AR-Sen: Democracy For America is out with a new poll that they commissioned from Research 2000 on the Democratic primary runoff, and it finds Halter ahead of Lincoln by 48-46. A couple of caveats, though: the runoff top lines are buried under a series of issues-related questions, which could suggest that the runoff was tested later in the question order; also, keep in mind that this was a snap overnight poll with no callbacks instead of their usual method. We'll probably be seeing plenty of polling out of Arkansas over the next three weeks, so I wouldn't get too excited about a quickie poll like this one.
Meanwhile, Lincoln still has a pretty powerful weapon in her arsenal -- the unqualified support of Bill Clinton. Clinton will campaign with Lincoln in Little Rock on May 28.
CT-Sen: Markos does a very thorough job rounding up the independent push-back against the New York Times' over-the-top hit pieces against Democrat Richard Blumenthal.
FL-Sen: Here's an amusing slice of parochialism. NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a famous independent, is refusing to endorse Charlie Crist's Senate candidacy because Crist vetoed a controversial teacher "merit pay" bill passed by the Florida state legislature.
KY-Sen: After initially vowing to seek a recanvass of the statewide vote, Democrat Dan Mongiardo has instead elected to concede the race to AG Jack Conway.
Meanwhile, Rand Paul says that he now plans to be "best friends" with Mitch McConnell -- a dude whom he shared tense relations with during the primary season. The bigger story for Paul right now, though, seems to be the national attention that some of his uncompromising views are receiving. Think Progress takes a look at Paul's reservations with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, specifically the idea that private businesses can't be as racist as they want to be. (The original source of that nugget, a Louisville Courier-Journal editorial interview, offers a pretty damning assessment of Paul: "The trouble with Dr. Paul is that despite his independent thinking, much of what he stands for is repulsive to people in the mainstream.")
PA-Gov: How's this for some thin-skinned bullshit? Republican Attorney General (and gubernatorial nominee) Tom Corbett is subpoenaing Twitter to provide "any and all subscriber information" on two user accounts who have been anonymously criticizing Corbett in missives under 140 characters long. Corbett is apparently going after these two users for their "violations of the laws of Pennsylvania" -- whatever that means. It sure doesn't look like an abuse of office for a politician to use the justice system to silence his critics, does it?
ID-01: Moose Lady to the rescue! Sarah Palin is returning to Idaho on Friday to help pump up the flagging candidacy of Vaughn Ward, whose bid for Congress hit a few snags recently, including allegations that he's actually a closeted Democrat.
IN-03: Were you wondering how disgraced GOP Rep. Mark Souder got dimed out of office? Souder's colleague in the Indiana delegation, fellow Republican Mike Pence, effectively claimed his scalp yesterday, saying that he directed the House Ethics Committee to the attention of Souder's philandering ways. That's some stone cold shit right there!
NY-14: Lake Research for Carolyn Maloney (5/10-12, likely voters):
PA-06: We missed this in yesterday's round-up, but Doug Pike has conceded the Democratic nod to take on Rep. Jim Gerlach to Manan Trivedi. Pike also issued an unqualified endorsement of Trivedi for the general election.
SC-05: Veteran Dem Rep. John Spratt is hitting back hard against recent NRCC attacks that have attempted to label Spratt as an "amnesiac" with a faulty memory. Spratt, who recently disclosed that he has been diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease, is calling the NRCC's missives an attempt to sow doubt about his health, which he calls "beneath contempt". Even Spratt's Republican foe in the race, state Sen. Mick Mulvaney, attempted to put some daylight between himself and the NRCC.
VA-05: Feda Kidd Morton, a favorite of the teabagger scene, is in a bit of hot water for an opinion piece she wrote for a local newspaper back in February that turned out to be heavily cribbed from an article written by syndicated conservative columnist Joseph Sobran. In response, Morton says she did no wrong because, "restating principles of the Constitution is no different than restating the Ten Commandments." Yuh huh. And if you are a Scottish Lord, then I am Mickey Mouse.
