Here's tonight's run-down of the Congressional races:
GOP Candidate's Ad: Democrats Have Blown Up Our (Fiscal) Houses
Wow. Check out this truly amazing new ad from former Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA), who lost her re-election in an upset in 2006, and is now in a rematch against Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire. The ad accuses the Democratic Congress of blowing up America's fiscal house:
Unfortunately, it looks like no real explosions were used in the making of this ad. Hart's campaign manager informed Election Central that the ad was most likely done with computers.
Franken's Closing Argument: Coleman Is "Trying To Fool You"
Here's Al Franken's new attack ad against Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), accusing him of running a "fake positive campaign" and lying about his political record and personal scandals:
"Norm Coleman really did take 52 trips paid for by special interests -- remember Alaska?" the announcer says. "Norm Coleman really does live in a million-dollar home owned by his special-interest friend. Norm Coleman really has voted with George Bush almost 90% of the time."
Here's today's run-down of the Congressional races:
Bachmann's Challenger Goes On The Air
Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) Democratic opponent El Tinklenberg is taking advantage of the huge windfall of donation he's gotten in the wake of Bachmann's Red-Scare-inciting Hardball appearance -- he's raised $700,000 in the last few days, and counting -- and is spending $188,000 to air this new spot introducing himself to voters:
This is very much a GOP district -- it voted 57%-42% for George W. Bush in 2004 -- but the Tinklenberg campaign hopes to capitalize on voter backlash against Bush Republicanism in general and against Bachmann's extremism in particular. Meanwhile, CQ has changed its rating on the race from "Republican Favored" to "Leans Republican."
Bachmann Denies Questioning Obama's Patriotism
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is firing back at critics of her McCarthyite statements on Hardball last week. "Despite the way the blogs and the Democratic Party are spinning it, I never called all liberals anti-American, I never questioned Barack Obama's patriotism," Bachmann writes in a guest op-ed for the Politico. Here's what Bachmann said, via Nexis: "Absolutely. I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views."
Here's tonight's run-down on the Congressional races:
GOP Pulls Out Of Only Possible Senate Pick-Up
The NRSC is pulling out of the Louisiana Senate race, which had been the only real opportunity for the GOP to pick up a Senate seat from the Democrats this year -- they are now playing 100% on defense. A Republican source confirmed to Election Central that their ads will be pulled.
Safe GOP Congressman Uses Jeremiah Wright In Attack Ad
Here's a new attack ad from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), remidning voters in this deep-red district that his opponent supports Barack Obama -- who in turn has an agenda shaped by Jeremiah Wright:
The odd thing here is that Scalise is considered an absolutely safe bet for re-election, even by the standards of a Democratic wave that many observers are expecting this year. Which means that he either knows something the rest of us don't, and thinks he could be in serious danger -- or he's just a bully.
Here's tonight's run-down on the Congressional races:
The Worst Press Conference Ever?
You really have to watch this excruciating press conference given by Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) campaign manager, in which he struggled to (not) answer questions about reports that his boss' clothes were paid for by one of his campaign contributors. Give it a look -- it's well worth your time.
House GOP Gets Huge Loan
In a sign of just how desperate things are going for the House Republicans, Roll Callreports that the NRCC has obtained an $8 million loan in order for them to be able to compete against their much better-funded Democratic counterparts. Deep thought: In this economy, one can only wonder what kind of interest rate they're being charged.
Welcome to our newest feature here at Election Central -- a roundup of the latest news on a lot of those important down-ballot races.
The presidential race is obviously the biggest thing out there, but all across the country there are a lot of important elections going on that will collectively have an enormous effect on the agenda this country pursues and how effectively the next president will be able to govern.
In these roundups we hope to give you an idea of the big picture going on in those races -- not to mention the individual races themselves in all their quirky, dramatic and often brutally negative glory.
Look for the roundup twice every weekday, one at roughly 11 a.m. ET and one at 6 p.m. ET.
And without further ado...
New Dem Ad Against Coleman: Forget Hockey, We Want Jobs
The DSCC is running this new ad against Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), who has been running humorous ads boasting about how he brought professional hockey back to the state. "I wish someone would bring the economy back," one woman says in the ad:
Dem Ad Against Sununu: "He Doesn't Even See Us"
Here's the DSCC's new ad against the very vulnerable Sen. John Sununu (R-NH), casting him as out of touch on the economy:
GOP Senator To Skip Debate, Opponent Will Speak Alone
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), who is in a competitive race for re-election in this blue state, will be skipping a debate scheduled for October 17 at the City Club of Portland. Instead, Democratic state House Speaker Jeff Merkley will stand alone and take questions from state journalists.
Smith Taking Heat On Illegal Immigration Story
Gordon Smith is also facing tough questions due to a story in the liberal paper Willamette Week that alleges his company, Smith Frozen Foods, employs illegal aliens. Smith appeared this week on the Lars Larson radio show, telling the state's premier right-wing talker that it's all a media hatchet-job, but Larson wasn't impressed and later toldThe Oregonian, "They've nailed him pretty well."
Poll: Dem Incumbent Up In Big Indiana House Race
A new SurveyUSA poll has Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN) ahead of Republican Mike Sodrel by a solid 50%-39% margin. This is the fourth consecutive time these two have run against each other -- Hill narrowly won in 2002, Sodrel then won in 2004, and Hill came back to defeat Sodrel in 2006.
Dem House Candidate Blasts Idaho's Sali For Staffers Doing Campaign Work
Walt Minnick, the Dem nominee running against controversial Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID), has unveiled a new pledgea in his quest to win in a deep-red district: That if elected, he will forbid or severely limit his staffers from working on his campaign. At least two of Sali's Congressional staffers do volunteer work on his campaign, saving him the campaign expense of hiring people to work full-time.
