Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) opened his reelection ad campaign with a TV spot hitting former Gov. Terry Branstad (R) for "cook[ing] the books."
"Cooked books, deficit spending. Increased taxes. Terry Branstad: A past we can’t repeat," the ad says.
Branstad, a former four-term governor, is running as a fiscal conservative
His campaign manager, Jeff Boeyink, quickly responded to the ad.
"There is nothing bright about this ad. It's the same, dreary politics of the past," Boeyink said in a statement. "Iowa voters will remember that is was Terry Branstad who brought open and honest accounting to state government."
The Iowa Republican Party's state convention kicks off next Friday with a speech by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.
Retiring Rep. Dennis Moore's (D-Kan.) old friends are helping his wife get elected to his seat.Â
The Blue Dog Coalition announced Thursday it is endorsing Stephene Moore (D) to win the 3rd district. She's expected to be the Democratic nominee to face whoever emerges from a crowded GOP primary.
Blue Dog co-chair Jim Matheson (Utah), in a statement:Â "Through her service to the community and as a registered nurse, Stephene Moore has demonstrated that she has what it takes to do what's right for the country, and for the people of Kansas' third district."
While Stephene Moore is getting help from the Blue Dogs, she may not get too much from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — at least until her husband pays his dues.
Moore's entire $250,000 balance is outstanding with the committee, despite having $412,188 in his campaign account as of March 31.
On Thursday, Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) will finally get his chance to come face to face with BP CEO Tony Hayward.
"I get five minutes," Melancon, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told MSNBC Wednesday night. "I haven't exactly figured out what I want to ask him."
The Democratic Senate candidate reiterated that he thought Hayward "should go," but said he didn't plan to tell him to resign at the hearing, which is being conducted by the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Melancon, who's challenging Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), has tried to position himself as both a critic of BP and a proponent of lifting President Barack Obama's deepwater oil-drilling moratorium.
But he's walking a fine line. On Tuesday, for instance, he missed the chance to question oil executives from ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil and BP at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
The Ohio Election Commission is meeting Thursday for a preliminary hearing into whether an ad from the campaign of Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) contained false charges against Republican opponent Bob Gibbs.
The Gibbs campaign filed a complaint before the commission after a Space ad went up accusing the Republican of supporting tax increases and voting to raise his own pay as a member of the State Legislature. Gibbs called the charges a lie.
Philip Richter, the commission's executive director, said he anticipates that lawyers representing both campaigns will appear before a three-person panel in Columbus to present their case. But the Space campaign would not confirm that anyone representing it would appear.
Space campaign manager Danny Friedman said the campaign stands behind the content of the ad, but declined to offer further comment on the matter, pointing to an earlier statement.
"Our ad is completely accurate," Friedman said in the statement. "When Bob Gibbs supported the budget in 2003, he supported the largest tax increase in Ohio's history and a pay raise for himself and his fellow legislators. If supporting this pay increase wasn't bad enough, he authorized legislation to give special tax breaks for golf courses. This is the ugly truth Bob Gibbs doesn't want voters to know, but these are the facts."
FactCheck.org dug into the ad's content Tuesday and disputed its claim that Gibbs voted himself a pay raise.
The Gibbs campaign wants the ad pulled from the airwaves, but Richter said the commission doesn't actually have the authority to do that. If it were to conclude the ad contained factual inaccuracies, the strongest action it's likely to take is to issue a public reprimand.
"The elections commission will prove that Zack Space lied," said Gibbs spokeswoman Emily Pettigrew in an e-mail. "Bob Gibbs never voted himself a pay raise and has always voted for tax breaks for families."
Republicans are hopeful Gibbs can mount a serious challenge to Space, but the incumbent starts with a significant financial edge. Gibbs nearly drained his campaign coffers during a contested Republican primary.
Vice President Joe Biden sets two fundraising dates with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the GOP readies for President Barack Obama's stop in Ohio and a new poll shows Republican Dino Rossi closing in on Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
Biden back to California
Biden will headline two fundraisers for Boxer next month. Biden will host a fundraiser for Boxer in Silicon Valley on July 8 and another in Los Angeles on July 9. The vice president headlined a fundraiser for Boxer last fall, and Obama has already hosted two events for the senator this year.
