House races

Former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said his group’s main push will be to give cover to pro-immigration reform Republicans. 

West told The Hill he won't be running for office "in the near future" but will be involved via his nonprofit, the Allen West Foundation.

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Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) 2012 opponent, wealthy businessman Jim Graves (D), appears to be gearing up for a rematch.

Graves, who came within 5,000 votes of Bachmann last election, indicated interest in running again in an email to supporters.

"I know that the work we started last year, well, it isn't over," he wrote after attacking Bachmann for voting against the Violence Against Women Act.

Graves said last month that he'd decide on the race by April 1.

While the district is heavily Republican, Bachmann ran well behind Mitt Romney there in 2012 and could be vulnerable again, especially against a centrist self-funder like Graves.

However, much of her vulnerability was due to a perception she'd abandoned her district to run for president, a problem that may have lessened with time. She's also one of the strongest fundraisers in the House, giving her a big boost in any reelection battle.

Centrist supporters of the measure say they hope it will weaken voters' allegiance to political parties.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched its "Frontline" program on Tuesday, an effort to protect vulnerable incumbents going into 2014.

A new video from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee uses voter testimonials to rip House Republicans for their "Tea Party Sequester."

The video features voters expressing worry and frustration over sequestration, which began to take effect on March 1.

"Tea Party House Republicans refused to find solutions to sequestration -- preferring instead to protect tax breaks for Big Oil companies and cheer on the damage to our economy," said Emily Bittner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Voters are standing with Democrats and demanding this Tea Party Congress get back to work finding solutions with a balanced approach that cuts spending and ends tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected."

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) asked Jenny Sanford, his ex-wife, to run his campaign for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched Web ads targeting 20 Democrats by tying them to the sequestration cuts and spending the NRCC calls "wasteful."

The Club for Growth is targeting Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) with a letter in response to his push-back on being named as one of the group's targets for a primary challenge in 2014, with Club President Chris Chocola charging he's "pretending to be something" he's not.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has picked Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) to be its new finance chairman.

Himes replaces Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), who is planning to run for governor.

"The DCCC is in our best financial position in years, and Jim Himes is the right person to build on our terrific operation so that we can wage a strong battle to roll back the Tea Party Republican House," DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. "Over his career, Jim Himes has proven that he's deeply committed to strengthening the middle class — and he'll work relentlessly to elect more people to Congress who share our middle class values and defeat people who want to give more tax breaks to the well-connected."