In case you were distracted by Mark Warner's electrifying speech last night, there were a number of hot congressional primaries in Alaska and Florida yesterday. Here's a quick round-up of last night's action:

• AK-Sen (D): Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich won the Democratic Senate nomination with an impressive 91% of the vote, with 98% of precincts reporting.
• AK-Sen (R): Ted Stevens survived his primary against banker Dave Cuddy and Floridian beardo Vic Vickers (and several other also-rans), but only with 63.5% of the vote.
• AK-AL (D): Ethan Berkowitz won the Democratic nomination for the state's at-large House seat by a 59-41 margin over '06 candidate Diane Benson. Alaskan Independence Party candidate Don Wright received 5600 votes and will also appear on the November ballot.
• AK-AL (R): With 98% of precincts reporting and many absentee ballots still outstanding, Don Young has taken a 145-vote lead over Sean Parnell. This race is heading into "contentious recount territory" real fast.
• FL-08 (D & R): Democrat Alan Grayson upset '06 nominee Charlie Stuart by a 48-28 margin for the right to take on Ric Keller in November. Keller, meanwhile, barely survived his primary challenge from right-wing radio personality Todd Long, with only 53% of the vote to Long's 47%.
• FL-09 (D): In a bit of an upset for the DCCC, attorney Bill Mitchell beat out wealthy former Plant City Mayor John Dicks by a 38-33 margin for the nomination against frosh GOP Rep. Gus Bilirakis.
• FL-10 (D): Dunedin Mayor Bob Hackworth dispatched '06 nominee and Ron Paul acolyte Samm Simpson by a 47-29 margin for the chance to take on longtime GOP Rep. Bill Young. Max Linn, a self-funding candidate who ran for Governor in 2006 on the Reform ticket, only earned 24% of the vote.
• FL-15 (D & R): Physician Stephen Blythe crushed pilot Paul Rancatore by a 65-35 margin for the Democratic nomination for this open seat. Republicans nominated state Sen. Bill Posey with 77% of the vote, and he seems poised to run away with this race come November.
• FL-16 (R): Pittsburgh Steelers heir Ed Tom Rooney won a tight three-way race by a 37-35-28 margin for the GOP nod to face off with Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney.
• FL-24 (D): Former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas crushed '06 nominee Clint Curtis by a 72-28 margin. Kosmas will face ethically-challenged GOP Rep. Tom Feeney in November.

House Races

MN-03: Democrat Ashwin Madia, running for the open seat of retiring GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad, is up with his first ad. I like the production values:

PA-10: Via SSP, SurveyUSA polls the race (8/23-25, likely voters, MoE: ±4.0%):

Those are some fairly hairy numbers for Carney, who is running for his first re-election bid -- any incumbent below the 50% bubble has to be concerned. His favorability numbers are decent (40% favorable, 23% unfavorable, and 30% neutral), but clearly show that he could stand to boost his profile some more at home.

In better news, the poll continues to throw some cold water onto the NRCC's "drilling=electoral profit!!" hopes. When asked if they would vote for a candidate who favors increased offshore drilling or one who favors promoting alternative sources of energy as a way to combat the energy crisis, voters in Pennsylvania's 10th choose the candidate touting alternative energy over the driller by a 54-36 margin. This confirms similar results we've seen in the past couple of days from CO-04 and KS-02. If the GOP's drilling message can't sell in conservative red districts like these, where can it be effective?

CT-04: Because nothing spells "confidence" like crashing your opponent's press conference to make your own whiny defense, GOP Rep. Chrissy Shays does exactly that, and embarrasses himself in the process.

NY-26: Everyone's favorite nutjob, crazy Jack Davis ("D"), says that immigrants from Mexico will start a new Civil War:

Congressional candidate Jack Davis, in a speech earlier this year, warned that increasing immigration from Mexico could lead to a new civil war between northern states and Mexican-influenced Southern states that may want to secede from the United States.

"In the latter part of this century or the next, Mexicans will be a majority in many of the states and could therefore take control of the state government using the democratic process," Davis said in the speech. "They could then secede from the United States, and then we might have another civil war." [...]

