Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* At the Utah Republican Convention over the weekend, Mitt Romney hoped to get 60% of the vote in order to clinch the GOP’s U.S. Senate nomination. Instead, he came in second to state Rep. Mike Kennedy, and the two will soon compete in a statewide primary.
* The congressional special election in Arizona’s 8th district is tomorrow, and the latest robocall from a Republican super PAC mentions Nancy Pelosi’s name three times. It doesn’t mention Hiral Tipirneni, the Democratic candidate in this race, at all.
* The latest statewide poll in Missouri found incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) with a small lead over state Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), 48% to 44%.
* Speaking of Senate polling, a Mason-Dixon poll in Mississippi, looking ahead to hypothetical runoff elections later this year, showed appointed Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) leading former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy (D), 46% to 34%. That same poll, however, found Espy leading right-wing state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R), 42% to 40%.
* In West Virginia, Democrats are starting to intervene in the Republicans’ competitive Senate primary, hoping to boost ex-con and coal baron Don Blankenship, whom they believe would be easier to defeat in the general election. The primary is two weeks from tomorrow. * Republican megadonor Foster Friess surprised many late last week when he kicked off a GOP gubernatorial campaign in Wyoming, where Friess had talked about launching a Senate campaign. Friess is perhaps best known in electoral circles for bankrolling Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign and making highly provocative comments about his political beliefs. * And in Colorado, a key battleground state, the Denver Post reported that Dems have pulled off something fairly impressive: “Democrats have secured a candidate on the ballot in every 2018 Colorado congressional, statehouse and major statewide race.” Colorado Republicans cannot make the same boast.
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
