Dino Rossi is still weighing his options when it comes to challenging Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), but it might be too late, according to recent history.

A Smart Politics analysis shows that no candidate in the last decade has launched his or her campaign after April 3 of the election year and gone on to victory. And the man who entered the race the latest -- former Minnesota Sen. Mark Dayton (D) -- had gobs of money to throw at it.

Besides Dayton, the latest entry for a winning Senate candidate came from now-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who got in the 2004 Colorado Senate race on March 10 of that year.

Rossi, meanwhile, has entertained the idea of waiting until the June filing deadline to launch a campaign against Murray. He said he can quickly tap all his old donors and have a solid electoral base to start with, by virtue of his two unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns in 2004 and 2008.

That all may be true, but Republicans appear to be getting nervous about Rossi waiting too long. National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Hill recently that he'd like Rossi to make a decision sooner than later, so that both the candidate and the committee can get their house in order.

“I’ve been urging him to make a decision sooner rather than later because there’s a practical problem with not having enough time to do what you need to do before the election," Cornyn said.

As a side note, the longest campaign for a winning Senate candidate was Sen. Bob Corker's (R-Tenn.) 2006 campaign. He announced more than two years early, in October 2004.

TOP OF THE BALLOT TODAY: Polls show GOP Senate primaries taking shape, as New Hampshire and California candidates open up leads; Crist’s name pops up in Florida GOP investigation.

Ayotte up in New Hampshire

Good news for the national GOP: Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte holds a wide lead in her state’s GOP Senate primary, according to a new poll.

The race hasn’t seen much in the way of primary polling, and the favorite Ayotte looks strong but not unbeatable. Ayotte leads businessman Bill Binnie 43-19 in the Public Policy Polling (D) survey, with businessman Jim Bender at 11 percent and attorney Ovide Lamontagne at 5 percent.

Ayotte and Binnie carry strong favorable ratings, even though they are still unknown to large chunks of voters. Ayotte has a 50 percent favorable rating, compared to 12 percent unfavorable, while Binnie’s numbers are 40 and 12.

Lamontagne, meanwhile, is in less favorable territory, with 20 percent rating him positively and 22 percent negatively.

Campbell up in California

In more primary polling, a bipartisan survey in California shows former Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.) opening up a 31-17 lead on Carly Fiorina in their Senate primary.

The Capitol Weekly/Probolsky Research poll also had state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore at 14 percent.

This is the biggest lead we’ve seen yet from Campbell, who turned in a strong first quarter of fundraising and appears to have the momentum in the race.

The poll also tested the state’s GOP governor primary. There, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has come withing 47-19 of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. A recent Field Poll had Whitman up 63-14.

Other updates

-A federal investigation into the Florida Republican Party’s finances appears to be touching on not only Marco Rubio, but also on Gov. Charlie Crist.

-Mitt Romney on Wednesday endorsed state Sen. Joe Heck’s (R) campaign against freshman Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), along with the reelection campaigns of Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki (R) and Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.).

-Former state Sen. Dan Webster (R), whose decision to stay out of the race against Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) cleared the way for several lesser-known candidates, looks as though he will run for the seat after all. That won’t sit well with the rest of the primary field.

-Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who is likely to face a difficult reelection bid in 2012 thanks to an affair with a former staffer, raised just $50 in the first quarter.

Did the Butler Bulldogs pave the way for more underdogs in Indiana?

An ethics watchdog group released a list of the 11 "worst governors" in America Wednesday and three potential White House contenders were included in the tally.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released the names of the "11 governors who pride their self-interests over their states'" and among them were Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R). CREW said the 11 "violated agreed upon notions of competence, transparency and integrity."

The group compiled reports on each of the inductees, which can be found here.

Only two Democrats made the list: New York Gov. David Paterson and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Neither is running for reelection.

The South Carolina senator wants former Washington gubernatorial hopeful Dino Rossi to run, and says he'd be a "great candidate."

