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
* It probably won’t matter too much, but [tag]Jonathan Tasini[\/tag], the former president of the National Writers Union, filed<\/a> the necessary petition signatures yesterday to challenge Sen. [tag]Hillary Clinton[\/tag] in a Dem primary. Tasini needed 15,000 signatures, but to play it safe, he submitted 40,000. Clinton’s campaign said it had no interest in challenging the petitions.<\/p>\n * Former Virginia Gov. [tag]Jim Gilmore[\/tag] (R), whose incompetent mismanagement helped lead Virginia to elect two successive Democratic administrations, is thinking about a comeback<\/a>. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch explained, Gilmore launched a state political-action committee this week that could help lay the groundwork for a 2009 gubernatorial campaign. (Virginia law does not allow incumbent governors to seek re-election after their one term, but governors can seek non-consecutive terms.) (via Taegan Goddard<\/a>)<\/p>\n * In one of the nation’s most closely watched House races, Georgia’s 8th, Republicans have targeted Rep. [tag]Jim Marshall[\/tag] (D) as a key target, particularly after the state’s recent re-redistricting. This week, however, a poll<\/a> conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showed Marshall leading former Rep. [tag]Mac Collins[\/tag] (R) by a healthy margin, 58% to 32%.<\/p>\n * This week, Texas’ Secretary of State announced state Comptroller [tag]Carole Keeton Strayhorn[\/tag] (I) could not add her “Grandma” nickname to the state’s gubernatorial ballot, and in response, Strayhorn filed a lawsuit<\/a> to challenge the decision. Strayhorn’s attorney, Roy Minton is arguing that the Secretary of State erred in thinking the “Grandma” nickname is actually a political slogan.<\/p>\n * In 2008 news, New Orleans withdrew<\/a> itself from consideration yesterday in the race to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention. City officials concluded that the cost was simply too great for a city still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans’ decision leaves Denver, Minneapolis, and New York City as the remaining cities vying to host the convention.<\/p>\n * And in still more 2008 news, Senate Majority Leader [tag]Bill Frist[\/tag] (R-Tenn.) hired<\/a> former Iowa GOP Chair [tag]Brian Kennedy[\/tag] to help his chances in the Iowa caucuses, while Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has started assembling<\/a> a campaign staff of his own.<\/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: * It probably won’t matter too much, but [tag]Jonathan Tasini[\/tag], the former president of the National Writers Union, filed the necessary petition signatures yesterday to challenge Sen. [tag]Hillary Clinton[\/tag] in a Dem primary. […]<\/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-7934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934","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=7934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}