Outspoken freshman Rep. Alan Grayson raised more than $500,000 for his re-election effort during a one day online "money bomb" event held Monday.

Grayson's Web site, www.congressmanwithguts.com, broke the half-million dollar fundraising mark early Tuesday morning and in a press release the campaign announced that contributions, generally of less than $40 each, came in from more than 13,000 people.

"What we've demonstrated is that you can finance a campaign for a competitive district in an expensive media market through People Power. Not by sucking up to lobbyists, special interests or favor-seekers," Grayson said in the news release.

More potential challengers to Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., are deciding to take a pass on running against the freshman Democrat.

Former state Sen. Dan Webster, who was seen by many Republicans as someone who could clear the GOP field and help the party avoid a contested primary, took his name out of consideration Tuesday afternoon.

"This has been a very difficult decision for me personally, especially because of the tremendous outpouring of support that has flooded me from all sides," Webster said in a statement to the Florida press. "However, in spite of this incredible encouragement, I still have a certain check in my spirit, prompting me to follow a principle that has always served me well: 'When in doubt, don't.'"

The left wing of congressional Democrats now has a political action committee to provide campaign funds to its members and like-minded candidates who will face competitive races in the 2010 elections.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC was established with the Federal Election Commission as "a vehicle for supporting the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and candidates who believe that, if elected, they'll become members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus," said Darcy Burner, who sits on the new PAC's board and works with the 83-member organization in her capacity as executive director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation.

In her competitive but losing campaigns in 2006 and 2008 to unseat Republican Rep. Dave Reichert of Washington state, Burner said she noticed there were fundraising vehicles available to Democratic candidates who promised to join the more conservative Blue Dog Coalition or New Democrat Coalition. (The Blue Dog PAC raised $2.6 million in the 2008 election cycle).

Larry Cretul, the Republican Speaker of the Florida House, will not challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson.

Cretul's decision was confirmed by the Ocala Star-Banner newspaper Sunday after multiple news reports suggested he would not run against Grayson, who won the 8th District seat in central Florida in 2008 by defeating Republican incumbent Ric Keller with 52 percent of the vote.

While Cretul was the most prominent among the potential Republican candidates for next year's race, the GOP is still has a number of contenders who do want to take on Grayson. The heavy-hitters include state Rep. Stephen Precourt, Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and former state Sen. Dan Webster.

Freshman Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson announced today that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would headline a luncheon for him later this month, a clear sign that Democrats are preparing for a tough fight in Florida's 8th District.

The Aug. 19 luncheon for Grayson features Biden, Sen. Bill Nelson, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and other local figures.

Grayson instantly became a top election target when he defeated Republican incumbent Ric Keller in 2008 in the competitive Orlando-area district.

Rand Paul, a son of Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, is making official his 2010 campaign for a Senate seat in Kentucky.

Paul, an eye surgeon from Bowling Green, had referred to his Senate campaign as an "exploratory" effort. "Dr. Paul will now transition his exploratory committee to a full election committee," his campaign said in a release Wednesday.

Paul initiated his campaign in mid-May, when Republican Sen. Jim Bunning was still saying he planned to seek re-election. Paul is declaring his candidacy for Bunning's seat less than two weeks after Bunning said July 27 that he would not run.

One of the more interesting state political rituals is Kentucky's Fancy Farm Picnic, held on the first Saturday in August in the far western part of the state.

Plenty of pork, mutton and political speeches are served up and there's cheering and jeering of candidates for office who have come to view the picnic as a must-stop.

The two Democrats and two Republicans who are the major 2010 candidates for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning all spoke at last weekend's gathering. You can find videos here of Democrats Daniel Mongiardo, the lieutenant governor, and Jack Conway, the state attorney general. You can find videos here of Republicans Trey Grayson, Kentucky's secretary of State, and Rand Paul, an eye surgeon whose father is Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul.

The 42 House Democrats to whom party leaders are steering extra financial and political assistance banked an average of nearly half a million dollars 16 months before the 2010 midterm elections.

These lawmakers -- primarily junior members from politically competitive districts -- are known as "Frontline Democrats". They ramped up their fundraising operations in this year's second quarter to prepare for vigorous Republican opposition in the 2010 midterm elections.

According to updated campaign finance reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the 42 Frontline Democrats had an average of $481,000 in campaign cash-on-hand as July began. Please consult this chart for a detailed analysis that is based on FEC data.

Back from another trip to the Senate's public records office, which is busy processing the dozens of campaign finance reports that senators and candidates had to mail by a July 15 deadline.

Most of the reports, which cover receipts and expenditures for the second quarter of 2009 and often run into the hundreds of pages, aren't yet available for viewing. (Unfortunately, the Senate doesn't mandate electronic filing of campaign finance reports). But here are some useful nuggets of information from campaign reports I did view earlier today.