GOP Senators Still Not Paying Up To NRSC
The Senate GOP's campaign committee is still having big problems getting its members to donate sufficiently, and they've had to roll back or cancel ad reservations in important states like New Mexico. Said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who has nearly doubled his personal quota while others have stalled: "The Democrats want it more than we do."
A spokesman for Congressman Bill Sali is disputing a quote now going around the blogs, in which the Idaho Republican reportedly said that there are up to 40 barrels of crude oil in every tree. Needless to say, such a claim would be scientifically erroneous.
"I wasn't there," spokesman Wayne Hoffman told Election Central, "but I can assure you he didn't say there's 40 barrels of oil in a tree."
It's been noted that Sali said something virtually identical in 2006, when he was quoted by the Spokane Spokesman-Review saying that "Forty percent of the mass of every tree in the forest is crude oil."
Hoffman told us that the 2006 quote was "out of context."
Sali might have been referring to cellulosic ethanol in a very awkward fashion. "He believes there's a lot of potential for that, found right here in Idaho," Hoffman said.
In a sign that Democrats could have a serious shot at a normally very red Congressional district, first-term GOP Rep. Bill Sali of Idaho has now found himself badly outgunned financially for the fall.
Sali's second-quarter filing, which was filed late on Friday, shows he brought in $139,000 for the quarter, and has $250,000 on hand. Meanwhile, Dem businessman Walt Minnick raised $287,000 and has $444,000 on hand, for a nearly two to one advantage. The DCCC is also reserving $349,000 worth of advertising here for the fall, giving Minnick even more of an effective cash advantage.
On paper, this should be a safe Republican district, having voted 68%-30% for President Bush in 2004. But Sali is a controversial figure back home, and only won 50%-45% in an open-seat race in 2006. If the Dems were able to pull off a win here, it would be a very big deal.
You may recall that GOP Rep. Bill Sali generated some controversy last week after he criticized the delivery of a Hindu opening prayer in the Senate and condemned the election of freshman Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to serve in Congress.
Sali took some heat for saying that the country has been able to survive so long because of "the protective hand of God" and that events such as Ellison's election and the Hindu prayer create "problems for the longevity of this country."
Sali spokesman Wayne Hoffman told McClatchy News that Sali was unable to apologize in person to Ellison, who is out of the country, but the two have had an e-mail exchange that Hoffman characterized as "very pleasant and cordial in nature."
"He was hopeful that Congressman Ellison understands he meant no disrespect or harm from his comment, and that he hoped that he would meet with him when he returned to Washington, D.C.," Hoffman said.
Ellison's camp appeared to be magnanimous about the whole thing. "People have a bad day, they choose poorly chosen words ... he just simply doesn't choose to take any of that personally," said Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert.
We've just got done interviewing Wayne Hoffman, the spokesman for freshman Congressman Bill Sali, who generated a whole bunch of controversy for denouncing a recent Hindu invocation in the Senate and criticizing the election of a Muslim to the House.
The spokesman clarified Sali's remarks, insisting that his boss is not a bigot, and that he does not — emphatically not — think non-Christians should be barred from serving in Congress. Any notion that Sali has any problem with Hindu or Muslim officeholders, Hoffman insisted, is "far from the truth, far from reality."
ID-01: CQ's just shifted its ranking of the race in this staunchly conservative district between GOPer Bill Sali and Dem Larry Grant from "Likely Republican" to "Leans Republican": "Sali’s unpredictable temper and history of conflict with members of his own party, an issue in the primary campaign, has since made it unexpectedly difficult for him to get 1st District Republicans to close ranks behind him."
* KS-02:CQ's also changed its rating of the contest between GOPer Jim Ryun and Dem Nancy Boyda -- once seen as a sure GOP win thanks partly to Ryun's iconic status as a record-setting sprinter in college -- from from "Safe Republican" to "Likely Republican": "The fact that Bush, according to Associated Press, is expected to make a late campaign appearance for Ryun suggests GOP officials may be more worried about the Kansas 2 campaign than they let on. Officials with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee evidently saw something they liked. Although they still have not included this district on their list of targeted challenge races, they did make a small ad buy in late October."
This is interesting. Idaho's First District is a reliably conservative one where President Bush pulled 68% of the vote in 2004. But now CQ Politics says a GOP victory there isn't assured: It's changed its rating of the race for GOP Rep. Butch Otter's seat between GOP candidate Bill Sali and Dem Larry Grant from "Safe Republican" to "Republican Favored." CQ says: "Sali is running on a staunchly social conservative, limited government platform that ought to play well with the typical Idaho 1 voter. But Sali’s blunt personality and history of clashing with colleagues and leaders in the Idaho legislature have given some voters pause about sending him to Washington." The DCCC sees the contest as one of its "emerging races" -- contests where Dems have an unexpected shot in typically Republican strongholds.
Bill Sali, the GOP nominee for Rep. Butch Otter's seat, is refusing to back down from his contention that abortions cause breast cancer—a claim that is denied by the American Cancer Society but nevertheless surfaces from time to time among social conservatives. Sali, who is not a doctor, affirmed his position at last Friday's debate, cementing his established reputation for taking odd stances. This latest assertion by Sali shows once again that, though the GOP should have had no worries about this seat, Sali—having won a divided primary as the most conservative candidate—is the one Republican who could potentially lose it.
But, Sali insisted weapons were recently discovered and that early in the war weapons were spirited away to Syria. "I know that I saw it on the TV station," Sali said. "It might have only been on FOX, come to think of it."
Is anyone surprised by this? Sali had been widely cited as something of a loose cannon and possibly the only Republican who could lose this seat, so maybe it's true what Al Franken says: watching Fox News really is bad for your mental health.
A spokesman for Congressman Bill Sali is disputing a quote 
