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:
* As Republican policies become less popular in Ohio, President Obama is becoming more popular in the key electoral state. A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows the president leading likely GOP rivals in hypothetical match-ups, in margins ranging from 6 to 16 points.
* The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $5.2 million in February, which was better than January, better than the National Republican Congressional Committee’s haul over the same period, and the best February for House Dems ever. The DCCC still, however, carries a substantial $17.3 million debt from the 2010 cycle.
* Speaking of fundraising, Jim Messina, who is managing Obama’s re-election campaign, has ambitious goals: “The nation’s top Democratic contributors were given an ambitious set of marching orders on Thursday, with a select group of 450 donors each asked to raise $350,000 before the end of the year.”
* Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) obviously wants to run for president in 2012. His son, Sterling, obviously doesn’t want Barbour to run.
* Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) this week lent his name to an RNC fundraising letter that blasted Democrats as “socialists,” a word he never used as a candidate. Soon after, the RNC retracted this, blaming an internal “mistake.” RNC Chief of Staff Jeff Larson specifically said, “Senator Rubio had expressly edited out the use of the words ‘leftist’ and ‘socialist.’ The RNC takes full responsibility for this unfortunate incident.”
* Speaking Jeff Larson, the RNC chief of staff appears to be facing some credible ethics allegations.
* And is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) running for president or not? CBS News lists the evidence and concludes that a run is unlikely.
