Congressional Elections 2008

Having come up short in campaigns for governor, lieutenant governor, state controller and Congress, Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock is making another run at higher office, prospecting for votes for a congressional seat here in Gold Country, hundreds of miles from his Ventura County-based legislative district.

Anton Gunn is a Democratic candidate for the statehouse. He is also a black man running in a majority-white district -- a swath of Old South countryside and new suburban sprawl that hasn't elected a Democrat in 24 years. Two years ago, Gunn ran for the same office and lost. But he believes that 2008 is his year. He has learned a lot since then as state political director for Barack Obama's primary campaign in South Carolina.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, has out-raised his Democratic challenger by more than 2 to 1 in his reelection campaign. A 23-year veteran, he's a mainstay of politics in Kentucky, a state that President Bush easily won and that GOP presidential nominee John McCain is expected to carry. Yet two weeks before the election, McConnell's reelection is in question.

Elwyn Tinklenberg is living the long-shot candidate's political dream. There weren't enough chairs for the volunteers crammed inside the four-room campaign office Wednesday morning. Every time aides hit "refresh" on their computers, hundreds more online donations appeared. Downstairs, the postal carrier spent 10 minutes trying to cram a two-foot stack of envelopes stuffed with checks into the mail slot.

The diners at Butch's Family Restaurant gave Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss the warmest of welcomes when he stopped in recently. They smiled as he moved from table to table, shaking hands and asking after each of them with avuncular concern. A local pastor prayed for Chambliss, calling him a man who "stands for principles we believe in." "Aw, I'm getting a hug," said one middle-aged voter as she lunged toward the silver-haired lawmaker.

The comedian's opening act warmed up the crowd, whose laughter echoed inside the cavernous lobby of the University of Minnesota's McNamara Alumni Center. Then the headliner stepped onto the stage, took the microphone in hand . . . and didn't tell a joke. Lately, Minnesotans have been seeing a more serious side of comedian Al Franken, one of the original writers for "Saturday Night Live" and author of the book "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot."

California Republicans once expected to cruise to reelection in Congress are now locked in fierce battles to retain their seats, as the nation's economic crisis propels Democrats fighting for districts they have not held in a generation. Democrats and Republicans alike are all but certain that Barack Obama will easily win California's 55 electoral votes. Some think he could help carry one or more Democratic challengers to Congress. Democrats already hold 34 of the state's 53 congressional seats.

The prospects for big Democratic gains in the House, amplified by advances in the Senate and a White House victory, have spurred grave Republican warnings of a shift to the left that could bring increases in spending, taxes and regulation. But if anything, a number of potential Democratic newcomers have been running well to the right of their party's leader, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

A wintry edge was in the air as five teams of unlikely looking political organizers, many of them from out of town, left the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce office on a wind-swept downtown street last week and fanned out to visit more than 200 businesses, proselytizing bank tellers, restaurant managers and factory owners alike.

Two years ago, Democrats wrested control of Congress from Republicans. Today, they are expected to expand their House and Senate majorities. Senate Democrats, who hold a 51-49 majority with the help of two independents, hope to wind up with the 60 seats needed to overcome Republican-led filibusters, a threshold they have not reached since Jimmy Carter was president. One complication is the party's tension with Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, one of the independents.