Sen. Pat Roberts’ (R-KS) victory over Milton Wolf (R) in Tuesday’s Republican primary “was part of a mainstream conservatives blow to the tea party movement, which also lost a a first-term Michigan congressman to a more moderate GOP businessman,” the Topeka Capital Journal reports.

“The Senate’s establishment is on a roll, with incumbents also prevailing in Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi, though it took six-term Sen. Thad Cochran two tries before defeating Chris McDaniel, who is challenging the outcome.”

“It looks like Hillary Clinton has officially begun her campaign to be the next President of the United States. Three sources tell Hollywood Life that the former Secretary of State has rented sunny, spacious digs for two years in a midtown office tower, as the headquarters for her 2016 presidential bid.”

BuzzFeed may have found the building.

270 to Win has just launched a very cool 2014 Senate Election Simulation.

The model starts with an average of the forecasts used by the Washington Post and New York Times and allows you to adjust the outcome probabilities for each seat.

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Alaska finds Mead Treadwell (R) closing the gap in the Republican primary for Senate, but he still trails Dan Sullivan (R) by six points, 35% to 29%, with Joe Miller (R) at 20%.

In general election match ups, Sen. Mark Begich (D) continues to have modest leads over all of his potential Republican opponents.

A new Magellan Strategies (R) poll in Pennsylvania finds Tom Wolf (D) leading Gov. Tom Corbett (R) by 12 points amonglikely voters, 38% to 50%.

Miami Herald: “For the second time in a week, David Rivera, the embattled former Miami congressman who claimed he had suspended his campaign for his old seat, has reached out to voters through automated telephone calls.”

Maj. Gen. Allen Tackett, the campaign chairman for West Virginia U.S. Senate nominee Natalie Tennant (D), was recorded on video saying Tennant agrees with President Obama “on most of his policies” forcing the campaign to say he misspoke, the Charleston Daily Mail reports.

Said Tennant campaign spokeswoman Jenny Donohue: “Natalie does not support the majority of the president’s policies.”

[Read more…]

A new Civitas poll in North Carolina finds Sen. Kay Hagan (D) barely leading challenger Thom Tillis (R) in a three way U.S. Senate race, 41% to 39%, with Libertarian Sean Haugh at 7%.

In a head-to-head match up, Tillis leads by two points, 45% to 43%.

Columbus Dispatch: “Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ed FitzGerald had not had a regular Ohio driver’s license for at least five years when Westlake police found him in a car with a woman early one morning two years ago. If he drove his car home after dropping her off at her hotel, as he said he did, he would have violated Ohio law requiring those with just a temporary permit to be accompanied by a licensed driver.”

A new Marist Poll finds a majority of New Yorkers don’t think Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) acted ethically in shutting down a corruption commission but he still holds a wide lead over challenger Rob Astorino (R) in the race for governor, 54% to 23%.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “has a campaign stockpile of $4.4 million collected for a now nonexistent re-election battle — and that state pot can work to his political benefit as he eyes another run for president,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

One interesting item: Perry spent $17,000 for speech coaches “to smooth his public delivery after earning a reputation for tripping over his tongue during his run for the 2012 Republican presidential nod.”