Governor races

The GOP's immediate focus: defending presumed Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli and New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie in their contests next year, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said.

The RNC plans to use those two races, Priebus noted, as a "testing ground" for new technologies and strategies.

"We can do some testing in technology, outreach efforts. We can start implementing those ideas and use them as incubators for what we’re doing with some new technology. We want to win both of those races and use them as a testing ground moving forward," he told National Review Online.

The RNC launched an official review of the 2012 election this week, and Priebus said that many of the assessments and new strategies to come out of that review process could be used in Virginia and New Jersey.

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) charged Monday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was "vulnerable" to a reelection bid, despite recent polling showing the Republican governor with record-high approval.

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If the rising Democratic star runs for governor, it would set up a marquee race with popular incumbent Chris Christie (R).

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The former Florida governor's move fuels speculation that he may run again in 2014 against Republican Gov. Rick Scott. 

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) approval rating has spiked to 72 percent following his handling of Hurricane Sandy, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.

The mark is the best any New Jersey governor has held in the pollster's decades of surveying the state. Christie, whose name has been mentioned frequently as a possible 2016 presidential candidate, first needs to win reelection as governor in 2013.

Just 21 percent disapprove of the job Christie is doing, and 95 percent say he's done an "excellent" or "good" job of responding to the storm, which devastated large portions of the state. Christie's approval rating was at 56 percent when Quinnipiac last polled the state, in mid-October, shortly before the hurricane.

Qunnipiac is the second pollster in as many days to find that Christie's approval ratings have jumped: A Farleigh Dickinson poll released Monday found him with a 77 percent approval rating.

Democrats are hopeful that Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) might challenge Christie for reelection, but polls like these could dissuade him and other top-tier Democrats from running against him.

The live-caller poll of 1,664 registered voters was conducted on landlines and cellphones from Nov. 19-25 and has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

Warner’s decision to stay in the Senate spares Democratic leaders the task of finding a Virginia candidate to replace him.

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Next week, direct mail pieces from the nation’s largest labor federation will go to more than 180,000 union households.

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More than $80 million was spent on the recall election of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), according to a new report from the non-partisan watchdog Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, more than doubling the previous record for the cost of a gubernatorial race in the state.

Walker and his allies outspent Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) and his allies by $58.7 million to $22 million, a nearly three to one margin. Walker won the race by a seven-point margin. Democrats argued after the results that they'd lost because of the heavy spending on the race.

When the other recall elections are added in, total spending on elections in the state topped $137 million.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) slammed unions and liberal activists for pushing to recall Gov. Walker.

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A number of independents and Democrats who opposed Walker's policies voted for him because they opposed a recall, Rendell said.

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