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
* Among the big winners<\/a> in Illinois’ various primaries were Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth in the 6th congressional district and investment banker David McSweeney in Illinois’ 8th. As expected, in the state’s gubernatorial race, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka (R) won their respective primaries, though neither walked away<\/a> from Tuesday’s results with overwhelming support from their party’s faithful.<\/p>\n * Bob Keenan, the top Republican leader in the Montana Senate, made it official yesterday, announcing that he will take on<\/a> incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns in a GOP primary. Keenan was out of the country, but emailed the AP to say that he had decided to run and that his candidate paperwork was “in the mail.”<\/p>\n * According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, lieutenant governor candidate Ralph Reed (R) is “an 8-point drag<\/a>” on the state’s Republican ticket, including Gov. Sonny Perdue (R).<\/p>\n * Though most of the attention in Pennsylvania’s Senate race focuses on the Bob Casey-Rick Santorum match-up, Casey still has a Dem primary opponent. In fact, the candidate, Alan Sandals, got a boost yesterday when National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority Foundation endorsed his candidacy<\/a> over Casey, in large part because Sandals is pro-choice.<\/p>\n * In Connecticut, all the attention at the statewide level seems to be on whether Ned Lamont can beat Sen. Joe Lieberman in a Dem primary, but yesterday, a Republican finally entered the race. Paul Streitz, best known for running the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, threw his hat into the ring<\/a>, vowing to focus his campaign on, you guessed it, immigration.<\/p>\n