Aug. 26, 2010, 1:58 p.m.
By Matthew Murray
Roll Call Staff

CANTON, Ohio — $1.50 still gets you a day of downtown parking in this rusty town of 78,000 residents, where the unemployment rate hovers well north of the national average and local business leaders say there are few reasons to be optimistic.

“We’ve come out of the recession, but we haven’t had a dramatic uptick,” Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce executive Steven Katz said in a recent interview at his Main Street office. “We’re really still hunkered down.”

Such sentiment from the local business community is complicating freshman Democratic Rep. John Boccieri’s 2010 re-election chances in this historically Republican district. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, narrowly won the district, and Republicans represented the district for 58 years before moderate Rep. Ralph Regula (R) retired two years ago.

After casting tough “yay” votes for health care reform, energy and spending legislation, Boccieri acknowledged that there will be one thing on his constituents’ minds when they head into the voting booth Nov. 2. “It’s about the economy,” he said in an interview. “They want to know about jobs.”

The downturn in this area has been a long time in the making. While the Pro Football Hall of Fame may attract a steady stream of tourists, this Buckeye State town has only two-thirds of the permanent residents it had in 1950, when Cleveland — an hour’s drive north — was the nation’s seventh largest city and a key stop along a Great Lakes shipping corridor that stretched from Buffalo, N.Y., to Detroit to Chicago.

And plenty of overgrown lots, abandoned factories and rows of decrepit trailer homes in Canton reveal few signs of a burgeoning rebirth. Katz said there isn’t much evidence in the local economy of the roughly $127 million in stimulus money that Democrats have directed to Stark County.

“I’m not sure how much filtered down to the business community,” he said. “Businesses in general are worried about the uncertainty coming from Washington.”

At a roundtable with voters Friday morning, Boccieri repeated the White House’s line that Democrats inherited the economic mess from the previous administration and that it will take years to reverse it. Still, he poked his party leaders for over-promising the immediate effect of legislation such as the stimulus bill, which continues to work its way through the economy.

“When I walked through the door on day one, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month,” Boccieri told the dozen or so constituents who joined him at Luna’s Restaurant & Deli in his hometown of Alliance, Ohio. The stimulus “wasn’t the economic panacea some people claimed it was. I never sold it that way.”

Boccieri’s years as an Air Force pilot and athlete are obvious on the campaign trail. Although he lets an occasional “awesome” slip, the lawmaker appears to be a disciplined campaigner who sticks to his script. In this GOP-leaning district, he also accepts that unpopular votes on the final health care bill, as well as a proposal that would cap carbon emissions, may cost him his job.

“If I’m not elected again, I’ll do something else,” he told a crowd of mostly seniors that gathered for the morning question-and-answer session. “I’m not here to warm a seat.”

In Boccieri’s district, even the local community center is having difficulties keeping the lights on. As he led a tour of the Foltz Community Center of Eastern Canton, retired IBM executive Dale Brunner said the recession forced the organization to lay off its only full-time manager. There’s been no significant rebound to the nonprofit organization’s outlook in recent months.

“Quit spending money,” Brunner told Boccieri during the tour. “We’re at the point where we’re like Italy, Brazil and Argentina.”

Boccieri’s challenger, local businessman Jim Renacci (R), agreed that the stimulus’s questionable effects and a continued lack of jobs in the area are fueling the anti-incumbent fervor in this Congressional district. Chatting with a reporter during a recent Stark County Republican Party barbecue, Renacci said local voters are miffed that Democrats keep chasing bad financial decisions with even more of citizens’ tax dollars.

“You can’t spend your way into prosperity, whether you’re in government, business or a family,” he said. “They’re fed up with big government.”

But the lesser-known Renacci may need to spend mightily to make his challenge known in a district where candidates have to fork over $250,000 a week on television ads to get their message out. In an interview, Renacci declined to say how much of his personal money he’s willing to devote, but the National Republican Congressional Committee is expected to run ads on his behalf in the expensive media market.

“As the election moves forward, we’re going to do what’s necessary to win,” Renacci said last week.

Still, Boccieri has proved to be an apt fundraiser in his first term, raking in an impressive $1.4 million for his re-election bid as of July, including $772,000 from political action committees and his Democratic colleagues in the House, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

After loaning his campaign $305,000, Renacci had $663,000 in cash as of July 1, FEC records show. This month, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees plunked down $750,000 for two rounds of television ads that hit Renacci on taxation issues.

“Renacci hid $13 million and was forced to pay $1.4 million in back taxes and penalties,” a narrator says in one AFSCME ad. “What do you think?”

The Republican challenger, who is suing the union for defamation over its ad, also plans to make Democratic leadership a key plank of his midterm election challenge. At the recent Stark County GOP gathering, the one-time local mayor said Boccieri’s bid this fall is a mandate on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and her leadership in the House.

“Vote to remove your Representative: Nancy Pelosi,” Renacci told the crowd last week.

