Early donors to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's Senate campaign haven't switched to Republican Marco Rubio.

Missouri Senate candidate Robin Carnahan (D) is just the latest Democrat facing a tough race in 2010 to buck her party's leaders in Washington. 

Carnahan, who is battling Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) for the seat left open by retiring Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), told voters while campaigning at the Missouri state fair Thursday, "Now is not the time to be doing anything to raise taxes."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Carnahan admitted that her position marks a shift from earlier this year.

In a February radio interview, Carnahan had said she favored extending tax cuts for the middle-class but not for the wealthiest Americans. She said then that the nation couldn't afford it.

Carnahan said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press that her position has evolved because of an additional six months of difficult economic times, which she blamed on policies backed by Blunt.

Carnahan said she supports making permanent the tax cuts affecting lower and middle-income people and extending tax cuts for wealthier people until the economy improves enough to consider ways of balancing the budget. She declined to specify how long that extension should last. 

The issue has become a sticky one for both parties, as a handful of Democrats have come out in favor of an across-the-board extension of the tax cuts passed by Congress under former President George W. Bush. 

Most Democrats, including President Obama, only want to extend those cuts for people earning less than $200,000 a year. 

Republicans, meanwhile, have been pressed on how they square their support for extending the cuts with their calls to cut spending and reduce the federal deficit. The cuts are set to expire at the end of the year. 

Alberto Gonzales, who became the country's first Hispanic Attorney General under former President George W. Bush, is admonishing his fellow GOPers for calls to scrap the birthright citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment.

In a Washington Post op-ed, which will run in the paper Sunday, Gonzales argues "a constitutional amendment will not solve our immigration crisis."

Gonzales also references his "apolitical and saintly 78-year-old mother" who he says openly "wonders whether the Democrats are keeping this issue on the table for political reasons, hoping that Republicans will propose enforcement measures that alienate Hispanic voters."

The former AG also accuses Republicans and Democrats of lacking the will to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The 14th Amendment became a hot topic on the midterm campaign trail after Republican leaders in Washington called for hearings to look at possible ways to change it. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) all backed that call.  

With Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) digging in and preparing to fight 13 alleged House ethics violations, his leading Democratic rival is ramping up the rhetoric ahead of the September primary. State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV (D) said Thursday that if Rangel won't resign with dignity, "The community will take him out." 

With leaders in Harlem and throughout New York City largely coalescing around Rangel, Powell has little choice but to up the pressure. 

Despite the ethical cloud surrounding the 80-year-old congressman, most of the state's Democratic elite showed up at his public birthday bash last week. 

Rangel's congressional district, which includes all of Harlem and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has backed Rangel overwhelmingly since he first won the seat by ousting Powell's father in 1970.

Powell is one of four Democrats challenging Rangel in the Sept. 14 primary.   

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) will highlight her work to reduce home foreclosures at an event Friday with a senior Treasury Department official.

Herb Allison, an assistant Treasury secretary, is headed to Las Vegas for a press conference with Titus on the government's efforts to reduce foreclosures and stabilize the housing market in southern Nevada. Allison oversees a $50 billion federal effort to help the housing market, which continues to suffer under mounting foreclosures.

Nevada has been hit particularly hard with the highest rate of foreclosures in the country, according to RealtyTrac. Titus has focused significant attention on the housing crisis, including a TV ad this week that portrays her as helping homeowners stay in their homes.

Titus's congressional district has the eighth highest rate in the country of mortgages that are seriously delinquent (at least 90 days late on payments), according to a Deutsche Bank analysis.

Republicans responded to the ad this week by arguing that Titus "recklessly" spends taxpayer money and that her policies have contributed to the housing crisis.

A new ad from the campaign of Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) takes a major shot at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Donnelly touts his opposition to cap-and-trade in the 30-second spot, with the ad's narrator deriding the proposal as "Nancy Pelosi's energy tax," and calling Donnelly "Indiana's most independent congressman." 

