Other races

TOP STORY: Courting Hispanics

A double whammy of news on Monday underscored the importance Hispanic voters will play in November.

First off, the big news of the day: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he’s shelving his version of the DREAM Act on immigration policy until after the election.

“People are going to say to me, ‘Why are we going to need to do anything on this now. It has been dealt with. We can wait until after the election,’” Rubio told The Wall Street Journal. “And it is going to be hard to argue against that.”

And, secondly, a new poll of five critical swing states found that President Obama’s support among Hispanic voters has soared since Friday’s change in deportation policy.

In Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia, 49 percent of Hispanic voters said the policy made them more enthusiastic about Obama, compared to 14 percent who were less enthusiastic, according to a Latino Decisions-America’s Voice poll conducted over the weekend.

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TOP STORY: Dueling candidates

President Obama and Mitt Romney were both in the critical swing state of Ohio on Tuesday in their first dueling addresses of the 2012 campaign cycle.

Their events were timed so closely that Romney stopped speaking only minutes before Obama began talking.

The president addressed a crowd of 1,500 people at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland and Romney spoke at the other end of the state, in Cincinnati.

Obama sought to shift his argument from whether the economy needs to be fixed to how to fix it, and told voters it was up to them to break what he called the “stalemate” in Washington.

Romney, speaking at a Cincinnati factory, accused the president of delivering his speech on the economy “because he hasn’t been able to deliver a recovery on the economy.”

TOP STORY: The Maine event

How long can the head of campaign committee go without backing her party’s nominee? 

For Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), it could be a while.

She told The Hill she feels good about Democrats’ prospects in Maine, but wouldn't say which candidate she's backing in the race to replace retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe.
 
"We're talking to a lot of people on the ground in Maine,” Murray said. “Mitch McConnell's already said that he has written Maine off, so I feel very good about it.”

Asked whether she felt good about the independent candidate or the newly minted Democratic nominee, Cynthia Dill, Murray declined to specify.
 
"About our prospects in Maine,” she said. “I'm just going to leave it at that."
 
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TOP STORY: Voters voting

There are a lot of congressional primaries Tuesday night, but the results in Arizona’s special House election — i.e., the race to replace former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — will be dominating the news Wednesday.

Other states voting include Arkansas, Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia.

In one of the other biggest races of the evening, the candidate getting the most attention isn’t on Tuesday’s ballot.

Former Gov. Angus King is running as an independent in Maine’s Senate race; he won’t be on the ballot, but the primaries will decide his Republican and Democratic competition. With speculation centering on King joining the Democratic Caucus if he’s elected, we’ll be watching to see what Democrats do once they have a nominee.

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TOP STORY: The race for Gabby’s seat

It’s not often a special election becomes the focus of national attention, but not every House race is for a seat held by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

The three-term lawmaker became a national figure with the January 2011 shootings in Tucson, Ariz., and both parties are pushing hard to win her seat on Tuesday.

A new poll showed Democratic nominee Ron Barber with a double-digit lead over Republican Jesse Kelly one day out from the special election. Barber had 53 percent to Kelly's 41 in a survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

Both sides tried to downplay the numbers — Democrats didn’t want to set expectations too high and Republicans didn’t want their voters to stay home. And most expect a close race.

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Herman Cain said Friday he remains committed to helping Republicans regain control of the White House and Congress during a typically impassioned speech Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Chicago.

"Even though I'm no longer seeking the position, I'm still on the mission to keep control of the House, take back the Senate, and get Barack Obama out of the White House," Cain said.

The former rival of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said that he fully supports the GOP candidate, and told conservatives "the only thing that can stop us in November is us."

Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly hosted a reception in D.C. to thank supporters; Kelly said PAC was possible.

TOP STORY: Follow the Money

It’s called the mother’s milk of politics for a reason: no campaign can run without it.

And, when it comes to money, Mitt Romney outraised President Obama in May, which was seen as the latest in a series of troubling signs for the president.

Romney and the Republican National Committee raised $76.8 million last month, they announced Thursday, while Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised $60 million.

Of course there were arguments from the Dems that May was the first month of the Romney/RNC joint effort — and we’ll be eagerly awaiting the June numbers — but what it doesn’t change is the growing number of stories that Dems are worried Obama could be more vulnerable than thought.

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Scott Walker (R-Wis.) is one of the GOP's "bright, shining stars," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told The Hill.

TOP STORY: Total recall

Gov. Scott Walker's (R-Wis.) triumph in Tuesday’s recall election made him the talk of the political world on Wednesday.

The victory has cemented him among the GOP's "bright, shining stars" and put him in line for a primetime speaking slot at the national convention in August, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said.

"He's got a pretty good advocate here at the RNC," Priebus told The Hill.

Priebus, who was born in Wisconsin and formerly ran the state GOP there, called Walker a close friend and suggested he would be exactly the kind of person the party seeks to highlight at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

Democrats were regrouping after the loss as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) slammed unions and liberal activists for pushing to recall Walker.

"I think the people on the Democratic side made a big mistake and the funding thing was a big deal," Frank told The Hill, alluding to Republicans' big cash advantage in the race. "My side picked a fight they shouldn't have picked. The recall was upsetting to people, the rerun of the election with [Democratic Milwaukee Mayor] Tom Barrett — it's not a fight I would have picked."

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