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8:17 AM PT (Jeff Singer): IN-Gov: Less than a year ago, it looked quite possible that GOP Gov. Mike Pence would forgo his re-election campaign in order to run for president. But over the last few months, Pence sounded reluctant to risk his day job. In any case, the national firestorm over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act pretty much ended any chance Pence had at running a serious bid for the White House, and turned his once-safe re-election campaign into a much tougher slog. So it comes as no surprise that Pence's campaign says that he will announce on June 18 that he will seek a second term as governor.
8:37 AM PT (Jeff Singer): IL-08: Democratic state Sen. Tom Cullerton formed an exploratory committee shortly after Rep. Tammy Duckworth announced that she would run for Senate, and he made his campaign official this week. Cullerton comes from a powerful family (his cousin is the state Senate president) and is well-connected to labor. Cullerton will face businessman and 2012 candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi, and fellow state Sen. Mike Noland has also formed an exploratory committee. The Democratic nominee should be favored in this Obama 57-41 Chicagoland seat.
12:20 PM PT (Jeff Singer): NH-01: In what passes for good news for Rep. Frank Guinta these days, the New Hampshire Republican Party’s Executive Committee decided not to call for his resignation on Monday. Their statement wasn't exactly warm, saying that Guinta "[u]nless further information comes to light, the Executive Committee of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, will take no further action."
Guinta has been in hot water since last week, when he paid a fine to the FEC over an illegal six-figure 2010 donation from his parents, and prominent Republicans like Sen. Kelly Ayotte have called for his departure. Guinta has maintained that the donation was legal but hasn't convincingly explained why, and he awkwardly refused to answer questions from Roll Call on Monday.
Guinta looks very likely to face a credible primary challenger if he follows through with his plans to seek another term, but, at least for now, his base isn't calling for his head. According to GOP pollster Reach Communications, registered Republicans in NH-01 agree Guinta should not resign by a 61-39 margin. It's unclear if Reach (whom we've never heard from before) allowed respondents to say if they were undecided or not. There's a big difference between saying that Guinta shouldn't resign in disgrace and saying that he should be renominated, but this survey may encourage him to keep hanging on. Democrats are going to contest this swing seat regardless, but they'd rather face a damaged Guinta than a fresh opponent.
12:26 PM PT (Jeff Singer): CA-17: Former Obama Administration official Ro Khanna came close to unseating fellow Democrat Mike Honda last year, and he's set to make a "special announcement" on May 30. It's probably too much for Honda fans to hope that Khanna raised $801,000 only to decide not to run again.
1:11 PM PT (Jeff Singer): PA-AG: Two years ago, Democratic state Attorney General Kathleen Kane was a rising star in Pennsylvania politics who looked likely to serve in the Senate or governor's mansion before too long. Now, Kane is facing an indictment for allegedly leaking secretive information to embarrass political enemies. Over at Philadelphia Magazine, Robert Huber gives us a fascinating look at Kane's rise and fall.
2:01 PM PT: FL-Sen: Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson's divorce settlement with his estranged wife, which would reportedly have annulled their marriage, has fallen apart. We don't know why, though supposedly Grayson signed the agreement but his wife did not. Why is this even news, though? Because Grayson couldn't resist taking an ugly, public swipe at his wife—the mother of their five children—on his way into court:
"I'll sum it up for you. Gold diggers gotta dig. That's all I gotta say," Grayson said on Monday. "We had an agreement. She's trying to renege."
And Grayson's gotta grayse. Lately he's sent his acerbic rhetoric
into turbo mode: He dubbed one local reporter a "shitting robot," berated two others, reportedly cursed at DSCC chair Jon Tester, and allegedly called Rep. Patrick Murphy, his would-be primary rival, a piece of shit. So Grayson's latest outburst is far from surprising, but it certainly doesn't help his hot-headed image, and this isn't exactly the kind of remark your average woman voter will like.
Meanwhile, we have a new name emerging on the GOP side. Marc Caputo reports that wealthy businessman Randy Fine might drop his bid for the state House and take on a much more ambitious Senate campaign. Supposedly, Fine is willing to self-fund "seven figures," though even at the higher end of the range, that's not terribly impressive for Florida (Gov. Rick Scott spent $70 million of his own money in 2010). Right now, the only declared Republican is Rep. Ron DeSantis, a Club for Growth acolyte, so you know that the establishment is looking for an alternative. Whether that's Fine or, say, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, remains to be seen.