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
* Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is still in a strong position to win the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary, according to the first in a series of Columbus Dispatch polls leading up to the May 2 primary election. According to the poll<\/a>, Blackwell, the favorite of the very far-right, leads state Attorney General Jim Petro by 11 points. The lead, the Dispatch noted, helps explain Blackwell’s decision not to debate Petro and to limit media access before the primary.<\/p>\n * As for Dems in Ohio, the same Columbus Dispatch poll<\/a> shows Rep. Ted Strickland leading his lesser-known primary opponent, former state Rep. Bryan Flannery, by 43 points in the Dem primary. In the Senate race, both Sen. Mike DeWine and Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown are shoo-ins for their respective parties’ nomination. The poll didn’t test a hypothetical general-election match-up.<\/p>\n * Despite rumors of his imminent withdrawal, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana) delivered a “podium-pounding speech” on Saturday, insisting he’s not going anywhere. The scandal-plagued, Abramoff-connected senator later told the Billings Gazette<\/a>, “I will continue to serve my state and country. I love my state. Broke no law. Did nothing wrong.”<\/p>\n * Deval Patrick’s (D) Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign will get a bit of a boost today when Rep. Michael Capuano (D) endorses Patrick<\/a> at his campaign headquarters. It will be Patrick’s second endorsement from the state’s congressional delegation, following Rep. James McGovern’s support, which was announced late last year. Patrick faces a more politically established opponent, Attorney General Thomas Reilly, in the Dem primary.<\/p>\n * In Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker (R) dropped out<\/a> of the state’s gubernatorial race late last week, citing fundraising difficulties. The announcement is a big boost for Rep. Mark Green (R), whom Walker was facing in a GOP primary, and who now can concentrate exclusively on Dem Gov. Jim Doyle.<\/p>\n * And in Idaho, Lt. Gov. Jim Risch (R) is poised to become governor if Dirk Kempthorne is confirmed as Bush’s Interior Secretary, and will have to choose his own lieutenant governor. In an odd twist, the state’s First Lady, Kempthorne’s wife Patricia, asked Risch directly to name her to the post<\/a> for the rest of the year. Risch, taken aback, admitted that “the idea had never crossed my mind.” (The word “awkward” comes to mind, especially in light of Risch’s desire to stay on Dirk Kempthorne’s good side.)<\/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: * Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is still in a strong position to win the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary, according to the first in a series of Columbus Dispatch polls leading […]<\/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-6967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6967","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=6967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}