Congressional Elections 2010

The upcoming congressional elections offer the first opportunity for corporations to spend freely on federal campaigns since the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back key restrictions last month. California provides a glimpse of what's to come. Corporations, trade groups and unions have long been allowed to influence state political races. California has permitted them to wage independent campaigns, paying for ads, mailers and get-out-the-vote operations -- the same apparatus now approved for federal contests.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's unusual write-in bid to hold on to her Alaska Senate seat appeared to be gaining steam in early returns Tuesday, but analysts warned that the state could be in for a long, close ballot count whose official outcome may remain unknown for weeks. With early ballots and about 58% of the precincts tallied, write-in votes -- most presumably cast for Murkowski -- were leading with 39%. Tea Party Express-backed Republican Joe Miller was trailing with 35%, while Democrat Scott McAdams had 24%. The early lead in write-in ballots suggested Murkowski had a chance of pulling off the first successful write-in campaign for the Senate since 1954.

A leading Latino lawmaker asserted Monday that Latinos, angered at President Obama for his failure to push immigration reform legislation, could stay home from the polls this year. "People are angry and disillusioned," U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said in an interview. Gutierrez criticized the Obama administration for not pushing harder for legislation that would provide an opportunity for legalization for some immigrants. But he conceded that he lacks the votes in the House to pass the bill he backs.

Democratic Sen. Harry Reid on Tuesday bested Republican upstart Sharron Angle to win the U.S. Senate contest in Nevada, a costly, closely watched brawl that pitted one of President Obama's top lieutenants against a "tea party" favorite. "Today Nevada chose hope over fear. Nevada chose to move forward, not backward," Reid said in a brief speech that ended in an exuberant burst of confetti. Earlier in the evening, several hundred Democrats who had gathered anxiously at the Aria hotel-casino here roared when the Senate majority leader clinched victory.

A commotion unfolds in the tiny public library here as the staff searches for a copy of the memoir written by Harry Reid, Senate Democratic leader and Searchlight native. "Has anyone seen Harry's book?" a librarian calls out. A local patron grabs a trash can and peers inside: "It's not where it's supposed to be," he says. In his hometown at least, there seems to be little affection for Reid, whom some residents describe as a distant figure out of touch with local concerns.

Joseph Cao -- the most politically endangered member of Congress, the one and only Republican who voted for President Obama's healthcare plan, a target of Democrats and a source of frustration to many in his own party -- is facing a hometown crowd. "Oftentimes I'm pretty sure that decisions I make might not be the decisions you would make," the lawmaker tells about 125 people lured by free beer and jambalaya to a smoky tavern near downtown. "You might want to scream and bang your head against the wall" or "reach out and strangle me," he continues, but one constant, his one guiding principle, is "a focus on service . . . how I could better serve the people of my district."

A national coalition of conservative activists plans to endorse Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in the U.S. Senate race, spurning two more popular candidates in favor of the underdog bidding to take on Democrat Barbara Boxer. The Tea Party Express, whose backing helped propel Scott Brown in his successful effort to claim the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts, will announce the endorsement Saturday at a Nevada rally headlined by conservative stalwarts such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who is better known as Joe the Plumber.

Is this the gaffe that will haunt Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? The Nevada Democrat -- who over the years has called Alan Greenspan a hack, Washington tourists smelly and President George W. Bush a liar -- was pummeled by Republicans on Sunday for impolitic comments about President Obama's potential for winning the White House. In their new book "Game Change," authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann say that in 2008 Reid described candidate Obama as a " 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one,' " whom many voters would embrace.

Republican candidates for Congress are latching onto Scott Brown's bolt-from-the-blue win this week in the Massachusetts Senate race, with political outsiders and longtime office-holders alike casting themselves in a similar mold -- or seeing him in their image. Brown was a fairly obscure state senator who shocked the Democratic favorite, Martha Coakley, in the race to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) by employing a tightly focused, populist, anti- Washington message.

If Sen. Arlen Specter defected from the GOP to avoid a tough primary fight, he failed: The highest-ranking military veteran to serve in Congress will announce today that he is seeking Pennsylvania's Democratic senatorial nomination. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), a two-term lawmaker and former Navy vice admiral, will declare his candidacy during a two-day tour around the state, culminating Wednesday with an appearance on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report."

