Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The new Public Policy Polling survey, released this morning, shows Democrats leading Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 49% to 41%. That eight-point margin is down a bit from the Dems’ 11-point advantage in a PPP poll in December.
* Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D), as expected, rejected the latest gerrymandered map crafted by the state legislature’s Republican leadership. Barring an 11th-hour compromise, the matter will be resolved by the state Supreme Court.
* Recent polling suggests Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is favored to win another term in November, but her principal rival, state Senate leader Kevin de León (D) picked up a big endorsement yesterday from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
* Bob Hugin, a multimillionaire pharmaceutical executive, kicked off a Republican Senate campaign in New Jersey yesterday. He’s the first credible contender to announce plans to take on incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).
* For much of 2017, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) kept Republicans on edge while considering whether to run against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). Last month, he said he’d skip the race. This week, however, Cramer said he’s “mildly reconsidering” his plans. * On a related note, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) also recently said he’d skip this year’s Senate race, preferring to retire, though he too is reconsidering his options. * Corker’s reassessment comes on the heels of a poll from Public Opinion Strategies showing former Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) narrowly leading far-right Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) in a hypothetical general-election match-up. * And while former President Bill Clinton has been a popular draw on the campaign trail for many Democrats over the last several election cycles, we should apparently expect to see much less of him in 2018.
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
