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:
* It's not getting much attention, but the U.S. Senate race in South Dakota continues to get more interesting. A new poll from PPP shows Mike Rounds (R) with just a seven-point lead over Rick Weiland (D), 35% to 28%. Former Sen. Larry Pressler, running as an independent, is close behind at 24%.
* In Arkansas' gubernatorial campaign, former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R) has joined the plagiarism parade: his website "appears to copy nearly-verbatim from a blog post, a quote from South Dakota Sen. John Thune, and a USA Today article."
* Speaking of Arkansas, we talked yesterday about Leslie Rutledge's campaign for state Attorney General, which has run into some serious voter-registration issues, which were not resolved yesterday. Rutledge, however, still has time to sort this mess out before the relevant deadlines pass.
* In Michigan's U.S. Senate race, the latest Mitchell Poll shows Rep. Gary Peters (D) opening up an even bigger lead over Terri Lynn Land (R), 49% to 36%.
* And speaking of Michigan, Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R) lost his primary race over the summer, but yesterday the former reindeer herder announced he's running for a second term anyway, relying on a write-in campaign.
* The NRA is so confident that Louisiana's U.S. Senate race is headed for a December runoff that it's already buying over $1 million in television airtime.
* In Texas' gubernatorial race, the latest statewide poll shows Wendy Davis (D) trailing Greg Abbott (R) by single digits, but only barely: the Republican leads 49% to 40%.
* In the wake of the mutiny controversy, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) appears to have lost the support of the Denver Post's editorial board, which this week endorsed Lamborn's opponent, retired Air Force Major Gen. Irv Halter (D).
* And elsewhere in Colorado, Republicans this week briefly tried to suggest Sen. Mark Udall is a 9/11 "truther" conspiracy theorist. Though the ridiculous attack was touted by Republican operative and former Eric Cantor aide Brad Dayspring, it turned out to be garbage.