Also on hand for the GOP gathering was Boccieri’s predecessor, Regula. An 18-term GOP moderate who called it quits by not running in 2008, Regula said voters in Ohio’s 16th district are worried about recently passed Democratic initiatives in the House, particularly an environmental cap-and-trade measure.

“Our industries use a lot of electricity,” Regula said.

The former lawmaker also agreed about the role the economy will play in this election. He added that there’s an enthusiasm gap for his successor this year.

“Turnout is going to be the key factor,” Regula said. “They’re distressed with the way things are going, and they’re concerned with the way we’re spending money.”

Aug. 17, 2010, 6 a.m.
By Kyle Trygstad
Roll Call Staff

Democrats are fighting to hold two seats in Washington state this year — the open 3rd district and Patty Murray’s Senate seat — and Tuesday’s primaries could offer the clearest evidence yet of where things stand in the Democratic-leaning state.

The dramatics of the Senate race are all in the vote totals registered in the fairly new “top two” primary, which the state is using in federal elections for just the second time.

Murray and Republican Dino Rossi, a two-time unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, are widely expected to advance to the general election. The only questions that remain are their vote totals and what can be gleaned from them in a contest that pits candidates of every party against each other with the top two vote-getters advancing — no matter their party label.

Gaming some on expectation, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a memo Monday saying it expects Rossi to take at least 46 percent of the vote, despite facing upstart challenges from former professional football player Clint Didier and inventor Paul Akers, who joined forces against Rossi late in the campaign.

That number is based on Rossi’s vote total in a crowded 2008 gubernatorial primary field. Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire and Rossi advanced to the general election with 48 percent and 46 percent, respectively. Gregoire went on to win, 53 percent to 47 percent.

While Didier and Akers hardly caused trouble for Rossi’s primary prospects, Democrats believe the two conservatives forced Rossi to move to the right, a potentially dangerous place to be in a state that President Barack Obama carried with 58 percent.

“While Rossi is expected to beat his conservative opponents, make no mistake about it: the damage in the primary is already done. Rossi is running as an unabashed far right conservative,” DSCC Executive Director J.B. Poersch wrote in the memo.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the state are lowering Murray’s expectations, with one close to the campaign saying they expect her to finish in the low 40s. The thinking goes that with Murray a shoe-in to make the general, a portion of her base will either not participate or perhaps vote for one of Rossi’s top GOP competitors.

Either way, a vote total below 45 percent could set off some alarms within the party. The previous poll in the race, taken in late July by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, found Murray at 47 percent and the three Republicans totaling 47 percent, with Rossi taking 33 percent.

State GOP Chairman Luke Esser expects Murray to finish “a fair bit below 50 percent, which for any incumbent — especially a three-term incumbent — is cause for concern.”

Obama will be in Seattle on Tuesday headlining a fundraising luncheon and private reception for Murray. Esser said that although the president’s visit will be great for Murray’s coffers, the event helps Republicans in the long run by “cementing in the minds of voters that Patty Murray is part of what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.”

State Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz said he’s “not putting a lot of stock in” the results, whether they appear positive or negative for Murray. “With the ‘top two’ and a contested race between the Republicans, it’s hard to draw any conclusions,” he said.

“This is a blue state, and our job is to get her elected in an anti-incumbent year that favors Republicans,” Pelz added. “We think we can make that happen.”

In the coastal 3rd district, Democratic Rep. Brian Baird’s retirement opened up a moderate seat ripe for Republican picking. Since being elected to Congress in 1998, Baird was never elected with less than 55 percent. However, George W. Bush carried the district by 2 points in 2000 and 2004, while Obama won it by 7 points in 2008.

Pelz called it a “classic American swing district,” adding that “if Democrats slide in national polls over the next two to three months, we’re going to have trouble there, no question about it.”

Attempting to hold the seat for Democrats is Denny Heck, a businessman and former state House Majority Leader who is running against Democratic-controlled Washington, D.C. His campaign theme: “Give ’Em Heck.”

“Here in our Washington, we all feel the same,” Heck says in his lone TV ad of the primary. “We hear politicians in Washington, D.C., talking about creating jobs and think, ‘What do you really know about it?’”

Democrats privately say that state Rep. Jaime Herrera, a former legislative aide to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), is the strongest of the Republican contenders. Battling Heck and Herrera for a ticket to the general election are Republicans David Castillo, a former deputy assistant U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs, and David Hedrick, a tea party activist.

“We’re in a blue area that is very conservative,” said Pacific County Republican Chairwoman Nansen Malin, who supports Herrera. “Even Heck is running on a ‘Give Congress Heck’ mantra. The voters want to replace Baird with a more fiscal conservative.”

Another race the national parties are watching is in the eastern exurbs of Seattle, where Republican Rep. Dave Reichert is again fighting to hold the Democratic-leaning 8th district. It’s one of nearly 10 districts Democrats have at least an outside chance of picking up in November.

After two straight unsuccessful challenges by liberal Darcy Burner, another wealthy former Microsoft executive is aiming for Reichert. This time it’s Suzan DelBene, whose campaign is playing up her business experience in this high-unemployment election year.

