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
* Florida’s gubernatorial race appeared to be leaning the GOP’s way, but the latest Quinnipiac poll<\/a> shows it’s still anybody’s race. In the Dem primary, Rep. [tag]Jim Davis[\/tag] leads state Sen. [tag]Rod Smith[\/tag], 27% to 17%. In the Republican primary, Attorney General Charlie Crist is ahead of state CFO Tom Gallagher, 34% to 30%. But in general election match-ups, each Dem vs. GOP pairing shows the race within a couple of points<\/a>. “Although the changes from our last survey two months ago are small, U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, and to a lesser degree State Sen. Rod Smith, the Democrat, have improved their standing versus the Republicans,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Obviously this remains a very close race.”<\/p>\n * Businessman [tag]Harris Miller[\/tag] formally kicked off<\/a> his Senate campaign in Virginia yesterday, poking incumbent Sen. [tag]George Allen[\/tag] for rubber-stamping the Bush administration’s culture of “corruption, partisanship and special-interest priorities,” and for spending far too much time on the presidential campaign trail. Miller will face former Secretary of the Navy [tag]James Webb[\/tag] in a Dem primary.<\/p>\n * Speaking of Virginia, a new Rasmussen poll<\/a> shows Miller and Webb starting the race at a considerable disadvantage. As of now, Allen leads Miller, 51% to 34%, and is ahead of Webb by an even larger margin, 50% to 30%.<\/p>\n