"They have an allegiance to Mexico, where they were taught the U. S. fought an unjust war with Mexico and took this territory," Davis said. "They believe the territory of these states belongs to Mexico."

If this lunatic beats Jon Powers in the Democratic primary here, I think a little piece of me will die inside. (Via SSP)

Senate Races

RNCC: You know it's a rough year for Republicans when even Mike Johanns of Nebraska won't show up to their convention. In fact, the only GOP Senators up for re-election who are speaking in St. Paul are Mitch McConnell and home-state host Norm Coleman, who is slated to address the convention not once, but twice!

DNCC: Meanwhile, in Denver, Jeff Merkley, Jeanne Shaheen, Tom Allen and Tom Udall are all addressing the convention today. Don't miss it!

NC-Sen: Shorter Liddy Dole: "The DSCC sunk my battleship!"

MS-Sen-B: Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says that the Republican Secretary of State's flirtation with pushing Mississippi's special Senate election to the bottom of the ballot flies in the face of the law. Of course, fair elections and the rule of law have not exactly been the GOP's strong suit as of late.

In this day and age, it can be awful hard defending your allegiance to today's Republican Party. For Rep. Chris Shays, it proved so difficult that he's now masquerading as some Obamaesque Democratic/Republican hybrid. Witness:

That's right, lifelong Republican Chris Shays is leading his ads with an image of the Democratic presidential nominee.

Shays is a co-chair of McCain's campaign, of course.

And as for his apparent claims to transcend partisanship and other cool stuff like that...well, the campaign of Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes would beg to differ. For it seems Shays, despite his bluster, in fact votes with his Republican brethren nine out of ten times - on the closest and most critical of votes.

Some examples:

- Voting against tax cuts for the middle class, including voting against extending credits for college tuition and voting against exempting middle class families from the Alternative Minimum Tax (HR 3996) - Voting against a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq (HR 1591) - Voting to allow torture by CIA interrogators (HR 2082)

He inflates his "bipartisan credentials" in other words, by siding with Democrats when he isn't needed.

On the web:
Jim Himes for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

Rep. Christopher Shays (CT-04), the only incumbent Republican House member from New England, must have some polling numbers showing a combination of a very tight race against OrangetoBlue Democrat Jim Himes and some rather overwhelming numbers for Barack Obama in the district.

Why else would he, so early in the campaign, put up this misleading and disingenuous TV ad which opens with a picture of Barack Obama and a voice-over praising "The hopefulness of Obama...."  The ad began running yesterday on local feeds of national cable including MSNBC.

News from tonight's primaries:

In Connecticut's Fourth District, Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes administered a severe electoral beating to his primary opponent, Lee Whitnum.

How severe?

Himes won 87% to 13%. Granted, Whitnum was an exceptionally weak opponent, but still, a 74-point win is not bad.

In Colorado's Second District - perhaps the one of most interest to Democrats, as the Democratic primary here will determine the next Representative from a safe Democratic district - Jared Polis leads Joan Fitz-Gerald by just under 1,400 votes, with just 30% of the vote counted. Polis has 43% of the vote, to Fitz-Gerald's 39%.

The third candidate, Will Shafroth, trails with 18% and is pretty much done.

In the Fifth District, widely loathed GOP incumbent Doug Lamborn has apparently lived to fight another year. Lamborn picked up 46% of the vote in his reelection bid (it's an R+16 district, so the Republican primary usually is the election here).

His two rivals, Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn, have 29% and 26%, respectively, with 58% of the vote in.

Meanwhile in the Sixth District, Tom Tancredo's old stomping grounds, 93% of the vote is in, and it appears that Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman has fended off fellow Republican Wil Armstrong (son of former Sen. Bill Armstrong) to win the nomination (and almost certainly win election).

This has two side effects. First, the next Colorado Secretary of State will be a Democrat, appointed by Democratic Governor Bill Ritter.

