The Susan B. Anthony List is launching a wide-scale direct-mail campaign targeting Democrats in 42 competitive congressional districts ahead of Election Day.
The effort begins this week and is aimed at motivating pro-life voters to get to the polls on Election Day. The group says it will reach more than 2.3 million voters.
The mailers hit Democrats who voted in favor of the healthcare law, claiming a vote for healthcare was a vote in support of "taxpayer-funded abortion."
“Poll after poll shows that Americans do not want their tax dollars funding abortions, yet the Obama administration and its allies in Congress have expanded taxpayer funding of abortion both here and abroad in unprecedented ways,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement announcing the effort. “These representatives can’t hide from their positions, though many of them are trying to.”
The targets include Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz.), Debbie Halvorson (Ill.), Phil Hare (Ill.), Mark Schauer (Mich.) and John Spratt (S.C.). The group has already run TV and radio ads targeting vulnerable Democrats this fall.
Facing one of his most difficult reelection battles in years, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) loaned his campaign $200,000 this week, according to media outlets.
The Boston Herald reported that campaign finance documents show he raised $316,000 and had more than $1 million cash on hand. Frank's Republican opponent Sean Bielat, a former Marine, has $364,000 left to spend.
Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come under fire from Bielat for heading the committee during the 2008 financial collapse. Republicans have long made Frank a target, arguing he failed to crack down on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's home lending policies.
His loan is a sign that he is taking Bielat's campaign seriously amid a Republican wave some predict could cost Democrats their majorities in Congress.
National Republicans have invested in the race and Bielat, a member of the GOP's "Young Gun" program, outraised Frank in September, $379,000 to $317,000.
The 15-term congressman, however, still has a 3-to-1 advantage over Bielat in cash on hand.
A Pennsylvania Democratic House candidate on Tuesday admitted to helping a third candidate get on the ballot in the hopes he would siphon votes away from his Republican opponent.
Bryan Lentz, the Democratic nominee running for the seat being vacated by Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), said he knew that volunteers from his campaign helped Tea Party candidate Jim Schneller.
"If somebody's already made the decision to run, I didn't think that 'helping' with the process of signature petitions was improper," Lentz told told the Delaware County Daily Times editorial board in an interview.
Republicans have accused Democrats of helping set up Tea Party candidates as spoilers in several House and Senate races around the country. Democrats face a tough political environment this fall, when they are trying to maintain their congressional majorities against a GOP wave spurred in part by Tea Party groups.
Lentz said he could not remember when he learned of his volunteers' work on behalf of Schneller, but he said, "I didn't think it was a bad thing for the process or for my candidacy."
Republican nominee Pat Meehan and Lentz are locked in a tight race; The Hill's 2010 Midterm Election Poll last week showed that Meehan is narrowly leading Lentz, 40 percent to 39.
Meehan's campaign responded to Lentz's claim in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"It's about time Bryan Lentz would admit what the media has been reporting on for months," said Meehan campaign manager Bryan Kendro. "Despite his efforts to fool voters about his role in supporting Schneller's candidacy, he was forced to come clean, and he should apologize for not being forthright."
Lentz stressed, however, that his campaign's activities on behalf of Schneller, who has filed a lawsuit questioning President Obama's citizenship, began after the Tea Partier began his campaign.
"I did not encourage him to run for office," he said. "He made that decision on his own."
On the heels of having to deny he's associated with the Outlaws motorcycle gang, Florida Republican Allen West had a Democratic tracker ejected from a campaign event by a group of men wearing motorcycle gear.
"Man, I don't want you here ... because this is a place of honor and the organization that you represent has no honor, so please leave," West is heard saying in the video captured by a tracker for the Florida Democratic Party.
"Do you really want to do this?" the young staffer asks as several men surround him.
The group then forces the tracker back to his car.
"Somebody going to hurt him, you're going to get hurt, guy," one man says to the tracker during the incident.
The West campaign told NBC Miami he was at an event to "honor American veterans" and the young man "was asked to leave."
West is challenging Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.). This is the video the Florida Democrats released:
Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) was charged Monday with making an unsafe lane change after he was involved in an auto collision late last week.
Virginia state police say that the congressman's pickup truck hit a sport utility vehicle while he attempted to change lanes Friday night in the southern part of the state, according to The Associated Press.
The AP reported that Perriello was not hurt, but that a passenger in the SUV experienced minor injuries. Perriello spokeswoman Jessica Barba said that the charge was "not a serious infraction" and that the SUV was in the congressman's blind spot.
Barba also said that she believes the passenger was taken to the hospital for precautionary measures and was unsure if the passenger was actually injured.
The freshman congressman, who represents the state's traditionally Republican 5th district, faces a tough reelection battle in November against GOP state Sen. Robert Hurt.
The Hill's 2010 Midterm Election Poll showed Perriello trailing Hurt by a single point, 44 percent to 45, with 9 percent undecided.
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