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:
* Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) recently sat down with Tea Party activists in his state, hoping to convince them of his conservative fealty and urge them not to run a primary campaign against him. CNN reports today that the far-right activists characterized the meeting as “cordial,” but “left vowing to oppose Lugar’s bid for a seventh term.”
* Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) sent an email to supporters of his political action committee this week, with a subject line that read, “Say No to RINOs in 2011.” It’s the latest evidence that the right-wing South Carolinian intends to play the same role in the next round of GOP primaries as he did in advance of the midterms.
* After sending mixed signals about his plan, outgoing appointed Sen. George LeMieux (R) of Florida has begun meeting with Republican campaign consultant “in anticipation of a possible run” against Sen. Bill Nelson (D) in 2012.
* Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s (D) mayoral campaign in Chicago got another boost yesterday when a Cook County judge “agreed with the city’s election board that his name should appear on the ballot.”
* Incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn’t get a vote when it comes to picking the next chair of the Republican National Committee, but he’s letting party officials know he supports former Bush administration official Maria Cino.
* Public Policy Polling’s Tom Jensen believes former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is, at least for now, the most viable Republican presidential contender.
* Nebraska has a quirky system that awards presidential electoral votes based on victories in individual congressional districts. The state appears interested in scrapping the unorthodox model, and moving to the winner-takes-all system used by other states.