Second, Coffman has been mentioned as a potential U.S. Senate candidate for 2010, against Democratic incumbent Sen. Ken Salazar. A loss here would have neatly ended such talk, but Coffman's victory makes a future Senate run a bit more likely. With a statewide electoral pedigree, it would seem the GOP could come up with worse candidates than Coffman.

At 10:35 pm with more than 60% of precincts reporting in the Democratic primary for Connecticut's 4th Congressional District, OrangetoBlue candidate Jim Himes appears well on his way to a resounding victory with 90% of the vote in this primary election.

Jim Himes will now set his sights on the general election race for the 4th C.D. seat currently held by Rep. Christopher Shays.

Congressman Shays, a 20-year incumbent, is the last remaining Republican U.S. House member from New England.

Just a quick glimpse of dedicated people working hard for the Himes campaign  in Connecticut ~

Do we look worried?

In CT-04, we're lucky. We get to vote for a great candidate twice. The More half the equation is November 4th; the Better half is today, August 12th, primary day.

I'd be proud to support Jim Himes no matter where he was running (or against whom), but against Loony Lee Whitnum in this primary (and Both Ways Shays in the general!), it's twice as nice and twice as important. Two years ago we helped put Ned Lamont over the top; now let's give his good friend and one of his earliest supporters as resounding a victory as possible.

Jim would certainly be More--here's why he's Better. He left Wall Street to work for a non-profit foundation that builds affordable and green housing, has been an active Democrat (including Town Chair), and is running a people-centric campaign, the kind we've argued Dems should run. Most recently, he showed his true colors in soundly condemning the FISA "compromise" and would have made Connecticut's House delegation unanimous in opposition.

More below the fold...

(Jim, Mary, Emma, and Linley Himes voting this morning in CT-04.)

It's finally here: primary day in CT-04! Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes is taking on "Hedge Fund Mistress" author Lee Whitnum in what is shaping up to be a very low-turnout contest for the Democratic nomination to take on Chris Shays in November.

There's a primary today.  It's a nuisance, top to bottom, pitting a candidate who has been vetted every which way and fervently supported by every legitimate body in the district and state against a person who has been trying to pre-empt and subvert the process at every turn and who espouses views that in many cases are very little short of bizarre, and whose personality has been described in similar words (and worse).  So why should it even matter that people show up and vote for Jim Himes today?

Oh, I suppose Gallup thought the headline was something else, but

A fairly large proportion of voters (35%) are unsure whether their member of Congress is a Democrat or a Republican. But among those who are aware, the data suggest that Democratic members might be a little safer this year than Republicans.

Now let that be a lesson to those of you who think the public really lives and dies on which way the Gallup tracker points to today.

But we know not everyone is paying attention.

[Pew: In the past week] Did you follow news about candidates for the 2008 presidential election very closely, fairly closely, not too closely or not at all closely?

30% very closely
34% fairly closely
21% not too closely
15% not closely at all
less than 1% don't know/refused

Or, to put it another way as pollster.com's Mark Blumenthal does:

These data paint a clear picture for me: Most Americans are paying far less attention to news about the campaign than most journalists, pundits and readers of this site. If we assume that all Americans are following the campaign as a jury follows a trial, we are in error.

In other news, voters are unhappy, the sun rises in the east, and the GOP candidate is running a negative campaign. And more Gallup:

In a year when approval of Congress has reached a new low, just 36% of U.S. registered voters say most members of Congress deserve re-election. This is among the lowest ratings Gallup has measured in a recent presidential or congressional election year.

But, as usual, MY congressman is okay, it's YOUR congressman who is screwing the country.

Fifty-seven percent of registered voters say the U.S. representative from their own congressional district deserves to be re-elected. That, too, is on the low end of what Gallup has measured historically for one's own member, slightly higher than the 1994 (54%) and 2006 (54%) readings, and somewhat better still than the all-time low of 48% in 1992.

Frankly, it's much more interesting that a third of the public can't tell which party their own rascal congressperson belongs to. I wonder if they live in districts where the Republican pretends to be a Democrat, at least at election time.

