House races

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.

Catch the audio below:

Republican Michael Grimm is still hammering Rep. Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.) over a list of Jewish donors to Grimm that a former McMahon campaign aide forwarded to a reporter.

Grimm, one of McMahon's potential GOP challengers, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over the list last week and now wants the House ethics committee to look into whether the list was compiled using government resources. 

Grimm faces a September primary against Republican Michael Allegretti. 

Last month, campaign spokesman Jennifer Nelson was fired by McMahon after sending the New York Observer a spreadsheet labeled "Jewish money Q2." Nelson said it was intended to demonstrate Grimm's lack of financial support in the district.

More from the Staten Island Advance:

Grimm noted U.S. House of Representative rules forbid official resources, such as House offices, to be used for campaign or political purposes.

Former McMahon campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson has been quoted as saying a list of "Jewish money" Grimm donors was compiled after a discussion with McMahon's Washington staff in his House office.

Grimm served up a letter to the House Office of Congressional Ethics penned by one of his campaign supporters calling for an investigation into the possible use of McMahon's government resources for political purposes.

The McMahon campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Grimm previously raised the ire of New York Democrats when he said in an interview with The Hill that had McMahon voted in favor of healthcare reform, he likely would have been in physical danger. 

New numbers show an electoral landscape that mirrors that of 1994 when Republicans took back control of Congress.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) wouldn't talk about his attendance at Wednesday night's fundraiser for Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Schumer was chatty with Senate reporters after Thursday morning's brief special Senate session to pass a border security bill.

But he clammed up when asked about the Rangel event.

The senator was one of several politicians at Rangel's 80th birthday party at the Plaza Hotel, which doubled as a fundraiser. Among others spotted were fellow New Yorkers Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D), Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who's running for governor, and Gov. David Paterson (D).

Asked why he attended, Schumer was curt.

"I've said everything I'm going to say about that last night," he told reporters in a hallway outside the Senate chamber.

Rangel faces 13 charges of ethics violations from the House ethics committee and goes on trial in September. He gave a fiery speech this week on the House floor in which he maintained his innocence and refused to resign.

Mississippi Rep. Travis Childers (D) is up with his first TV ad, which seeks to put as much distance as possible between him and his party.

The 60-second spot, which is airing district-wide, mentions how Childers is one of the "most independent" House members and claims he's kept all his 2008 campaign promises. "I'm Travis Childers, I've done what I said I would do," the freshman says in the ad. 

Childers won the seat in 2008 after the GOP became entangled in an intraparty feud. It's going to be difficult for him to hang onto the conservative-leaning district in what is a tough environment for Democrats this cycle.

Perhaps with that in mind, Childers voted against such Democratic legislative priorities as healthcare reform and the cap-and-trade bill. He did, however, vote for the stimulus bill, but makes no mention of that in the ad.

The ad also repeats three times that he's "pro-life and pro-gun" and mentions his endorsements from National Right To Life and the National Rifle Association.

Republicans demanded Childers apologize for the ad.

"Travis Childers' ad insults struggling Mississippians and distorts the truth," Andy Seré, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement. "The fact is that Childers broke his promise to create jobs, and his vote for Obama’s trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ only made things worse."

Childers faces state Sen. Alan Nunnelee (R) in November. 

--Updated at 3:26 p.m.

Rep. Charles Rangel was in a partying mood at his fundraiser despite his fight with the House ethics panel. 

"He's from a generation that has grown up kind of objectifying women," says one of his primary opponents.

Arizona House candidate Ben Quayle (R) released a controversial TV ad less than 24 hours after being linked to a racy website.

Quayle calls President Obama “the worst president in history” in a 30-second spot released Wednesday. “Somebody has to go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place.” 

Quayle, who is running for retiring Rep. John Shadegg’s (R-Ariz.) seat, spent Tuesday clarifying his involvement with the creation of dirtyscottsdale.com, which later became thedirty.com.

"We used to party in the club scene together," site creator Nik Richie (whose real name is Hooman Karamian), told KTVK 3TV. "And go out to the bars and try to chase chicks."

Richie said Quayle wrote a column, "Brock's Chick," for the site under the pseudonym, "Brock Landers."

"He was a great writer, he had a great skill and I sent him on a mission to find the hottest chick in Scottsdale, and he succeeded," Richie said.

Quayle has emphasized family values in his campaign — even posing with two young nieces seemingly as his own daughters. 

Quayle denied he wrote a column for the site. "I'm not Brock Landers," he said.

"This is a complete smear campaign," the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle told the Phoenix Fox affiliate. "Done by a smear website and pushed by some of my opponents who have been smearing me since the beginning of this campaign. I'm sick of it, I want to talk about the issues."

He declined to mention which candidates in the crowded GOP field he thought were behind the story.

Quayle said he didn't "co-found" or "create" the website and a spokesman for his campaign told The Ballot Box he didn't invest any money in it.

But he did write for the site, although he claimed then there wasn't the "racy" content it now boasts. "I did make a couple of comments on the site, to try to help drive some traffic," he said.

He said he was friends with founder Richie's ex-wife. "He told me he was starting a website and asked if I could refer him to an attorney to try and get things going so I said sure," said Quayle, who's an attorney. "So that's the extent of it."

Quayle's new TV ad might shift some of the focus away from his involvement with the site. It's airing across the 3rd district on cable and broadcast, according to a campaign spokesman, who noted the release was pre-planned and had nothing to do with the news about thedirty.com.

It will be "running for a while," the spokesman said. The primary vote is Aug. 24 — early voting started July 29 and runs through Election Day. 

—Updated at 2:59 p.m.

Several Democrats and a few Republicans who face tough reelection campaigns voted for the $26 billion aid legislation.

The former chief of staff to retiring Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) won the GOP primary runoff Tuesday, securing 55 percent of the vote.

Rob Woodall was declared the winner of the 7th district runoff by the Associated Press. He faced radio host Jody Hice, who come in second in the July primary. 

Hice, a former minister, stirred controversy during the race with a billboard campaign referencing President Obama. The billboards asked, "Had enough of Obama's change?" The “c” in the word change was replaced with a hammer and sickle. 

Linder officially endorsed Woodall in April. 

Support of the Fair Tax turned out to be a major issue in the primary, even though every one of the Republicans running voiced support for it. The candidates squabbled over who was the strongest backer of the tax proposal, which is based on consumption rather than income.

Linder co-authored a book on the Fair Tax with conservative radio host Neal Boortz.  

Woodall is expected to retain the seat in November.

--Shane D'Aprile contributed to this post.