Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Please stop doing this: “Nearly 3,400 Coloradans canceled their voter registrations in the wake of the Trump administration’s request for voter info, the Secretary of State’s Office confirmed Thursday, providing the first statewide glimpse at the extent of the withdrawals.”
* In Iowa, where Donald Trump won with relative ease in 2016, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows the president’s approval rating dropping to 43%, while 52% disapprove. (Random tidbit: Trump won Iowa by a larger margin than he won Texas. His deteriorating support in the Hawkeye State was not entirely predictable.)
* White House officials let Politico know that they’ve “met with at least three actual or prospective primary challengers” who may take on Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) ahead of his re-election campaign next year. Trump, you’ll recall, has disliked the Arizona senator for quite a while.
* Now that Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, has served his time in a federal penitentiary, he’s weighing a U.S. Senate campaign in West Virginia. Whether Blankenship would run as a Republican or an independent is unclear. * Ahead of his re-election bid next year, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) has reportedly been replacing longtime allies with members of a far-right think tank called the Illinois Policy Institute. The shake-up led the governor’s chief campaign strategist, Mike Zolnierowicz, to quit on Friday. * In Maine, former state House Speaker Mark Eves (D), who’s had high-profile clashes with Gov. Paul LePage (R), now hopes to succeed him: Eves launched his gubernatorial bid late last week.
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
