Orange to Blue roundup, 9/25/2012

What's new in the Orange to Blue races? Keep reading.

Speaker Pelosi Project:

CA-07: It's been a while since we checked in on Ami Bera in his bid to oust Rep. Dan Lungren. There's some encouraging news, in that the secretary of state is reporting that Democrats have regained an edge in voter registrations in this closely watched rematch.

FL-22: Eric Cantor's Young Guns Action fund, yet another Super PAC, has been running an ad against Lois Frankel alleging that when she was mayor of West Palm Beach, she had caused a budget deficit. Frankel has succeeded in getting one station to pull the ad because it's inaccurate. The city is required by law to have a balanced budget; there was not deficit under Frankel's watch. Small victories on the way to the big one.

IL-13: David Gill has been attacked by the conservative American Action Network (AAN) for supporting a single-payer health care program. Now the National Republican Congressional Committee has jumped on the bandwagon, taking a short statement by Gill that "Medicare would no longer exist" totally out of context. Of course, what Gill was explaining was that a Medicare for All program would mean that Medicare wouldn't exist as it is now, but would be part of a universal single-payer program that would provide everyone, seniors included, with health care. Not with vouchers.

MN-06: Rep. Michele Bachmann pays opponent Jim Graves a compliment, though that's probably not what she intended when she sent out a fundraising appeal telling supporters that she's in the "most heated race of my political career." That's sure what we intended. By the way, we made some local news with our Hell to Pay for Graves. Good job, team Orange.

NH-01: The Concord Monitor is "flabbergasted" over "bizarre" remarks made in yesterday's debate between tea party freshman Frank Guinta and challenger, former Rep. Carol Shea Porter, on the idea of creating a commuter train line from Massachusetts up to Concord. Guinta thinks it's a bad idea to encourage New Hampshire residents to find work in Massachusetts. For real.

NY-18: Good news for our most recent Orange to Blue addition, Sean Patrick Maloney. The Working Families Party has endorsed him, and he will appear on the WFP ballot line, as well as the Democratic line, on November's ballot. (Early ballots, however, might have already gone out with the WFP placeholder Larry Weissman on the ballot.) Polling in the Maloney's race against tea party freshmen Rep. Nan Hayworth has given Hayworth double digit leads, but that's in a three-way contest. However, PPP just polled the race for the AFL-CIO, and found that, in a two-way race, it's all tied up at 43 percent.

PA-08: Democrat Kathy Boockvar has a pretty clever new ad out against Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick. Politics PA writes it up:

How do you beat an incumbent who's well known and well liked in his district? Stick to his votes. That's exactly the message of Democrat Kathy Boockvar's clever new television ad, which casts incumbent Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick as an ill-fitting shirt.

Upgrade the Senate:

CT-Sen: Linda McMahon has been busy trying to convince Connecticut voters that she isn't really anti-woman, thanks to a smart ad from Democrat Chris Murphy. Maybe that's all to try to change the subject from this Stamford Courant story: 'For the second time in less than a week, a review of municipal records by The Courant show that McMahon also failed to pay her property taxes on time. She paid the property taxes on her Greenwich home late four times since 1984 and was assessed close to $2,000 in interest and penalties. This comes a few days after news that McMahon was six weeks late this month paying taxes on a Stamford condo she owns with her husband Vince.' Oops.

OH-Sen: This is good for Sen. Sherrod Brown: He has a 53-41 lead over challenger Josh Mandel. Also good for Brown, Salon reports that Mandel deliberately avoided paying payroll taxes for his campaign staff when he was running for state treasurer in 2010. Treasurer. The person in charge of the state's books. Yeesh.

WI-Sen: No wonder Tammy Baldwin is surging in this race against crotchety old Tommy Thompson. He's Romney-like in his ability to say really stupid things. Like this from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Republican Senate candidate Tommy G. Thompson told a tea party group in June that he wants to 'do away with the Medicare and Medicaid'" ' Presumably referring to his efforts as governor to eliminate Wisconsin's welfare program, Thompson said, "[W]ho better than me ' to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare?'' And he thinks Wisconsin voters are going to be scared by the word liberal?

Daily Kos for Marriage Equality:

Maryland: Labor is stepping up to organize for the gay marriage referendum.

The state AFL-CIO and SEIU are full partners in the Marylanders for Marriage Equality coalition, Nix says, as is the Maryland State Education Association, an affiliate of the giant National Education Association. Smaller partners are Washington, D.C.-based UNITE HERE Local 25 and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 70.

Washington: The National Organization for Marriage is kicking in $250,000 into the campaign against marriage equality in Washington, with promises of more to come.