Meanwhile, the Democrat who would probably given Abbott the toughest run for his money, state Sen. But given Abbott's monstrous $20 million war chest, that shouldn't be too much of a problem, and he'll likely cruise in the general election as well. Rick Perry's decision not to seek a fourth term, Abbott now has a pretty clear path to the GOP nomination, though he'll first have to turn back former Texas Workforce Commission chair Tom Pauken. TX-Gov: As expected, state Attorney General Greg Abbott made his long-awaited campaign for governor official over the weekend.The latest list of possibles can be found at the link. Grossman is the best-known and best-financed candidate to enter the race to date, but the contest remains pretty wide open, particularly since a number of other contenders are still weighing their options. MA-Gov: State Treasurer Steve Grossman, who has long been expected to run for governor, formally jumped into the Democratic primary over the weekend.It's also not clear who paid for the research, though if it's not Campbell, it's someone who wants him to get into the race, since there was a lot of message testing involved as well (which led to very favorable informed ballot tests for him). What's more, half of those surveyed are undecided, and the poll also had a crazily long field period, from May 22 to June 13. AZ-Gov: A new poll from Myers Research shows House Minority Leader Chad Campbell with a 31-18 lead over former Arizona Board of Regents chair Fred DuVal in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, but it's all hypothetical, since only DuVal has declared his candidacy so far.Trey Gowdy, though, made it quite clear he has no interest in running, calling a Senate bid an 'audition for a six-year prison sentence.' Lee Bright and Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel. Despite that daunting hurdle, a couple of other Republicans are still considering the race, including state Sen. He'll need a lot more than that to be competitive, though, since he has just $248,000 on hand, versus a giant $6.3 million for Graham. Lindsey Graham from the right had seemed to die down lately, but the end of the quarter brings news that businessman Richard Cash has self-funded to the tune of $200,000. SC-Sen-A: Chatter about a possible primary challenge to GOP Sen.VA-Gov (June): Terry McAuliffe (D): $1.9 mil raised, $6 mil cash-on-hand Ken Cuccinelli (R): $1.1 mil raised, $2.7 mil cash-on-hand.Renee Ellmers (R): $158K raised, $180K cash-on-hand (Ellmers is still weighing the race) AR-Gov: Mike Ross (D): $2 mil raised, $1.7 mil cash-on-hand.Mark Pryor (D): $1.2 mil raised, $3.9 mil cash-on-hand So I won't try to summarize things myself, but you can click through for the Chicago Tribune's level best. Illinois gubernatorial candidates have been filing their fundraising totals, but thanks to a bizarre loophole in state law that only requires campaigns to report donations when they're deposited at a bank, it's pretty difficult to get an exact handle on how much cash anyone has taken in. Republicans, though, are probably feeling pretty pleased right now. But with her out of the picture, Quinn wounded, and Daley being Daley, it's possible other Democrats might now express interest in the contest. Of course, had Madigan forged ahead and had the family-centric attacks worked, she might have wound up not looking so hot herself. Daley, meanwhile, is the kind of technocrat who excites no one except for the likes of Mike Bloomberg. Quinn has suffered from miserable job approvals for a long time now, and if he's the nominee, he'd make this race way more competitive than it ought to be in solidly blue Illinois. Pat Quinn and former White House chief of staff Bill Daley. Now Democrats are left with two unappetizing choices in the primary: incumbent Gov. With Speaker Madigan planning to continue in office, I will not run for Governor. I feel strongly that the state would not be well served by having a Governor and Speaker of the House from the same family and have never planned to run for Governor if that would be the case. Rather unusually, Madigan issued a statement that, in part, seemed to blame her father, state House Speaker Mike Madigan, for her decision, echoing a line of criticism that opponents and good-government types have ratcheted up lately: Instead, she'll seek re-election to her current post. IL-Gov: It seemed, at one point, that the Illinois governorship was Lisa Madigan's for the taking, but after months of unexplained foot-dragging, the Democratic state attorney general has finally said no to a bid.

Bob filner and the monster within kpbs