In a departure from previous primary days this cycle, it's former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) who has the most on the line in Tuesday's Republican primaries in Florida.
Huckabee has endorsed in three competitive GOP primaries — he's backing Attorney General Bill McCollum in the primary for governor, Daniel Webster in the race for Rep. Alan Grayson's (D) seat and Karen Diebel in the primary to face Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D).
In the governor's race, three potential 2012 hopefuls are behind McCollum — Huckabee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The primary between McCollum and Rick Scott was in a dead heat heading into Tuesday.
But Huckabee is the only one who came to the state to rally for McCollum the weekend before the primary. He is also the only one who has waded into the most competitive congressional primaries in the state. Huckabee headlined a rally for congressional candidate Daniel Webster over the weekend.
For the former governor, the endorsements in competitive congressional primaries mark a change in his political activity from earlier in the season.
Along with a handful of endorsements in Florida, Huckabee offered last-minute backing to former Rep. Nathan Deal (R) in Georgia's gubernatorial runoff — Deal won — and released a new slate of endorsements in Iowa, the first state to hold a 2012 caucus.
Elsewhere in Florida, the Republican primary for attorney general pits two potential GOP presidential contenders in 2012 against one another.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is backing former state Rep. Holly Benson, while former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is behind Pam Bondi. Both Gingrich and Palin recorded robocalls for their endorsed candidates.
The congressional campaign of businessman Francisco Canseco (R) is touting new internal numbers it says have him leading Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas).
According to a poll for the campaign done by the firm On Message, Inc., Canseco leads 43 percent to 37 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
Canseco is on the National Republican Congressional Committee's list of "Young Guns," but Democrats have hammered him in recent weeks over hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liens on several of his properties.
Despite Republicans viewing the seat as a potential pick-up opportunity in the fall, Rodriguez is in a strong financial position ahead of November. The incumbent had more than $700,000 cash on had at the end of the second quarter.
Staten Island Republican Michael Grimm is using an endorsement from Rudy Giuliani in his latest TV ad. The former New York City mayor says Grimm "knows first-hand the destruction caused by terrorists."
The ad comes on the heels of a TV spot released Michael Allegretti, Grimm's rival for the nod to face Rep. Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.). Allegretti's spot focused on the economy, and featured several shots of downtrodden-looking residents staring forlornly at the camera.
New York's primary is Sept. 14. Grimm is considered the frontrunner, having been backed by Giuliani and other high-profile Republicans such as Sarah Palin and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
If Democrats are going to minimize their losses this fall, the party has to mobilize enough of last cycle's so-called "Obama coalition" — largely young, minority and first-time voters in 2008.
Those are all groups that are usually less likely to vote in midterm election years but will be key for Democrats in November.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is promising a robust get-out-the-vote effort this fall and is touting its start Monday with a Web video.
It features Democratic field organizers talking up their efforts in scenes from the districts of several endangered Dems in 2010, including Reps. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio) and Tom Perriello (D-Va.). Watch it here.
The committee has a series of house parties set for this week to drum up attention for Saturday's "National Day of Action." The goal is to knock on some 200,000 doors in what the committee says is the earliest it has ever started its GOTV efforts.
The DNC is also promising a $50 million effort in 2010, largely focused on field operations.
Democrats are using the controversy over years-old allegations leveled at Florida congressional candidate David Rivera to hit NRCC Chair Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Democrats in Florida and nationally are echoing allegations of domestic violence against Rivera, who is running in an open seat race in the state's 25th Congressional District, and claiming Rivera "ran a delivery truck off the road to prevent a rival candidate’s campaign literature from being mailed" back in 2002.
Rivera has been talked up as candidate by Sessions and Boehner, and he's a member of the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Young Guns" program, so the controversy now surrounding Rivera's campaign is unwelcome news for the committee.
“One day, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions promotes the candidacy and character of David Rivera, and the next, these explosive revelations come to light,” said DCCC spokesperson Jennifer Crider.
