After a summer that saw him outspent by millions, Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) leads self-funder Jeff Greene (D) by double digits in two new polls ahead of Tuesday's Democratic Senate primary.  

Still, the final numbers out ahead of Election Day underscore the volatility that has characterized the state's Democratic Primary. 

According to new numbers from Public Policy, Meek holds a commanding 24-point lead. The congressman leads Greene 51 percent to 27 percent, with 13 percent undecided. 

But the final Quinnipiac poll gives Meek just a 10-point edge. In that poll he leads Greene 39 percent to 29 percent, with 28 percent unsure. 

In the Public Policy poll, African-American voters make up 25 percent of the sample, helping Meek to a more solid lead. He earns 70 percent support among African-Americans, but also leads by 10 points with white voters: 47-37.

Still, pollster Tom Jensen warns that should Meek defeat Greene on Tuesday, his real problem with Democrats is just beginning. More Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of Gov. Charlie Crist (I), who is waging an independent Senate bid, than Meek. 

Crist's approval among Democrats in the state is at 57 percent, while Meek's stands at 50 percent.

A new poll in Washington state shows Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) trailing Republican Dino Rossi, which might explain the tone of her first TV ad of the general election. 

A SurveyUSA/KING-5 TV poll conducted Aug. 18-19 shows Rossi ahead of Murray 52 percent to 45 percent. And notably, Rossi leads among independents 59 to 35 percent.

The last SurveyUSA poll released earlier this month had Murray up 41 percent to 33 percent.

Meanwhile, Murray's new TV ad notes that "corporate lobbyists" held a D.C. fundraiser for Rossi, and "now Dino supports keeping tax loopholes for corporations that send our jobs over sees," the announcers say in the 30-second spot that was released Sunday. "Dino puts his lobbyist contributors ahead of our jobs, and that won't get us back to work."

This contrasts reports that Democrats haven't been committed to Rep. Kendrick Meek's (D-Fla.) Senate candidacy.

McCain went on offense early against Hayworth, who had spent months blasting McCain from the studio of his radio show.

A major union has invested almost $1 million in a radio ad targeting Missouri Senate candidate Roy Blunt (R) for his 2007 vote against raising the federal minimum wage.

"He's been in Washington for 14 years, and he gets paid a $170,000 every year," the announcer says in the minute-long spot. "So, he's pocketed a couple of million dollars since he went to Washington."

The announcer goes on to say Blunt has voted to raise his own pay five times, "but when he had a chance to raise the minimum wage, Congressman Blunt voted no. … He's really out of touch."

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) spent $700,000 on the ad, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.

It started airing Friday statewide on more than 200 radio stations outside the St. Louis and Kansas City media markets, according to a union spokesman.

The Blunt camp is asking stations to pull the ad, noting a Springfield station already had.

"Missouri broadcasters have been advised that this is a deceptive and false advertisement that should be pulled from the airwaves immediately," Rich Chrismer, a spokesman for Blunt, said in a statement. "As Robin Carnahan and AFSCME should know, the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits members of Congress from voting to increase their own pay."

Members get an automatic cost-of-living increase calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics unless they vote against receiving it. The House has already voted to freeze its pay through 2011.

Meanwhile, the Blunt camp is pushing other stations to take down the ad.  

"We encourage Missouri broadcasters to review the content of the ad, review the U.S. Constitution, get the facts and join KTXR in pulling this advertisement," Chrismer said.

Democrats and their union allies used the minimum wage issue against Republicans effectively in 2006 — particularly in the Midwest. In Iowa, for instance, Democrats were able to use raising the minimum wage as a wedge to help them pick up two House seats and the governor's mansion.

Blunt faces Democrat Robin Carnahan in November.

--Updated at 11:27 a.m.

Former GOP Sen. George Allen (Va.) this week embraced the Jewish roots he never knew he had until four years ago.

At the Reston Hyatt-Regency outside Washington, the former lawmaker on Thursday addressed followers of the Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement whose members are encouraged to nudge non-observant Jews into adopting Orthodox customs.

Allen, who's preparing a 2012 run to reclaim his seat from Democratic Sen. Jim Webb (Va.), was only too happy to comply, dining on kosher chicken and blowing a shofar for the benefit of the assembled, The Washington Post reported.

Allen's prepared remarks featured a long-winded introduction on the topics of football, freedom, Ronald Reagan and his own Jewish sympathies — even before learning of his Jewish heritage. (Washington's Holocaust Museum, he said referring to a visit in the 1990s, is "the best museum.")

Only afterward did Allen get into the meat of the address: "The family revelation" that his mother had hidden her Jewish lineage until Allen confronted her directly amid his 2006 reelection bid against Webb.

Allen described the encounter in his remarks: 

"After this last of my innocent, cross-examination questions in between spoons of cereal, my mother very seriously told me that she would tell me 'something' but only if I swore not to tell anyone," he said. "She insisted that I 'swear' on Pop-pop’s [her father's] head that I tell no one. … My mother then haltingly told me that 'Pop-pop was Jewish.'"

It was, Allen said, "a fascinating discovery."

"From that day forward, the core principle of freedom of conscience, beliefs and religion was no longer a matter of enlightened philosophy to me," he said, according to the remarks. "It became deeply personal in my heart-wrenching realization of how fear and persecution so tormented my loving, loyal mother’s life."  

The revelation was especially "interesting," Allen added, "because I majored in history and have been a leader for nanotechnology."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $6.22 million in July — a decrease of almost $3 million from June.

Mike Huckabee’s increased presence in the midterm election has raised his profile in the 2012 presidential stakes.

Democrats are using the controversy over years-old allegations leveled at Florida congressional candidate David Rivera to hit NRCC Chair Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).   

Democrats in Florida and nationally are echoing allegations of domestic violence against Rivera, who is running in an open seat race in the state's 25th Congressional District, and claiming Rivera "ran a delivery truck off the road to prevent a rival candidate’s campaign literature from being mailed" back in 2002. 

Rivera has been talked up as candidate by Sessions and Boehner, and he's a member of the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Young Guns" program, so the controversy now surrounding Rivera's campaign is unwelcome news for the committee.

“One day, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions promotes the candidacy and character of David Rivera, and the next, these explosive revelations come to light,” said DCCC spokesperson Jennifer Crider.

But Rivera and the NRCC are pushing back hard against the allegations, calling them outright lies. In a statement late Friday, Rivera said the charges were false and said it all stems from a case of mistaken identity. 

“When I ran for the Florida state house in 2002, a last-minute campaign mailer was sent falsely accusing me of domestic violence. The mailer cited a 1994 case involving another individual also named David Rivera," the candidate said in a statement.

"In my 2010 campaign for Congress, some of my opponents have tried to use these same false allegations from 2002 to libel, slander and defame my character," Rivera continued. "While I find it offensive to even dignify these false allegations with any response at all, let me be clear: The 1994 case has absolutely nothing to do with me. I am not the David Rivera in that case and to suggest otherwise is a blatant and shameful lie. Campaigns should be based on issues, not false personal attacks.”

The story reemerged earlier in the week after a report from a local Florida TV station uncovered an eight-year-old police report of a traffic accident between Rivera and a truck that was carrying his opponent's campaign fliers.

Rivera was running for the legislature at the time, and the fliers detailed what Rivera maintains was a false domestic violence allegation against him.