The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will add to its $75 million in campaign expenditures with a nationwide online ad campaign.

The Democratic base is "unhappy," but the party won't repeat the mistakes that cost it control of the House in 1994, according to a top party strategist.

"We Democrats were asleep at the switch in 1994," strategist Harold Ickes said Thursday at a forum in Washington organized by the Democratic Governors Association. "We were complacent, we were smug, to put it bluntly, we were arrogant and I think out of touch, in many cases, with what was going on back in the district.

"That is not the case today," Ickes added. "We clearly have been on red alert for a long, long time."

Despite the party leadership being aware of the tough environment it faces, many in the grass roots seem ambivalent about the Democrats' fortunes in November. 

"Our base is unhappy, it's pissed off, I think unrightfully so," said Ickes, who was President Clinton's deputy chief of staff and advised Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. "I think in some sense they're fair weather on this issue. Politics is a long-term, tough business, and it's fine to be there when the tides are running with you, but you got to be there when the tides are running against you."

Ickes made a plea to party activists. 

"My exhortation to Democrats is the tides may be running against us, but you got to get out there and work. There are 55 days left, a lot of things can happen," he said.

The party also has to win over independent voters in order to be successful.

"We have got to be able to win enough independents to carry especially these marginal districts," Ickes said. "That goes for the governors, and it goes as well for the House and the Senate."

President Obama plans a series of fall rallies in key states for Democrats in advance of November's midterm elections.

A new poll out Thursday shows Republican Marco Rubio surging to a double-digit lead in the state's three-way Senate race.

The Sunshine News/Voter Survey Service poll found:

Marco Rubio (R)                                 43 percent
Gov. Charlie Crist (I)                         29 percent
Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.)           23 percent

The poll, conducted by Susquehanna Research, surveyed 1,016 likely voters and has a margin of error of 3 percent. 

The numbers show Rubio and Crist running even among independent voters. Rubio has 38 percent support among independents to 36 percent for Crist.

But among Democratic voters, it's Meek who leads with 45 percent of the vote to Crist's 35 percent. It's a slight improvement for Meek among Democrats, which could mean trouble for Crist down the road.  

Crist has doubled down on his efforts to woo Democratic voters and donors since the August 24 primary while Meek has worked to paint Crist as a conservative in the mold of Rubio.  

A CNN/Time poll out yesterday had Rubio and Crist in a dead heat, but it polled registered voters rather than likely voters. 

America's self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff," Arizona's Joe Arpaio, is headlining a GOP event in New Hampshire this weekend, prompting speculation that he may have interest in a presidential run in 2012. 

Arpaio, the controversial sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, has made waves for his hardline stance on illegal immigration. 

He is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice, which claims Arpaio has not cooperated with an investigation into whether his immigration policing policies have violated civil rights. 

An Arpaio political adviser told CNN that the sheriff is not heading to the Granite State to test the presidential waters, but added: "People just don't go to New Hampshire if they are not interested in these things." 

Endangered Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) said Wednesday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has "certainly offered a lot of support" for his reelection bid.

The freshman lawmaker, whose name sits near the top of the GOP's list of Democratic targets in 2010, told a local newspaper that the DCCC has been "supportive" but said it's not support his campaign is relying on to win.

Perriello's comments came in response to a report in The New York Times over the weekend that suggested his Virginia congressional district was one national-party strategists are likely to pull its resources from ahead of November.

DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) pushed back quickly against the story, releasing a statement refuting the assertion that the committee was pulling its resources from select campaigns.

“The DCCC has been supportive. The DCCC certainly offered a lot of support,” Perriello told the Martinsville Bulletin.

But the congressman said ultimately he isn't concerned about the level of support coming from the national party, emphasizing, "The party support is there, but we're not relying on it."

Perriello's district is also one where the DCCC reserved television time ahead of November, but the committee has yet to run any ads there.

Republicans are convinced that Perriello's seat is ripe for the taking given the congressman's votes in favor of healthcare reform and the stimulus. Perriello, who won his first term in 2008 by just 727 votes, faces state Sen. Robert Hurt (R) in November.

Tom Ridge spent much of 2009 publicly mulling a bid for Senate in Pennsylvania, but he opted not to run and on Thursday endorsed Republican Pat Toomey’s bid.

"As a member of Congress Pat consistently fought for taxpayers, and in today’s economic climate, that trait is more important than ever," the former governor said in a statement.

Toomey said he was "honored" to have the backing of Ridge, who also served as Homeland Security secretary.

The endorsement comes as a new report shows Toomey is one of the top recipients of campaign contributions from Wall Street and financial interests.

The industry's contributions, which favored Democrats in recent election cycles, are now helping Republicans vie for control of the Senate.



Between February and June, financial, insurance and real estate interests contributed heavily to five Senate Republican candidates, including Toomey, who received $728,000, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Bill Clinton is headlining a fundraiser for Georgia Senate candidate Mike Thurmond (D) Thursday in Atlanta.

Tickets to the evening event at the Sheraton range from $1,000 to $2,400. Thurmond advisers had previously told The Ballot Box that Clinton could be helpful in broadening the Democrat's appeal. He's currently trailing Sen. Johnny Isakson (R) in polls and money raised.

Thurmond's connections with Clinton go way back, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was a supporter of then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) 2008 presidential campaign, and worked with the Clinton White House in the 1990s on welfare reform.

The former president is also set for events in Cleveland and Columbus on Sept. 14 to help Gov. Ted Strickland (D). 

And Clinton will be the headliner at a rally and fundraiser for Ohio Senate candidate Lee Fisher (D) in Cincinnati on Sunday, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. 

--Updated at 10:25 a.m.

Illinois Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D) was planning to get some fundraising help from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Sunday. But the event has been rescheduled amid growing speculation Emanuel is planning to run for mayor of Chicago.

On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced he won't run for a seventh term. Speculation about Emanuel's plans has raged since he admitted he wants to return home and run for mayor of Chicago some time in the near future.

"I hope Mayor Daley seeks reelection. I will work and support him if he seeks reelection," the White House chief of staff told PBS's Charlie Rose in an interview in April. "But if Mayor Daley doesn't, one day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago."

White House senior adviser David Axelrod on Wednesday said Emanuel would make a decision soon.


In the meantime, the former congressman hasn't abandoned his commitment to helping Democrats this fall. The event for Halvorson, who is facing a competitive race against Republican Adam Kinzinger, has been rescheduled for Sept. 26, according to NBC Chicago's Ward Room.