Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Despite anxiety in Democratic circles about the incumbent’s vulnerability, the latest Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey found Sen. Bob Menendez (D) leading Bob Hugin (R), 53% to 42%.
* The latest national NPR/PBS/Marist poll found Democrats leading Republican on the generic congressional ballot by just six points, 48% to 42%.
* Fox News released new poll results yesterday in five key U.S. Senate races. Long story short: the Republican is up big in North Dakota, but has a more modest lead in Tennessee. The Democratic candidates in Arizona and Indiana have small leads. And in Missouri, it’s tied.
* Speaking of the Senate race in Arizona, a new Suffolk University/Arizona Republic poll found Kyrsten Sinema (D) with a modest lead over Martha McSally (R), 44.6% to 41.6%. That’s roughly in line with modest recent polling in this race.
* In Michigan, Democrats are increasingly optimistic about the gubernatorial race for a reason: a new poll conducted for the Detroit News and WDIV found Gretchen Whitmer (D) leading Bill Schuette (R), 47% to 35%. * In California, a new poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies looked at six competitive U.S. House races in the Golden State. Most of the results looked quite good for Democrats, which need a strong showing in California if they have any chance of taking back the chamber. * And in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) appears to be well on his way to another landslide victory: a Siena poll out this week found the incumbent governor with a 22-point advantage over Marc Molinaro (R), 50% to 28%.
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
