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2Q Fundraising:
• CT-Sen: William Tong (D), $550K raised (in 50 days), $500K on hand.
• MA-Sen: Alan Khazei (D), $920K raised; Bob Massie (D), $83K raised; Setti Warren (D), $123K raised; Thomas Conroy (D), $61K raised.
• NM-Sen: Martin Heinrich (D), $485K raised, $700K on hand; Hector Balderas (D), $400K raised, $370K on hand
• VA-Sen: Tim Kaine (D), $2.25 million raised
Senate:
• NJ-Sen: Republican state Sen. Michael Doherty says he is considering a run against Sen. Bob Menendez.
• NM-Sen: A familiar story: ex-Rep. Heather Wilson, now running for Senate, is trying to run away from her "moderate" profile and cozy up to teabaggers and FreedomWorks. Roll Call has all the sordid details.
• PA-Sen: State Sen. Jake Corman, one of the GOP's last remaining hopes who appeared to be taking the prospect of a race against Sen. Bob Casey seriously, just announced he wouldn't take the plunge. A handful of congressmen still haven't formally ruled out a run, but we haven't heard a peep out of any of them for quite some time.
• UT-Sen, UT-Gov: Dem Rep. Jim Matheson's been saying some statewide-ish things of late, in particular arguing that the sprawling red district the GOP gifted him in 2002 turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since it helped him "get acquainted with the entire state."
• WI-Sen: The latest quote from Dem Rep. Tammy Baldwin: "I think I am likely to run." Meanwhile, GOP state Sen. Frank Lasee says he's considering a run, calling ex-Gov. Tommy Thompson "far too moderate."
Gubernatorial:
• IN-Gov: Heh. Dan Carden of the Northwest Indiana Times offers this droll summary of a recent fundraising email from GOP Rep. Mike Pence: "Indiana will descend into totalitarianism if Mike Pence is not elected governor." Pence actually quotes St. Ronnie, who occasionally had a good line, but I don't think that "the ant heap of totalitarianism" is really one for the ages.
• LA-Gov: We're down to Some Dude-level in Louisiana, where it seems absolutely no Democrat of any stature is interested in taking on GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal. Activist Ron Ceasar, who led an unsuccessful recall attempt of Jindal earlier this year, says he's going to give it a shot, though. It's not clear if Ceasar will run as a Dem — he garnered some 7% of the vote in a 1994 run for Congress in the old 7th CD as an independent.
• WA-Gov: Democratic state Auditor Brian Sonntag said he won't run for governor — not exactly a surprise, since everyone seems happy to clear the field for Rep. Jay Inslee. But unlike King County Exec Dow Constantine, Sonntag refused to endorse Inslee, claiming it’s "too early" to do so. Whatever, dude. (This is the guy who, after all, endorsed Republican Susan Hutchison over Constantine back in 2009. Bet he wishes he could take that one back.)
House
• AR-01: ARDem, writing over at Blue Arkansas, chatted up a couple of possible Democratic candidates who might challenge GOP freshman Rick Crawford. One was businessman Steve Rockwell; another was prosecutor Scott Ellington. Both say they are considering the race. ARDem also says that L.J. Bryant, a candidate last year for Land Commissioner, is thinking about it, too.
• CO-04: Good news: Dem state Senate President Brandon Shaffer, who had been mulling a run for a while, says he'll challenge GOP frosh Rep. Cory Gardner.
• CT-05: Former FBI agent Mike Clark says he'll join the field seeking the GOP nomination for the open 5th CD seat.
• MI-11: GOP presidential candidate Thad McCotter, as befits his powerhouse status, refused to say whether he'd seek re-election to his House seat in the unlikely event he fails to capture the Republican nomination.
• NY-09: Perhaps yesterday I should have said that ex-Rep. Liz Holtzman looks like a perfect Democratic candidate on paper. Reality has a way of adding smudges and inkstains, and Colin Campbell catalogs a few of them. For one, she doesn't live in the district any longer; for another, she didn't do particularly well in this part of town during various runs for citywide and statewide office in the 80s and 90s. She also did some lobbying work on behalf of a company called SAIC, which was responsible for a seriously botched (and ultimately terminated) $50 million contract for city services. And finally, she's made a number of remarks on foreign policy that are almost certainly out of step with many voters in the 9th CD. For the full color on all of this stuff, I urge you to click the link to Colin's site.
Meanwhile, Democrats got some welcome news… from the GOP. Councilman Eric Ulrich, the strongest possible Republican contender, announced last night that he would not run. Ulrich said that if he won, he'd only serve a year-and-a-half (not even), while he can run for at least one more term (and possibly two) on the city council.
• TN-03, TN-04, TX-27: The New York Times has a long piece on possible primary challengers to Republican freshmen. We wrote about one of them the other week: state Sen. Bill Ketron, who is angling to take down Scott DesJarlais (with an assist from redistricting) in TN-04. Two others I believe we haven't mentioned before: Weston Wamp, son of ex-Rep. Zach Wamp (who lost a gubernatorial bid last year), wants to reclaim his dad's seat from Chuck Fleischmann in nearby TN-03. Meanwhile, in TX-27, state Reps. Todd Hunter and Raul Torres are looking at runs against Blake Farenthold.
Other Races:
• Portland, ME Mayor: For the first time, Maine's largest city, Portland (pop. 66K), will elect a mayor. So far, 16 candidates have declared, and Mike Tipping gives us a brief rundown on each of them. Interesting side-note: the race will be conducted by instant-runoff voting.
Grab Bag:
• RGA: The Republican Governors Association raised $22 million in the first half of 2011 and has $16 million on hand. The DGA has not yet released its numbers.
• TX-??: San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, often talked up as a possible Democratic candidate for higher office, says he's happy where he is and doesn't plan to go anywhere until 2017. (He can run for a second term as mayor in 2013.) His identical twin brother Joaquin is running for the new TX-35, very possibly against Rep. Lloyd Doggett.
Redistricting Roundup:
• Arizona: Local writer Stephen Muratore confirms my suspicions: that Republicans are indeed trying to "work the refs" by hammering Colleen Mathis, the independent member of the state's redistricting commission, at every turn. A public hearing last week featured a lot of anger directed at Mathis's way (she recently sided with Democrats on the choice of mapping firms), and it seems like it was part of an organized effort.
• Massachusetts: Common Cause is holding a contest (with cash prizes) for folks who want to redistrict Massachusetts. The best part is that they want you to use Dave's App.
• Maryland: Redistricting is finally getting underway in Maryland, now that Dem Gov. Martin O'Malley has appointed members of his advisory committee, which will hold a series of public hearings.
• Missouri, Nebraska: Daily Kos Elections has new presidential numbers by CD for the re-drawn districts in MO and NE, as well as our trademark population re-distribution analysis. Click the link for full details.