House Republican leaders on Tuesday urged their members to come up with some cash for the National Republican Congressional Committee so the party will be fully prepared to fight for seats next fall.

The leaders, including Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas, NRCC Vice Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon and and Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas made no threats during the closed-door meeting of the Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club -- but they reminded lawmakers that winning back the majority is a team effort, according to several GOP sources inside the meeting.

"We can come all the way back if we work together," Sessions said.

"Stop complaining about [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and unseat Pelosi," Walden told members, according to two sources.

Former Rep. Christopher Shays has not endorsed a candidate in the crowded Republican primary for the Connecticut seat he lost to Democrat Jim Himes in 2008. But Shays' wife has a dog in the 4th District fight.

Elizabeth Shays donated $500 to former state Sen. Rob Russo on Sept. 30, the last day of the third-quarter reporting period, according to federal campaign finance information.

While the former congressman, a GOP moderate who served from 1987 until this January, isn't taking sides yet himself, there is a clear connection to Russo. A former aide to Shays, Russo also currently is his lawyer.

New York Rep. Timothy H. Bishop, a four-term Democrat from eastern Long Island, has a well-funded challenger on his hands. Randy Altschuler, an entrepreneur touted by Republican officials as a promising challenger, reported $659,000 in campaign receipts for the third quarter, including $450,000 from his own pockets.

Altschuler -- who is hoping to put the GOP back into competition in the 1st District after three comfortable re-election wins by Bishop -- ended the quarter with $538,000 in remaining cash on hand. The challenger got a reporting jump on Bishop, who like all other 2010 candidates must file his report electronically with the Federal Election Commission by the deadline of midnight tonight.

The Suffolk County Democratic Party quickly responded with a release noting that just one of Altschuler's contributions, for $2,300, came from a district resident. Many of his donors are based in New York City.

Bishop had just more than $300,000 in receipts and $516,000 in cash on hand as of June 30, the end of the second quarter reporting period.

Minnesota state Sen. Tarryl Clark has gained early front-runner status over physician Maureen Reed in their contest for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of Congress' most outspoken conservative firebrands.

But Reed, who officially unveiled her full campaign team Friday, is ceding no ground to Clark in the 6th District Democratic contest.

In addition to hiring a campaign manager, several field staffers and a communications director, the Reed campaign has also signed up Lake Research Partners -- headed by prominent Democratic pollster Celinda Lake -- and Sandberg Communications to help with strategy and communications.

Reed signaled at mid-year that she wouldn't be easily dismissed as she reported a big fundraising haul for the year's second quarter, raising more than $200,000 in just two months after announcing her candidacy. Her third quarter fundraising report, due by Oct. 15, will be another test of the strength of her campaign.

Democrat Patrick Lewis, a lawyer and businessman, has initiated a 2010 U.S. House campaign to challenge long-entrenched Virginia Republican Rep. Frank R. Wolf.

Lewis will try to make the case that it is time for a change. But he has picked a tough target in Wolf, the 15-term incumbent from the state's 10th District and a politically dominant figure for three decades in the northern Virginia suburbs and exurbs of Washington, D.C.

"Now more than ever, northern Virginia needs real leadership to tackle the problems facing our community and our country," Lewis said in a press release that announced his formation of an "exploratory" committee, a move that is usually a precursor to a formal campaign.

He said that he looked forward "to putting my experience of military service, job creation, and business management to work for the people of northern Virginia."

Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire this week drew his first Republican challenger for the 2010 campaign. And that candidate, lawyer Keith J. Rothfus, may soon have company for the GOP primary next May.

Republican state Rep. Mike Turzai told CQ Politics Wednesday that he's considering a bid to challenge Altmire, a two-term incumbent, in the western Pennsylvania's 4th District. It would be a return to House politics for Turzai, who lost the 1998 race in the 4th District to then-Democratic incumbent Ron Klink.

Turzai, however, emphasized that he's concentrating for the time being on trying to end a budget impasse in Harrisburg, the state capital. Turzai, who is his party's state House whip, and his GOP colleagues are resisting proposals to increase taxes.

"I have a job to do on behalf of my constituents and the citizens of Pennsylvania," Turzai said. "Until that budget battle settles, I'm just really not going to make any decisions up until then."

Former Republican Rep. Charlie Bass has initiated a preliminary bid to reclaim the New Hampshire seat he held for a dozen years but lost in the 2006 election.

Bass' formation of a 2010 "exploratory" committee -- which usually is the precursor to a full-scale campaign -- will gratify national Republican Party recruiters who are trying to capture some Democratic-held seats and cut into the rival party's House majority in the upcoming midterm elections.

