That Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) and Democrat Suzan DelBene would garner the most votes Tuesday was all but assured.
Reichert led the way with 48 percent of the vote. DelBene had 27 percent Tuesday with 48 percent of precincts reporting. The two will advance to November's general election.
The state votes under a new primary system this year — the top two-vote getters advance to November, no matter their party. That has translated the Reichert-DelBene battle into seeing who can get the most votes Tuesday, with both campaigns hoping to use it to claim momentum heading into the fall.
The contest between Reichert and DelBene is expected to be a close one this fall, with the two already raising more than $3 million between them. DelBene, a former Microsoft executive, has committed more than $600,000 of her money to the race.
The centrist Reichert survived tough challenges in both 2006 and 2008 and is partly banking on dissatisfaction with Democrats to help him survive the anti-incumbent mood.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has awarded West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall's (D) challenger "contender" status despite him trailing by double digits in some polls.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Spike Maynard (R) was elevated to the second stage of the committee's "Young Guns" candidate training program Tuesday. "Spike Maynard has met a series of rigorous fundraising and campaign goals that will go a long way in helping to put this seat in the Republican column," Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas), chairman of the NRCC, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Rahall has a solid lead over Maynard in a recent poll conducted for the conservative advocacy group American Action Forum. The July 28 - Aug. 1 survey of 400 general election voters found that 53 supported Rahall while 37 percent backed Maynard. The 17-term congressman also has almost 100 percent name recognition, compared to 72 percent for Maynard.
The congressman was ahead in an internal poll released by the Maynard camp in June. That survey, by the Charleston-based firm MBE, had 42 percent backing Rahall, 36 for Maynard and 16 percent undecided.
Rep. Dina Titus's (D-Nev.) focus on home foreclosures in her first TV ad should come as little surprise in light of a new report that ranks her district as one of the hardest-hit by the mortgage crisis.
A Deutsche Bank analysis notesthat 26 percent of home loans in the freshman Democrat's district are seriously delinquent (90 days or longer). Titus's Nevada district has the eighth-highest delinquency rate in the country.
"Dina helped us renegotiate our loan," says one woman in the 30-second ad, which starts airing Tuesday. "And she saved our home," says another. "Thank you, Dina, for helping us keep our home," says one man.
There are two other states where foreclosures may be a major issue. Florida and California are home to the other districts in the top 25 in Deutsche Bank's ranking of those with the highest mortgage delinquency rates.
Meanwhile, Republicans accused Titus of spending "taxpayer dollars recklessly."
"Southern Nevada can no longer afford Dina Titus because under her policies Nevada's foreclosures and unemployment rate are the highest in the nation," Joanna Burgos, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.
Colorado Rep. Betsy Markey wasn't in Congress when the House voted on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act in October 2008. But to hear the freshman Democrat tell it, the passage of the bill, which 172 members of her party voted for, really "offend[s]" her.
"Maybe it's my 20 years as a small-business owner, but these Wall Street bailouts really offend me," she says in her first TV ad of the campaign. "No one ever gave me a bailout."
"Bailout is just another word for cop-out," she adds. "And here in Colorado, that's not how we do business."
The ad is set to start airing Tuesday.
Markey faces a tough reelection race against Republican Cory Gardner, a top prospect of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
She is just the latest Democrat to take aim at the financial industry bailout. In Missouri, Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan used her first TV ad to attack Republican Roy Blunt for helping pass the bill, which got 91 Republican votes in the House.
Republicans said Markey's ad was "full of hot air and half-truths."
"Contrary to the lip service in her ad, Markey has actually advanced Washington's bailout culture throughout her term, bailing out the auto industry and leaving our children and grandchildren with trillions in debt," Joanna Burgos, an NRCC spokeswoman, said in a statement.
A top House Democrat sought to rally supporters to join "Team Pelosi" in a fundraising pitch on Monday.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a Democratic National Committee vice chairwoman and head of incumbent retention efforts for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), sought to rally the party's base around the Speaker, a figure from which some Democratic candidates have run on the campaign trail.
"Let's show the Tea Party crowd that they're no match for our grassroots strength," Wasserman Schultz wrote in a message to DCCC supporters. "Stand with us against the Right's despicable attacks and their fat cat fundraising by joining Team Pelosi — an elite group of grassroots Democrats who are leading the fight against radical Republican candidates in races nationwide."
The rally around Pelosi comes as a debate is emerging within the Democratic Party over whether leaders like Pelosi — and even President Obama — are an asset or a liability to rank-and-file incumbents and candidates in this fall's elections.
Democrats like Rep. Joe Donnelly (Ind.) are distancing themselves from the Speaker, while Republican candidates, like Mick Mulvaney in South Carolina, seem to believe that linking their Democratic opponents to Pelosi is good electoral strategy.
Wasserman Schultz wrote to Democrats on Monday to rebut the "Fire Pelosi" campaign that the GOP, including the Republican National Committee, has waged in recent weeks. The campaign looks to make Pelosi the central figure of the midterm election fight, with Republicans believing that the Speaker's low popularity numbers will weigh down Democrats running for office.
The Florida Democrat said she wanted to gather 10,000 members for "Team Pelosi," a grassroots effort she said would be privy to the "inside scoop on what's happening in our campaign to strengthen and secure our House Majority."
Members of Team Pelosi, Wasserman Schultz said, would serve as the party's "eyes and ears" in its rapid response efforts, and would be invited to exclusive briefings by party leaders.
"The Republican leadership's only promise is to bring back the failed policies of George W. Bush. And, if they manage to gain control of Congress this November, you can be sure that's one promise they'll try to keep," she said. "We can make sure that doesn't happen. Together we can move America forward and finish the job we began with President Obama and Speaker Pelosi."
