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Friday's Campaign Round-Up, 7.18.14

Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
Today's installment of campaign-related news items that won't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
 
* In Michigan's closely watched Senate race, a new statewide EPIC-MRA poll shows Rep. Gary Peters (D) with a growing lead over Terri Lynn Land (R), 45% to 36%.
 
* On a related note, the same poll shows a more competitive gubernatorial race in Michigan, with incumbent Gov. Rick Snyder (R) leading Mark Schauer (D) by just three, 46% to 43%.
 
* In Massachusetts, where the Boston Globe is now running weekly polls in this year's gubernatorial race, Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley still leads Republican Charlie Baker, but her margin has shrunk from nine points to three, 39% to 36%.
 
* In Florida, former Gov. Charlie Crist, hoping to get his old job back, introduced Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairwoman Annette Taddeo-Goldstein as his running mate yesterday. Taddeo-Goldstein is also a Colombian-American businesswoman in addition to her role in Democratic politics.
 
* In Oregon, Sen. Jeff Merkley's (D) re-election campaign claims that Freedom Partners has just bought at least $1.9 million in television advertising in the state, ostensibly in support of Republican Senate hopeful Monica Wehby. Freedom Partners has been described as the Koch brothers' "secret bank."
 
* Speaking of the Koch brothers, Charles Koch does not usually make personal contributions to candidates, but this week, he, his wife, his son, and his daughter-in-law each donated the legal maximum to Joni Ernst, the far-right Senate hopeful in Iowa.
 
* Though Rep. Justin Amash (R) is generally expected to prevail over his Republican primary challenger, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which isn't usually in the habit of opposing congressional Republicans, threw its support this week to Amash's GOP rival, businessman Brian Ellis.
 
* The trend of campaign ads featuring candidates shooting things isn't a positive development:" A Democrat running for Congress in conservative central Washington on Saturday removed an online campaign video that showed him blasting an elephant-shaped pinata with a shotgun."