Here's tonight's run-down on the Congressional races.

Minnesota GOP Accused Of Playing Up Racial Angle In House Race
Now this is awkward. The Minnesota Dems are circulating this tracker video of a state GOP press conference from Tuesday, in which reporters asked some very tough questions about wether the party was using race as an issue in saying that their House candidate Erik Paulsen better fits the "demographic" of the district than Democrat Ashwin Madia, who is Indian-American:

"I'm just saying from a demographic standpoint, Erik Paulsen fits the district very well," said state party chairman Ron Carey. A spokesperson for the state party declined to speak to Election Central when approached for comment.

Endangered GOP Senator Links Himself To Ted Kennedy In New Ad
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), who has fallen behind in the polls against Democrat Jeff Merkley in this blue state, has this new ad touting his support for gay rights -- and his work with Ted Kennedy on the issue:

Smith has previously run ads tying himself in with Barack Obama and John Kerry -- the latter of whom he'd previously called a socialist back in 2004.

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Here's tonight's run-down of the Congressional races: The bailout and the economic crisis continue to dominate the campaigns -- which is never good news for the GOP -- while the Republicans are fending off the attacks by charging that the Dems don't have any solutions, either.

Al Franken Opposes Bailout Bill
Al Franken has put out a press release strongly opposing the bailout bill, which incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman voted for: "Last night the United States Senate voted to take $700 billion from taxpayers who did nothing wrong and offer it as a sacrifice at the altar of financial mismanagement."

Smith And Merkley Joust Over The Bailout
Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is criticizing the bailout package, as well: "I have dedicated much of my life to advocating for consumers and I believe it is just wrong to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to bailout the very Wall Street financiers who created this crisis." Incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith (R) has fired back at Merkley, saying Merkley has "shamefully placed his partisan ambitions ahead of the retirement, financial and economic security of the people he seeks to serve."

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Here's today's run-down on the Congressional races: The Democrats are barreling ahead with more attacks against the GOP for the financial crisis, and more polling data is showing the economy dragging the Republicans down in key races.

House Dems Drop Almost $4.6 Million In One Day
The DCCC spent an enormous amount in yesterday's FEC filings, shelling out almost $4.6 million in 37 races. The Dems are spending $450,000 on offense for three seats in Ohio, $300,000 for two GOP seats in New Mexico, and half a million each in Arizona and Pennsylvania on both offense and defense -- a serious leveraging of their huge financial advantage over the House GOP.

Franken Ad Blasts Coleman For The Wall St. Crisis
Al Franken has this new ad against Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), tying Coleman to the financial crisis and the unpopular economic policies of George W. Bush:

"Who was looking out for us? Not Norm Coleman," the announcer says. "He's taken $2 million from Wall St. and financial interests -- more than any other Senate candidate in the country."

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There's been a big development in a key Michigan House race that national Dems view as one of their ripest pickup opportunities.

Last month, the DCCC scored a major recruiting success by luring state Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer into the race against vulnerable GOPer Tim Walberg. The remaining question for many Dems was whether the primary field would clear for Schaeur. Now, much to the delight of Dems, the last of the primary challengers has dropped out of the race.

National Dems view Walberg as vulnerable because they believe his extreme fiscal conservatism is out of touch with the generally moderate district and because the Dem challenger's base is in the heart of the district. What's more, Walberg had a very poor showing last time out -- he won the general election in 2006 by only 5% -- despite the fact that his opponent was badly under-funded.

A moderate Republican who felt the wrath of the religious right and lost his race as a result has just blasted back at his tormentors. Moderate GOP Rep. Joe Schwarz -- who was defeated for re-election in the August 8 primary -- has told the Detroit News that "right wing indimidators" are "driving moderates out of the party." Schwarz adds that some of his friends and supporters have told him that his loss was enough to drive them from the GOP -- and that he may follow.