Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack will endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton this morning, bringing her "inevitability" campaign ever closer to fruition. This good news for Clinton comes after her $2.6 million Hollywood fundraiser last night.
Meanwhile, John Edwards was endorsed by more than 20 South Carolina Democrats, including the mayor of Columbia. Edwards also picked up Orlando's leading Hispanic leader to advise his campaign.
Edwards has been usually viewed as the labor movement's favorite candidate, but union leaders are looking to test all candidates in a myriad of candidate and issues forms, "culminating with a presidential candidate gathering in Chicago in August" that will focus on issues like health care.
Yesterday in Florida Sen. Barack Obama repeated his call to end the war in Iraq by next March through a series of troop withdrawals. Obama also called for action on a much smaller item: Durham D.A. Mike Nifong's conduct in the Duke Lacrosse case.
On the GOP side, the Politico's Jonathan Martin writes that on the eve of the first quarter fundraising deadline "the three top-tier Republican presidential campaigns are engaged in a shameless expectations game." Sen. John McCain told reporters he would fall short of his unstated fundraising goal. Mitt Romney's campaign played modest by citing single-digit polls, while Rudy Giuliani's disputed the idea that his popularity will bring in a lot of money. "For all three campaigns, the expectations game is a delicate one. Each wants to assure that fundraising is going just fine and he'll have the resources to win. But each also wants to set the bar low enough so that a good number will look great and a bad number can be explained away."
No one is sure how much will be raised but "most political analysts suggest the range will be $15 million to $30 million each, with Romney leading the pack, and Giuliani and McCain vying for second," Martin reports.
The Boston Globe's Scott Helman reports that none of the three has yet to be questioned by a "secretive coalition that includes some of the most influential social conservatives," called the Arlington Group. The group "encompasses roughly 70 grass-roots organizations around the country said to reach tens of millions of people collectively." It has interviewed second-tier GOP candidates, but it may not reach a consensus, much like a similar effort failed to do in the 2000 race.
These candidates may find themselves waiting for South Carolina election results as early as 2007. The State's Lee Bandy writes that the state's GOP is determined to protect its first-in-the-South primary, "even if that means pushing the primary up to October."
Last but not least, Giuliani won an Ohio county straw poll of more than 800 Republicans on Saturday, with McCain placing second and Fred Thompson upsetting Romney for third place.
Find the rest of today's elections news at RCP's Politics and Elections page.