House races

Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) easily won his primary in a race his opponent tried to make about healthcare reform.

Even though Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) became the second House Democrat to call for Rep. Charles Rangel's (D-N.Y.) ouster Tuesday, he said he is confident the embattled congressman won't be a campaign problem for Democrats in the fall. 

Asked whether Rangel could be a distraction for House Democrats on the campaign trail, Minnick told The Hill, "I don't think so."

"In my state, most people don't even know who Congressman Rangel is," he added. 

Minnick represents a largely conservative district and is a top Republican target this fall. 

The freshman Democrat said while he still thinks Rangel should step down "if the facts are as alleged," he said government spending and fiscal responsibility are more important issues for voters in his district. 

On Friday, Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) became the first House Democrat to call for Rangel to resign his seat.

Republicans are working to tie congressional Democrats to Rangel in light of the ethics charges, and the congressman's woes are likely to be a major part of the GOP's message this fall.  

Going into Tuesday’s Oklahoma primary vote, former state Rep. Kevin Calvey led the field of Republicans jockeying to replace Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.), who is leaving her Oklahoma City seat after two terms to run for governor.

Calvey, who ran for the GOP House nod in 2006, led in the SoonerPoll’s most recent survey with 27.8 percent support. Youth camp director James Lankford (R) was in second place with 19.9 percent, while state Rep. Mike Thompson (R), who has spent the most money of the top three candidates, was in third with support from 14.1 percent of respondents.

The July 7-9 phone survey of 309 likely GOP primary voters has a margin of error of 5.6 percent.

Calvey, who led the first SoonerPoll of the race in March, is expected to take the top spot in the race, but will likely face a runoff against either Lankford or Thompson. There are seven Republicans running for the nomination.

The race has primarily been a contest over which candidate is the most conservative. Oklahoma’s 5th district went for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 presidential election by almost 20 points. 

Democrats Billy Coyle and Tom Guild are competing for their party’s nomination. 

The polls close at 8 p.m.

Former state Sen. Pamela Gorman (R) continues to draw attention in the crowded primary field vying to replace retiring Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.).

On Tuesday she announced the endorsement of former ambassador Alan Keyes (R).

"I believe there is one candidate in the Republican primary for Congress in [the 3rd] district who can truly help lead the effort to save America, if you will empower her to do so. That candidate is Pamela Gorman," Keyes said in a statement.

Getting Keyes's endorsement is not Gorman's first unconventional move. She released a Web video in June that featured scenes of her blasting the desert with what appeared to be a Tommy gun, then a pistol and later an M-16 assault riffle.

Keyes famously lost to President Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate election. He ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination but failed to win a single primary. He subsequently left the GOP to run for president as the nominee for the America's Independent Party. It's unclear how much appeal he has to the GOP electorate in Arizona.

Rep. Walt Minnick (Idaho), a vulnerable Democrat in a conservative congressional district, called on Rangel to resign.

Liberal Democrats battling the party hierarchy have met with limited success this primary season.

Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.) said Monday that she will donate to charity $14,000 in contributions she received from beleaguered Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.). 

Dahlkemper, who ignored a GOP call earlier this spring to return the money, is now the second House Democrat to announce she will give up the cash since news broke that the House Ethics Committee is charging Rangel with multiple violations. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee has called on dozens of Democratic members to return or donate money they received from Rangel and his leadership PAC.  

And the NRCC kept up the heat Monday afternoon, blasting out another set of releases targeting Democrats in 46 districts who have received money from Rangel, labeling each target “a typical Washington politician who is happy to fill [their] campaign account with dirty money while refusing to hold [their] party accountable for their tarnished record.”

Late Friday, Indiana Senate candidate and Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D) announced that he would donate to charity the $12,000 he received from Rangel.

Idaho state Rep. Raul Labrador (R) said Monday that he wasn’t included on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s latest list of “Young Guns” because he opted out of the program earlier in the year.

Labrador, who defeated the NRCC’s favored candidate Vaughn Ward in a May primary, is challenging freshman Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) in November.    

Last week the NRCC added another 33 candidates to the lower levels of its Young Guns program, but Labrador wasn’t among them. That drew the attention of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which suggested the omission meant the district is falling off the NRCC’s radar. Minnick holds one of the most conservative districts in the country.

According to the Idaho Reporter, Labrador now says he didn’t want to be a part of the candidate program, but didn’t offer a specific reason.  

“I’ve still met with them and still met their financial goals,” Labrador told the paper. 

Labrador also missed out an earlier round of Young Gun promotions in June.

He has reportedly had a tense relationship with the committee. He campaigned vigorously against Ward, railing against him as a Washington establishment candidate. And Labrador was stood up by NRCC officials when he came to Washington in December, according to the Idaho Statesman.

Rep. Michael McMahon (D-N.Y.) would have been in physical danger had he voted for the healthcare reform bill, according to Michael Grimm, one of the freshman Democrat's potential Republican challengers.

"Had he voted for the healthcare bill, Staten Island and Brooklyn, they would really have been marching like they were going for Frankenstein," Grimm, a former FBI agent, told The Ballot Box. "There was no question. That was just not even an option. Physically he would have been in danger. It would have been that bad."

McMahon said Grimm's comments were in "very poor taste."

"With respect to Mr. Grimm's accusations about my constituents threatening physical danger, I think it's in very poor taste for a candidate to paint the people he wants to represent so crudely," he said in a statement.

McMahon was under pressure to support the Democrats' healthcare reform bill in March but ultimately cast a vote against the legislation.

"The fact that it was a very quiet 'no,' the conservatives and the Republicans know he kind of got a pass," Grimm said.

He noted that McMahon has since opposed repealing the healthcare legislation.

"He's on both sides," Grimm said. "That's going to be a big problem. My district has a tremendous amount of seniors; they are very nervous. We don't have a public hospital, so healthcare is a huge issue in my district, a huge issue."

In response, McMahon cited his repeated opposition to the bill.

"Mr. Grimm must have trouble understanding the legislative process because I voted against the bill not once, but twice despite calls from colleagues and organizations on the left to vote in favor of it," McMahon said.

Meanwhile on Monday, Grimm was boosted by the endorsement from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

New York's 13th District, which was formerly held by retired Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), went for McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

"Michael served as a Marine in combat for our country, continued his service for 11 more years as a Special Agent in the FBI, and then went on to become a small-business owner," McCain said in a statement. "Michael Grimm is an extraordinary candidate, and I am proud to endorse him for New York’s 13th Congressional District."

Grimm faces businessman Michael Allegretti (R) in the Sept. 14 primary.

In a fundraising e-mail penned for the political action committee EMILY’s List, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) warns that Republicans are “raising money at an alarming rate” for this fall’s elections.

The e-mail is part of the group’s push to get donations in the door before the end of the month to meet its July fundraising goal. 

“The GOP is targeting seats across the nation, leaving nothing off the table,” Mikulski wrote in the e-mail to EMILY’s List supporters. “They’re raising money at an alarming rate. They have more than $200 million pledged from right-wing groups who would profit from Republican wins.” 

EMILY’s List has propped up several Democratic House challengers this cycle, lending fundraising help to Julie Lassa, who is running to succeed retiring Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), and Tarryl Clark, who is challenging Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).