White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will hold a fundraiser for Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), who’s running for the Democratic nomination in Florida’s Senate race.

The event will take place Monday, Aug. 2, in Washington D.C., according to the Orlando Sentinel. 

The administration officially supports Meek in his primary against billionaire Jeff Greene, but there’s been grumbling that the White House hasn’t done all it can to help the congressman.

Part of the problem could be Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s running as an independent candidate and giving Republican Marco Rubio a tougher race than either Democratic candidate is, according to polls. Crist hasn’t said which party he’ll caucus with if he wins, and both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have appeared in photos with Crist when they were in Florida to assess damage from the fallout of the oil spill in the Gulf.

But the party has helped Meek.

Biden and former President Clinton have hosted fundraisers for the four-term lawmaker, and reports indicate Clinton will return to Florida to campaign for Meek before the Aug. 24 primary.

Greene has spent a little more than $5.5 million of his own money on the race, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports. Meek has raised a little more than $7 million and has about $4 million cash on hand, according to second quarter FEC reports.

And that money has helped Greene make inroads. A St. Petersburg Times poll in May showed Meek leading Greene by 24 points. A Public Policy Polling survey taken last week showed Meek leading Greene by three points.

Meanwhile, Meek has released his first television ad against Greene and it goes negative. The ad criticizes the Greene for "becoming a billionaire on Wall Street while middle-class families lose their homes" and it also points out Greene moved to Florida two years ago. 

Greene has been on the air in Florida since May. Here's Meek's ad, entitled "Meet the real Jeff Greene":

-- This post was updated at 3:53 p.m.

New Hampshire Senate candidate Paul Hodes (D) is using a push poll to undercut former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte’s bid for the Republican Senate nomination, according to a complaint filed Monday.

The New Hampshire Republican Party filed a protest with the attorney general’s office alleging Hodes engaged in “illegal push-polling” to scuttle Ayotte’s candidacy.

The Hodes camp called the complaint “frivolous.”

According to the documents, the polling calls begin with routine questions about the participant’s age, party affiliation and their “favorable/unfavorable” reaction to each of the four major GOP Senate candidates. 

The subject of the call is then asked to name his first choice in the primary. “If the answer is ‘Kelly Ayotte’ the push begins,” the complaint states. “The telemarketer then asks misleading and dishonest questions about Ms. Ayotte that attempt to distort her record and influence the person’s opinion of her candidacy.”

Ryan Williams, a spokesman for the New Hampshire GOP, said anecdotal evidence suggests only Republicans are getting the calls.

“He’s push polling with Republicans, which obviously indicates he’s trying to meddle in our primary,” Williams said.

New York Gov. David Paterson (D) said at a news conference Monday that he is standing behind Rep. Charles Rangel (D) despite charges from the House Ethics Committee. 

“I support Congressman Rangel 100 percent,” Paterson said Monday, according to the Daily News.  

“I support him in his reelection bid,” Paterson continued. “Obviously there are charges that he has to face and I think the resolution of that is something that we don’t know in the future and until that time it’s been my honor to watch him for 40 years.”

A handful of other New York Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D) and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D), who is running for governor, have been reluctant to express support for Rangel over the past two days.

Meanwhile, Rangel isn’t exactly laying low. He answered questions from reporters for the third straight day Monday. 

Asked about Schumer’s statement that he intends to give Rangel the chance to state his case before coming to a conclusion, Rangel said Schumer “has been my buddy for many many years. And just because somebody can think of a question doesn’t mean I’m going to respond to it.”

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue on Monday blasted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for moving forward on the Disclose Act, a bill that increases reporting requirements for top campaign donors. 

Donohue argues the legislation infringes upon the First Amendment because it requires donors to state publicly their political positions, which not everyone is comfortable doing.

Republican Ken Buck is now walking back a comment he made after a campaign stop last month aimed at those who question President Obama’s citizenship.

The audio of Buck, which was captured by a Democratic Party tracker, surfaced over the weekend. He said: “Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I’m on the camera.”

The candidate said Monday he regrets using the word, noting that he has been frustrated that questions over the president’s birth certificate have overshadowed larger issues. 

Buck’s Republican primary opponent Jane Norton quickly seized on the comments. Her campaign put out a statement calling Buck “a self-proclaimed tea partier who trashes tea partiers when he thinks no one is looking.”

And Norton is planning a news conference for Monday afternoon to “address Buck’s Tea Party betrayal.”

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) is launching a third-party bid for governor, the Denver Post reported Monday.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) won’t wait on the former Alaska governor before he decides on a 2012 presidential run.

President Clinton is campaigning for two more former "Hillary for president" backers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he's "comfortable" in his reelection race against GOP candidate Sharron Angle.

Reid derided Angle's positions on Social Security and other issues as "not in the mainstream" as Election Day in the closely watched race looms fewer than 100 days away.

"I think that what I have seen her say, what I have watched her say, what I have read what she has said — she’s not mainstream for Nevada or probably most any other place in America," Reid said in an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Republicans have made Reid a top target for defeat this fall, as high jobless numbers and a slower recovery plague Nevada's economy. Reid has suffered from low approval ratings over the past year, suggesting that he was low-hanging fruit for a GOP challenger this fall.

But Reid's been making up ground recently against Angle, whose candidacy had been fueled by conservative activists and some within the Tea Party movement. Her conservative support led her to upset former state GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden in the party's primary to face Reid.

Reid noted his tough approval ratings, but said that he'd campaigned through negative seasons before and that Nevada voters were familiar with his record by this point.

"I have a campaign that’s moving along just fine," he said. "I feel comfortable where we are today."