Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Pointing to the state’s “sore loser” law, the West Virginia Supreme Court yesterday rejected Don Blankenship’s bid to run for the Senate this year as the Constitution Party’s candidate. Blankenship came in third in the Republican Party’s Senate primary a few months ago.
* Less than a week after Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) seemed to blame his wife for his criminal indictment, the Republican congressman told KGTV in San Diego yesterday, “Leave my wife out of it, leave my family out of it. It’s me they’re after anyway.”
* On a related note, Ammar Campa-Najjar, Hunter’s Democratic challenger in this very “red” district, is launching a new campaign ad today that describes the incumbent as an embarrassment driven by greed.
* In Pennsylvania, a new Franklin & Marshall poll found incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) with a double-digit lead over Rep. Lou Barletta (R), 47% to 34%. The same poll found incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf (D) with an even larger advantage: he leads Republican Scott Wagner (R), 52% to 35%.
* Also of interest given the number of competitive House races in the Keystone State, the Franklin & Marshall poll found that Pennsylvania voters prefer Democrats by nine points, 48% to 39%, on the generic congressional ballot. * In New York’s competitive 22nd congressional district, a new Siena College poll found state Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi (D) leading Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), 46% to 44%. * Speaking of the Empire State, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said in a debate yesterday that he will serve a full term if re-elected, which would rule out a possible 2020 presidential campaign. * And in Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott (R) and his allies have already spent more than $47 million on ads in this year’s U.S. Senate race, incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D) is just this week launching his first television ad. It’s a positive spot that emphasizes the Democratic senator’s decades of public service in the military, as an astronaut, and in the Senate.
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
