Dem primaries

Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) has spent more than $3 million on his Senate primary with Jennifer Brunner, even as he is considered a heavy favorite.

A pre-primary financial report shows Fisher spent nearly $1 million in the first two weeks of April alone -- including $900,000 on a cable TV ad buy -- and is now down to less than $1 million cash on hand for the stretch run of the May 4 primary. Should he make it to the general election, he would face former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has $7.6 million in the bank and a clear primary.

Secretary of State Brunner has been meagerly funded from the start of the race and has spent considerably less -- about $800,000. She has not been able to muster any serious media presence, but she has stayed within single digits of Fisher in the polls.

Fisher had $906,000 on hand on April 14, compared to $59,000 for Brunner.

Fisher's campaign has insisted that it is expecting a close race next Tuesday, but if he doesn't easily clear the bar against Brunner, questions will be raised about his general election viability.

His first quarter fundraising number -- $551,000 -- has already been criticized, especially in comparison to the $2.3 million raised by Portman.

House Democrats are encouraging members to make the tax cuts they’ve delivered a key part of their reelection strategy.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) is in serious trouble in his primary, according to a new poll released by state Sen. Mike Oliverio.

The poll, which was conducted by in-state pollster Orion Strategies, shows Oliverio surging to an eight-point lead on the incumbent, 41-33. A couple months ago, Mollohan led 41-31.

Oliverio raised $220,000 in the first quarter -- his first in the race -- and had $140,000 cash on hand. Mollohan, meanwhile, raised $360,000 and had $280,000 in the bank.

Mollohan faces difficult in both the primary and general election, with both Oliverio and the Republicans hoping to take advantage of his relatively meager bankroll (by incumbent standards) and some ethical troubles. 

Republicans including former state Del. David McKinley and businessman Mac Warner are fighting for their party's nomination in the conservative district, which went 57 percent for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008.

President Obama is endorsing the congressman who drew headlines recently for suggesting the island of Guam might "tip over and capsize."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Obama has endorsed Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who drew plenty of ridicule recently for this comment at a hearing.

Johnson has been battling Hepatitis C, which has made his speech slow and caused him to lose a lot of weight. But he has said he will press forward with serving in Congress.

At the same time, he has drawn primary challenges from former DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones and DeKalb County Commissioner Connie Stokes.

The endorsement of a black lawmaker in a majority-black district is a rare one for Obama. In 2008, he drew some heat from African-Americans for backing white Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) over a black state senator in Barrow's primary. That led black lawmakers facing their own primaries to wonder why he wasn't helping them.

The Johnson endorsement could set a precedent for other black lawmakers seeking the president's help this year.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has barely raised any money and is running behind Lee Fisher in the Ohio Democratic Senate primary. And now she's getting some bad press, too.

Brunner is enduring a series of hits on her candidacy roughly two weeks before her May 4 primary with Lt. Gov. Fisher.

On Wednesday, the Columbus Post-Dispatch revealed that she had been incorrectly listing employees and their salaries on her campaign finance reports (this is Ohio’s top elections' official we are talking about). And today, an alternative newspaper in Ohio reports that Brunner, in the late 1980s, represented a strip club in a court dispute over its liquor license.

Brunner defended her representation of the Crazy Horse Saloon by saying that its Constitutional rights had been infringed upon. The club was fighting a ballot proposition that effectively took its license away, and Brunner successfully argued that voters didn’t have the right to take away the license.

“I was starting my business at the time, I had three small children to support, and I was working solely on my own,” Brunner told the paper.

Despite Brunner’s justification, the story provides opponents with a ready-made campaign commercial if they need to use it. And the same goes for the FEC disclosure problems.

Fisher is the favorite, especially given that he banked $1.8 million at the end of March, while Brunner banked less than $80,000. But Democratic leaders are hoping he doesn’t have to deplete those funds before he gets to a general election matchup with former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has $7.6 million in the bank.

Job No. 1 is, of course, winning the primary at all.

Fisher has in recent days focused his public attacks on Portman. But he said on a conference call Wednesday that he is taking Brunner very seriously.

“I think that the primary is very competitive,” he said. “I continue to be focused on the issues that I think are as relevant in the primary as they are in the general election.”

Will former North Carolina state Sen. Cal Cunningham (D) need some DSCC help to get across the finish line in his Senate primary?

His campaign just released its first-quarter fundraising totals, and Cunningham raised a less-than-stellar $345,000 for the period.