Bass announced his committee's launch Wednesday that in New Hampshire's 2nd District, which includes Nashua and the state capital of Concord. Bass, a center-right Republican, represented the district from 1995 through his defeat by Democrat Paul W. Hodes in the strongly Democratic year of 2006. Hodes has left the House seat open for 2010 in order to bid for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Republican Judd Gregg.

The long-delayed campaign for Delaware's 2010 U.S. Senate special election will be jump-started soon, as Beau Biden -- the state's Attorney General and the prospective Democratic front-runner for the seat -- has returned home from a year-long tour of duty in Iraq as a captain with his state's Army National Guard .

Biden is expected to decide soon whether he is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat long held by his father, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who in November 2008 was elected vice president even as he won a seventh Senate term in Delaware. Biden resigned the seat in January, and was replaced by Democratic appointee Ted Kaufman, a friend and longtime aide, who is not running in the special election to fill the final four years of the elder Biden's unexpired term.

The vice president appeared Wednesday afternoon at a welcome-home ceremony in Dover for 110 soldiers, including his son.

Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire, a two-term Democrat, has drawn his first Republican challenger for the 2010 campaign.

Keith J. Rothfus, a lawyer, confirmed to CQ Politics Tuesday that he recently filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. He issued a press release later Tuesday announcing his candidacy and outlining some of his reasons he is running in the 4th District, which includes suburbs of Pittsburgh and other territory in western Pennsylvania.

"We need policies that focus on lowering the tax burden on employers, not policies that add new costs, such as the health care and 'cap and trade' bills pending in Congress," Rothfus said.

Altmire, however, voted against cap-and-trade, which refers to a provision in an energy bill, passed by the House and pending in the Senate, that would limit emissions related to global warming -- a concept supported by many Democrats but opposed by most Republicans on economic grounds.

Republican campaign strategists will have to scramble to find a new challenger to Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, after highly touted recruit John Guedry abruptly ended his campaign to unseat the 3rd District freshman.

The Las Vegas Sun reported late Friday that Guedry, a banker, issued a statement that read in part:

"I entered this race to help make our state and nation a better place for my family and future generations of Nevadans. Recent events have compelled me as a father and husband to end my campaign for public office and focus my attention on important issues closer to home."

Guedry, who formally launched his campaign just last month, did not elaborate on the "recent events" that precipitated his withdrawal from the contest in Nevada's 3rd, a partisan swing district that takes in a part of Las Vegas and much of the city's suburban population.

South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson has raised more than $1 million for his own campaign treasury since his "You lie" shout during President Obama's address to Congress two weeks ago. And now Wilson is spreading the wealth with his Republican colleagues.

Wilson is headed to Michigan Oct. 2 for a fundraiser with Tim Walberg, a Republican who held the 7th District seat for one term before he was ousted by Democrat Mark Schauer in 2008. Walberg is now seeking a rematch in what is expected to be a competitive race.

According to Walberg's Web site, the event in the 7th District city of Jackson, "will feature Congressman Wilson and Tim Walberg discussing health care and the need to stop a government takeover."

For $150, attendees would get two tickets and a photo with Wilson.

Wilson chief of staff Eric Dell told CQ Politics that the four-term congressman -- who is seeking re-election next year -- will then head to Missouri later that week for a speaking engagement with local politicos at the request of Rep. Roy Blunt, the likely GOP nominee in the state's open-seat Senate contest.

Democratic Rep. Ron Kind will not run for governor of Wisconsin in 2010, deciding instead to seek an eighth term in his 3rd District seat.

Kind, who would have been a top contender in the governor's race, released a statement Thursday afternoon in which he cited efforts to pass a health care overhaul as the top priority keeping him in Congress.

"My first responsibility must be to get affordable and accessible health care reform passed this year for all Wisconsin families," Kind said. "That is why I cannot run for governor. I have a responsibility and duty to the people of Wisconsin to continue work on the health care reform agenda ahead of us."

Democratic Gov. James E. Doyle announced in August that he would not seek a third term, breaking the 2010 race wide open. Kind promptly declared that he was considering a bid for governor, raising expectations that he would run.

If Republicans fail to unseat freshman Virginia Democratic Rep. Glenn Nye next year, it won't be because of a lack of interest.

Scott Taylor, a businessman and former Navy SEAL, announced his candidacy Tuesday, becoming the sixth Republican to make preparations to seek the seat in southeastern Virginia's 2nd District.

These half-dozen candidates are competing for the nomination to challenge Nye, a former international development official whose 2008 victory over Republican Rep. Thelma Drake -- by a 5 percentage-point margin -- came in his first bid for public office.

Taylor, in a video on his campaign Web site, says that "as your congressman, I'll work to protect traditional values, guard our 2nd Amendment rights, decrease the tax burden for individuals and businesses, and do everything I can to strengthen our free market system."

