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It should come as no surprise that Ohio's Democrat Party leaders have endorsed former Gov. Ted Strickland as nominee for a U.S. Senate seat - without bothering to consider whether that may be the choice of Democrat voters.

But what is surprising is that the party machine believes Buckeye State residents have forgotten the mess Strickland created while governor.

On Saturday, party leaders endorsed Strickland in the Senate race next year against incumbent Republican Rob Portman. The endorsement came despite the fact the primary election is months away.

Another Democrat, Cincinnati city Councilman P.G. Sittenfield, already has announced he is running for the Senate. During the coming months, other Democrats may decide voters ought to have options other than Strickland.

But party leaders have made up their minds. Clearly, they would rather any other Democrat candidates just go away so they can get on with promoting Strickland for the Senate.

That will not be an easy task in a race against Portman, who has served Ohioans and the nation well in the Senate.

Any attempt to make Strickland appealing will have to rest on the hope that Ohio voters have short memories.

But many recall he left office having helped create an $8 billion state budget gap - after insisting Ohio had no fiscal worries.

Too many also recall Strickland's unequivocal support for President Barack Obama's policies, including those aimed at destroying the coal industry and with it, the reasonably priced electricity on which so many Ohioans rely.

Last fall, voters throughout the country turned their backs on members of Congress who had the attitude that their party's president came first, with their constituents a distant second. Democrat leaders in Ohio do not seem to have gotten the memo on that.

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Strickland Bad Choice for Party

Meanwhile Conservative presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, who entered the fray last month, released his own video in reaction to Mrs Clinton's announcement, saying she represents a third Obama term and the "failed policies of the past".

The Scottish National Party's Nicola Sturgeon - another female powerhouse, seemingly backed Hillary, tweeting her support after the announcement:

While the video has gone down very well on social media, her new logo not so much. Memes have already been started, with unfortunate parallels drawn between the two vertical blocks for the H in "Hillary" and the Twin Towers, while others say it looks like a sign for a hospital

Our correspondent Rob Crilly happens to live down the street from Hillary's new HQ. He's checked it out for us:

One way for a 67-year-old former First Lady and Secretary of State to shed her image as part of the Washington old guard is to base her campaign in one of the most fashionable of New York neighbourhoods.

So it came as no surprise when details emerged that her embryonic team had leased two floors of an office block across the East River from Manhattan in Brooklyn Heights.

Even though the building itself is slightly stuffy housed on its 19 floors are the bankers of Morgan Stanley as well as lawyers working for the US attorney for the eastern district of New York - its owners market One Pierrepont Plaza as Brooklyn Cool.

And the roll-out continues. Clinton will apparently spend the next 6-8 weeks in "ramp up" mode while her team builds a "nationwide grassroots organisation", according to the first press release from her new Campaign For America operation. Some might say that she's been ramping up for years already. The first big rally will be some time in May, after she's been on her "listening tour" to Iowa, New Hampshire and other early caucus and primary states.

Her campaign team were said to have had a meeting yesterday in the new Brooklyn HQ. Jennifer Palmieri, who is expected to be her head of communications, tweeted this:

Philip Sherwell, our correspondent in New York, has this to say on her video announcement:

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'I'm running for President': Hillary Clinton launches campaign for 2016 Democrat nomination: live

Borders Liberal Democrat Michael Moore today said that as the second full week of general election campaigning draws to a close, only the Liberal Democrats have a fully-costed plan to increase investment in Scotlands NHS and give doctors and nurses the support they need.

Speaking as he was joined on the campaign trail in the Borders by Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Don Foster, Mr Moore said that by committing to Simon Stevens Five Year Forward View, the Liberal Democrats would invest 17bn more than the Tories and 7bn more than Labour in the NHS.

Last month, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP confirmed that this would mean an extra 800m per year for the NHS in Scotland.

Mr Moore warned the other parties that time is running out for them to set out how they would pay for their own NHS plans. Analysis of the SNPs full fiscal autonomy proposals has shown that Scotland would face a 7.6bn funding black hole in the very first year of the policy and a 40 bn spending gap over the next parliament.

Commenting, Mr Moore said:

Because we are willing to give the health service the money it has asked for, Liberal Democrat plans would see us spend 17bn more than the Tories and 7bn more than Labour to support doctors and nurses in our NHS. This would mean an extra 800m per year for the NHS in Scotland.

Our plans are fully funded but at the end of the second full week of campaigning we are still none the wiser as to how the other parties would pay for their NHS commitments. Time is running out for them to give people the answers they need.

"Only the Liberal Democrats have a fully costed plan to give the health service the money it needs.

Labour and the Tories have not matched Liberal Democrat NHS spending plans. The SNPs full fiscal autonomy plan and the 40bn funding black hole that comes with it mean that they could not deliver the investment that our NHS needs.

