Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* New polling from Monmouth University shows Donald Trump with a 23-point lead over Marco Rubio in Alabama, and a 12-point lead over Ted Cruz in Oklahoma. Both states will host primaries tomorrow.
* The same poll found Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders by 48 points, while Sanders leads Clinton in Oklahoma by five points.
* Speaking of the Democratic race, the latest NBC/WSJ/Marist poll shows Clinton ahead in Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee, each of which are also Super Tuesday states. Nationally, the new CNN poll shows Clinton leading Sanders, 55% to 38%, which is a three-point swing in Clinton's direction since January.
* In a bit of a surprise, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) stepped down yesterday as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee in order to endorse Sanders' campaign.
* Rubio apparently reached out to Chris Christie in recent weeks, though the senator offended Christie with a voicemail the governor considered "deeply disrespectful and patronizing."
* Mitt Romney probably won't offer Trump an endorsement anytime soon, but if he does, Trump said Friday that he won't accept it.
* John Kasich said over the weekend that if he doesn't win his home state of Ohio, he'll exit the race. Ohio, which distributes its delegates on a winner-take-all system, hosts its Republican primary two weeks from tomorrow.
* Speaking of Kasich, the Ohio governor continues to pick up some support from some of the few remaining centrist figures in his party. Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and former New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman both announced Kasich endorsements in recent days, with the latter calling Kasich "the lone voice of reason and optimism in a very loud room."
* And Jon Favreau, President Obama's former chief speechwriter, published an interesting piece over the weekend, arguing that from a Democratic perspective, it's more important to elect Hillary Clinton in 2016 than it was to elect Barack Obama in 2008.