Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he regrets his "misplaced words" about service in Vietnam.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) had trouble voting Tuesday when she went to cast her primary ballot in Little Rock.

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) are in a tweeting frenzy Tuesday as Pennsylvania voters go to the polls for the Democratic Senate primary.

Specter had tweeted 8 times by 1 p.m. ET Tuesday. Sestak had tweeted 11 times.

Both of them are urging people to vote and to get their friends to vote too.

"Call 5 voters today and let them know that election day is TODAY, you can also tell them where they can vote," Specter wrote.

"Call 5 voters during your lunch break," Sestak urged.

And, first thing Tuesday morning, both candidates tweeted messages about the polls being open.

"The polls are open - make sure you get out and vote today," Specter's message said.

Sestak simply wrote: "VOTE."
 
Polls close in Pennsylvania at 8 p.m. ET. More tweets are sure to come.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) predicted that his preferred candidate will win the state's Senate primary on Tuesday.

Rendell backs Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter, who is facing a challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.)

“It’s going to be close. I think in the end Specter will pull it out. People will realize the value of his service to the state over the last 30 years," he said on Fox Business Network. “That [the African-American vote] is certainly a cornerstone for him. But the rain here is a factor. We’ll see how that affects the turnout.”

On Monday, Rendell simply predicted that the race would be close, but on Tuesday, he expressed a bit more confidence in Specter. 

Polls generally show Specter locked in a statistical tie with Sestak, despite the support the incumbent senator has from Rendell and the White House. 

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room

The chairman of the Senate Democrats' campaign committee expressed confidence on Tuesday that embattled candidate Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) will remain in his race.

Blumenthal is running for retiring Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) seat this fall and had a strong lead in the polls. But the New York Times reported Monday night that he misrepresented his service record, claiming that he served overseas in the Vietnam War even though records show he never did.

The allegations are considered extremely damaging for Blumenthal's candidacy, but Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said that the Connecticut attorney general would remain in the race.

"I am sure that he will continue to stay in the Senate race and we will continue to support him," he told reporters at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "I will allow the attorney general to explain and make his own case. By the end of the day, he knows all the facts, he knows all the circumstances."

Blumenthal's campaign has called the report an "outrageous distortion" but the Times is standing by its story. 

Democrats were originally happy that Blumenthal stepped in for Dodd. They feared that Dodd, the chairman of the Banking Committee, would have a tough time winning reelection due to his alleged involvement in the Countrywide Mortgage scandal.

The New Jersey senator did not say if he has spoken with Blumenthal and refrained from criticizing him.

"I think first of all, that Attorney General Blumenthal has been an incredible advocate for veterans," he said. "I think he has corrected the record in the past and that his actions speak as to where his heart is and his actions."

Menendez suggested that Blumenthal's Republican opponents, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon and former Rep. Rob Simmons, could be in trouble themselves. 

"Look, the reality is we have not gotten to the full vetting of the Republican candidate," he said. "There is plenty to talk about in that respect."

McMahon's critics have highlighted unseemly events during her time running the professional wrestling circuit, including allegations that players took performance enhancing drugs. 

Simmons served in a special operations unit in Vietnam during the war.

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room 

National Democrats are characterizing the special election for the late Rep. John Murtha's (D) Pennsylvania seat as a must-win for the GOP. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a release Monday noting the 12th district "is the only district in the country that Senator Kerry won and President Obama lost. … [It is] exactly the type of district that House Republicans need to win this cycle."

Meanwhile, the candidates have very different closing messages.  

Democrat Mark Critz, who was joined by Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) for several campaign stops Monday, continued to talk about jobs and the economy.
"I've laid out a jobs plan that will get folks back to work," Critz said in Washington, Pa. "Bringing economic development to western Pennsylvania will be my top priority."

Meanwhile, Republican Tim Burns directed his fire toward President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).



"This election is literally a referendum on the Obama-Pelosi agenda," Burns said at an event in Richland. "We are going to send a loud message to Washington that the American people are not going to stand for them not listening. We are going to take back this government."

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) painted former Gov. Terry Branstad (R) as a relic of the past in his reelection kick-off speech Monday.

Branstad, a four-term governor, is the favorite to emerge from the June 8 GOP gubernatorial primary with Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats and state Rep. Rod Roberts.

"That's really what this election is about on Nov. 2. It's a choice, a clear choice between building on our progress in this great state or going backward to the failed policies of Bush and Branstad," Culver told a crowd of Democrats in Ames. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to go back."

The Branstad camp responded by attacking Culver's record.

"The results of the Culver administration economic policies are unemployment at a 24-year high and more than 114,000 Iowans out of work," Jeff Boeyink, Branstad's campaign manager, said in a statement. "Contrast that with the record job creation and record low unemployment of the Branstad administration and it's not hard to understand why Iowans are asking Gov. Branstad to lead our state's economic comeback."

It also released a new TV spot touting Branstad's message of "conservative change." Kim Alfano of the Delaware-based firm Alfano Communications is producing Branstad's ads.

Voters cast ballots Tuesday in Arkansas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oregon, The New York Times torpedos Connecticut's "golden boy" and Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden's campaign bus may not be street-legal.

Gray Tuesday

Turnout is expected to be about 30 percent in the Kentucky Senate primary, where much of the attention is focused on the GOP power struggle between Rand Paul and Trey Grayson. On the Democratic side, the nominee will likely be either Attorney General Jack Conway or Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo.

In Arkansas, the focus has been on the state's two Senate primaries, but there are also House primaries for its three open seats.

The weather in Philadelphia on Tuesday is in the 50s, which could hurt Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) as the less-motivated Dem primary voters stay home. Specter's last-minute pitch to voters? He went after Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) for not saying he'd endorse him after the primary during an interview with CNN on Sunday. "Now who is the true Democrat?'' Specter asked Monday. ''Who is the true team player?''

A self-Swift-Boating?

Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal (D) is pushing back against a New York Times report that he routinely mischaracterized his service in the Marines during the Vietnam War.

"The New York Times story is an outrageous distortion of Dick Blumenthal's record of service," Mindy Myers, Blumenthal's campaign manager, said in a statement Monday. "Unlike many of his peers, Dick Blumenthal voluntarily joined the Marine Corps Reserves in 1970 and served for six months in Parris Island, S.C., and six years in the reserves. He received no special treatment from anyone."

He's holding an event Tuesday with veterans where he'll address the allegations. Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon's campaign is taking credit for putting the paper on the trail.

Girl on the bus

Lowden is being attacked for accepting the use of a tan, 2001 Monaco campaign bus as an in-kind contribution. A supporter of her Senate campaign is leasing her the bus, but its value likely exceeds the amount allowed under campaign finance rules. Moreover, Lowden's GOP rivals are beginning to attack her use of the bus.

"Like a typical insider, Sue Lowden doesn't think the rules apply to her," a spokesman for Republican Danny Tarkanian told the Las Vegas Sun. He referred to the bus as a "free ride."

Sen. Joe Lieberman has good relationships with the major candidates on both sides of the aisle in the Connecticut race.