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Senate:
• FL-Sen: Usually when I combine "Florida Senate race" and "Republican primary" with "ethics violation," you're gonna figure I'm talking about Mike Haridopolos, right? Not this time! Now it's Adam Hasner's turn. Hasner failed to file a required financial disclosure form with the legislature after he left the state House last year. Now the lege has found "probable cause" to investigate further.
• MD-Sen: Republican Eric Wargotz, who got pasted by Barbara Mikulski last year, says he'll decide in the fall whether he wants to lose to Ben Cardin, too.
• MI-Sen: The shot goes wide! Dave Catanese says that Republican attempts to lure either of two former Detroit Red Wings players into the race against Sen. Debbie Stabenow have gotten shut out. Meanwhile, the GOP's next-best hope, state House Speaker Jase Bolger, is "resisting pressure" to run, though he isn't ruling it out entirely.
• TX-Sen, TX-Gov: GOP Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says he will decide whether he'll seek higher office this July. Redistricting watchers know that the Texas legislature is in the midst of a special session, and Dewhurst serves as state Senate President, so the timing makes sense. The real question is whether he'll run for Senate (as he was once widely expected to do), or if he'll wait until 2014 to run for governor (a possible wrinkle he suggested a few months ago).
• WI-Sen, WI-02: Rep. Tammy Baldwin sent a fundraising letter to supporters, saying "before I can commit to a race for the U.S. Senate, I need to know that I’ll have enough financial backing."
Gubernatorial:
• KY-Gov: Looks like another troglodyte decided to climb out of his spider hole. One-time Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Forgy declared that Dem Gov. Steve Beshear tapped Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson as his running mate solely "to attract New York and Hollywood Jewish money." That made Republican David Williams squirm but good — though he tried to blame Beshear for, in cn|2's phrasing, "inserting religion into the campaign in his first ad where he said his father was a pastor." Nice try! Cn|2 also did a good job fact-checking Forgy's sorry ass, showing just how little money Beshear's raised from donors in NYC and L.A. Though now I admit I'm tempted to send Beshear & Abramson a check — and to credit it all to Larry Forgy!
• MO-Gov: RGA chief Rick Perry took time out from pretending to run for president and pretending to govern Texas in order to hold a fundraiser for flailing fellow Republican Peter Kinder, who in fact still hasn't officially declared he's running for governor.
• WA-Gov, WA-01: According to both the Seattle Times and the Associated Press, Dem Rep. Jay Inslee is finally upgrading his status from "widely expected to run for governor" to "leaking to the news media that he's going to run for governor." Supposedly he'll formally launch his campaign next week.
Meanwhile, Roll Call takes a roll call of the actual and possible Democratic candidates looking to succeed Inslee in the House. Ex-state Rep. Laura Ruderman is already in, and state Rep. Marko Liias has formed an exploratory committee. State Rep. Roger Goodman filed to run in the 8th CD "out of respect to Inslee," but will move over to the 1st as soon as the congressman files. Last but not least, of course, is none other than Special K — and guess what? Dennis Kucinich will be back in Seattle on July 9 to address the NWroots conference.
House:
• NE-02: I'm not surprised to see GOP Rep. Lee Terry draw another primary challenge, though this one is definitely of the Some Dude variety: financial advisor Brett Lindstrom (a 30-year-old one-time backup QB for the University of Nebraska) says he plans to run against the congressman. Terry, who was so frightened in 2008 that he sent out mailers purporting to convey the sentiments of "Obama-Terry voters," managed only 63% in a primary against an underfunded teabagger last year.
• NY-09: Democratic labor lawyer Cody McCone says that "political leaders" are urging him to seek ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner's seat, though of course, the decision will all come down to Rep. Joe Crowley. Meanwhile, Colin Campbell of The Brooklyn Politics takes apart some of the more ridiculous candidate suggestions that have been made so far (Huma Abedin? Reshma Saujani?). While there have been a ton of specials in New York state in recent years, there haven't been any in NYC since the 1990s, and the political press just doesn't seem to grasp a lot of the nuances.
• TN-04, TN-05: GOP state Sen. Bill Ketron says he could potentially primary frosh Rep. Scott DesJarlais — if Ketron's home base of Rutherford County is drawn into DesJarlais' 4th district. Sam Stockard of the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal thinks that this remap is likely to happen, and conveniently, Ketron sits on the redistricting committee. Another Republican freshman, Diane Black, also wants Rutherford (where her toughest 2010 primary opponents reside) out of her district, according to state Dems (though she's publicly claimed otherwise), so Ketron could solve two problems at once. Ketron also admitted to wanting to split up Davidson County (home of Nashville), in an attempt to de-district Dem Rep. Jim Cooper. If we have to get the shaft in Tennessee redistricting, I'm not exactly going to cry if Cooper's on the receiving end.
Redistricting Roundup:
• Michigan: The state House passed a GOP-crafted congressional map largely along party lines, with just a couple of defections on each side — so props, at least, to state Dems for having the sense to vote against the other party's gerrymander. (I'm still casting shameful looks at Virginia Democrats.) Now the plan will move on to the Senate, which is also in Republican hands.
• North Carolina: Congressional maps are expected to be unveiled around July 1 for a special legislative session devoted to redistricting that will begin on July 13. If there's an opposite of Redistmas, this will be it.
• Oregon: Time is running out for legislators to reach a compromise on a congressional map, and it doesn't seem like the parties are close, even though they previously reached a deal on state legislative maps. Dem Rep. Kurt Schrader's 5th CD seems to be the main sticking point. There's only one week left in the session, and you know what happens if nothing happens by then: it's lawsuit time.
