MONDAY’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:
* With Joe Miller (R) refusing to concede his U.S. Senate race in Alaska, the state Republican Party is quickly moving away from its nominee. Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich posted a statement to the party’s website the other day, shooting down each of Miller’s defenses for sticking around.
* Miller, however, shows no signs of going anywhere.
* Speaking of unresolved statewide races, the manual recount in Minnesota’s gubernatorial race gets underway today. Mark Dayton (D) currently leads Tom Emmer (R) by about 9,000 votes out of 2.1 million ballots cast.
* The AP checked in with 51 members of the Republican National Committee, and found that 39 of them hope chairman Michael Steele isn’t on the ballot when they choose their next chairperson in January.
* Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton continues to hint at his interest in running for president — yes, of the United States — in 2012.
* Disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (R) is considering running for mayor in his hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida.
* And it’s taken a while, but the Deep South’s realignment is just about complete: “That the old Confederacy is shifting toward the GOP is, of course, nothing new. Southerners have been voting for Republican presidents, senators and governors for decades. But what this year’s elections, and the subsequent party switching, have made unambiguously clear is that the last ramparts have fallen and political realignment has finally taken hold in one of the South’s last citadels of Democratic strength: the statehouses.”
