Election 2008 Shorts: Updated

• Since state Sen. John Unger abandoned his congressional bid abruptly Saturday, "attorneys are trying to determine what should be done with campaign funds raised" by the Berkeley County Democrat, The Journal of Martinsburg reports.

• Unger explains to The Charleston Gazette that "the idea of raising money all the time to be elected to Congress would leave him politically beholden to special interests," and that "his short foray into the 2nd Congressional District race opened his eyes enough to believe the system has to change."

• (Update) The Charleston Daily Mail talks to pundits and party officials in the wake of Barth's entry. One national observer still considers Capito the "substantial favorite," the article said, while Congressional Quarterly "changed its rating of the race to 'Republican Favored,' which is a slightly less competitive rating than the 'Leans Republican' classification it had been given with Unger running."

• The Gazette also reports that the 79-year-old mayor of Clendenin is the sole Republican filed to keep the opening seat in the 8th Senate district in the GOP column. Bob Ore joins a race that features multi-term Delegate Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, in the Democratic field.

• Gov. Joe Manchin has appointed press aide Sarah Payne Scarbro as his 2008 re-election campaign's coordinator, the Herald-Dispatch. Scarbro is "taking an unpaid leave of absence to work the campaign," while "an official opening date of Manchin's 2008 campaign headquarters as well as an open house will be announced in the coming days," the Huntington newspaper reports.

• (Update): Mailed-in candidacy filings postmarked in time include one from Huntington Republican Phil Cline, who wants to take on U.S. Sen Jay Rockefeller. General manager of the Pullman Plaza Hotel, Cline told the Herald-Dispatch that while he considers the four-term Democrat a friend (and has even raised money for him), "I got to praying about what he's done recently in the Senate and I felt he should not get a free pass to become senator without an election."