Boxer is in a tough race against Republican Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, who has already spent millions of her own money on the race. As the San Jose Mercury Newspoints out, Boxer had more than $9 million in her campaign coffers as of last month, compared to less than $1 million for Fiorina. But the Republican is expected to use her personal wealth to keep the race close.
The latest poll numbers give Boxer a five-point edge — 48 percent to 43.
Fiorina quickly jumped on the news of Biden's visit, calling it a "rescue mission." In a statement, Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said, "Vice President Biden's plan to visit California in July represents the fourth rescue mission in as many months conducted by the Obama administration to save Barbara Boxer's failing political career."
Fisher shares a stage with Obama
The last two times Obama made a trip to the Buckeye State, Democratic Senate candidate and Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher was notably absent, something Republicans relish pointing out. But on Friday, Fisher will be in attendance when the president talks jobs at a stop in Columbus. Obama will speak at a groundbreaking for a project paid for with stimulus dollars.
Republicans will use the appearance to tie Fisher to the president in a state where Obama's approval is under 50 percent. Fisher is facing former Rep. and Bush administration OMB Director Rob Portman (R). The latest Rasmussen poll has that race in a dead heat, 43-43.
Another vulnerable Democrat may be in attendance Friday. A spokesman for Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D) told the Columbus Dispatch the congresswoman would likely be at the president's event.
Rossi closing the gap?
A new Elway Poll out of Washington state gives Murray a seven-point lead over likely Republican challenger Rossi. The numbers, released Wednesday, show that Rossi has narrowed the gap by more than 15 points in the last month. Murray leads Rossi 47 percent to 40, with 13 percent undecided.
An Elway poll from last month had Murray up 51-34.
Despite the gains, Rossi could face trouble from his right in the form of Tea Party favorite Clint Didier. Didier was endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Polls still have Rossi leading Didier by a large margin in the Republican primary, but Rossi will need a united and highly energized Republican base to turn out come November.
The South Carolina State Election Commission will not investigate Democrat Alvin Greene’s controversial victory in last week’s Senate primary.
"The state election commission sees no reason to initiate an investigation into our voting system," Chris Whitmire, a spokesman for the commission, told The Ballot Box. "We have full confidence in the reliability and accuracy of the state's voting system, and we have nothing to indicate there was any voting system failure on June 8th. The system has performed accurately and consistently."
Greene won the June 8 primary with 58 percent of the vote, defeating Vic Rawl, a Charleston County councilman, by more than 30,000 votes.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) has called Greene a "plant" and repeatedly called for an investigation into his win.
Despite making several TV appearances to talk about Greene's victory, Clyburn hasn't contacted the commission, according to Whitmire.
"We've had no contact from the candidates in the U.S. Senate race and no contact from Congressman Clyburn," he said.
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has asked state Attorney General Henry McMaster to investigate whether Greene "accepted an inducement" to run. The group also complained to the Federal Election Commission, noting Greene hasn't filed the proper paperwork.
On Tuesday, Rawl said he also planned to file a "protest" against Greene's win.
Rawl will meet with the state Democratic Party's executive committee Thursday where he's expected to call for a new election based on supposed irregularities in the voting machines.
If the state party calls for a new election, the SEC would seek legal advice to help determine the manner in which any new primary would be conducted, Whitmire said. It's unclear when the vote would take place.
Regardless of the outcome of the meeting, South Carolina has another round of voting coming up on June 22, when the Republican gubernatorial primary and several others will go to a runoff.
California Working Families has a new TV ad attacking Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman for her failure to vote for 28 years. It's the first ad in the group's independent expenditure effort supporting Democrat Jerry Brown. The initial buy totals $3 million on broadcast and cable over a three-week period. The ad will run until July 3.
The 30-second spot entitled, "Why" features a news conference exchange where a reporter repeatedly presses Whitman on her voting record.
The group bills itself as a coalition of public employees, firefighters and building trades organizations. Spokesman Roger Salazar told the Ballot Box the buy is just the start of what he expects will be a $30 million media campaign over the course of the summer. "This is really just the initial piece," said Salazar.
During the Republican primary, Whitman's opponent, State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, used a similar line of attack in a TV ad.
Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, has invested as much as $100 million of her own money into the race, according to reports.
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