Former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R) moved to reinvigorate her Senate bid by replacing her campaign manager with one of the Colorado GOP's young political talents.

Norton's camp announced Tuesday that state Sen. Josh Penry (R) was taking over the top job, which was being vacated by Norm Cummings. Norton said she owed Cummings a "debt of gratitude" and that he would stay on in an advisory role.

Penry has a long political resume despite still being in his 30s. He was former Rep. Scott McInnis's (R-Colo.) press secretary, briefly a candidate for governor and toyed with a possible House run against Rep. John Salazar (D-Colo.). He's currently the state Senate minority leader but isn't running for a third term.

Norton also announced the hiring of Rich Beeson, formerly the Republican National Committee's political director, as a consultant.

"I am pleased to welcome two very experienced Coloradans to the campaign," Norton said in a statement. "We know this is not a 'business as usual' year, and we simply can't run a 'business as usual' campaign; that's why I've implemented these changes today."

Norton recently announced she planned to petition her way onto the August primary ballot. The move cost her a place at the state Republican assembly set for May 22. Meanwhile, her main rival for the GOP nod, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck (R), is gaining momentum and support from national conservative groups.

Norton said her campaign would target "as broad an audience as possible."

"When I made the decision to pursue the Republican nomination via the petition process, my goal was to reach out to as broad an audience as possible, and I believe Josh and Rich will be critical to not only the success of achieving that goal but to victory in November," she said.

Arizona House candidate Vernon Parker (R) is doing everything he can to keep pace with prodigious fundraiser and primary rival Ben Quayle (R).

Quayle has been raising some $90,000 a week since he joined the race for Rep. John Shadegg's (R-Ariz.) seat last month. To keep up, Parker is organizing a bus trip to the Mexico-U.S. border.

On Saturday May 8 supporters can join Parker and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for what the Paradise Valley mayor's camp is calling the "Border Bus Tour." The event features a four-hour drive south from Phoenix to the border town of Douglas, Ariz., where passengers will disembark to hear Arpaio and Parker "discuss border security and other issues."

The cost: "a minimum contribution of $200 per person which includes lunch at Hotel Gadsden in Douglas," according to Parker's campaign. 

Attendees may also "reserve seats next to Sheriff Joe on the bus trip for $1,000 per person."

Will former North Carolina state Sen. Cal Cunningham (D) need some DSCC help to get across the finish line in his Senate primary?

His campaign just released its first-quarter fundraising totals, and Cunningham raised a less-than-stellar $345,000 for the period.

The good news is that he has done a pretty good job of banking the money he has raised, and he had nearly $480,000 in cash on hand at the end of March; that has allowed him to be the only candidate to go up on the air with ads. The bad news is that he's still fighting from behind against better-known Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, and half a million dollars is unlikely to allow him to saturate the airwaves.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) recruited Cunningham into the race and, though it hasn't officially endorsed him, would clearly prefer that he face Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) in November.

In order to get him to that spot, though, it might have to spend some money in the primary, which concludes May 4. The DSCC did something similar with now-Sen. Jeff Merkley (R-Ore.) in his 2008 primary, and Merkley wound up beating Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).

Merkley's and Cunningham's totals after the first quarter are remarkably similar. In 2008, Merkley had about $470,000 in the bank for his May primary, while Cunningham in 2010 has $480,000 in cash for his May primary.

Cunningham, of course, is running in a more expensive state. But Merkley's opponent was also raising better money than Cunningham's are. Marshall has proved no fundraising star, either, raising about $160,000 in the first quarter and having $180,000 cash on hand.

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) on how the "conservative ideologies" of former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are "out of touch with the state" and how he has a "better chance of convincing moderate Republicans and independents of that than" Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).

"I intend to make Toomey look absolutely naked," Sestak told the Allentown Morning Call. "Here's a guy with policy who has no clothes."