Election News You Can Use

A mini-roundup:

• The only reason that you would know Tommy Thompson was running for President was the fact that he stepped in it yesterday by praising Jews for, essentially, being money-grubbing Jews. He kept insisting that it was a compliment, that he was just saying that Jews were great businessmen. You mean like Shylock? This isn't offensive, it's just clueless. He should join Joe Biden in the foot-in-mouth primary.

• If there were one Congressional seat that Democrats had to leave open, I would offer that it should be Duncan Hunter's open seat. It's a tough red district, and even though open seats are attractive, the fact that Hunter's son is running, and that he may be over in Iraq DURING the election, makes him almost unassailable.

• I really hope Brad Miller runs for Senate in North Carolina against Liddy Dole. Being only 10 points down a year and a half out, and with Dole at 44%, makes it a prime opportunity. Miller is a netroots hero, and really understands how to be a proud Democrat in North Carolina and not back down.

• Sen. John Warner raised five hundred dollars for the whole quarter? That's the kind of money you raise if you're not raising money and somebody gives you some by accident. I don't think he's running again, and if his namesake Mark Warner runs, that seat's going to flip.

• In another case of Democrats who came very close in 2006 who will run again in 2008, Dr. Victoria Wulsin will challenge Mean Jean Schmidt in OH-02. This is the best way for a challenger to defeat an incumbent, by raising their profile first, and then running to win the second time.

• The other shoe is dropping for Rep. John Doolittle. A former senior staffer to Doolittle, Kevin Ring, abruptly resigned his job as a lobbyist yesterday. Ring also worked for Jack Abramoff from 2000 to 2004, and he was basically Abramoff's way to get to Doolittle. After this trail appeared to have gone cold, this is a major sign that it's heating up again:

As The Politico notes, Ring seems poised to follow the path of other aides who've pled guilty in the Abramoff scandal -- pleading guilty to lesser charges in return for delivering their former bosses to investigators. Ex-Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) former chief of staff Neil Volz, who also worked with Ring with Abramoff and then later at Barnes & Thornburg, resigned abruptly from that firm in January last year. He pled guilty to corruption charges in May, agreeing to cooperate and implicating Ney.

Of course, another repeat candidate, Charlie Brown, is challenging Doolittle, and he raised over $100,000 in the first quarter, and since Doolittle has been busy erasing massive debt, holds a $200,000 cash-on-hand advantage. Of course, if things keep going the same way for Doolittle, he'll be spending the 2008 election in court.