Wednesday Late Afternoon Update

North Carolina: Congressman Brad Miller is postponing his campaign kickoff plans because, it turns out, he might wind up kicking off a different campaign:

Miller's kickoff on hold

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, has postponed his re-election kickoff because he is contemplating running against Dole.

"A funny thing happened on the way to my 2008 campaign for re-election to the U.S. House," Miller wrote in an e-mail message to supporters. "So we're postponing the kickoff fundraiser at the Irregardless Cafe, which we had scheduled for April 29, until we know what we're kicking off."

The talk in Democratic circles is that Miller is leaning toward running against Dole.

Miller, a three-term congressman, asks for the advice of his supporters. He says he is happy representing the 13th District, but is clearly intrigued by serving in the Senate.

"I'm disappointed that Senator Dole has simply toed her party's line on almost every issue, and mouthed stale partisan rhetoric, when we have desperately needed leaders in Washington who would ask hard questions and offer practical alternatives," Miller wrote.

Very telling. We eagerly await Congressman Miller's next kickoff announcement.

Kentucky: The DSCC did some polling of its own in Kentucky (the wording for which is much more straightforward than some other Kentucky polls), and they discovered some interesting results:

Voters in the Bluegrass state rate the war in Iraq as the most important issue facing the country, and they disapprove of the way George Bush is handling it by a 67 percent to 32 percent majority. By a plurality of 39 percent to 34 percent, they say that Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell does not represent their views on Iraq, and they say that McConnell votes too often with President Bush by a 61 percent to 24 percent majority. Kentuckians also overwhelmingly oppose Bush’s escalation of the war.

Now we just need a candidate with the conviction and the resources to present an alternative.

CQPolitics has been closely following the Senate races, and they have come out with an updated version of their handy-dandy chart (in PDF format) listing all Senators up for re-election in 2008, along with Q1 fundraising and post-Q1 cash-on-hand.

Personal thought upon reviewing the chart: To put John Warner's notorious $500 Q1 take in perspective, note that Wayne Allard, who announced back in January that he would retire from the Senate at the end of this term, raised over $12,000 in Q1. It takes a concerted effort for a long-time incumbent to raise only $500.

MyDD's Bowers offers his look at the 2008 Senate picture. No big surprises in his analysis.