Organizers seeking to oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) say they “already have gathered more than half of the signatures they would need to force the new Republican governor into a recall election,” the Green Bay Gazette reports.

More than than 300,000 signatures “have been gathered during the first 12 days of the recall effort, which was officially launched on Nov. 15. Organizers would need to gather 540,208 valid signatures by Jan. 17 to get the recall on the ballot next year.”

Herman Cain told CNN that another woman will come forward to accuse him of having an extramarital affair over 13 years.

Said Cain: “I wanted to get out in front of it. I have nothing to hide, I have done nothing wrong.”

However, Cain’s lawyer issued a statement to Fox 5 Atlanta that was less-than-helpful:

“This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace — this is not an accusation of an assault — which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate. Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults — a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Pennsylvania find Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) leading all of his possible GOP rivals by double-digits, though he doesn’t match his 17 point margin of victory against Rick Santorum in 2006.

Sam Rohrer (R) comes closest but still trails Casey by 11 points, 47% to 36%.

A new Magellan Strategies poll in Nebraska finds Attorney General Jon Bruning (R) leading Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) by six points, 45% to 39%.

In other possible match ups, Don Stenberg (R) edges Nelson, 41% to 40%, while Nelson tops Deb Fischer, 41% to 35%.

Walter Shapiro: “There is no doubt, certainly, that Rove is influential. But, as I spent time speaking to insiders from both parties about him, I initially struggled to pin down the exact nature of his resurgent influence. The classic line on Rove has always been that his political instincts are unrivaled by any Republican since the heyday of his mentor, Lee Atwater. Yet, while Crossroads undoubtedly played an important role in the 2010 campaign by flooding the airwaves with ads for Republican Senate candidates, the only thing memorable about these ads was their omnipresence.”

Said GOP strategist Matthew Dowd: “The whole Rove brand as an evil genius is wrong. Karl is neither.”

“I wouldn’t lie to the American people. I wouldn’t switch my positions for political reasons.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by the New York Times, in a not-so-veiled reference to GOP primary rival Mitt Romney.

Howard Kurtz says Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) insists he’s not interested in a vice presidential bid in 2012, noting that his party can’t solve its Hispanic problem just by drafting “a person whose name ends in a vowel.”

However, while his aides welcome the veep chatter “because it gives him a larger megaphone,” they want “to preserve his option of running for president in 2016 — which Rubio would forfeit if his ticket beat President Obama this time around.”

A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll finds President Obama would beat former President George W. Bush in a hypothetical election match up, 40% to 31%, with 27% picking neither.

A bizarre web video from Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Steve Welch (R) explores the possibility that Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and President Obama were “separated at birth.”

The spot’s highlights include a dramatic soundtrack, telegenic host, and fake experts in behavioral science, statistics, and body language.

[Read more…]

A new Majority Opinion Research poll finds Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney, 32% to 23%, followed by Herman Cain at 14%, Ron Paul at 6%, Rick Perry 5%, Michele Bachmann 4%, Jon Huntsman 3%, “someone else” at 4%, and no opinion at 11%.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) will not run for re-election for a 17th term. He’ll hold a press conference at 1 pm ET to discuss his decision.

A close adviser tells the Boston Globe that “the new district in which Frank would have had to run next year was a major factor in his decision. While it retained his Newton stronghold, it was revised to encompass more conservative towns while Frank also lost New Bedford, a blue-collar city where had invested a lot of time and become a leading figure in the region’s fisheries debate.”

Roll Call: “Some possible candidates for his newly redrawn seat include City Year
co-founder Alan Khazei, who recently dropped his Senate primary bid, and
former Chairwoman of the Brookline Board of Selectman Deborah Goldberg.”

Charles Franklin notes that Newt Gingrich’s rise in the polls is quite different than the surges experienced by Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain.

“His recognition levels have remained at the top of the field, along with Romney’s, at 80-90% with only the slightest of upward trends. This means none of the Gingrich favorability trend is due to new-found visibility, as it is for all the rest save Romney and (to a lesser degree) Paul. Rather Gingrich’s trends show that even as a well known figure public affect for him is uniquely variable.”

“While others rose and fell, since his nadir in early July Gingrich has slowly but steadily rebuilt his support among Republican voters. From his low of +10 Gingrich has now risen to just a shade under +40, a whisker ahead of Romney for best net favorability among the field. And for the mercurial Gingrich it is notable that this success was achieved through steady progress rather than a sudden bounce.”

With just 36 days until the Iowa caucuses, First Read sums up the state of the Republican presidential race:

“1) Mitt Romney remains the overall favorite — with his money, campaign staff, and poll position — but he hasn’t been able to pull away from the field, and he’s a TV ad away from being all-in in Iowa; 2) Newt Gingrich, fresh off from his New Hampshire Union Leader endorsement, has emerged as the latest Romney alternative, but the question is whether he can survive the next 36 days; (none of the OTHER anti-Romneys has lasted longer); 3) Rick Perry’s campaign appears stuck in neutral, though he did receive an endorsement from controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio; 4) Ron Paul keeps on doing his thing, and is enlisting college students to help out his Iowa ground game; 5) Herman Cain is trying to bounce back from his foreign-policy stumbles and those sexual-harassment allegations; and 6) with all the twists and turns that we’ve seen so far, the next five weeks (and beyond) promise to be a wild ride.”

“Bottom line: We don’t know how Romney is denied the nomination, but we also don’t know how he gets there, yet.