It's one of the most overt attempts this cycle from any House Democrat to distance themselves from Pelosi. 

Donnelly faces state Rep. Jackie Walorski (R) in the fall. Walorski won the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday and is on the National Republican Congressional Committee's list of "Young Guns." 

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is set to headline a fundraiser for congressional candidate David McKinley (R) in West Virginia. 

Sessions and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) will be the major GOP draws at the event set for the first week in September at The Greenbrier Resort. An e-mail to supporters from the McKinley camp puts the price tag at $250 per couple. 

A day before Sessions and Capito come to town, McKinley will get a fundraising visit from Fox News commentator Dick Morris. He will headline a rally in downtown Parkersburg, W.Va., on Sept. 1, followed by two fundraising receptions. 

The party senses a major pick-up opportunity in the state's 1st Congressional District after 14-term Rep. Alan Mollohan (D) was defeated in the state's May primary. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) headlined a fundraiser for McKinley in July. 

McKinley faces state Sen. Mike Oliverio (D) in November's general election, and like many House Republican candidates this cycle might as well be running against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). 

McKinley has focused his message almost entirely on the Democratic leadership in Congress, telling the New York Times this week that, "Our fight is not with Mike Oliverio. Our fight is a fight for this country and whether Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner is going to be speaker."

The two candidates are relatively tight on the fundraising front, but McKinley could certainly use the help. 

McKinley reported raising some $200,000 in the second quarter and reported $307,000 cash in hand. Oliverio raised more than double that in Q2, pulling in $592,000, but reported just $303,000 cash on hand. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has thrown its support behind congressional candidate Adam Kinzinger (R) in Illinois. A former local county commissioner and Iraq war veteran, Kinzinger is challenging freshman Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D), who won easily in 2008.

In a statement announcing its backing of Kinzinger, the Chamber's Vice President of Political Affairs and Federation Relations Rob Engstrom said he's confident Kinzinger will prove to be "an invaluable leader on important business issues in Washington," while hitting Halvorson's voting record in Congress.

“She voted for a job killing tax on energy, supported a government takeover of the health care system, and was a co-sponsor of card check legislation, an undemocratic attempt to strip workers rights to a private ballot election," Engstrom said in the statement.

Halvorson voted in favor of the president's healthcare overhaul and for the Disclose Act, both of which the Chamber lobbied strenuously against. 

Halvorson's district wasn't one that appeared to be a prime pick-up opportunity for Republicans a year ago, but the party is now convinced the race is winnable. Election handicapper Charlie Cook moved the race into the toss-up category earlier this month. 

Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) this week is blasting his Republican challenger over the future of healthcare for the nation's veterans. 

Edwards, in a tough fight for an 11th term, said Wednesday that Bill Flores's proposal to shift veterans into private insurance plans "would destroy the VA healthcare system as we know it and undermine healthcare for America's veterans."

The charge came in response to comments from Flores earlier in the year that "veterans would be much better off if they could go into the private healthcare system and have the government pay for it."

"Typically, the care in the private citizens' sector is better than the government sector," Flores said during a January debate. "The government usually doesn’t do some things very well that involve bureaucracies, so they need to go into the private system."

Neither Edwards nor Flores served in the military.

Edwards said his challenger's plan would "dilute the patient base at our VA hospitals, undermining quality care for our veterans, raising costs to taxpayers and ultimately leading to the closure of the VA hospitals in Waco, Temple and across the country."

Flores, a former oil executive, told The Dallas Morning News that Edwards's allegations were "baseless."

"Only a career politician like Chet Edwards would think that giving veterans options is a bad thing," Flores told the News.

It's likely not the end of the debate. Next week, Edwards is scheduled to undertake a five-day campaign focusing directly on veterans' issues. The "Vets for Chet" tour launches Aug. 23. 

The Cook Political Report rates the Edwards-Flores contest a toss-up.