Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) “danged fence” ad was widely panned earlier this year, but his more recent “huckster” television spot is attracting rave reviews.

The legislation signed into law by the governor Monday night declares November's special election a legally separate contest.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) continues to hammer on comments his Republican opponent made about drilling for oil "where it is."

Feingold has used businessman Ron Johnson's (R) remark to suggest if he'd back allowing oil exploration in the Great Lakes.

"[Ron] Johnson said clearly, when he was asked would you support drilling in the Great Lakes, he said I'll drill wherever there is oil," Feingold told the Wisconsin Radio Network Radio Sunday.

A spokeswoman for Johnson, who's emerged as the favorite to win the GOP nod to challenge Feingold, called the suggestion "completely untrue."

Asked if he would support expanding oil drilling in the United States in a recent interview with WisPolitics.com, Johnson said: "I think we have ... to get the oil where it is but we need to do it responsibly."

Feingold has already used the claim in a TV ad, which prompted a quick rebuke from Johnson's camp.

The incumbent is clearly worried about his reelection prospects. While a recent poll had the senator with a 55 percent approval rating, a recent Rasmussen survey showed him virtually tied with Johnson.

Drilling for oil is currently illegal in the Great Lakes.

"The fact is, this is going to happen again, if people like Mr. Johnson are running the show," Feingold said Sunday. "He said the reason that this happened is that the oil companies were over regulated, not under regulated. Now if anyone else in their right mind believes that, I'd like to understand why. That's the difference between me and Mr. Johnson. He wants weak laws for the oil companies, and want to make sure we don’t drill in the Great Lakes."

Johnson's spokeswoman said the Democrat was "grasping at straws."

--Updated at 7:16 p.m.

Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), the only member of his party to receive the backing of the Tea Party Express rejected the group's endorsement Monday citing the controversy over a blog post written by one of its leaders Mark Williams. 

Williams posted a mock letter to President Abraham Lincoln from Benjamin Jealous, the president of the NAACP. It came on the heels of the NAACP’s July 13 passage of a resolution calling on Tea Party leaders to repudiate racist elements of the movement.

The mock letter begins: “We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!”

The Tea Party Federation expelled Williams' group over the weekend. The Tea Party Express reacted with anger to that expulsion Monday and defended Williams in a news release. 

In a letter to Amy Kremer, co-chair of the Tea Party Express, Minnick called the blog post by Williams "reprehensible." 

"Since the Tea Party Express refuses to reject and rebuke Mr. Williams, I have no choice but to decline your endorsement," Minnick wrote. "I thank you very sincerely for your kind words about my work as a Congressman, and hope that your group can see the error of its ways."

Following days of legislative wrangling over the process to succeed the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), state lawmakers in West Virginia still haven't reached an agreement as Gov. Manchin's special session has devolved into partisan finger-pointing.

Lawmakers appeared on the cusp of a deal Monday. Manchin originally had a news conference with state Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin (D) and House Speaker Richard Thompson (D) planned for mid-afternoon Monday. That was postponed and then rescheduled for Tuesday after the governor's office said "discussions regarding the process are still taking place."

Manchin was working to strike a deal with state lawmakers throughout the day Monday.The Charleston Gazette reported that the governor made a rare appearance in the statehouse to work Republican lawmakers.

If the legislature can't reach agreement it would leave the governor's office in the same position as more than a week ago when it called a special session. Manchin is worried that without final action from the state legislature, a special election will be open to legal challenges, despite the fact that the state attorney general’s office has said Manchin has the authority to call one.

Over the past few days, lawmakers have argued the governor's bill gave too much power to West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant to control timelines for the special election.

Republicans are still pushing to declare the special an election legally separate from the general election in November. That change would essentially allow Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R) to run for reelection to the House and in a special election for Senate.

Sarah Palin has added New Hampshire Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte (R) to her list of "mama grizzlies."

The former Alaska governor announced in a Facebook posting Monday that she's backing Ayotte.

"Kelly is the strongest commonsense conservative who can win in the fall," Palin wrote. "I knew I liked her when I met her earlier this year, and I know this Granite Grizzly will represent New Hampshire with distinction in Washington."

A short time later the Ayotte campaign released a statement from her saying she was "honored" to have Palin’s support.

Palin "is a reformer in every sense of the word, and she has always stood firm for the conservative principles of low taxes, less spending and personal responsibility," Ayotte said. "I'm running for Senate to put our fiscal house in order and to get our country moving in the right direction again, and I'm honored to have her support."

