“Yes, I did use illegal drugs, drink too much, lose my temper, go to
jail overnight a couple of times and get some probation. Anyone who is
really interested in the specifics can drill down if they want to, but
for me, now, what is important is that the suffering that I and those
around me endured was not wasted.”

— Jay Williams, quoted by the Des Moines Register, on filing papers for a U.S. Senate bid in Iowa.

“The Rick Perry national rehabilitation tour has begun,” the Dallas Morning News observes.

“If the Texas governor’s highly publicized, job-poaching trips to California and Illinois weren’t evidence that Perry is setting the stage for another run for president, last week’s trip to New York offered a blueprint how he hopes to fix his damaged political image. The governor bungled his White House bid last year, capped by an on-air “oops” moment when he couldn’t remember three agencies he vowed to abolish. But Perry insiders say he believes that if voters give him a second chance, they’ll be surprised that he’s not the dense, tongue-tied Texas cowboy he seemed to be in 2012. For one thing, Perry hopes to be better prepared, won’t be recovering from debilitating back surgery and faces pretty low expectations – so if he can just avoid mistakes, voters might think he’s not so bad after all.”

Charlie Cook:
“Republicans’ path to a Senate majority is a narrow one. Not everything
has to go right for the GOP to win the six seats they need for a
majority, but they can’t afford many errors either, particularly those
that are self-inflicted. In the last two election cycles, Republicans suffered enough
self-inflicted errors to cost their party Senate seats. These errors
largely came in the form of contested primaries that produced nominees
who were poorly positioned to win statewide general elections.”

“While some Republican
activists seem to have learned the lessons of 2010 and 2012, it is clear
that not everyone got the memo.”

A new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds Gov. John Kasich (R) with his best-ever job approval rating: 55% of voters approve of his performance with just 32% disapproving.

By 49% to 37% voters say Kasich deserves to be reelected, and he leads his likely challenger Ed FitzGerald (D) by 14 points, 47% to 33%.

“Mitt Romney, who has largely avoided the public spotlight since his presidential election defeat last November, has granted interviews to the authors of two forthcoming books about the 2012 campaign,” Politico reports.

The books: Dan Balz’s Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America and Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down: Game Change 2012.