Alabama: Talk about low overhead. Republican Sen. Richard C. Shelby, a shoo-in to win a fifth term in 2010, raised $1.4 million and spent just $96,000 doing so. That's less than 7 percent of his second-quarter receipts. Even at this early stage, most campaigns spend a larger percentage of their receipts on fundraising and staff expenses. (For example, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid raised $3.3 million and spent $976,000, or about 30 percent.) Shelby has a whopping $14.8 million cash-on-hand as July began.

Trey Grayson, Kentucky's Republican secretary of State, raised $603,000 in this year's second quarter for a potential 2010 Senate campaign, even though Republican incumbent Jim Bunning says he still plans to seek re-election.

According to my analysis of Grayson's report (one of the few to be on file today in the Senate Office of Public Records ahead of tonight's deadline), elected officials were among the donors to his "exploratory" campaign. They included state Reps. Scott Brinkman, Brent Housman and Alecia Webb-Edgington.

Other elected officials who gave to Grayson's effort included K.C. Crosbie, a councilwoman in Lexington, and Hal Heiner, a councilman in Louisville.

While members of Congress are home for recess, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is using a $2.5 million ad campaign to boost the health care records of several potentially vulnerable House Democrats.

Television commercials began running June 27 in six members' home districts and will air for two weeks. Accompanying mailers were also sent to voters.

"On health care there are two sides of the coin. On one side, do nothing. On the other, move forward- like Congressman Jim Himes, who's making real progress on reform," said the voiceover in one targeted television ad. The commercial continues by crediting Himes for expanding coverage for children, veterans, and protecting Medicare.

The campaign arm of Republicans in the U.S. House is using this week's legislative recess to criticize some Democrats who backed a climate change bill the House narrowly passed last week.

The National Republican Congressional Committee's advertising campaign consists mainly of low-cost radio advertisements and telephone calls against 14 Democrats, most of them from conservative-leaning districts, who helped provide the winning 219-212 margin in the June 26 vote. Eight Republicans also backed the climate change bill, which most Republicans described as a massive "national energy tax" on consumers.

A top target of the NRCC campaign is first-term Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello, who broke with most politically vulnerable Democratic freshmen in backing the bill. The NRCC is airing a television ad in Perriello's south-central Virginia district that urges viewers to "tell him he was wrong to vote for the [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi energy tax."

A possible bid for the 2010 Republican Senate nomination in Kentucky certainly won't enable eye surgeon Rand Paul to rake in the mega-millions in campaign donations procured by his much better-known father -- Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul -- when he campaigned for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination on his strongly libertarian-tinged platform.

But the younger Paul, a first-time candidate for public office, has taken a page from his father's playbook by going online to build up the treasury for the "exploratory" Senate campaign committee he established in May. And he pronounces himself pleased with the fact that his receipts topped $100,000 in a little more than a month.

Paul's organization said it hasn't held any fundraising events, instead collecting mostly small contributions "from over 1,200 regular people who nickle and dimed their way to an impressive showing" in advance of the candidate's fundraising report for the year's second quarter, which is due to be filed by July 15.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is paying attention to her own back yard in deciding how to distribute money from one of her campaign committees.

In the most recent filing for her leadership committee, the DWS (Democrats Win Seats)-PAC reported $15,500 in disbursements for May. Every dollar went to Democrats in Wasserman Schultz' home state: Reps. Allen Boyd of the 2nd District, Alan Grayson of the 8th District, and Suzanne M. Kosmas of the 24th and Democratic candidates Lori Edwards, who is running for the 12th District, and Charlie Justice, who is vying for Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young's 10th District seat.

Wasserman Schultz is the vice chair of the Democrats' House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He didn't exactly refuse to answer but Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky didn't exactly endorse his home-state colleague Jim Bunning in his 2010 race, either.

"Your fellow Republican senator ... Jim Bunning, is mad at you, I think it's fair to say," said "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace to McConnell. "He says you don't want him to seek re-election and that while you've given money to other GOP incumbents, you've stiffed him.

You can put this all to rest right now, Senator," Wallace said. "I'm going to give you the opportunity. Do you endorse Jim Bunning for re-election?"

Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, whose 8th District is a GOP target for 2010, sought to attract fundraising dollars Thursday by launching an attack on National Republican Congressional Commitee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions.

Freshman Grayson called Sessions, a Texas congressman, "crazy, "a lunatic," "demented," and "paranoid" in a fundraising e-mail to supporters.

Grayson attacked Sessions for stating that President Obama wishes to "inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system" and for the national party's attempts to blame Grayson personally for the national debt.

Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, expects to field a strong challenger to freshman Democratic Rep. Suzanne M. Kosmas in the state's 24th Congressional District. But Greer publicly stated Tuesday that he will not be the candidate for the central Florida seat.

In an interview with CQ Politics following his announcement, Greer said he remains focused on recruiting top-tier candidates to take on the two Democrats who ousted Republicans in the 2008 elections: Kosmas, who unseated three-term Rep. Tom Feeney in the 24th, and Alan Grayson, who defeated four-term incumbent Ric Keller in the adjacent 8th District.

Referring to the district numbers, Greer said, "My first priority has always been to find candidates in 24 and in 8 that could win those seats back for us."