(CNN) - The Democratic National Committee edged out its Republican counterpart in fundraising last month, according to the two committees' Federal Election Commission reports made available Monday.
The DNC raised just over $6.6 million in May while the Republican National Committee raised 6.46 million. The DNC's total is significantly down from its more-than $10 million April cash haul while the RNC is down from its near $7 million April total.
The DNC currently holds a nearly-2 million advantage when it comes to cash on hand, $14.5 million to $12.6 million.
Earlier Monday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reported edging out the National Republican Senatorial Committee in May fundraising.
(CNN) – While news of Gen. David Petraeus' visit to New Hampshire Wednesday inevitably sparked speculation he might be open to a 2012 White house bid, the top U.S. general in Iraq made clear he will never be a candidate for president.
"I thought I'd said 'no' about as many ways as I could. I really do mean no," Petraeus told students and reporters during an appearance at New Hampshire's St. Anselm College Wednesday night, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Such an unequivocal statement is rare from high-profile national figures who often refuse to categorically rule out any possibility of a presidential run, no matter how small.
Weatherproof is removing an image of President Obama Wednesday. Sarah Palin has also declined to appear in an ad for the company. (Getty Images)
(CNN) - The outdoor brand Weatherproof is again out of luck as it searches for a high-profile face to lead its "A leader in style" ad theme.
The company first acquired the rights of an Associated Press photograph of President Obama sporting a black Weatherproof jacket during his trip to China last fall. But the company never asked permission from the White House to use the image, and when it appeared on a billboard in New York last month President Obama's aides demanded it be taken down.
The company agreed, hoping to replace the president's image with one of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has also been photographed in a Weatherproof jacket.
But Palin's attorney tells CNN her office has declined the brand's request.
No word on which famous pol the company may look to next.
– CNN's John Roberts contributed to this report
(CNN) - George Pataki has endorsed third-party conservative Doug Hoffman over Republican Dede Scozzafava in New York's special congressional race, making the three-term former governor the latest high profile Republican to weigh in against his party's choice.
In a statement released Thursday night, Pataki suggested electing the moderate Scozzafava could amount to giving "another vote to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid."
"Doug Hoffman will stand up to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. He will fight for all the residents of northern New York," Pataki said. "He will fight for our proud servicemen and women at Fort Drum, our dairy farmers in Lowville and our manufacturers in Plattsburgh."
While GOP party leaders are standing firmly behind Scozzafava, several Republicans have aligned themselves with Hoffman in recent weeks, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. A handful of Republican members of Congress have also backed Hoffman.
There's speculation Pataki is considering a run for Senate in 2010, though the New York Republican has given no indication one way or the other whether he is considering a bid.
(CNN) - A new poll of New Jersey voters suggests independent candidate Chris Daggett continues to make gains in that state's highly competitive gubernatorial race, primarily peeling support away from Republican challenger Chris Christie in campaign's final days.
Daggett, whom the Newark Star-Ledger surprisingly endorsed earlier this month, stands at 20 percent in the new survey conducted by Rutgers University, the highest level of support the former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency has registered in any poll of the race to date.
Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine meanwhile holds a narrow lead over Christie, the state's former district attorney, 39 percent to 36 percent. But given the poll's 4 percentage point sampling error, the two are statistically tied.
"A rule of thumb among political junkies says that that the actual vote for a third-party candidate tends to be roughly half of what that candidate was getting in pre-election polls around Labor Day," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "But Daggett has been gaining ground since those Labor Day polls, so he may be one of the few independents who finishes strong and has a significant impact on the final results."
If nothing else, Daggett's growing support could mean the ultimate victor wins with less than 40 percent of the vote, a reflection of how unsatisfied New Jersey voters appear to be with all three candidates.
The Rutgers survey also shows both Christie and Corzine have net negative approval ratings and voters are deeply concerned with taxes, unemployment, and corruption in the state.
The poll of 583 likely voters was conducted October 15-20.
(CNN) - Just how tightly scripted did the White House manage U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's nomination process?
Obama administration officials even picked out which suit Sotomayor wore when President Obama formally announced her as his nominee for the high court early this summer.
According to the New Haven Register, Sotomayor told fellow classmates at her Yale Law School Reunion over the weekend she had planned to buy a new outfit for the event, but the White House instead asked she bring five suits to Washington, one of which they would pick for her to wear.
Sotomayor also discussed the administration's grueling vetting process, which included the dispatch of an FBI agent to investigate a parking ticket she incurred more than two years ago, according to the Yale Daily News.
Sotomayor, who graduated from Yale in 1979, also described her first meeting with President Obama last spring.
"It was a conversation like none other that I have ever had," adding that she "almost fainted."
(CNN) - Joe Biden has campaigned for a lot of Democrats during his lifetime in politics - including a few who are "turkeys," the vice president joked at a Thursday night fundraiser in Virginia.
Attending the fundraising event on behalf of three Democratic House members from Virginia - Reps. Glenn Nye, Gerry Connolly and Tom Perriello - at the home of former Virginia Sen. Chuck Robb, an off-script Biden suggested competence doesn't stretch across the entire Democratic Party.
"These guys are smart, "Biden said of the three Virginia congressmen. "Some of the guys Chuck [Robb] and I have campaigned for are turkeys. Not all Democrats are created equal, while most Republicans are."
Biden went on to say the candidates are "independent minded" and "damn competent," and all share the party's core principles of health care and energy reform.
Nye and Perriello, hailing from the more conservative regions of the once solidly Republican-voting state, are expected to face especially difficult re-election races.
(CNN) - The Democratic Senate and congressional campaign committees will not accept cash from political action organizations or lobbyists during a fundraiser to be headlined by President Obama, a Democratic source confirms to CNN.
The White House stipulated the condition for the major June 18 fundraising event, expected to raise millions for 2010 Senate and congressional candidates.
Obama banned PAC and lobbyist donations during the presidential campaign to square with his pledge to limit the influence of special interests in Washington. He instituted a similar rule at the Democratic National Committee after winning the White House.
But both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - which along with their GOP counterparts have historically relied on PAC and lobbyist contributions - will return to accepting such funds after the Obama fundraiser.
(CNN) - Did John McCain snub Sarah Palin during an appearance Monday on NBC's The Tonight Show?
That's what some pro-Palin bloggers and other political observers claim after the former GOP presidential candidate left out his former running mate when naming five governors who he thought were in position to lead the Republican Party.
"We have, I'm happy to say, a lot of voices out there," McCain told host Jay Leno before listing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Utah Gov. John Huntsman, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
"There are a lot of governors out there who are young and dynamic," said the Arizona senator.
McCain then quickly joked, "I've left out somebody's name and I'm going to hear about it."
(CNN) - Former Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino has taken a job with Burson-Marsteller, the political consultancy firm headed by former top Clinton advisor Mark Penn.
In a statement published on Burson-Marsteller's Web site, Penn said Perino "has performed one of the most demanding jobs in Washington."
"We know the skills and judgment she honed in her time at the White House will serve our clients well," he also said in the statement.
Perino isn't the first prominent ex-Bush advisor to sign up with Penn's firm. Karen Hughes, who managed the White House's communications office during President Bush's first term, joined Burson-Marsteller last summer.
Penn resigned as chief strategist of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential bid last April after, in his role as CEO of Burson-Marsteller, he appeared to lobby for a trade agreement Clinton opposed.
From CNN Politics
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