Virginia Lt. Gov candidate E.W. Jackson (R) said that Americans “should remember” the country’s history of slavery, but “not wallow in it,” the Hampton Roads Daily Press reports.

He stressed that it was “not slavery that eroded the black family but government policies in the 1960s.”

Said Jackson: “In 1960 most black children were raised in two parent monogamous families. By now, by this time, we only have 20 percent of black children being raised in two parent monogamous families with a married man and woman raising those children. It wasn’t slavery that did that. It was government that did that trying to solve problems that only God can solve, and that only we as human beings can solve.”

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) “evolution from Republican up-and-comer to the center of an FBI and grand jury investigation is bewildering to political observers and a potentially significant loss for his party,” Jill Lawrence reports.

“As recently as March, McDonnell was seen as so likely to run for the Republican presidential nomination that an anti-tax group ran an ad against him in Iowa, where caucuses launch the primary season every four years. But the investigations into an unreported $15,000 gift from a major donor, along with reports of improper billing and staff use at the executive mansion in Richmond, are a serious, possibly insurmountable obstacle to being on a national ticket.”

National Journal: “They swear they’re focused on more-immediate projects. They insist a White House campaign is the furthest thing from their minds. But with the 2016 invisible primary well under way, some Republican candidates are already lining up the campaign managers they will turn to if and when they decide to run for president.”

Brian Schweitzer (D) won a second term as Montana governor in 2008 “with nearly two-thirds of the vote, and he remained popular as he moved out of the governor’s mansion in January. But his style and perceived not-a-team-player attitude after eight years in Helena has rubbed numerous people in both parties the wrong way,” Roll Call reports.

“That includes — but is hardly limited to — the inner circle of retiring Democratic Sen. Max Baucus. According to several Montana Democrats — who all hope he runs and wins — Schweitzer’s campaign planning has included extending olive branches to a Baucus political apparatus he’ll likely need.”

Stephen Nodine (R), currently serving a two-year jail term on perjury and harassment charges, announced via email that he is considering a bid for Alabama’s 1st congressional district seat, the Birmingham News reports.

Nodine “resigned from the county commission in 2010 following his indictment for murder in the death of Angel Downs, his longtime mistress. He pled guilty to felony perjury in 2012 as part of a deal in which prosecutors dropped the murder charge.”

“Nodine said he is eligible to serve in Congress despite his status as a convicted felon. The Constitution allows felons to hold office in the House of Representatives – even while incarcerated.”

An internal poll conducted by a prominent Republican polling firm proposes that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) attack the Philadelphia teachers union to overcome widespread
opposition to his education policies and bolster his faltering
re-election prospects, the Philadelphia City Paper reports.