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 ranking Republican in the U.S. House, has drawn a 2010 election challenge from Democrat Charlie Diradour, a real estate developer.

In a video posted on his campaign Web site, Diradour came out swinging against Cantor, the House minority whip, who is in his fifth term representing the precincts of central and north-central Virginia that comprise the state's 7th District.

Diradour chastised Cantor for being captured on TV consulting his Blackberry during President Obama's health care address to Congress last week, calling the incumbent a "card-carrying member of those who make up the most pampered, out-of-touch and politically rude class of elite Washington politicians in this country's history."

Make that three Republicans who are vying to oppose freshman Democratic Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper in northwestern Pennsylvania's 3rd District, in and around Erie.

John Onorato, a former Erie County solicitor who is general counsel for the Manufacturer and Business Association, confirmed to CQ Politics on Monday that he will be a candidate in 2010.

Onorato will be vying for the Republican nomination next May along with businessman Paul Huber and Elaine Surma, a senior narcotics agent in the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office. Other Republicans may enter the race.

Andrew Halcro, a former Alaska state representative and recent independent candidate for governor, announced Thursday that he will challenge longtime Rep. Don Young for the state's at-large House seat in the 2010 Republican primary.

Halcro made the announcement during an Alaska Support Industry Alliance gathering, according to the Anchorage Daily News and local media outlets.

He reportedly touched on the questions about Young's political ethics that plagued the incumbent -- Alaska's only House member since 1973 -- during his stormy 2008 re-election campaign. Halcro emphasized the fact that controversies surrounding the incumbent's ties to business interests and his fundraising practices prompted Young to surrender his senior positions on the House National Resources Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Tom White, a Democratic state senator, announced Wednesday that he is officially launching a high-profile challenge to six-term Republican Rep. Lee Terry in Nebraska's 2nd District.

"No matter which party controls Congress, Nebraskans I've talked to feel the needs of ordinary Americans aren't being met," said White in his announcement speech. "I'll be the independent, effective voice our community needs in Congress -- someone who puts partisanship aside and shows leadership on issues like reducing the deficit, restoring fiscal responsibility, creating jobs, and increasing access to affordable health care."

Last week, CQ Politics reported that it will be no easy road to victory for White, who formed an exploratory committee in July. Like the rest of Nebraska, the 2nd District -- which includes Omaha and its suburbs -- has a long history of Republican voting tendencies.

But Democratic strategists, who heavily recruited White, were emboldened by their recent progress in local politics. Terry, who previously had won comfortably, held on to defeat Democrat Jim Esch by just 4 percentage points in 2008 -- the same year that Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the district's vote for president. That was followed by municipal elections earlier this year in which the Democrats won the mayor's office and a city council majority in Omaha.

Illinois Rep. Mark Steven Kirk -- a Republican centrist who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2010 -- received a campaign contribution last month from Republicans for Choice PAC, a group that assists party candidates who support abortion rights.

The $1,000 contribution was reported by the PAC in a filing Wednesday to the Federal Election Commission.

That amount is drop in the bucket next to the millions of dollars that Kirk will raise in his campaign to succeed Roland W. Burris, the appointed Democratic incumbent, who is not running for a full term in the seat that Democrat Barack Obama held when he was elected president in 2008.

Still, the contribution is a reminder of the differences on policy issues between Kirk and the handful of lesser-known but determined conservative opponents he has drawn in the Feb. 2 primary election.

And the donation wasn't unexpected, as Kirk has repeatedly gone on the record in favor of abortion rights. In June 2003, he was one of five Republicans who voted against banning a particular procedure that opponents call "partial birth" abortion. He also has voted to expand embryonic stem cell research, another position opposed by the conservative "pro-life" movement.

Democrat Ethan Berkowitz is now officially running for governor of Alaska in 2010 -- a race in which he hopes to expand upon the statewide base he built with his competitive 2008 challenge to veteran Republican Rep. Don Young, the state's only U.S. House member.

Berkowitz, who faces primary competition, is seeking to challenge interim Republican Gov. Sean Parnell. Parnell moved up from lieutenant governor on July 26 after incumbent Sarah Palin -- the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee -- resigned the office.

A Parnell-Berkowitz matchup would be a rematch of sorts, as both were lieutenant governor nominees, but they ran on gubernatorial tickets, Parnell with Palin and Berkowitz with Tony Knowles, a former governor who unsuccessfully sought a comeback in that race.

Republican Rep. Peter T. King’s decision to eschew next year’s Senate special election in New York has dealt a serious — though not unexpected — blow to the GOP’s hopes of challenging appointed Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand.

The New York Daily News reported Monday that King would instead seek a 10th term in the 3rd District on Long Island. King said he reached his decision “after months of deliberation and conversations with family members and friends and advisers,” the newspaper reported.