A South Carolina Republican congressional candidate wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday to invite her to his district.
State Sen. Mick Mulvaney, a Republican challenging Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) this fall, wrote the speaker to invite her to South Carolina's 5th Congressional District to talk healthcare reform.
Mulvaney's campaign released a letter noting Pelosi's willingness to campaign for Democrats, and said it was an opportunity to come to South Carolina.
"Therefore, I invite you to come to the 5th District of South Carolina," he said, in a letter provided to the Charleston Post and Courier. "As you know, it is the home of your Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt."
The letter is no doubt a stunt on behalf of Mulvaney, since Pelosi is unlikely to travel to the district — at least at the Republican's request. It reflects, though, a sense among Republican candidates that the Speaker is a liability for endangered incumbent Democrats, some of whom have been debating whether or not to appear with Pelosi or even more senior party leaders like President Obama.
Mulvaney's letter needles Spratt, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, by looking to link him to Pelosi on a number of policy items, especially ones unpopular in their relatively more conservative district.
"Many of us in South Carolina remember his impassioned introduction of you on the night of the final vote of that historically bad bill," he said. "Certainly, by any measure, he has earned your support in this election."
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) has the backing of the Washington Post’s editorial board to emerge from her four-way primary.
"She is a champion of labor unions, a skeptic on free trade and a doubter when it comes to projecting American force overseas," the board wrote Monday. "We may not always agree with her, but we admire the energy, hard work and intelligence that informs her work as a legislator. She deserves another term in Congress."
The board's editorial praised Edwards as an "unapologetic liberal of the old school."
The winner of the Sept. 14 primary is expected to hold the heavily-Democratic district.
Edwards famously defeated eight-term Rep. Al Wynn (D-Md.) in a primary in 2008.
Edwards wasn't in serious danger of losing her primary this cycle, but the paper's backing may help her to a comfortable win. In 2009, the Post's endorsement helped Virginia Democrat Creigh Deeds clinch his party's gubernatorial nomination. He touted the backing in a memorable TV ad before the vote.
An investigation has been launched into why an envelope of white powder was sent to the office of Rep. Tom Perriello's (D-Va.) Republican opponent.
State Sen. Robert Hurt (R) received a suspicious envelope at his Chatham office Friday. When he opened it, he saw the powder, according to Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor. The Postal Service is now examining the incident.
Investigators are testing samples and should know the results early next week, Taylor said. "It is a criminal offense to mail a suspicious material, even if it is nontoxic."
Hurt’s camp issued a statement saying his main concern is "his staff and the workers who may have handled this mail at the post office."
Perriello, a freshman, is a top Republican target. His district has already been the scene of political mischief this cycle.
During the lead up to the final healthcare vote in March, a Tea Party member posted Perriello's brother's Charlottesville address online, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the following day at the house a gas line to an outdoor grill was cut. Police called it "a deliberate act of vandalism."
Arizona House candidate Ben Quayle (R) accused the media of focusing on his recent foibles because of his famous last name.
The son of former Vice President Dan Quayle has admitted he wrote for a racy website called DirtyScottsdale.com but denied he had a column under the byline "Brock Landers."
Quayle said he was used to "being made fun of" because of his name.
"Having the last name of Quayle, we're used to being made fun of and [having] some parody and having things that aren't true being said about you," he told CNN's John King on Friday. "So, you know, it stings but you know that's the way that politics goes nowadays."
King read Quayle a quotation from Republican rival, Pam Gorman, who said "there's 10 people in this race, there's nine of us that may not agree on anything. But we all agree that it's completely offensive that Dan Quayle is trying to buy his little boy a seat in Congress."
Quayle and Gorman are two of the 10 Republicans vying to succeed retiring Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.).
King asked him to respond.
"That's what I've been dealing with since day one on this campaign," Quayle said.
"They know that they can't attack me on the issues because I'm — I have a much better future — vision for the future of our country. … [T[hey just attack me on that sort of things that doesn't make any sense. So she can say what she wants, but in the end, we will take the nomination and move on to the general election."
Quayle also reaffirmed his belief that Obama is the "worst president in history."
"It seems like right now he's starting to destroy the American dream," he told King.
A top Republican congressional candidate dodged earlier this week on whether or not he'd support John Boehner (Ohio) as House GOP leader.
Bill Flores, the Republican running against Rep. Chet Edwards (D) this fall in Texas's 17th congressional district, would not commit to supporting Boehner as the party's leader in the House.
"I would rather not answer that question," Flores said when asked if he'd support Boehner, according to audio of a meeting with voters obtained by The Hill. "I just would rather not answer that question, if you don't mind."
Flores campaign manager Matt Mackowiak responded on Friday: "All this audio shows is that Bill Flores is focused on winning the congressional race in front of him and that Edwards's campaign is so afraid and desperate that they are smuggling in recording devices to Flores's town hall meetings. Here's one thing we know for certain: Chet Edwards will vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker of the House, and that will continue their reign of financial destruction our country is seeing under the Edwards/Pelosi leadership. Bill Flores will never vote Nancy Pelosi for Speaker."
Flores said during the meeting that he didn't want to talk about leaders, emphasizing he was focused on winning his race before focusing on whom the party's leaders should be.
The 17th district is home to one of the most competitive congressional races this fall, the kind of race Republicans need to win if they want a shot at winning back control of the House this fall.
Edwards is a veteran Democrat who holds the seat despite its strong Republican tendencies. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as a "toss-up" ahead of November's elections.
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