House Race Roundup

by brownsox [courtesy of Daily Kos]

FL-24: Abramoff-tainted Republican Tom Feeney went on the air a few weeks ago with an unintentionally hilarious ad where he gave a pseudo-mea-culpa for hanging with The Trenchcoat.

Florida bloggers have released this web video skewering Feeney (apologies for the mixup):

MN-03: Democrat Ashwin Madia leads Republican Erik Paulsen in this open-seat race, per a DCCC poll:

Bennett, Petts & Normington for the DCCC. 9/29-30. Likely voters. MoE 4%.

The Minnesota GOP has taken a vaguely racist tack against Madia of late, referring to his opponent Paulsen as being "demographically" "one of them".

Good to see it isn't working.

FL-21, FL-25: This is not good for Fidel's nephews, the Diaz-Balart brothers in Florida:

Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart has procured millions in federal funding to benefit a small Miami-Dade defense-contracting group that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to his political campaign and that of his brother, fellow U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

Medley contractors Locust USA and Mark Two Engineering began contributing to the Diaz-Balarts' campaigns and political action committees in 2001, the year Locust secured its first small defense contract. Through this year, those contributions totaled more than $67,000.

Locust was awarded $20.8 million in Pentagon research and development contracts from 2001-2007, federal contracting records show.

At least 44 percent, $9.2 million, came through Congressional earmarks sponsored by Lincoln Diaz-Balart, The Miami Herald found. The largest -- $3.7 million -- came in 2006.

The brothers are locked in the races of their life - Lincoln against former Hialeah mayor Raul Martinez, and Mario against Orange to Blue Democrat Joe Garcia, the former chair of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party.

This is exceptionally bad timing for the Republican brothers, so close to the election.

LA-01, LA-02, LA-06: Dick Cheney is coming to Louisiana to fundraise for Sixth District aspirant Bill Cassidy, who is running against incumbent Democrat Don Cazayoux.

Daily Kingfish's Ryan has some fine background on the race at his site, and also notes this fascinating tidbit: Democrat Jim Harlan received more votes in Saturday's Louisiana primaries than Republican incumbent Steve Scalise received in the May special election, total.

The district is as close to unwinnable for a Democrat as you're likely to get, but Harlan seems likely to provide the strongest Democratic performance there in decades.

NY-26: Good news out of this district: apparently, Democrat Jon Powers, who lost in the primary to Alice Kryzan but maintained the nomination of the Working Families Party, has decided to move out of state, which would permit the WFP to give their nomination to Kryzan.

In other words, Powers will not be on the ballot as a Democratic spoiler.

From the Buffalo News via The Albany Project:

Efforts are under way to make Democrat Alice J. Kryzan the new candidate of the Working Families Party in the 26th Congressional District, giving her another line on the ballot in her campaign against Republican Christopher J. Lee.

James A. Duncan, chairman of the Erie County Working Families Party, said today he expects Kryzan to take over the line because previous candidate Jon Powers has moved out of state. While the State Board of Elections in Albany has not yet received notification from Powers, Duncan said he expects it to arrive soon.

"This certainly is an additional plus for Alice," he said. "We hope to have this wrapped up by the end of the day."

Kryzan is down in the polls, but not sharing the ballot with Powers ought to give her some kind of boost.