Rasmussen's latest poll in Texas finds Gov. Rick Perry (R) edging closer to an outright victory in next Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial primary.

Primary Election Matchup (500 LVs, 2/23, MoE +/- 4.5%)
Perry 48 (+4 vs. last poll, 2/1)
Hutchison 27 (-2)
Medina 16 (unch)
Und 9 (-2)

Medina's 9/11 "truther' stumble may have stalled her momentum, to Perry's benefit. Per Rasmussen, Perry now gets 56 percent of the vote among self-described conservatives, compared to Hutchison's 22 percent and Medina's 16 percent. Perry led by just 18 points among conservatives in the February 1 poll.

Looking to the general election, former Houston Mayor Bill White (D) seems poised to give Perry a real challenge.

General Election Matchups (1,200 LVs, 2/22, MoE +/- 3%)
Perry 47 (-1 vs. last poll)
White 41 (+2)
Und 7 (-1)

Hutchison 47 (-2)
White 38 (+2)
Und 7 (unch)

White 47 (+9)
Medina 37 (-4)
Und 9 (-7)

A GOP runoff, if necessary, could further boost White's chances, as DGA chair Jack Markell told RCP this weekend.

"There may be a runoff a month later. That extra month gives Mayor White the opportunity to continue to raise money and get his message out while Republicans are fighting each other. And that sets us up pretty well. Obviously it's a difficult state, but he is an extraordinarily good candidate, a good fundraiser. The fact that he is within I believe single digits in most of the polls that have come out, when he's not yet really all that well-known outside of Houston, I think is a very good sign.

The latest Quinnipiac poll of Ohio's open-seat Senate race (1,662 RVs, 2/16-21, MoE +/- 2.4%) shows little change since November, with former Rep. Rob Portman (R) still leading both potential Democratic candidates.

General Election Matchups
Portman 40 (+1 vs. last poll, 11/5-9)
Fisher 37 (+1)
Und 21 (-3)

Portman 40 (+2)
Brunner 35 (+1)
Und 27 (-4)

Among independent voters, Portman leads Fisher 39-27, and Brunner 40-28.

In the Democratic primary, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) has expanded his lead over Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D), but almost half of all Democrats remain undecided.

Democratic Primary Election Matchup
Fisher 29 (+5)
Brunner 20 (-2)
Und 48 (-3)

All three candidates appear to have work to do boosting their name recognition. At least 60 percent of voters say they hadn't heard enough about each to form an opinion of them. But generically, both parties fare poorly. The GOP has a 37 / 46 fav/unfav rating, while Democrats are viewed favorably by 38 percent and unfavorably by 50 percent of voters. The Tea Party movement, however, has a +9 net favorable rating, including a 36 / 20 split among independents.

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R) continues to lead his potential general election foes, Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak, by double digits among likely voters, according to a new Franklin & Marshall College Poll. Far more voters remain undecided, however, when Toomey is matched up against Sestak, both of whom are less well known around the state than Specter.

Senate
Dem Primary
Specter 33
Sestak 16
Und 44

General Election
Toomey 44
Specter 34
Und 16

Toomey 38
Sestak 20
Und 39

In the governor's race, more than two-thirds of voters remain undecided in both primary races, though Republican Tom Corbett leads Sam Rohrer by a significant margin. Contending on the Democratic side Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner and Joe Hoeffel. Chris Doherty has dropped out and newcomer Anthony Williams received just 1 percent support.

Governor
GOP Primary
Corbett 26
Rohrer 4
Und 65

Dem Primary
Onorato 6
Wagner 6
Hoeffel 6
Doherty 4
Und 72

The survey was conducted Feb. 15-21 of 954 RV with a margin of error of +/- 3.2%.

Rasmussen shows Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum (R) inching closer to 50 in the latest survey (1,000 LVs, 2/18, MoE +/- 3%) of the state's gubernatorial race.

General Election Matchup
McCollum 48 (+2 vs. last poll, 1/29)
Sink 35 (unch)
Und 12 (-1)

The survey showing McCollum with a commanding lead comes as the RGA has launched its first paid media campaign of the cycle against Sink. While some have criticized Sink for a passive campaign thus far, defining the Democrat early could help make it hard for her to rebound quickly. There's a long way to go, however.

UPDATE: By day's end the Sink campaign launched its own ad, calling McCollum "just another Washington politician." An interesting example of a Democrat running against Washington.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today which Republican senators would attend Thursday's health care summit.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Senate Republican Whip
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Senate Republican Conference Chairman
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ranking Member Senate Finance Committee
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Ranking Member Senate Help Committee
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., HELP Committee
Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D., R-Okla., HELP Committee
Sen. John Barrasso, M.D.,R-Wyo.

McConnell released an accompanying statement that notes his displeasure with President Obama's proposal that pulls together key points from the previously passed House and Senate reform bills:

“Americans don't know how else to say it: they're not interested in a reform that starts with the bills they've already rejected, bills that slash a half-trillion dollars from seniors' Medicare, raise a half-trillion in new taxes, and don't lower costs or premiums. Republicans will attend this summit in good faith, and will continue to offer the types of ideas and step-by-step approach that Americans are actually calling for: legislation that brings down costs and increases access for Americans.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced yesterday the Senate Democrats attending the meeting, and said he hoped the two parties could work together in a "constructive" way. Time will tell.