Democrat Jerry Brown has moved into a narrow lead over Republican Meg Whitman in their fractious contest for governor, while his party colleague Barbara Boxer has opened a wider margin over GOP nominee Carly Fiorina in the race for U.S. Senate, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has found. The Democratic candidates were benefiting from their party's dominance in California and the continued popularity here of President Obama, who has retained most of his strength in the state even as he has weakened in other parts of the country.

In the days before the healthcare vote, Republicans passionately argued that the reform package was an affront to personal liberty and threatened the nation's very future. One GOP leader angrily declared that it would lead to "Armageddon." A few days earlier, former Rep. Tom Campbell was about to deliver a routine speech touting himself as the best Republican to take on Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, when he departed from his prepared remarks to talk about healthcare. Campbell delivered a detailed and dispassionate critique of Democratic maneuvers to pass the legislation.

A national coalition of conservative activists plans to endorse Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in the U.S. Senate race, spurning two more popular candidates in favor of the underdog bidding to take on Democrat Barbara Boxer. The Tea Party Express, whose backing helped propel Scott Brown in his successful effort to claim the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts, will announce the endorsement Saturday at a Nevada rally headlined by conservative stalwarts such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who is better known as Joe the Plumber.

When freshman Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey voted against President Obama's healthcare plan in November, she won the respect of independent voters like Doug Collins, a general contractor here who hadn't supported her in 2008 but after her vote thought: "She's not voting her party line, she's voting her conscience." On Sunday night, however, Markey voted for the legislation, saying the final version satisfied her fiscal concerns. Her vote helped win passage of the landmark bill, but it could come at a cost.

As the office phones buzzed, party leaders hectored and protesters outside roared, several undecided House Democrats this weekend faced an unpleasant and all-too-realistic prospect: that voting for the healthcare overhaul could doom their careers. Some bit their lips and went ahead, perhaps saying a silent prayer along the way. But others begged off, declining to support the bill for a number of reasons, including its effect on state Medicaid budgets and concerns about its effect on seniors.

Democrats may feel today as though they just fought -- and won -- the equivalent of a 100-year war. The House passage Sunday night of sweeping healthcare legislation ends months of caustic debate over the plan and the way it was enacted, marked by a steep decline in approval for Democrats almost everywhere. Now, they hope, the discussion will finally shift in their favor. President Obama was spared a devastating defeat, and squabbling lawmakers showed they could accomplish something epic and important in the face of unanimous GOP opposition.

In just the last couple of weeks, he clumsily pronounced a Supreme Court justice to be near death and suggested he could sue a fellow senator and the Republican Party. He's raised almost no money for his reelection bid next year and is in serious danger of losing his once-safe seat to the other party. Party insiders are terrified practically every time he opens his mouth, but he seems determined not to go gently into the night.

The Supreme Court's decision Thursday to wipe out most campaign spending limits, coming on top of the Massachusetts Senate race upset, could prove to be a major blow to Democrats and a boost to Republicans in the November midterm elections. The Massachusetts vote -- which ended the Democrats' filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate -- is already reverberating through business-oriented interest groups and lobbyists. Some are rethinking their willingness to cooperate with President Obama on such contentious issues as healthcare and the environment.

As Republicans and Democrats gear up across the country to fight this fall over seats in the House of Representatives, much of the focus in California is on the June 8 primaries. Especially in the two districts with open seats, the races will provide relatively rare change in the state's 53-member delegation. Two veteran representatives are retiring, Democrat Diane Watson of Los Angeles, first elected to Congress in 2001, and Republican George Radanovich of the Central Valley, who initially won the office in 1994.

The upcoming congressional elections offer the first opportunity for corporations to spend freely on federal campaigns since the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back key restrictions last month. California provides a glimpse of what's to come. Corporations, trade groups and unions have long been allowed to influence state political races. California has permitted them to wage independent campaigns, paying for ads, mailers and get-out-the-vote operations -- the same apparatus now approved for federal contests.