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Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, the GOP's wildly unnecessary election "audit" is advancing: "An attorney overseeing Assembly Republicans' review of the 2020 election served subpoenas Friday on Milwaukee and Green Bay officials for information about private funds used to help run the election."
* On a related note, The New York Times reported that veteran election experts examined the Arizona Republicans' election review and "charged that the very foundation of its findings — the results of a hand count of 2.1 million ballots — was based on numbers so unreliable that they appear to be guesswork rather than tabulations."
* In the latest national Associated Press poll, President Joe Biden's approval rating stood at 50 percent. That's higher than his standing in some other recent surveys, though it's also down from the 54 percent rating he received in last month's AP poll.
* While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has traditionally been closely aligned with the Republican Party's legislative strategies, especially on matters related to taxes and spending, Punchbowl News reports that GOP leaders have excluded the business from the party's reconciliation-related coalition strategy calls. The report added, "This move by the leadership essentially says that the Chamber is an outcast in House Republican legislative politics."
* In Utah next year, incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee is considered a heavy favorite to win another term, but former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin is reportedly launching a campaign against him. McMullin will apparently run as an independent.
* In Ohio, state Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine has apparently decided not to recuse himself from lawsuits challenging gerrymandered districts approved by his father, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
* And in Virginia, The Washington Post last week highlighted a direct-mail piece in a competitive state legislative race in which "a Republican challenger sent a mailer to thousands of households with a digitally altered photo of the Democratic incumbent, who is Jewish — his face in profile, features accentuated in shadowy tones — gazing upon stacks of gold coins." The mailer was paid for by Virginia's Republican Party.