A collection of gossip, scuttlebutt, and odds and ends from our reporters' notebooks.

HERE COMES MONEY BOO BOO? Nope. At least not according to Nancy Cassis, the former state senator who as a write-in candidate attacked Republican Congressional nominee Kerry Bentivolio — remember the foreboding “Krazy Kerry” literature and TV spots that peppered your mailboxes and flat-screens? — during her write-in campaign for the 11th U.S. House District seat. The Novi Republican who ponied up $200,000 of her own moolah during the campaign indicated last week that she’s not eying yet another write-in shot at the, ahem, esteemed U.S. House of Representatives. “Do you know someone with a million dollars” to fund a write-in general election campaign, she rhetorically asked an Oakland Confidential scribe. Sure we do, Nancy, but not personally (Mitt Romney might have a little bit of pocket change, we hear). If we had the ear of a bajillionaire or two, we’d probably be hitting them up for some cash, too (the dolla makes us holla). And with the special 11th Congressional District primary election for the Elephants coming up a week from today — as made necessary by former U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter’s resignation — Cassis said she doesn’t plan on actively campaigning for the GOP nod — she’s just letting the election run its course and letting the chips fall where they may.

DIDN’T THINK WE’D SEE THAT: Remember a few months ago when 51st District Court candidate Andrea Dean — not to mention a spate of Republican local and state lawmakers — vowed to keep their political signage safely stowed in a cubby somewhere until 30 days before the election? Well, last time we checked, the Nov. 6 general election Dean is running in against Judge Jodi Debbrecht is over two months away, yet there were “Dean for Judge” signs on Elizabeth Lake Road in Waterford, and elsewhere in the community. Was there a change of heart? Absolutely not, Dean said. “This is why I have to do things by myself,” she chuckled, adding that she would “absolutely” remove the signs by the end of the day yesterday, Tuesday, Aug. 28.

JOHN SCOTT VS. JOHN SCOTT: No, the Republican county commissioner representing Waterford and West Bloomfield didn’t clone himself — it might just seem that way on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. Here’s the 4-1-1. John Scott, the incumbent commissioner, has an independent challenger in — you guessed it — John Scott, who filed to run for county commissioner in July. Because of what could pretty easily be seen as a confusing choice for 5th District voters, Scott — the one who is already serving on the county commission — asked for a clarifying designation to appear next to his name on the November ballot. He said county poobahs ruled unanimously that he could have one, so it doesn’t seem like there will be too much bewilderment on behalf of his supporters. That is, unless a third John Scott decides to run as a write-in candidate.

CROSSING THE AISLE: We know, we know, Oakland Confidential has been on a bit of a bipartisanship bender lately, but we genuinely enjoy it. So here’s the latest on the getting-along-across-party-lines front: County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, a Republican; county Treasurer Andy Meisner, a Democrat; county Water Resources Commissioner John P. McCulloch, a Republican; and county Clerk/Register of Deeds Bill Bullard, Jr. have all endorsed the five incumbent Circuit Court judges running against a pair of challengers in the Nov. 6 general election. The five jurists — Michael Warren, Denise Langford-Morris, Leo Bowman, Phyllis McMillen and Wendy Potts — are diverse politically, but they seem to have rounded up a solid backing behind what their proponents are calling the Unity Slate. More on that later.