GEORGIA: “The influential Club for Growth released a scorecard Tuesday showing how faithfully every member of Congress hewed to the group’s fiscally conservative views during votes in 2012,” Roll Call writes. “The club uses the scores as part of the process to judge whether they will endorse a candidate — a move that sometimes results in millions of independent expenditures on the candidate’s behalf. But the 2012 scores — from one to 100 percent with 100 percent being the most ‘pro-growth’ — are particularly illuminating in states like Georgia, where a number of Republican House members are angling for potential Senate bids.”
ILLINOIS: “Democratic congressional candidate Robin Kelly, who centered her campaign heavily on calls for tougher gun control laws, emerged from a crowded field on Tuesday to clinch her party’s nomination for the Illinois House seat vacated by Jesse Jackson Jr.,” NBC’s Andrew Rafferty writes. “ ‘You sent a message that was heard around our state and around the nation,” Kelly said in her victory speech late Tuesday night. ‘A message that tells the NRA that their days of holding our country hostage are coming to an end.’ Her speech was focused almost solely on gun control, the issue that came to define the race in the Chicago-area district, an area of the country that has recently been at the epicenter of gun violence. Kelly skated to an easy victory, earning well over 50 percent of the votes with none of her competitors earning anywhere near that amount of support.”
“The newly-elected Democratic nominee to replace disgraced former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. vowed to become a leader in the fight for federal gun control and directly challenged the National Rifle Association in her victory speech,” AP writes. “But it remains to be seen if Robin Kelly’s primary win Tuesday night in the Chicago-area district, aided by a $2 million ad campaign funded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s super PAC, would fuel the national debate.”
NBC’s Kasie Hunt: “New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a promise -- or a threat -- for congressional candidates: In advocating more gun control, he'll put his money where his mouth is. Just ask the House hopeful who faced over $2.2 million Bloomberg-funded ads -- or talk to the Democrats charged with trying to take back the House majority in 2014. The billionaire mayor spent the money attacking former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, a Democrat who had been favored to win a Chicago-area House seat, over her "A" rating from the National Rifle Association.”
Speaking of which, “Bloomberg will head to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to meet with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and ‘various Senators,’ including Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John McCain, R-Ariz., according to the mayor’s office,” Roll Call reports.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Teddy Turner Jr.’s out with a new provocative ad that’s a not-so-subtle shot at ex-Gov. Mark Sanford’s scandal.
Larry Grooms is out with a more traditional ad.
Remember, the primary’s March 19. A runoff would be held April 2. And the general election is May 7.