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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* After the Associated Press reported on Republican Senate hopeful Bernie Moreno’s 2008 profile on an adult website, the Buckeye Leadership Fund, a super PAC supporting his primary rival Matt Dolan, began airing ads statewide, hoping to exploit the story. Moreno has said the profile was created by an intern as a prank.
* On a related note, while Ohio’s GOP Senate primary is probably tomorrow’s most closely watched contest, there are plenty of other interesting races, including an important state Supreme Court election in the Buckeye State.
* President Biden’s re-election campaign announced over the weekend that it and its joint fundraising initiative with the Democratic Party raised more than $53 million in February. That’s an impressive haul, which The New York Times reported “is expected to widen the Democrats’ cash advantage in a general-election contest against former President Donald J. Trump.”
* Though there were multiple reports last week that the Republican National Committee would close its community centers targeting minority voters, new RNC Chairman Michael Whatley now says the centers will remain open.
* In Colorado, in the race to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, House Speaker Mike Johnson last week announced his support for conservative radio host Jeff Crank. Hours later, Donald Trump endorsed Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams, Crank’s rival. The primary is June 25.
* The crypto industry has a super PAC with quite a bit of money, which it used to help derail Rep. Katie Porter’s Democratic U.S. Senate campaign in California. Now, crypto advocates are reportedly prepared to invest in Ohio’s and Montana’s Senate campaigns in the hopes of defeating incumbent Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester.
* And while the campaign to succeed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell quietly unfolds, the Kentucky Republican has decided not to make an endorsement in the race. That said, one of the contenders for his leadership post — Texas’ John Cornyn — has endorsed term limits for the position, and McConnell described the idea as “totally inappropriate.”