FRIDAY’S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP…. Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* In Alaska’s still-unresolved U.S. Senate race, Joe Miller (R) has sued the state of Alaska and the Alaska Division of Elections, prompting Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) to file a motion asking to be a party to the suit “to keep those thousands of voters from being disenfranchised by Mr. Miller.”
* Late Wednesday, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris (D) was declared the winner of California’s state attorney general race, edging past Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley (R) in the final tally. Harris’ win solidifies her position as a rising star in Democratic politics, and gives California Dems a clean sweep of the statewide offices in an otherwise strong year for Republicans.
* On a related note, the latest L.A. Times/USC poll finds that California will likely be a lock for Democrats for a while — nearly one in five Golden State voters said they would never cast a ballot for a Republican, nearly quadruple the figure for Democrats. What’s more, nearly a third of Latino voters said the same thing about their attitudes towards the GOP.
* In still-more California-related news, incumbent Rep. Jerry McNerney (D) was declared the winner on Wednesday in his re-election in bid in the state’s 11th district.
* At this point, there’s only one unresolved U.S. House remaining: New York’s 1st district. For now, incumbent Rep. Tim Bishop (D) has a very narrow, 235-vote lead over GOP challenger Randy Altschuler. Overall, the net Republican gains for the cycle is still 63 seats.
* Sen. Bob Casey (D) will seek re-election in 2012, and the first Republican to announce a campaign against him is Marc Scaringi, a former aide to former Sen. Rick Santorum (R).
* Sen.-elect Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) will reportedly be sworn in on Monday, giving the Senate a 58-42 split for the remainder of the lame-duck session.
* And don’t be too surprised if former wrestling executive Linda McMahon (R), who lost her U.S. Senate race in Connecticut by 12 points earlier this month, tries electoral politics again. She hasn’t even ruled out running in 2012 against Sen. Joe Lieberman (I).
