As a proposed redistricting plan moves closer to passage in the Iowa state legislature, Republican Reps. Steve King and Tom Latham will meet this week in an attempt to hash out their 2012 plans. 

The two Republicans are trying to decide to how to move forward should the map be approved and are hoping to avoid a 2012 primary battle. 

Iowa is losing a congressional district ahead of next year, and a new map that would pit two sets of incumbents against each other in 2012 could be approved by state lawmakers as early as Thursday. The proposed map also combines Democratic Reps. Dave Loebsack and Bruce Braley, but Loebsack has already indicated that he would move out of the district rather than face a primary against Braley. 

One option under consideration on the Republican side, according to a GOP source in the state, is Latham moving into Rep. Leonard Boswell's (D-Iowa) district and running against the longtime Democrat rather than having to wage a primary campaign against King.

The proposed map cleared a state Senate committee Tuesday, moving it another step closer to passage.   

"No incumbent likes redistricting," King told The Ballot Box Tuesday, adding that the only ones who want to see a King-Latham primary battle are Iowa Democrats. "Any other scenario would be preferable to almost every Republican." 

Republican Gov. Terry Branstad still has veto power over the map should it win approval in the legislature and he has yet to put his full stamp of approval on the plan, but few lawmakers have raised any real objections to the map thus far. 

If the map does win passage, King said he expects that he and Latham will make a decision on how to move forward quickly.

"If you can produce an answer immediately upon knowing what the map is going to be, that's the best way to go," he said. "Get the answer out there and get on with whatever it is you have to do."

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) raised more than $1 million for her reelection bid in the first three months of the year despite being engulfed in scandal.

McCaskill has been dogged by questions about her failure to pay thousands of dollars in property taxes owed on a private plane. The first-term Democrat announced in March she was sending the St. Louis County Department of Revenue checks to cover some $320,000 in personal property taxes owed on her family-owned plane for 2007 to 2010. She apologized for the incident, calling it a "mistake."

McCaskill raised $1.05 million last quarter and has close to $1.8 million cash on hand, according to figures reported by The Associated Press and confirmed to The Ballot Box by a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Her report was not yet available on the Federal Election Commission website as of Tuesday evening.

McCaskill raised $134,742 in the final quarter of last year. She entered 2011 with some $900,000 banked. Her main GOP challenger, former Treasurer Sarah Steelman, has yet to release her first-quarter fundraising numbers.

McCaskill is a top target for Republicans this cycle. She won election in 2006 by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes.

If President Obama endorses any level of cuts to Medicare or Medicaid, his grassroots support will take a major hit, according to one liberal group organizing an "Obama donor strike."

The warning from liberal activists comes a day before the president is set to deliver a major speech on the nation's debt and is expected to call for reducing Medicare and Medicaid costs.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) seized on that Tuesday afternoon and said that within just two hours of an email appeal to Obama backers, some 40,000 of them had already signed an online petition promising to withhold financial support from his reelection campaign. Should Obama endorse the idea of cutting either program, the group says backers are pledging to not donate to or volunteer on next year's campaign.

"Many people still want to believe in President Obama," an email sent from the group earlier Tuesday read. "But the White House needs to understand that their actions now will have real consequences for 2012. The level of grassroots enthusiasm will be determined by whether the President fights for bold progressive change — and takes cuts that hurt grandparents, the disabled, and kids firmly off the table." 

The group plans to deliver the signatures of their online petition to Obama's 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago and is highlighting comments from former donors and volunteers. 

"Like many volunteers on his campaign, I was in love with the idea of Obama," wrote Susan Carpenter, identified as an Obama volunteer from Ohio. "I haven't given up on him quite yet, but I'm mustering the energy to work on the resistance. He needs to know who we are." 

The PCCC has proven to be one of the loudest voices on the left criticizing Obama over the past year. During last year's lame-duck session, it funded TV spots slamming the president for an agreement with Senate Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts.

A handful of Texas Republicans are already in the race for retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-Texas) seat, but political observers have been waiting on Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to join them and officially claim the frontrunner mantle.

His entry into the race was seen as all but certain and Republicans in the state have already begun to line up to run for lieutenant governor. But in a radio interview Monday, Dewhurst said he could wait until 2014 and make a run for governor.

"I need to make a decision in June whether I'm going to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012 or stay right where I am and run for governor in 2014," Dewhurst said Sunday in an interview with KXAN-TV.

Dewhurst staying out of the race would be a boon to the rest of the crowded field, which is already jockeying for early position.

If Dewhurst, who has the ability to self-fund his campaign, decides not to get in the Senate race, another candidate with deep pockets could benefit. So far, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert has the early fundraising edge, hauling in $1.1 million during the first quarter and loaning his campaign another $1.6 million.  

Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz also posted a strong quarter, raising more than $1 million during the first three months of the year. Former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams pulled in nearly $500,000. 

- updated at 5:50 p.m.

The lone House Republican who cast a vote in favor of healthcare reform in 2009 is now making a run for attorney general in Louisiana.

Former Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.), who lost his seat to Democrat Cedric Richmond in an overwhelmingly Democratic district last cycle, touted his "strong convictions" in announcing a statewide run.

"I believe that the people of the state will support a person with strong convictions and with strong values," Cao said, according to the Times-Picayune. "And in my two years in Congress, I have shown that I will not compromise my values for political expediency."

Cao cast an initial vote in favor of the healthcare bill in the House in November of 2009, but ultimately voted against final passage. The Louisiana Republican was skewered nationally by conservatives for his initial "yes" vote.   

Cao will take on Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, who switched parties in February to become a Republican. Last year, Caldwell signed onto a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare law.

The fundraising figures show that the committee is gradually chipping away at its massive debt load.

President Obama's approval rating in the key swing state of Pennsylvania stands at just 42 percent, according to a new poll out Tuesday.

New numbers from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling show a majority of voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing and found the president in a dead heat with three potential Republican opponents. The numbers are a far cry from 2008 when Obama easily bested Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the state.

Obama's statistically tied with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.). Obama leads Huckabee 45 percent to 44 percent; Santorum 45 percent to 43 percent; but trails Romney 43 percent to 42 percent. 

Should either former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin win the Republican nomination, however, the poll shows Obama beating them both handily. The president leads Gingrich 47 percent to 39 percent. He leads Palin 50 percent to 39 percent. 

The trouble for Obama comes with independent voters and white Democrats. In all, 54 percent of self-identified independents disapprove of the job the president is doing, compared to just 39 percent who approve. Among white Democrats, just 64 percent approve. That's compared to 86 percent of black Democrats who approve.

"Those numbers suggest that a lot of the voters who fueled Hillary Clinton's primary victory in the state and then sucked it up and voted for Obama in the general election the last time around haven't been real thrilled with what they've seen from him so far and could split their tickets next year — if the Republicans put up someone who's seen as a reasonable alternative," wrote pollster Tom Jensen. 

Overall, just 68 percent of Pennsylvania Democrats approve of the job Obama is doing. That's well below the 86 percent approval PPP found among Democrats nationally.

The survey polled 593 Pennsylvania voters and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson (R) will announce his presidential intentions April 21 in New Hampshire.

The Hill's Christian Heinze has the details on his GOP12 blog.

The Mississippi governor wouldn't join critics of Massachusetts's healthcare law but did say it wouldn't work in his state.