The Republican National Committee (RNC) says it will report $31 million cash on hand through the end of March in its next filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The RNC and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) last filed with the FEC in March, when the RNC reported $25,002,762 cash on hand to the DNC's $4,756,905, an advantage of over $20.2 million for the RNC. According to the March filing reports, the RNC outraised the DNC $10,268,811 to $6,022,958 in February.
Americans United for Change, a group founded in 2005 to oppose Social Security privatization, will launch radio ads tomorrow attacking GOP incumbents for supporting President Bush's economic policies.
The ads will air for a week, and will go after Sens. Norm Coleman (D-Minn.) and John Sununu (R-N.H.) in their home states, as well as Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Don Young (R-Alaska), Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.), and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) in media markets in their home districts.
The GOP incumbents are top targets of the Democratic Party, as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has already taken aim at Coleman and Sununu in television ads, and the DCCC has listed the House incumbents' districts as targets on its website.
The ads will say that each candidate is "two peas in a pod" with President Bush for supporting the Iraq war and "tax giveaways for the wealthy and big oil companies." The ads will also criticize the Fed's financing of the Bear Stearns buyout.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate, has started a new political action committee to support conservative congressional candidates.
Huckabee, in a release announcing the launch of Huck PAC, said that the committee will help John McCain in the general election and "assist conservative, pro-life and pro-family candidates to Senate and House seats."
The first batch of candidates the PAC will support includes: Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.),
Senate Democrats have long accused Republicans of "unprecedented" obstructionism on the floor, and have kept an ongoing tally of what they say are Republican stalling tactics to keep legislation from advancing.
In February, Harry Reid took to the floor and said there had been 72 Republican filibusters this Congress, smashing a previously held two- year record of 57 filibusters.
But today Reid displayed a sign that on the floor that said there only were 65 Republican filibusters, reports Manu Raju, The Hill's Senate reporter.
Why the change?
"This is a number that is probably higher than this, but let's assume this is right," Reid said. "Last time we came out and said there was 70-plus filibusters, they said, 'Oh, not that many. Not that many.' So 65 for the purposes of this discussion."
Republicans have complained that Democrats have inflated the filibuster numbers, counting attempts by the majority to prematurely shut down debate as GOP filibusters.
But Democrats say that even if the number is slightly off, the point is this: Republicans have gone to lengths to stall and derail their agenda to make the Democratic-run Congress look bad heading into November.
Ashwin Madia won the endorsement of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in his bid for Congress, all but assuring him of his party's nomination in his Twin Cities-area race.
Madia, an Iraq war veteran and an attorney, won the endorsement at the Democrats' statewide convention on Saturday. His rival for the nomination, state Sen. Terri Bonoff, has said she would abide by the endorsement despite a September primary.
Republicans have rallied behind state Sen. Erik Paulsen (R) as their candidate. The winner in November will succeed Rep. Jim Ramstad, a moderate Republican who has held the seat since 1991. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted the seat as a possible pick-up opportunity.
Madia, 30, had started the race as an underdog to Bonoff, who had received the support of local elected officials. But Madia gained traction by stressing bipartisanship and calling for "a responsible end" to the Iraq war.
"We can usher in a new form of patriotism that places solving problems above the same petty Inside-the-Beltway games that have steered our country so far off course," said Madia, who is 30 years old.
Minnesota GOP chairman Ron Carey fired off a statement after Saturday's endorsement that tried to called Madia "too partisan and too liberal" for the district.
"Given his far-left views, Ashwin Madia is the last person who should fill the seat of a bipartisan problem solver and moderate like Jim Ramstad," Carey wrote.
New Mexico Democratic Congressman Tom Udall is up big over both potential Republican opponents in the race to replace retiring Sen. Pete Domenici (R) according to a new Rasmussen poll. Udall leads Republican Congressman Steve Pearce 54-40 percent and is up 20 points over Rep. Heather Wilson.
The NRCC began airing an attack ad on Louisiana TV last night taking aim at Don Cazayoux, the Democratic candidate to succeed Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.). Cazayoux will face off against Republican newspaper publisher Woody Jenkins in the state's sixth district special election May 3.
NRCC spokesman Ken Spain told The Hill the ad would run for one week. To attack Cazayoux in the conservative-leaning district (it voted 59% for Bush in 2004), the NRCC tapped a traditional conservative issue -- taxes -- suggesting Cazayoux should change his name to "Don Tax You."
Cazayoux's campaign did not return calls for comment.
DCCC spokeswoman Kyra Jennings, however, told The Hill that other prominent Louisiana Republicans -- Rep. Rodney Alexander and first congressional district candidate Steve Scalise -- also supported the tax-raising bills cited by the NRCC's ad.
Mark Warner, already the favorite to replace Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), raised $2.5 million in the first quarter for his race.
Mark Warner had raised $3.85 million before January for the Senate campaign. His likely general election challenger, former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R), raised just $751,322 before this quarter.
Warner, who took advice from MyDD's Jerome Armstrong when he was considering a 2008 presidential run, released a video to thank his supporters for donating to his campaign. Watch it below:
A new ad from Kentucky Democrat Bruce Lunsford attacks Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for being a Washington insider. Lunsford is vying to challenge McConnell for his Senate seat.
"Mitch McConnell has been in the Senate 24 year. Washington's changed him, and things are getting worse," Lunsford says in the ad.
Except for the hit at McConnell, the ad is mostly biographical, introducing Lunsford's experience as a businessman and in the military.
McConnell campaign spokesman Justin Brasell declined to comment.
Democrat and Iraq war veteran Ashwin Madia got a boost today in his bid for a Minneapolis-area House seat, receiving the endorsement of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).
Madia had started the primary race as an underdog to state Sen. Terri Bonoff. But he now leads Bonoff in Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) delegates, who usually determine the party's congressional nominees. The party believes it has a shot at taking the seat, now held by retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.).
Ellison called Madia, 30, "one of the most dynamic young voices in our DFL Party."
"He has electrified the delegates in the Third District and rightly so," Ellison said in a release. "His compassionate, common-sense progressivism, coupled with his impressive credentials, and his energetic ability to inspire so many new people into political action have convinced me that Madia is the best choice as our DFL-endorsed candidate."
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