All in all, this has not been the craziest of weeks in terms of electoral news and I realize that I once again devoted a lot of attention to Florida politics. The aftermath of Charlie Crist’s switcheroo is still playing out - yesterday, state Senator Dan Gelber became the latest politician to run away from the Senate race - while new names like Rep. Corrine Brown and state Senator Paula Dockery are popping up as statewide candidates.
But other states also saw some important action, starting with Arkansas: Former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin somewhat unexpectedly announced he would not challenge Blanche Lincoln. Elsewhere, prominent Michigan and Alabama politicians who were widely expected to run for Governor officially joined the race, while Illinois and Nevada Republicans continued their increasingly desperate search for Senate candidates. As for Pennsylvania, I will not list Joe Sestak as a declared candidate; as I explained a few days ago, his recent comments were in no way an official candidacy statement, nor did they commit him to the race.
Finally, we got some developments on the retirement front. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a potential presidential candidate who had said he would announce whether he is running for a third-term by the end of the month, delayed his decision until later in the summer while soon-to-be Utah Governor Gary Herbert confirmed that he intends to run for his first full term next year. And we shall be getting a major announcement tomorrow, as Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn indicated he will announce his 2010 plans on June 1st. (The most likely scenario is that he runs for re-election, but it is very much possible that he retires or runs for Governor.)
As always, I list all the changes I have logged in during the week to the “retirement watch” and recruitment pages. Written in red are those politicians who announced their definite plans rather than simply expressed interest or stroke speculation.
First, updates to Retirement Watch:
| Will retire | No one. |
| Will not retire | soon-to-be Utah Governor Gary Herbert |
| Added to list of potential retirees | Rep. Corrine Brown (D, FL-03) |
Second, updates to the Senate recruitment page:
| AR-Sen, GOP | former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin ruled out run |
| AZ-Sen, Dem | former city councilman Rodolfo “Rudy” Garcia is running former party chairman Jim Pederson will not run |
| FL-Sen, Dem | Rep. Corrine Brown added to list (expressed interest) state Senator Dan Gelber dropped out |
| IL-Sen, GOP | retired Judge Donald Lowery added to list former HUD Secretary Steve Preston added to list |
| NV-Sen, GOP | state Sen. Mark Amodei added to list |
| PA-Sen, Dems | Rep. Joe Sestak took additional steps but stopped short of declaring run |
Third, updates to gubernatorial recruitment:
| AL-Gov, GOP | former state Senator Bradley Byrne announced run state Treasurer Kay Ivey announced run |
| AZ-Gov, Dems | state Rep. David Bradley added to list (expressed interest) |
| FL-Gov, GOP | state Sen. Paula Dockery added to list (expressed interest) |
| MI-Gov, GOP | Attorney General Mike Cox announced run |
| RI-Gov, Dems | Attorney General Patrick Lynch all but officially declared |
| UT-Gov, GOP | soon-to-be Governor Gary Herbert confirmed he will run Kirk Jowers added to list businessman Fred Lampropoulos added to list |
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