THURSDAY’S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP…. Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers.
* The bad news just keeps on coming for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s (R) Senate campaign. Yet another poll, this time from Insider Advantage/Florida Times-Union, shows him trailing Marco Rubio in their Republican primary by a whopping 34 points, 60% to 26%.
* Former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, the leading Republican candidate for the Senate this year, recently told a right-wing crowd that she considers Social Security an untrustworthy “Ponzi scheme.”
* Speaking of Colorado, the latest survey from Public Policy Polling shows Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (D) out in front of former Rep. Scott McInnis (R) in this year’s gubernatorial race, 50% to 39%.
* In Illinois, Rasmussen shows state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) leading Rep. Mark Kirk (R) in this year’s Senate race, 44% to 41%.
* Leading neocon Dan Senor, the former top spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, is apparently thinking seriously about running for the Senate in New York this year as a Republican. He would take on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
* For her part, Gillibrand doesn’t sound especially worried about Senor, given his discrediting role in the Bush administration.
* There are plenty of incumbent Senate Democrats who are vulnerable this year. Sen. Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon isn’t one of them.
* In Connecticut, former Stamford mayor Dannel Malloy will take on Ned Lamont in a Democratic gubernatorial primary. It will be Malloy’s second attempt at the office.
* Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a leading GOP gubernatorial candidate in California, hasn’t quite figured out how to work with the press. Yesterday, she invited reporters to a public appearance, but when they asked questions, Whitman had security escort them away. Odd.
