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Senate:
• CT-Sen: Pro wrestling doyenne Linda McMahon, last year's free-spending Republican loser in the open-seat Connecticut Senate race, says she won't decide on a rematch until some time after Jan. 1.
• MI-Sen: Conservative Detroit radio host Frank Beckmann had previously dismissed the idea that he might challenge Sen. Debbie Stabenow with a laugh. Now he's formally saying "it's a no."
• UT-Sen: A new independent poll out of Utah has shockingly good numbers for Dem Rep. Jim Matheson, should he decide to run for Senate. Click the link for the full post at Daily Kos Elections.
Gubernatorial:
• FL-Gov: God, this is just pathetic. Bonus: Click through for awesome scary photo.
House:
• IN-06: Lane Seikman, city attorney for Rising Sun (pop. 2,300), says he'll run as a Democrat for the open seat being vacated by Rep. Mike Pence.
• IN-??: Ex-Rep. Baron Hill, who lost in the red wave of 2010, says that while he won't run for anything in 2012, he isn't ruling out a possible return to politics at some point in the future. Hill, 57, is working in government relations at a firm called APCO Worldwide, though he's taken pains to argue that he's not doing any lobbying (even though that's what "government relations" usually means). One note: Indiana won't have any statewide races again until 2016.
• NM-01: Businessman Jon Barela (who is now the state's Economic Development Secretary) says he's thinking about trying for the 1st CD seat once again. Barela lost to Dem Rep. Martin Heinrich last year, but Heinrich is running for Senate, leaving the district open. I realize the open seat might make the race more appealing, but still — if Barela couldn't win in 2010 with gale-force winds at his back, why does he think next year will prove charmed?
• NV-02: Wow. This ad from newly-crowned GOP nominee Mark Amodei must be seen to be believed. It's both wildly racist and extremely nuts, featuring a mock Chinese news broadcast (delivered with a heavy accent) that shows the Chinese army marching on Capitol Hill.
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NY-09: According to the newspaper Hamodia (which bills itself as serving the English-speaking Orthodox Jewish community), Assemblyman Dov Hikind is supposedly considering running to replace Anthony Weiner. If you only ever listened to the words that come out of Hikind's mouth, you'd think he was a Republican, but he's actually a Democrat… who just happens to supports racial profiling and compares gay marriage to incest. I can't imagine Rep. Joe Crowley tapping Hikind, but there it is.
On, well, I guess the same side of the aisle (though it hardly seems to be), Democrat Lynn Schulman says that party officials have contacted her about her interest in running. Schulman, who is gay, came close to winning a city council seat in 2009 and won't rule out serving a single placeholder term. Here's another idea, straight from the mainframes down at SSP Labs (or in this case, the brain of David Jarman): How about ex-Rep. Liz Holtzman? It doesn't seem that anyone's mentioned her, but her old 16th district (which she represented in the '70s) overlapped a good deal with the current 9th. She's 69 and could be a perfect elder statesman-type to hold this seat until 2012.
• TX-16: El Paso City Councilman Robert O'Rourke (better known as "Beto") isn't ruling out a primary challenge to Dem Rep. Silvestre Reyes, though reporter David Crowder makes it sound like O'Rourke is actually pretty likely to pull the trigger. However, he also talked about such a run last cycle but ultimately bailed.
• WI-01: Jessica Taylor at the House Race Hotline has a good, detailed profile of Rob Zerban, the Democratic Kenosha County Board member and businessman who is taking on none other than Paul Ryan.
Other Races:
• Dallas Mayor: Democrat Mike Rawlings won the officially non-partisan runoff for the Dallas mayoralty, a post which was left vacant after Republican Tom Leppert decided to run for Senate.
Grab Bag:
• Voter Suppression: Rare good news on the voter suppression front: Dem Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a voter ID bill in Missouri. Republicans will try to over-ride, but will need at least four Democratic votes in the state House to do so.
Redistricting Roundup:
• Michigan: Republicans (who control the redistricting trifecta) released their proposed congressional plan last Friday. Click the link for a copy of the map plus our own analysis. The Washington Post's Aaron Blake has more.
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