Roll Call reports:

Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) has accepted tens of thousands of dollars' worth of trips to China from a development corporation in his hometown that he aided by securing earmarks and other federal assistance worth millions of dollars.

Ortiz has also traveled on at least one of these trips with his former chief of staff, Lencho Rendon, who was working for Ortiz when he secured a $5 million earmark for the Robstown Improvement Development Corp. The corporation has now hired Rendon as a consultant. Robstown Improvement is a nonprofit, city-chartered corporation that uses sales tax revenue to try to spur economic development in the city.

Ortiz maintains he's done nothing wrong:

Ortiz said there is nothing inappropriate about his travel. “It would be inappropriate if it were quid pro quo, but that is not the case here. I'm doing what Members of Congress do: bringing jobs, economic development and industry to my district — and that's what I have been doing since I was elected to Congress,” he said in an e-mail.

Perhaps. But "doing what Members of Congress do" may be enough to cost Rep. Ortiz and other members of Congress their jobs in a year like this one.

The latest poll of the Republican primary for Texas governor shows Gov. Rick Perry with a 9-point lead over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, but short of the 50 percent he needs to win outright. Debra Medina has slipped only slightly since her comments about the 9/11 attacks, Public Policy Polling (D) finds.

Republican Primary Election Matchup (400 LVs, 2/19-21, MoE +/- 4.9%)
Perry 40 (+1 vs. last poll, 2/4-7)
Hutchison 31 (+3)
Medina 20 (-4)
Und 9 (-1)

In a hypothetical runoff, Perry defeats Hutchison 52-35, with 13 percent undecided.

Perry has just a 50 percent approval rating among Texas Republicans (41 percent disapprove); but Hutchison's is worse -- just 47 percent approve of her performance as senator, while 43 percent disapprove. The two have launched new negative ads attacking each other's record.

In the first survey since her controversial comments, Medina has seen her negatives jump from just 9 percent in the last poll to 30 percent. Half of voters believe she "does or might believe that the federal government was involved in the 9/11 attacks."

More bad news for Hutchison: only 37 percent of voters want her to remain in the Senate, while 31 percent want her out of office.

In the Democratic primary, former Houston Mayor Bill White looks to win overwhelmingly over a largely unknown field of candidates.

The Republican Governors Association has launched its first television ad of the 2010 cycle, targeting Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink over her background as a former Bank of America executive.

As bank president, Alex Sink eliminated thousands of Florida jobs, while taking over 8 million dollars in salary and bonuses. Alex Sink.  Not one of us.  One of them.

It's an obvious attempt to capitalize on the unpopularity of the bank bailouts, and also the outrage over CEO bonuses of the past year. The RGA says the 15-second spot is airing statewide on cable and broadcast.

“Alex Sink can't erase the fact that she personally eliminated thousands of Florida jobs while she got rich,” RGA executive director Nick Ayers said in a statement. “When Alex Sink talks about economic issues, voters should remember her record – and it isn't pretty."

The Democratic Governors Association has targeted Republican candidate Bill McCollum as part of its "GOP Accountability Project," and plans to spend $1 million in the race. The Sink campaign's response to the ad:

"The decision by Bill McCollum to bring his Washington style of politics to Florida and launch misleading, negative attack ads eight months before the election shows just how scared he is that voters clearly want a business leader with a vision for growing Florida's economy over a career Washington politician who helped create today's economic mess," said Sink Campaign Manager Paul Dunn. "With his decades in Congress and as a special interest lobbyist, career politician Bill McCollum is desperate to avoid being held accountable for his leading role in helping start today's economic crisis that has left over a million Floridians out of work, bankrupt, or forced out of their homes."

McCollum currently leads Sink by 10 points in the RCP Average for Florida Governor.

Last fall, Kendrick Meek's campaign relished the idea of facing Marco Rubio instead of Gov. Charlie Crist in the general election. You're not hearing that talk much anymore, and Rasmussen (1,000 LVs, 2/18, MoE +/- 3%) offers the evidence in a new poll out today.

General Election Matchups
Crist 48 (unch vs. last poll, 1/27)
Meek 32 (-1)
Und 9 (unch)

Rubio 51 (+2)
Meek 31 (-1)
Und 11 (-2)

Crist's job approval rating among the general election pool is actually stronger than it is among Republicans only. In this survey, 52 percent approve of the job Crist is doing, 45 percent disapprove; among Republicans the split is 48 / 49.

President Obama has a job approval rating of 45 percent in Florida, while 54 percent disapprove.

Adam Smith of the St. Petersburg Times has the scoop:

In the latest sign of turbulence for Charlie Crist's wounded U.S. Senate bid, key staffers are starting to leave the campaign.

Political director Pablo Diaz, one of the first two staff members hired for the Senate campaign, is departing at the end of the month for "a new opportunity." Sean Doughtie, a well-regarded new media consultant who had worked with Crist for years, stopped working for the campaign at the end of January.

"The campaign was going in a different direction," said Doughtie.

Read the rest.