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.”

Whatever bipartisan spirit may have existed in West Virginia following the death last month of Sen. Byrd has vanished.

A new Mason-Dixon poll shows freshman Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) in a dead heat with Republican challenger Joe Heck. Titus leads 42 percent to 40 percent, with 9 percent still undecided. 

Among unaffiliated voters, the two are tied at 39 percent. The survey polled 400 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5 percentage points.

Titus is one of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s top targets in 2010, but has one early advantage — she reported more than $1.2 million cash on hand at the end of the second quarter. Heck reported just under $350,000.   

Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), the mother of a disgraced former Detroit mayor, finds herself trailing her primary opponent, according to a new poll Monday.

Kilpatrick, the seven-term lawmaker from Detroit, trails state Sen. Hansen Clarke 38 percent to 30 in a primary battle for Michigan's 13th congressional district.

If the Democratic primary were held today, 38.1 percent of the district's voters would choose Clarke and 30 percent would vote for Kilpatrick, while another 20.3 percent were undecided, according to a new Detroit News/WDIV poll.

The poll shows struggles for a second straight cycle for Kilpatrick, the mother of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D), who resigned two years ago and was convicted and jailed on corruption charges.

The former Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman was almost unseated in a 2008 primary challenge as well, when critics made her passionate defense of her son a key issue in the contest. She held off former state Rep. Mary Water and state Sen. Martha Scott in a divided primary field, but fell well short of winning a majority of the primary field.

Though a number of other candidates have entered 2010's contest to unseat Kilpatrick, they drew only a combined 9.5 percent in support from voters in the Detroit district.

The primary election will be held Aug. 3. The poll, conducted by Glengariff Group from July 14-15, has a 4.9 percent margin of error.

Over the weekend, The Philadelphia Inquirer took a lengthy look at Pennsylvania Senate candidate and former Rep. Pat Toomey's (R) outreach to centrist Republicans.

Toomey faces Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in the fall. Sestak ran to the left of Sen. Arlen Specter (D) when he defeated him in a May primary.

Toomey has a fundraiser planned with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and has a former Specter hand connecting him with GOP centrists in D.C.

From the Inquirer:

When he was president of the free-market advocacy group Club for Growth, Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey was the most fearsome RINO hunter in the land. He sought the defeat of GOP incumbents deemed soft on the Club's drive for lower taxes and smaller government - often termed Republicans in Name Only by the right.

Now, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine - lampooned as "Comrade of the Month" by the Club in 2009 for her pro-stimulus vote--is coming to Philadelphia to raise money for the staunchly conservative Toomey, a sign that his campaign's effort to court moderates is paying dividends.

Collins will headline a $1,000-a-plate luncheon for Toomey's Pennsylvania Senate campaign Aug. 2 at the Union League.

"Pat Toomey gets the fact that he needs to work with a lot of folks, that there doesn't need to be unanimity on all issues in the party," said Washington lobbyist David Urban, an influential GOP moderate and a host of the event.

Urban was Sen. Arlen Specter's chief of staff from 1997 to 2002, when the outgoing Pennsylvania senator was still a Republican. He stayed loyal when Specter became a Democrat last year, and he returned to the GOP fold after Specter lost the May 18 primary to Rep. Joe Sestak.

Urban is helping to connect Toomey with moderate Republicans in the capital and from the Specter camp. He calls Toomey "more of a fiscal conservative than a social conservative."

Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll out Monday gives Toomey a 45 percent-to-38 percent lead over Sestak.

Despite any attempt to move to the middle, Democrats note that Toomey's record in Congress was anything but centrist on social issues or just about anything else, and they plan to hit him on that record through the fall.

Toomey's camp is betting that the focus on government spending and deficits makes Pennsylvania's more Democratic electorate less of a climb for the Republican in November.

President Obama is headed back to Chicago early next month to headline a fundraiser for Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. The Illinois state treasurer is battling Rep. Mark Kirk (R) for the seat formerly held by Obama. The event is set for Aug. 5.

Giannoulias certainly needs the fundraising help. He raised just $900,000 in the second quarter to Kirk's $2.3 million. Kirk reported nearly $4 million cash on hand at the end of June.

The president's visit is sure to sharpen what is shaping up to be one of the country's nastiest Senate races this year. It also comes against the backdrop of the ongoing corruption trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D).

The fundraiser should help settle the question of whether the White House is fully invested in Giannoulias. The lack of attention from the White House over the past few months raised questions about just how much confidence the administration had in the Democratic candidate.

But Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have already made fundraising trips to Illinois for the Giannoulias campaign. White House adviser David Axelrod is also slated to headline an event for the candidate.

Of the several vulnerable freshman members, Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), who has been in GOP sights, had the most impressive quarter.

Conservative Republicans have appeared anything but compassionate when talking about unemployment benefits this election cycle.