Wednesday Afternoon Check-In

Colorado: WaPo's Cillizza suggests that, had Mark Udall raised a more sizable sum in Q1, he might have kept Bob Schaffer out of the race. I respectfully disagree with that assessment. Given the lengths to which Dick Wadhams apparently went to clear the field of Scott McInnis for his good buddy Schaffer, I don't think Udall having $1.5 million in the bank versus $2 million in the bank would have made a substantive difference. That said, I do agree that I'd like to see Udall hauling in significantly more than $335,000 per quarter. Cillizza's post also notes that potential NRSC recruits Denny Rehberg in Montana and Richard Baker in Louisiana were both notably light on the fundraising.

Minnesota: Think Progress catches Smilin' Norm Coleman going back-and-forth on his support for Minnesota U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose.

Oregon: MyDD's Singer interviewed Senate candidate Steve Novick. The two highlights of the interview are that it's clear that Novick gets the importance of drawing clear distinctions and that Novick sees economic, health care, and other issues through the populist lens of fairness, which certainly resonates with voters. His campaign will indeed be interesting to follow as a couple of Congressmen make up their minds.