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Only Lib Dems have a fully costed plan to boost Scottish NHS funds

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Mayor Steve Glazer talks with a shopper at the Orinda Farmer's Market in Orinda, Calif., on Saturday, April 4, 2015. Glazer is a candidate in the May 19 special election for the 7th State Senate District. He was at the farmer's market as mayor and to interact with potential voters. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

They support Democratic touchstone issues such as environmentalism, gun control, gay marriage and abortion rights. But they're often seen as party pariahs for espousing ideas like rolling back public workers' pensions, banning transit strikes and making it easier to fire bad teachers.

They're a new breed of Democrat politician, and they're shaking up the state's political landscape as business interests, independents and sometimes even moderate Republicans pour money into nasty Democrat vs. Democrat battles made possible by California's new "top-two" primary. And with the state Republican Party still searching for a path back from decades of decline, some political analysts say it's only the beginning of a long battle for the soul of the California Democrat Party.

Mayor Steve Glazer walks and greets shoppers at the Orinda Farmer's Market in Orinda, Calif., on Saturday, April 4, 2015. Glazer is a candidate in the May 19, special election for the 7th State Senate District. He was at the farmer's market as mayor and to interact with potential voters. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group) ( Dan Honda )

"Until recently you had to toe the line for whatever the public employee unions wanted you to do," said former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, one of the first Democratic politicians to poke Big Labor in the eye by fighting for pension reform. "The union leadership's job is to look out for the interests of union members. Elected officials' jobs should be to look out for the interests of residents and taxpayers. Those are very different jobs at times."

The Golden State certainly doesn't have a monopoly on ideological purity battles. Across the nation, establishment Republicans still engage in bitter feuds with tea party conservatives, while centrist Democrats such as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel face off with more liberal challengers.

In California, intraparty disagreements are no longer confined to the more conservative "blue dog" Democrats in rural parts of the state. In 2012, old-line labor liberals contended with new-wave moderates in Assembly races in Marin County and Los Angeles. In 2014, the phenomenon recurred in a Los Angeles state Senate race, the South Bay's Ro Khanna-Mike Honda congressional race, and the contest for superintendent of public instruction.

And now it's playing out again in a special election for an East Bay state Senate seat, as Orinda Democrat Steve Glazer's calls for banning transit strikes and tightening teacher tenure rules have raised the ire of labor.

"Workers' issues are historically what the Democratic Party is about," said California Labor Federation spokesman Steve Smith. So if you're not OK with protecting pensions and organizing rights, "you're not a real Democrat."

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Will the 'real Democrat' please stand up?

Christine Jardine on the campaign trail. Photograph: Ken Macpherson for the Guardian

There was a heckle, and some booing. Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmonds heir as first minister of Scotland, looked momentarily, but genuinely, uncomfortable last week when the audience for the televised Scottish leaders debates reacted grumpily to her refusal to rule out another referendum on independence.

According to Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrat candidate hoping to deny Salmond a seat in Westminster, it was the moment the silent majority expressed that it was weary of the nationalist hubris.

They seem to have forgotten that they lost, she said. Alex Salmond said it was a once in a generation vote. They arent keeping to their word. And people are annoyed. I could not have had a better fundraiser and recruiter than Salmond for my campaign. A lot of people say to me that they have never voted Liberal Democrat but they will this time. It is not going to plan for them.

Jardine was speaking on the campaign trail in the commuter town of Ellon, 15 miles north of Aberdeen and part of the Gordon constituency that Salmond hopes will be his route to influence at Westminster. But his path may not be smooth.

We are reluctant to get too carried away, said Sir Malcolm Bruce, the retiring MP for the constituency, campaigning alongside his intended successor. But there is a mood and you can feel it.

The Liberal Democrats triumphed in Gordon in 2010 with a healthy majority of 7,000 (36% of the vote compared with the SNPs 22%). Bruce has held this seat for 32 years as a respected local man who offered a palatable alternative to the Tories in this relatively affluent area prospering from North Sea oil.

The latest Scotland-wide opinion polls have the SNP on 49%, Labour on 25% and the Lib Dems on a measly 4%. The only published poll to be done locally was in February, courtesy of the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft. That put the SNP in first place with 41% of the vote in standard voting intentions. The Lib Dems were in second place on 21% of the vote, ahead of Labour on 17% and the Conservatives on 15%.

However, when respondents were asked specifically about their constituency, the shares of the answers for the respondents rose for the Lib Dems and the SNP. A total of 43% of respondents said that they would vote SNP, while 26% said they planned to vote for the Lib Dems, putting the SNP well ahead but also pretty definitively making this a two-horse race.

It is the nature of the straight fight between Salmond and the anti-Salmond candidate that has given the Lib Dems a hope, and a strategy. It is one of 100 seats into which the party is putting all of its resources. One SNP canvasser admitted to the Observer: We think Salmond will win. But, actually, listening to what everyone says behind the scenes, it is going to be very close. An SNP voter, in Ellons market square, Kathleen Moore, 59, said: I dont think hell walk it.

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Anyone but Salmond: campaign to stop former SNP leader gathers pace