But Rivera and the NRCC are pushing back hard against the allegations, calling them outright lies. In a statement late Friday, Rivera said the charges were false and said it all stems from a case of mistaken identity.
“When I ran for the Florida state house in 2002, a last-minute campaign mailer was sent falsely accusing me of domestic violence. The mailer cited a 1994 case involving another individual also named David Rivera," the candidate said in a statement.
"In my 2010 campaign for Congress, some of my opponents have tried to use these same false allegations from 2002 to libel, slander and defame my character," Rivera continued. "While I find it offensive to even dignify these false allegations with any response at all, let me be clear: The 1994 case has absolutely nothing to do with me. I am not the David Rivera in that case and to suggest otherwise is a blatant and shameful lie. Campaigns should be based on issues, not false personal attacks.”
The story reemerged earlier in the week after a report from a local Florida TV station uncovered an eight-year-old police report of a traffic accident between Rivera and a truck that was carrying his opponent's campaign fliers.
Rivera was running for the legislature at the time, and the fliers detailed what Rivera maintains was a false domestic violence allegation against him.
New York Rep. Mike McMahon (D) angered union officials this spring by not voting for healthcare reform. One labor official went so far as to call him "Judas in Staten Island."
But that anger appeared to have dissipated as the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) announced Friday it's backing the freshman Democrat.
PEF, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, is the second-largest state-employee union in New York. It has some 1,300 members in the 13th district.
"Mike McMahon understands and respects the work that our members do on behalf of the public," PEF President Kenneth Brynien said in a statement. "By working to make sure that New York gets a fair share of Federal funds, Mike McMahon has helped to prevent the layoff of thousands of workers in our state. New York needs McMahon standing up for us in Congress."
McMahon said he was "honored" to have the endorsement.
With Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) digging in and preparing to fight 13 alleged House ethics violations, his leading Democratic rival is ramping up the rhetoric ahead of the September primary. State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV (D) said Thursdaythat if Rangel won't resign with dignity, "The community will take him out."
With leaders in Harlem and throughout New York City largely coalescing around Rangel, Powell has little choice but to up the pressure.
Despite the ethical cloud surrounding the 80-year-old congressman, most of the state's Democratic elite showed up at his public birthday bash last week.
Rangel's congressional district, which includes all of Harlem and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has backed Rangel overwhelmingly since he first won the seat by ousting Powell's father in 1970.
Powell is one of four Democrats challenging Rangel in the Sept. 14 primary.
Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) will highlight her work to reduce home foreclosures at an event Friday with a senior Treasury Department official.
Herb Allison, an assistant Treasury secretary, is headed to Las Vegas for a press conference with Titus on the government's efforts to reduce foreclosures and stabilize the housing market in southern Nevada. Allison oversees a $50 billion federal effort to help the housing market, which continues to suffer under mounting foreclosures.
Nevada has been hit particularly hard with the highest rate of foreclosures in the country, according to RealtyTrac. Titus has focused significant attention on the housing crisis, including a TV ad this weekthat portrays her as helping homeowners stay in their homes.
Titus's congressional district has the eighth highest rate in the country of mortgages that are seriously delinquent (at least 90 days late on payments), according to a Deutsche Bank analysis.
Republicans responded to the ad this week by arguing that Titus "recklessly" spends taxpayer money and that her policies have contributed to the housing crisis.
A new ad from the campaign of Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) takes a major shot at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Donnelly touts his opposition to cap-and-trade in the 30-second spot, with the ad's narrator deriding the proposal as "Nancy Pelosi's energy tax," and calling Donnelly "Indiana's most independent congressman."
It's one of the most overt attempts this cycle from any House Democrat to distance themselves from Pelosi.
Donnelly faces state Rep. Jackie Walorski (R) in the fall. Walorski won the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday and is on the National Republican Congressional Committee's list of "Young Guns."
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