Hotline On Call

Mayors Against Illegal Guns launched a new ad targeting Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., hoping to persuade a key Democrat to reverse himself on gun control legislation. But the ad might just have the opposite effect.

Rep. Jo Bonner's decision to quit Congress for a job at the University of Alabama opens up a solid Republican district where Mitt Romney took 62 percent of the vote. Any special election can and will draw a crowd of elected officials with little to lose -- the just-completed special election in South Carolina's First District drew 16 candidates -- but Republicans have their eyes on five local elected officials they think have the best chance to replace Bonner. They include:

Gabriel Gomez often gets compared to Scott Brown, whose 2010 special election victory he hopes to duplicate. But Gomez's opponents are starting to link him to a different Bay State Republican: Mitt Romney.

About the only good thing you could say about California Republicans' election night in 2012 is that from adversity comes opportunity. Among other negative results for the party, three Democratic House candidates -- Reps. Ami Bera, Raul Ruiz, and Scott Peters -- unseated long-term Republican incumbents and a fourth (Rep. Julia Brownley) captured a longtime GOP-held open district, providing Democrats with fully half of their eight-seat gain in the House of Representatives.

Former Iowa state Sen. Staci Appel ruled out a bid for GOP Rep. Tom Latham's seat after meeting with the DCCC earlier this spring -- but she appears to be reconsidering.

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows a significant gap between the percentage of voters who approve of the job Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is doing and those who think the Republican, serving his fifth term as governor, deserves a sixth. Branstad has a 49-percent approval rating, the poll shows, with just 31 percent disapproving. But voters are much more closely split on whether he should get another four years in office: 43 percent of voters say Branstad does not deserve another term, while 42 percent say he does.

Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner formally unveiled his campaign to become New York City's mayor late on Tuesday, and just a few hours later, a new Quinnipiac University poll shows Weiner remains in second place in September's Democratic primary following his six-week trial balloon. With Christine Quinn's standing in the primary continuing to slip, according to the poll, the City Council speaker edges closer to losing her early frontrunner status, and the race is wide open.

Ken Block, the founder of Rhode Island's Moderate Party, announced Tuesday that he'll make a second run for governor next year, further complicating Republicans' path to victory in the Ocean State.

Former Rep. Mark Schauer is getting his campaign team in place as he prepares to launch a gubernatorial bid in the coming weeks. A Michigan Democratic operative told Hotline Tuesday that Schauer will tap BJ Neidhardt to manage his campaign, reprising his role from Schauer's 2008 congressional bid.

A new poll released Tuesday shows a tight gubernatorial race in Michigan, and shows Democratic Rep. Gary Peters with the early edge in the Senate race.

Rep. Gary Peters has turned to a familiar face to manage his Senate campaign: Julie Petrick, the Democratic strategist who ran his first congressional race in 2008, will take over his statewide bid Tuesday.

After a dismal 2012, there's no "silver bullet" for the Minnesota GOP, says its new chair, Keith Downey. But a 2014 comeback, Downey believes, is still within reach if the weakened party can regain its footing in time to capitalize on a few big opportunities.

Stillwater Mining Company, the largest public corporation in Montana and one of the state's largest employers, announced Monday that former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer was elected chairman of the company's board. He will help lead a search to replace the company's longtime CEO, Frank McAllister, several weeks after Schweitzer and three other outsiders were elected to the eight-member board in a takeover attempt.

Former lawmakers are helping their children in so many races this year that we might as well dub next Election Day Take Your Kid to Congress Day.

Don't think it's a done deal that Sen. David Vitter will be Louisiana's next governor; he still has to get through Lieutenant Gov. Jay Dardenne. And Dardenne is making moves to show he's ready for a fight.