Reichert remains a popular figure from his role in capturing the “Green River Killer” while serving as King County sheriff, but he has yet to entrench himself in this difficult district for Republicans. Plus, the formerly friendly Seattle Times editorial board recently endorsed both DelBene and Republican Yarrow Point Town Councilman Tim Dillon over Reichert.

The three races headline the state’s second top two primary in a major election cycle. In 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the state’s 70-year-old blanket primary unconstitutional. The new, nonpartisan iteration of the blanket format was challenged in court until the state won an appeal from the Supreme Court in March 2008.

The primary is nearly all by mail, as only Pierce County still offers voters polling places. The secretary of state’s office will begin posting election results on its website at 11 p.m. EST.

Aug. 5, 2010, 10:35 p.m.
By Jessica Brady
Roll Call Staff

Senate Democrats ran for the exits armed with a few legislative victories and a handful of defeats going into the five-week summer recess.

Members of the majority, who will spend August drawing a sharp contrast to Republicans on the economic recovery, celebrated the passage of a $26 billion funding measure for schools and cash-strapped states. They cheered the confirmation of Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama’s second nominee to the Supreme Court, and the unanimous approval of a child nutrition bill pushed by Agriculture Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.).

“This has been a good week for children in Nevada and across America,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. “After Democrats fought to prevent hundreds of thousands of teachers from being laid off earlier today, we led passage of much-needed child nutrition legislation this afternoon.”

Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) also won a surprising victory Thursday evening, when the chamber unanimously approved a $600 million funding measure for 1,500 new Border Patrol and immigration agents and for unmanned aerial border patrols. He has pursued a comprehensive immigration package for more than a year, but the effort has stalled in the face of near-unanimous GOP opposition.

Other Democratic priorities were left on the table. Reid indicated Thursday that the chamber will take up a small-business jobs package, which faltered in recent weeks, in the first week back in session in September. He filed a cloture motion on a fresh substitute for the bill before adjourning Thursday night.

“We believe we have the necessary votes to prevail on that,” he said. “We have problems with time. ... Without getting into the intricacies of how I plan to move forward, we are going to move forward — it’s just a question of when on small business.”

The chamber cleared 51 executive and judicial nominations before adjourning, including that of James Clapper to be director of national intelligence. Republicans briefly threatened Clapper’s nomination in their quest for an intelligence report on the threat factor of detainees at the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Sen. John McCain dropped his hold on the nomination Tuesday, after the Arizona Republican received a classified intelligence report from the Obama administration.

Other high-profile nominees to win confirmation Thursday night were James Jeffrey to be ambassador of Iraq and Gen. James Mattis to replace Gen. David Petraeus as head of U.S. Central Command.

A dozen other nominations, however, were returned to the White House, including Donald Berwick’s to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Republicans were angered when Obama used a recess appointment to install Berwick to the post in July. That appointment expires at the end of next year, and Obama sent Berwick’s nomination to serve a full term to the Senate last month.

Others included in the return pile were Goodwin Liu, the controversial nominee to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Peter Diamond, nominated to the board of governors of the Federal Reserve; and John McConnell, a prominent Democratic donor tapped to serve as a district judge in Rhode Island. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) made a last-ditch effort to prevent McConnell’s nomination from being sent back but was not successful.

Also during wrap-up, Reid cleared a resolution honoring Washington sports legend Manute Bol, the 7-foot-7-inch Sudanese powerhouse who played center for the Washington Bullets and died in June at the age of 47.

The judicial nomination of Jane Stranch to serve on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be considered when the Senate returns Sept. 13. The chamber will be in session for a four-week stretch that runs to the Columbus Day recess, when Members will head home to campaign in the final days before the midterm elections.

Among the priorities on the legislative horizon are the fiscal 2011 defense authorization, which contains language to repeal the military’s ban on gay service members; the issue of whether to significantly change or eliminate the Senate’s use of secret holds; and how to extend tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 under President George W. Bush.

Aug. 5, 2010, 11:49 a.m.
By Emily Pierce
Roll Call Staff

Any bipartisan deal to finish work on a Senate GOP small-business lending bill will likely have to wait until September, sources in both parties said Thursday.

Senators have been at an impasse for two weeks over how many amendments to allow to the bill and which proposals each party would be able to offer. Talks have been virtually nonexistent this week, one GOP source said.

Majority Leader Harry Reid strongly hinted Thursday that he had run out of time in this work period, given Senators are slated to leave town for the five-week August recess Friday.

“We believe we have the necessary votes to prevail on that,” the Nevada Democrat said. “We have problems with time. ... Without getting into the intricacies of how I plan to move forward, we are going to move forward — it’s just a question of when on small business.”

Reid held out hope that he could still get an agreement with Republicans to pass a child nutrition bill on Thursday, and he said he would try to pass a measure funding an Agriculture Department discrimination suit with black farmers. However, Reid noted the only way he could get the black farmers deal done Thursday or Friday would be by unanimous consent. That route is unlikely to succeed, given objections.

The Majority Leader also noted he would try to set the stage for Senate debate on the defense authorization bill in September.