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Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With eight days remaining before Virginia's gubernatorial election, the latest Data for Progress poll found former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe ahead of Republican Glenn Youngkin, 50 percent to 45 percent.
* In Maryland, Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown became the latest member of Congress to announce he's stepping down from Capitol Hill. The congressman will instead run for state attorney general.
* In Ohio's U.S. Senate race, Republican super PACs are running ads slamming J.D. Vance for having criticized Donald Trump five years ago.
* Remember when Missouri Gov. Mike Parson launched a weird attack against a journalist who exposed a data risk on a state government website? A political action committee supporting the Republican governor is now seizing on the made-up controversy.
* Despite Herschel Walker's troubles as a first-time candidate, Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota is reportedly throwing his backing behind the former athlete's Senate candidacy in Georgia. As Politico noted, "Thune is the first member of Senate GOP leadership to endorse Walker, and his support is the newest evidence the former football star has tacitly won the party hierarchy's blessing."
* The political world moved on from California's gubernatorial recall race pretty quickly, but the final, certified results found 61.9 percent of the state's voters agreeing to keep Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in office. The tally was a notable coincidence: Newsom was elected in 2018 with 61.9 percent of the vote.
* And in Wisconsin, state Attorney General Josh Kaul asked a judge late last week to throw out the subpoenas sent out by the increasingly laughable Republican "audit," explaining that the entire inquiry is pursuing "debunked theories."