Former state Sen. Pamela Gorman (R) continues to draw attention in the crowded primary field vying to replace retiring Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.).

On Tuesday she announced the endorsement of former ambassador Alan Keyes (R).

"I believe there is one candidate in the Republican primary for Congress in [the 3rd] district who can truly help lead the effort to save America, if you will empower her to do so. That candidate is Pamela Gorman," Keyes said in a statement.

Getting Keyes's endorsement is not Gorman's first unconventional move. She released a Web video in June that featured scenes of her blasting the desert with what appeared to be a Tommy gun, then a pistol and later an M-16 assault riffle.

Keyes famously lost to President Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate election. He ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination but failed to win a single primary. He subsequently left the GOP to run for president as the nominee for the America's Independent Party. It's unclear how much appeal he has to the GOP electorate in Arizona.

Rep. Walt Minnick (Idaho), a vulnerable Democrat in a conservative congressional district, called on Rangel to resign.

The conservative activist known as Joe the Plumber is airing a TV ad in Missouri calling Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.) a "pretender" and touting state Sen. Chuck Purgason as the best candidate for the Republican Senate nomination.

Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher said he purchased the statewide ad time without Purgason's knowledge and filed appropriate paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The ad was originally a YouTube video.



Purgason's campaign hasn't raised enough cash to air its own TV ads.



"I wanted to show that individuals can have some say in what's going on," Wurzelbacher told the Post-Dispatch. "I called and got a couple of people to donate."

The fairytale-themed ad refers to Blunt as a "pretender to the conservative throne."

Wurzelbacher endorsed Purgason earlier this month. Since the 2008 presidential campaign, he has stayed in the political spotlight, criticizing the Obama administration and endorsing conservative candidates in various races. He has also appeared at several Tea Party rallies.


Purgason has billed himself as the "only true conservative" in the GOP primary against Blunt. But the congressman holds a commanding lead — 62 percent to 13 — over his rival, according to a recent Post-Dispatch poll. He's also outraised him by a ratio of nearly 300 to 1.

The winner of the Aug. 3 primary is expected to face Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) in November.

Liberal Democrats battling the party hierarchy have met with limited success this primary season.

Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.) said Monday that she will donate to charity $14,000 in contributions she received from beleaguered Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.). 

Dahlkemper, who ignored a GOP call earlier this spring to return the money, is now the second House Democrat to announce she will give up the cash since news broke that the House Ethics Committee is charging Rangel with multiple violations. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee has called on dozens of Democratic members to return or donate money they received from Rangel and his leadership PAC.  

And the NRCC kept up the heat Monday afternoon, blasting out another set of releases targeting Democrats in 46 districts who have received money from Rangel, labeling each target “a typical Washington politician who is happy to fill [their] campaign account with dirty money while refusing to hold [their] party accountable for their tarnished record.”

Late Friday, Indiana Senate candidate and Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D) announced that he would donate to charity the $12,000 he received from Rangel.

Idaho state Rep. Raul Labrador (R) said Monday that he wasn’t included on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s latest list of “Young Guns” because he opted out of the program earlier in the year.

Labrador, who defeated the NRCC’s favored candidate Vaughn Ward in a May primary, is challenging freshman Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) in November.    

Last week the NRCC added another 33 candidates to the lower levels of its Young Guns program, but Labrador wasn’t among them. That drew the attention of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which suggested the omission meant the district is falling off the NRCC’s radar. Minnick holds one of the most conservative districts in the country.

According to the Idaho Reporter, Labrador now says he didn’t want to be a part of the candidate program, but didn’t offer a specific reason.  

“I’ve still met with them and still met their financial goals,” Labrador told the paper. 

Labrador also missed out an earlier round of Young Gun promotions in June.

He has reportedly had a tense relationship with the committee. He campaigned vigorously against Ward, railing against him as a Washington establishment candidate. And Labrador was stood up by NRCC officials when he came to Washington in December, according to the Idaho Statesman.

Rep. Michael McMahon (D-N.Y.) would have been in physical danger had he voted for the healthcare reform bill, according to Michael Grimm, one of the freshman Democrat's potential Republican challengers.

"Had he voted for the healthcare bill, Staten Island and Brooklyn, they would really have been marching like they were going for Frankenstein," Grimm, a former FBI agent, told The Ballot Box. "There was no question. That was just not even an option. Physically he would have been in danger. It would have been that bad."

McMahon said Grimm's comments were in "very poor taste."

"With respect to Mr. Grimm's accusations about my constituents threatening physical danger, I think it's in very poor taste for a candidate to paint the people he wants to represent so crudely," he said in a statement.

McMahon was under pressure to support the Democrats' healthcare reform bill in March but ultimately cast a vote against the legislation.

"The fact that it was a very quiet 'no,' the conservatives and the Republicans know he kind of got a pass," Grimm said.

He noted that McMahon has since opposed repealing the healthcare legislation.

"He's on both sides," Grimm said. "That's going to be a big problem. My district has a tremendous amount of seniors; they are very nervous. We don't have a public hospital, so healthcare is a huge issue in my district, a huge issue."

In response, McMahon cited his repeated opposition to the bill.

"Mr. Grimm must have trouble understanding the legislative process because I voted against the bill not once, but twice despite calls from colleagues and organizations on the left to vote in favor of it," McMahon said.

Meanwhile on Monday, Grimm was boosted by the endorsement from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

New York's 13th District, which was formerly held by retired Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), went for McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

"Michael served as a Marine in combat for our country, continued his service for 11 more years as a Special Agent in the FBI, and then went on to become a small-business owner," McCain said in a statement. "Michael Grimm is an extraordinary candidate, and I am proud to endorse him for New York’s 13th Congressional District."

Grimm faces businessman Michael Allegretti (R) in the Sept. 14 primary.

In a fundraising e-mail penned for the political action committee EMILY’s List, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) warns that Republicans are “raising money at an alarming rate” for this fall’s elections.

The e-mail is part of the group’s push to get donations in the door before the end of the month to meet its July fundraising goal. 

“The GOP is targeting seats across the nation, leaving nothing off the table,” Mikulski wrote in the e-mail to EMILY’s List supporters. “They’re raising money at an alarming rate. They have more than $200 million pledged from right-wing groups who would profit from Republican wins.” 

EMILY’s List has propped up several Democratic House challengers this cycle, lending fundraising help to Julie Lassa, who is running to succeed retiring Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), and Tarryl Clark, who is challenging Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).   

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.