The good news is that he has done a pretty good job of banking the money he has raised, and he had nearly $480,000 in cash on hand at the end of March; that has allowed him to be the only candidate to go up on the air with ads. The bad news is that he's still fighting from behind against better-known Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, and half a million dollars is unlikely to allow him to saturate the airwaves.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) recruited Cunningham into the race and, though it hasn't officially endorsed him, would clearly prefer that he face Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) in November.

In order to get him to that spot, though, it might have to spend some money in the primary, which concludes May 4. The DSCC did something similar with now-Sen. Jeff Merkley (R-Ore.) in his 2008 primary, and Merkley wound up beating Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).

Merkley's and Cunningham's totals after the first quarter are remarkably similar. In 2008, Merkley had about $470,000 in the bank for his May primary, while Cunningham in 2010 has $480,000 in cash for his May primary.

Cunningham, of course, is running in a more expensive state. But Merkley's opponent was also raising better money than Cunningham's are. Marshall has proved no fundraising star, either, raising about $160,000 in the first quarter and having $180,000 cash on hand.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is going to have to win the Democratic nomination without TV.

Brunner's first-quarter FEC totals are in, and she had less than $80,000 cash on hand as of March 31. Meanwhile, her Democratic Senate primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, had $1.8 million on hand with about a month to go in their May 4 primary.

Brunner, who has been unable to raise serious money at any point in her campaign, pulled together about $144,000 for the quarter.

The totals mean that, if Brunner is to somehow pull an upset in the race, it's going to have be a total grassroots-oriented upset. She will not be able to go up with any sort of sustained media buy, and Fisher will be able to drown out her messaging in the closing weeks if he wants to.

Recent polling has shown Brunner is still within single digits of Fisher, but that was before Fisher went up with his own TV ads in recent days.

The winner gets former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in the general election. Sen. George Voinovitch (R-Ohio) is retiring.

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), himself a former local union president, could be facing a primary challenge from a labor official from the Bay State.

The Boston Globe reported Monday that Mac D'Alessandro, a regional political director for the large service worker's union SEIU, is seriously weighing a run against the sixth term lawmaker, who was the only Massachusetts Democrat to vote against the Democrats' healthcare bill last month.

Here is more from the Globe:

D’Alessandro, who has worked for the Service Employees International Union for nine years, downplayed the role that Lynch’s health care vote played in his decision to jump into the race, saying instead that he wants to bring a different voice to Capitol Hill.

“This is a personal decision for me, as a constituent, as someone who has progressive values,’’ he said. “This isn’t part of me being recruited, no, this is my wanting a stronger voice for the district, for my family and the other families.’’

Asked if he would have voted in favor of Obama’s health care reform bill, he said, “Absolutely.’’

“I’m going to be on the side of consumers and workers, and not on the side of health insurance companies and big banks,’’ he said.

But for now, he said, he is focused on getting on the ballot. “We’ll have more to say once we do that,’’ he said.

State Democratic Party chairman John Walsh welcomed the announcement of a potential new candidate for the state’s Ninth Congressional District, which includes parts of Boston and extends south of the city into Norfolk, Plymouth, and Bristol counties.

“I think it’s a sign of a healthy party that there’s a discussion and a debate,’’ Walsh said.

D'Alessandro has until May 4 to collect the 2,000 signatures necessary to appear on the ballot. Lynch already faces two opponents already, one a Republican and the other an independent.

Some liberal activists have encouraged primary challengers to run against Democrats who voted against the healthcare bill, another sign that the massive $940 billion new law will play a major role in the fall midterm elections.

Walsh told the Globe that the challlenge would be an “uphill fight’’ for D’Alessandro, but said its result is not a foregone conclusion.

Sen. Michael Bennet's (D-Colo.) primary challenger has been caught Photoshopping an African-American woman into his website banner.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) wasn't outraised in the first quarter by as much as previously thought, but she did spend heavily.

Lincoln's campaign just came out with some more specific numbers. It turns out she raised more than $1.3 million (versus the "more than $1 million" previously reported) and has $4.3 million on hand. Lincoln's cash on hand dropped by about $700,000, meaning she spent heavily -- about $2 million -- defending herself in the primary.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), who is challenging Lincoln in a primary, raised $2 million in the first quarter. He raised that amount in a shorter time period, though, having entered the race late in the quarter.

Republican frontrunners Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and state Sen. Gilbert Baker have yet to announce their first quarter totals.