In other Senate races, Palin's endorsement has been a mixed blessing for Republican candidates. In California, for instance, Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) campaign has repeatedly cited Palin's backing of Republican Carly Fiorina as evidence she's too conservative for the Democratic-leaning state.

Financial services lobbyists are holding a Washington fundraiser this week for Ohio House candidate Steve Stivers.

The Republican's bid to unseat Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio) is one of the most competitive races in the country. It pits Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, against Kilroy, a freshman member who has campaigned, in part, on her work to overhaul financial regulations.

The Wednesday lunch fundraiser is with Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, to raise money for Stivers. Gold level donors are suggested to make a $5,000 political action committee donation. Silver level donors are suggested to give $2,000 in PAC money or $1,000 personal. And bronze level donors are suggested to give $1,000 in PAC money or $500 in personal money.

The fundraiser invitation was circulated by the Financial Services Roundtable.

Stivers raised $533,000 in the last quarter and has $1.25 million in cash on hand. Kilroy raised $230,000 in the last quarter and has $934,000 in cash on hand, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Kilroy was one of two freshman House Democrats appointed to a 43-member conference of lawmakers finalizing the financial regulatory bill, one of the party's highest domestic priorities. Kilroy has campaigned hard against Stivers as "part of a culture" of deregulation that led to the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the Stivers campaign has criticized Kilroy for holding fundraisers during the conference committee proceedings. Stivers has pulled in more campaign cash than Kilroy from financial services interests.

"We were critical of the connection between Congresswoman Kilroy’s selection to the Fin-Reg conference committee and the fundraiser that went to PAC’s, noting her committee assignment on Financial Services, one day later," said a Stivers spokesman. "Congresswoman Kilroy’s fundraising activity was out-of-step with the canceled fundraisers during Fin-Reg conference committee activity by Chairman Frank and ranking member Bachus, and it was out of step with the precedent established by the Office of Congressional Ethics investigation of eight members who held fundraisers in close proximity to the first House Fin-Reg vote.

"Steve Stivers is not a member of Congress and has no issue regarding conflict of interest. Moreover, he is not acting outside the accepted norms of Congress, as the Kilroy fundraiser clearly did," the spokesman said.

--Updated at 4:32 p.m.

South Carolina Senate candidate Alvin Greene’s first speech Sunday lasted just longer than six minutes and, in a first for his so-called campaign, he managed to not make a major gaffe. 

The unemployed military veteran, who won the Democratic primary June 8 despite not holding a single campaign event, survived a challenge to his primary victory from state lawmaker Vic Rawl. Greene faces Sen. Jim DeMint (R) in the fall.  

Speaking before a local NAACP chapter Sunday, Greene hit on the economy and education but made no mention of his recent idea to create jobs by manufacturing dolls in his image.   

More from the Associated Press:

There were platitudes familiar to anyone who has heard a stump speech. 

“Let’s get South Carolina and America back to work and let’s move South Carolina forward,” said Greene, one of about a dozen lines that got applause from the several hundred folks crammed into a sweltering junior high gymnasium. 

While singing and speeches by others slowly unfolded before Greene took the podium, the candidate occasionally fidgeted, wiped his brow and intently studied a black spiral notebook where he apparently wrote his remarks. The speech had very few of the long pauses that have marked his unprepared conversations with reporters. 

Greene rattled off national job loss statistics, and he said the state needs to put more people to work adding more lanes to hurricane evacuation routes. 

On education, he mentioned South Carolina’s dismal rankings in standardized tests. 

Greene did not take questions and avoided reporters after the event.

Democrats want to capitalize on the Senate debate over extending jobless benefits by portraying Republicans as “out of touch.”

“Senate Republicans and Republican Senate candidates are nearly united in their opposition to extending unemployment benefits even as their leadership calls for extending the George Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans without paying for them,” Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement. 

Menendez reiterated Democrats’ belief that November’s vote will be about a “choice” between their party and “Republicans who want to return to the failed George Bush economic policies of the past.” 

“When Republicans prefer unpaid tax cuts for the richest Americans over helping those who need it most, they make that choice crystal clear for voters,” he said.

The DSCC blasted releases hitting Republican Senate candidates in Missouri, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Wisconsin and Washington state for being “out of touch” for opposing the extension.

Several GOP Senate candidates have already been tripped up by this issue. Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R), for instance, tried to appear hawkish on the deficit by opposing the extension but sounded callous for portraying the unemployed as “spoiled.”