Progresssive columnist Sarah Littman, whose essays are carried in Greenwich Time and Stamford Advocate (both publicatins owned by Hearst Newspapers), was fired by publisher John Dunster on Thursday for having written a column critical of Loony Lee Whitnum while having held a "meet-and-greet" for Jim Himes last year.  According to Littman, Dunster maintains that criticizing Loony Lee while having held a "meet-and-greet" for Jim Himes last year "compromises the integrity of the paper".  

What's the truth?  This is a right-wing rag that has been shilling for Whitnum for months.  In virtually every article about Jim Himes, Greenwich Time's political reporter Neil Vigdor has been boosting Whitnum's candidacy, covering up her whacky utterances and essentially portraying Whitnum as a courageous fighter against the Democratic machine.

But this appears to have been nothing but a pretext.  

(Cross Posted at NM FBIHOPand Democracy for New Mexico)

Last weekend I attended Netroots Nation with many of you. It was my first time at Netroots Nation, and I really enjoyed meeting with people from my state and across the country.

New Mexico was well-represented at Netroots Nation. I sat with Barb and Mary Ellen, of Democracy for New Mexico, and Matt of New Mexico FBIHOP during Howard Dean's keynote. Elizabeth Winters put together a great panel on Saturday where Martin Heinrich, Pete McCloskey, Denise Fort and I discussed emerging issues in New Mexico and the West. I also ran into friends from Taos.

Republican congressman Chris Shays (CT-04) has been permitted to host the annual picinic of the Connecticut Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Association (CT RPCV) at his house in Bridgeport next weekend, a politicization of the Peace Corps that I believe is blatantly wrong.  The RPVC organization is an official affiliate of the national organization, which is in turn a non-profit, non-political 501(c)3.  CT RPCV president Maureen Shanley has stated that official Peace Corps business will be conducted at Shays' house during the picnic.  Peace Corps recruiters have been invited to come from New York, and prospective Peace Corps volunteers have also been invited.  Holding an official Peace Corps meeting at the home of a partisan  elected politician, even when it is a  meeting of returned Peace Corps Volunteers, especially just a few short weeks before that politician stands for re-election, constitues a blatant, ompletely unacceptable politicization of the Peace Corps.  

The last remaining Republican from New England in the House of Representatives is Chris Shays from Connecticut's 4th Congressional District.  He is being challenged this historic year by a bright, young, aggressive Democratic candidate -- Jim Himes.

The last two congressional contests in CT-04 have been very close, but Republican Shays has prevailed by slim margins both times.

We say, "Not this time!"

You can meet Jim Himes and voice your views at a series of town meetings  called 17 towns in 17 days.

more after the break

(Cross-posted from the Himes blog. I am the Online Communications Director for Jim Himes for Congress)

The Himes campaign released its July Quarterly fundraising numbers yesterday. Here's the press release:

Faux moderate and Bush Neocon Chris Shays (Rep-CT's 4th district) will appear on John Dankosky's "Where We Live" live call-in show tomorrow morning (Friday, July 11) on Connecticut public radio's WNPR.  In Fairfield County, it is carried on 88.5 FM.  Please call in or email your questions for Both Ways Shays.  If you live or are travelling outside Connecticut, please send in your pointed questions by email.

Call during the Show:

(860) 275-7266

Or email questions and comments to:

wherewelive@wnpr.org

You have to get on the phone early, because Dankosky actually doesn't take many calls from listeners.  Shays is opposed by a great progressive Democrat- former Rhodes Scholar and Harvard grad Jim Himes.

Given what happened yesterday, I feel it's important I repost my earlier diary on who are the GOOD Democratic challengers when it comes to FISA.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  (For the Senate, I'm only including those who voted against cloture yesterday for the bill.)  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

Hello, Daily Kos!

Today is the last day of the quarter, and as you can imagine, things are hectic in the office here in Norwalk as we work to beat the 2nd quarter FEC deadline at midnight tonight.

But I wanted to make sure to take a few minutes today to thank the Daily Kos community so much for your support this quarter. Over 430 of you have contributed to our campaign through the Orange to Blue ActBlue page. All of us here at the campaign have been energized by your support, and you should know that your enthusiasm online has been matched on the ground in Connecticut.