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Senate:
• CT-Sen: A local division of the UAW endorsed Chris Murphy in his bid for the Democratic Senate nomination, a move which Murphy's camp described as the "first statewide organized labor union" getting involved in the race.
• FL-Sen: Despite running one of the bumbling-est early campaigns this cycle, GOPer Mike Haridopolos has been racking up a string of big-name endorsements. The latest comes from Ag. Commish (and ex-Rep.) Adam Putnam, though I'm really unclear as to why he likes Haridopolos. Perhaps he's just the only person at the intersection of "really conservative" and "sufficiently establishment" at this point.
• IN-Sen: Back in March, Gov. Mitch Daniels refused to offer an official endorsement in the GOP Senate primary. Now the man who wants to succeed him, Rep. Mike Pence, is saying he won't decide between Sen. Richard Lugar and Treasurer Richard Mourdock, either.
• MI-Sen: Republicans claim they are recruiting a former NHL player to run against Sen. Debbie Stabenow, but won't say who. All we're told is that he's a former Detroit Red Wing, he's Canadian by birth but is now a U.S. citizen, and he isn't Steve Yzerman. Michigan native Dana Houle tries to suss out who it could be, but has been getting shut out so far. Any guesses, sports fans?
Meanwhile, former state GOP chief Saul Anuzis (who twice failed in bids for the chairmanship of the RNC) is a healthy scratch. Anuzis, who would have been skating with the third line at best, says he won't run for the Republican nod.
• NJ-Sen: Over in the Garden State, a former Republican chair is doing the opposite: state Sen. Joe Kyrillos is apparently forming an exploratory committee to weight a challenge to Sen. Bob Menendez.
Gubernatorial:
• NC-Gov: A sign of hope for Gov. Bev Perdue? She just vetoed a Republican-passed budget that features deep cuts to education, a plan which PPP finds is deeply unpopular in North Carolina. Republicans are helping to keep the issue alive by attempting an over-ride of the veto, but they'll need help from some Democrats.
• VA-Gov: Former DNC chair and 2009 gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe says he's "interested" in giving the race another try in 2013.
House:
• AL-06: Charles Dean of the Birmingham News says that state Sen. Scott Beason could issue a primary challenge to Rep. Spencer Bachus next year. You may remember Beason as the guy who tried and failed to push through a redistricting plan that would have put fellow Republican lawmaker Cam Ward's senate district outside the 6th CD, but I guess Ward's continued presence in the 6th is not a deterrent.
• CA-06: Alex Isenstadt notes that state Sen. Noreen Evans, who had been interested in succeeding the possibly retiring Lynn Woolsey, has seen her hometown of Santa Rosa largely moved outside of Woolsey's district under the draft maps released last week. Isenstadt says this is probably a boon for fellow Dem Assemblyman Jared Huffman, who hails from Marin County.
• CA-36: Bill Clinton is sending out a fundraising email for Janice Hahn, and though he won't be doing any events in the district, the way The Hill frames it, it sounds like the Hahn campaign wishes he could. This race is starting to feel just a touch like the Niki Tsongas 2007 special election in MA-05.
• CA-East San Gabriel Valley-Covina: Man, if California actually sticks with these Canadian riding-style names, I think my hand is going to fall off eventually. Anyhow, freshman Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, who was once the youngest mayor of West Covina, says he plans to seek this seat, "should these lines stay put." Hernandez also fired off a shot against would-be carpetbaggers, stating that "anyone who is thinking of carpetbagging in this district, they need not apply." Could that come back to bite him if the lines change but another district still looks appealing? One side note: ESGV-C is, at the moment, home to GOP Rep. David Dreier.
• IL-08, IL-11: Two Democrats who are interested in running in newly redrawn districts just rolled out lists of endorsements, Raja Krishnamoorthi in the 8th and Bill Foster in the 11th. Among other possibilities, Foster could face businessman John Atkinson in a primary, while 2006 IL-06 candidate Tammy Duckworth is supposedly considering a run in the 8th. Indeed, Duckworth just submitted her resignation to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she served as Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs since 2009.
• OK-02: We've been given a partial look at a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling on behalf of the campaign of Brad Carson, taken June 8 through 10. Carson, you'll recall, is seeking his old seat back in the wake of fellow Democrat Dan Boren's retirement. We don't have the cross-tabs for this new poll, but we do have the toplines. The tests pit Carson against ex-state Sen. Ken Corn in a primary, and both men against GOP state Rep. George Faught in the general.
Brad Carson (D): 43
Ken Corn (D): 24
(MoE: ±3.9%)
Brad Carson (D): 43
George Faught (R): 35
Ken Corn (D): 37
George Faught (R): 36
(MoE: ±3.0%)
• PA-11: Wilkes-Barre attorney William Vinsko says he's considering a challenge to freshman GOPer Lou Barletta.
Other Races:
• WI Recall: God bless you, Alberta Darling. The GOP state senator was always going to be one of our toughest targets in the recall elections, but she just handed state Rep. Sandy Pasch some seriously weapons-grade fodder:
Asked by an attendee at the fundraiser what she thinks of Ryan’s plan, Darling scoffs at Dem efforts to make Ryan a liability. “They were trying to tie me to Ryan and thought that would be a negative for me,” she says. “I’m standing with Ryan — anytime, anywhere.”
“Go Paul Ryan!” Darling adds. “He’s absolutely a hero!”
Grab Bag:
• WATN?: Ex-Rep. Tom Perriello, a favorite of many in the progressive blogosphere (myself included) just gave what Blue Virginia describes as a "very well-received" speech at the Arlington County Jefferson-Jackson dinner this past weekend. Videos are at the link, but an excerpt:
Perriello said he has "no regrets," that he was "proud to support a stimulus which prevented a Great Depression... energy independence legislation and I wanted that to be stronger... and health care reform and I wanted that to be stronger too." A great line by Tom...: "Taking a good idea and cutting it in half doesn't make it a better idea."
Redistricting Roundup:
• Wisconsin: Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has gotten ahold of a leaked Republican congressional map "whose main features were confirmed by sources in both parties." Here is a direct link to the PDF, but even more helpful is this image, which overlays the proposed district lines on top of the existing borders. The principal feature of this plan is to shore up GOP freshman Sean Duffy (the side-effect of which is also to give Dem Rep. Ron Kind a bluer district). But click the first link for Gilbert's lengthy analysis. Also, commenter glame recreated the new map in Dave's Redistricting App and came up with this set of Obama/McCain numbers.