WEDNESDAY’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 the recount in Minnesota’s gubernatorial election, Mark Dayton’s (D) campaign believes it has expanded its lead over Tom Emmer (R) by 205 votes. As the process got underway on Monday, Dayton enjoyed a lead of 8,770 votes out of about 2.1 million total ballots cast.
* There’s only one unresolved U.S. House race remaining — the contest in New York’s 1st congressional district — and while incumbent Rep. Tim Bishop (D) has a 221-vote lead over GOP challenger Randy Altschuler, it looks like the race won’t be decided for several weeks.
* After a lengthy and awkward search, the Democratic Senate leadership announced yesterday that Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington will be the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the next two years. It will be Murray’s second stint in the job — she chaired the DSCC in the 2002 cycle, when Dems had a net loss of two seats.
* The writing on the wall appears to be getting larger for RNC Chairman Michael Steele — Dick Cheney and Ed Gillespie are supporting Maria Cino’s bid to head the Republican National Committee.
* After cruising to an easy re-election win last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) will take the reins as the new chair of the Democratic Governors Association for the 2012 cycle.
* In 2008, Florida tried to force its way to the front of the presidential primary calendar, which ended up going quite poorly for everyone involved. In 2012, the state Republican Party will apparently avoid repeating the fiasco, and will instead host a candidates’ debate and straw poll held before the primaries.
