Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Early voting gets underway today in West Virginia, which is home to a competitive U.S. Senate race. Early voting also began yesterday in Hawaii, Louisiana, and Utah.
* In Florida’s closely watched gubernatorial race, the latest Quinnipiac poll found Andrew Gillum (D) leading Ron DeSantis (R), 52% to 46%. The poll was conducted before recent coverage of the Tallahassee mayor receiving “Hamilton” tickets from undercover FBI agents.
* In related news, an unknown group has launched a racist robocall in Florida that refers to Andrew Gillum as a “negro” and a “monkey.”
* In Montana’s competitive U.S. Senate race, a new poll conducted by Montana State University Billings found incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D) with a nine-point lead over Matt Rosendale (R). 47% to 38%. Most other recent polling shows a much tighter race.
* And speaking of potentially tight races, a new Rutgers-Eagleton poll in New Jersey shows incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez (D) with a modest advantage over Bob Hugin (R), 51% to 46%. * The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC with close ties to the House Republican leadership, is launching a new investment in Virginia’s 5th congressional district. For the right, that’s not good news: Virginia’s 5th, which was represented by Thomas Garrett (R) before his recent resignation, has generally been seen as a fairly safe “red” seat. * On a more encouraging note for the GOP, the latest poll from Monmouth University in California’s 48th district shows incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R) jumping into the lead over Harley Rouda (D), 50% to 48%. Monmouth previously showed Rouda ahead. * In the latest example of a candidate’s family doing an ad against their own relative, Adam Laxalt, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Nevada, is now confronting a message from 12 of his family members urging voters to defeat him.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
