Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is banking on the vote of Carte Goodwin to pass the extension of unemployment benefits.

Pennsylvania Republican Tom Corbett’s controversial remarks about the unemployed being unwilling to work until government benefits expire appear not to have resonated among likely voters.

Corbett still holds a double-digit lead over Democrat Dan Onorato in the state’s gubernatorial race.

Corbett has a 49 to 39 percent lead over Onorato among 750 likely votes in a Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday. The survey, which mirrors results from June, was conducted July 14 — five days after Corbett said “the jobs are there” and people just don’t want to work.

“People don’t want to come back to work while they still have come unemployment,” he told Pennsylvania Public Radio on July 9. “That’s becoming a problem.”

“The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment people are just going to sit there,” he said.

The state had a 9.2 percent unemployment rate last month.

Onorato has already used the comments in a Web ad. On Friday he was at an event in Lancaster where he again hit Corbett for his comments.

“A Harrisburg insider like Tom Corbett who doesn’t even recognize the problems families are facing will never be able to offer the solutions that Pennsylvania needs,” Onorato said in a prepared statement.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is back on TV pitching for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The sheriff is one of several law enforcement officers featured in a new 30-second spot released by the McCain camp Friday. Babeu appeared in McCain's earlier, and much-maligned, "Danged Fence" ad.

This one talks up McCain's efforts to secure the border and how he is "stand[ing] up" to President Obama, who has made protecting the border "incredibly difficult."

The ad's release comes as McCain prepares to meet primary challengers J.D. Hayworth and Jim Deakin in a debate  Friday night in Phoenix. A recent poll shows McCain pulling ahead of his rivals.

Carte Goodwin is seen as a placeholder who will serve out Byrd’s term until a special election this fall.

A new Republican political group launched a television ad Friday ripping Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for his state’s struggling economy. 

American Crossroads, an 527 group backed by former Bush adviser Karl Rove and ex-Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, bought $120,000 of state airtime starting Friday. The ad is one of the first GOP responses to Reid’s aggressive advertising strategy against his opponent Sharron Angle (R). 

“While Nevada’s economy was falling apart, Harry Reid was using his position to promote the interests of his Washington friends, not Nevada’s,” said Steven Law, president and CEO of American Crossroads. “The one thing a Senate majority leader should be able to control is what’s in the bill — but Reid was too busy taking orders from the White House to put his own state first.”

A poll released Friday showed that Reid had taken a statistically significant lead over Angle for the first time in a major poll since she won her primary contest last month. Reid’s surge followed a string of television ads released by his campaign hitting Angle for being too extreme. 

The Senate majority leader has spent $3 million in television ads since the beginning of April. 

By law, American Crossroads’ 527, tax-exempt status bars them from making direct expenditures that advocate for the election or defeat of a specific candidate. The language of the ad does not specifically call on voters to choose Angle over Reid. 

But like other 527s, the group is working to get Republicans elected in the fall midterm elections. After falling behind on their $50 million fundraising goal for the midterms earlier this year, the group raised $8 million in June. 

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Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has almost $10 million more cash on hand than her Republican challenger, Carly Fiorina.

A new Quinnipiac University poll out Friday gives Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) a 17-point edge over opponent Linda McMahon (R).

Blumenthal leads 54 percent to 37 percent in the survey. The race is largely unchanged from a month ago, when a Q-Poll had Blumenthal up 55-35 over McMahon.

Blumenthal also leads with independent voters — 54 percent to 35 percent.

Despite the controversy that erupted over Blumenthal’s military service, the poll found that 60 percent of likely voters agreed that Blumenthal is “honest and trustworthy.”

Still, McMahon’s major advantage is money. The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment is self-funding her bid and has already poured millions of her money into the race. 

In a memo accompanying the results, Quinnipiac Polling Director Doug Schwartz noted that, based on the trend lines, McMahon may have the momentum. 

“She is inching up on Blumenthal,” Schwartz said. “In January, she trailed Blumenthal by 41 points. In every subsequent poll she has cut into his lead and now has cut that lead by more than 24 points.”

Earlier this week, Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.) hinted in an interview with the Hartford Courant that he might jump back into the race before the Aug. 10 primary. 

He suspended his campaign after the GOP state convention in May, but his name remains on the primary ballot.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) holds a seven-point lead over Republican challenger Sharron Angle in a new poll.

Mitt Romney is dominating fundraising in the nascent GOP 2012 presidential field and bolstering other campaigns as well as his own.