The Daily Beast says Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) — who lost his GOP Senate primary in Texas — “practically bilked his donors by running the most unserious campaign in recent American history.”

“American politics has been rife with liars, crooks, and con artists ever since our country’s founding. But they invariably put in at least some effort to convince voters of their virtue and donors to cut a check. Stockman is different. He has failed to give Texans even the modicum of respect required to actively scam them. Stockman just may be the lamest, laziest grifter in the history of the United States and his departure from public life can only improve the political discourse in our country.”

“Opening a door to hedge his political bets, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has asked the leader of the Kentucky Senate for legislation to ensure that Mr. Paul can run both for the White House and for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2016,” the Washington Times reports.

Said Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer: “Yes, I am working on clarifying an ambiguous state law that Rand Paul believes is unconstitutional if it is interpreted to bar running for re-election to the Senate and for president at the same time.”

Texas Tribune: “If you’re an election nerd, you’ll need to pace yourself: Tuesday’s primary is the first of three elections that will select the state’s next set of officeholders. Expect an unusually top-heavy Republican primary runoff in May, and a November general election that will answer a perennial question in Texas politics: Are there enough Democrats out there to elect anyone to high office?”

The Week: Tea Party faces Texas test.

First Read has six things to watch in today’s voting.

Yahoo News profiles Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), a former U.S. senator who briefly sought the presidency in 2007, as a dark horse contender for the White House in 2016.

“Since he left the nation’s capital to become Kansas’ 46th governor in 2011, Brownback has gone largely unnoticed by the national media. His quiet, yet ambitious, work in Kansas has proceeded without major controversies of the sort that have helped define Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker… and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.”

“But that doesn’t mean Brownback hasn’t been fighting fiercely to enact his worldview. Over the past three years, he has spearheaded an aggressive conservative agenda in Kansas that includes a massive state tax decrease and the implementation of a privatized Medicaid system called ‘KanCare.’ During his first term, he has presided over the passage of some of the strictest anti-abortion bills in the country, including a ban on the procedure after 21 weeks of pregnancy.”

Charlie Cook: “At this point, eight months before the Nov. 4 election, it’s hard to see a lot of good news for congressional Democrats. No matter how you look at it, the House seems out of reach. Today, Republicans appear a bit more likely to gain than to lose seats; it would take a cataclysmic event for Democrats to score the net gain of the 17 seats they need to take the majority. What’s changed is that Democrats’ chances of holding onto their majority in the Senate is looking increasingly tenuous. There are now at least 10, and potentially as many as 13, Democratic-held seats in jeopardy. By contrast, only two GOP seats are in any meaningful danger, and that number hasn’t changed in six months. Things are starting to look grisly for Senate Democrats.”

Jason Linkins: “Look, y’all. I ain’t even trying to put the kibosh on discussing the relative strengths and weaknesses of potential 2016 candidates. I’m even OK with making comparisons. But we have to stop abusing this poor word, ‘frontrunner,’ before the English-language’s version of Sarah MacLachlan starts making sad teevee commercials about it. There is no ‘frontrunner’ at this point. There isn’t even a race.”

“They keep running these negative ads and crushing my integrity and distorting my votes and the like — almost antagonizing me, challenging me to get in. Had they left me alone, I may feel a bit different. But they didn’t.”

— Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), quoted by Politico, saying Democratic attacks make him more likely to run for Senate in New Hampshire.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Republicans “in a stronger position than Democrats in the states with Senate races this fall and more than holding their own in the battle for control of the House. In the 34 states with Senate races, 50% of voters say they favor Republicans and 42% favor Democrats.”

“That is the case despite the Republican Party’s poor image nationally and its deficit on some important issues. About two in three Americans say the GOP is out of touch ‘with the concerns of most people in the United States today.'”

The poll also shows “broad dissatisfaction with Washington politicians. Just 22% say they are inclined to reelect their representatives in Congress. Almost seven in 10 Americans (68%) say they are inclined to look around for someone new this fall.”