat into the ring remain “50-50.”<\/p>\n * Professor Bryan Kennedy (D) took on<\/a> Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) last year, and is anxious for a rematch. Hoping to capitalize on Sensenbrenner’s embarrassing vote<\/a> on aid to Katrina victims, Kennedy has unveiled a hard-hitting new TV ad<\/a>.<\/p>\n * And in Virginia, Dems have been anxious to recruit a big name candidate to take on Sen. George Allen (R) next year. Gov. Mark Warner (D) side-stepped the race, probably to focus on a presidential campaign. Rumor has it another name being tossed around by Virginia Democrats is actor Ben Affleck<\/a>. Apparently, speculation picked up after Affleck started shopping for real estate around Charlottesville. Another name on the wish list: writer John Grisham, who owns a farmhouse in central Virginia.<\/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: * Adding further credence to months of rumors, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this week that Paul Hackett has “all but decided” to run for the Senate next year against incumbent Sen. Mike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365","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=5365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}