He had, however, indicated in late June that he was likely to opt out of the Senate race.

New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco took his share of the blame for the GOP loss in the 20th District's special election last spring. But as he begins to lay the groundwork for a possible 2010 rematch, his shortcomings as a candidate seem to have been forgotten.

Tedisco told the Glen Falls Post-Star Thursday that he has been meeting with Republican Party county chairmen to discuss a possible challenge to Democratic Rep. Scott Murphy, a political unknown who came from well behind in the polls to edge Tedisco, a 30-year Assembly veteran, by barely 700 votes out of more than 160,000 cast. The March 31 special election was held to fill the seat previously held by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to the Senate in January after Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of State.

"I enjoy being a public servant and I'm looking at the atmosphere now," Tedisco told the paper. "And it certainly has changed since when I ran for congressman in the short eight-week election."

One national Republican aide, who declined to be identified so as to speak candidly, said the party is supportive of a possible Tedisco candidacy in 2010. But he noted that other Republicans could also run for the seat, which represents much of the Hudson River valley and the Catskill Mountains. Former Assembly Leader John Faso, who lost the 2006 governor's race to Democrat Eliot Spitzer by a landslide, is a potential candidate, though he has also expressed interest in running for state comptroller in 2010.

Democrats hoping to reprise their tough 2008 challenge to veteran Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young have drawn their first major challenger for the 2010 race. Democratic state Rep. Harry Crawford announced Wednesday that he is running for the state's lone House seat, which Young has held since a 1973 special election.

"I'm not a partisan politician and I won't play political games," Crawford said in a statement. He later added, "It's time for our state to have a member of Congress who offers fresh ideas backed by new energy and enthusiasm."

Crawford, a 57-year-old Anchorage resident who was born in Louisiana, first won his state House seat in 2000. He fills a void for Democrats created when former state House Democratic leader Ethan Berkowitz decided he would prefer to run for governor in 2010 than seek a rematch of the competitive race he ran against Young in 2008.

Freshman Rep. Larry Kissell, who captured the seat in North Carolina's 8th District for the Democrats in 2008, has drawn a Republican challenger: Lou Huddleston, a businessman and retired U.S. Army colonel, who announced his candidacy Wednesday.

A 31-year Army veteran, Huddleston appears a long-shot as he enters the contest. He lost his only previous bid for public office, a 2008 state House race, to incumbent Democrat Margaret Dickson. But Republicans think he has the potential to become a credible challenger to Kissell, given his resume as a military man and a local business leader, as well as the fact that he is African-American. African-Americans make up more than a quarter of the 8th district electorate.

Huddleston appears to be the GOP's man in the 8th District, which the GOP says is its top target in the state, after other recruits decided to pass on the race. Former five-term Rep. Robin Hayes -- who lost a 2008 rematch to Kissell by 55 percent to 45 percent in 2008 after winning their 2006 contest by a razor-thin margin -- announced last Wednesday that he would forgo a comeback bid.

Republican Jim Renacci is challenging freshman Rep. John Boccieri -- whose 2008 open-seat victory in Ohio's 16th District gave the Democrats control of a seat that had been held for 36 years by retired Republican Ralph Regula.

"It's time to put the people of the 16th District back to work. Creating jobs will be my number one priority," Renacci said in a statement his campaign issued Tuesday.

Renacci is a certified public accountant and is president and general manager of the Columbus Destroyers arena football team. He also is former mayor of Wadsworth, a community of about 20,000 residents in southeastern Medina County, one of four counties wholly or partly in the northeastern Ohio district.

Republican Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska's 2nd District has been girding for a tough 2010 general election contest with Democratic state Sen. Tom White, after the incumbent survived a close rematch race with a upstart challenger in 2008.

But Terry, who is seeking a sixth term in the Omaha-based district, will have to gear up even earlier, with the emergence of a potentially serious opponent for his May Republican primary.

Matt Sakalosky, the president of a health care technology consulting company, has confirmed his plans to run and has scheduled his first major campaign event -- a town hall meeting -- for this coming Sunday.

If you thought you were seeing Rep. Michele Bachmann every time you turned on the television, it's because you probably were.

The Smart Politics blog, from the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, has an illuminating analysis of the 6th District congresswoman's surging national media exposure.

The study, which examined media transcripts from the day Bachmann took office in 2007, found that the Minnesota Republican, who has a penchant for making controversial statements, has made 22 appearances on national cable news programs so far this year, matching her total number of appearances for all of 2008. "Representative Bachmann has thus substantially increased her national profile from averaging one national cable television news interview every 16.6 days in 2008 to one appearance every 9.1 days thus far in 2009," wrote Eric Ostermeier, the center's research associate.

The third time won't be a charm for former North Carolina Republican Rep. Robin Hayes, who is passing up a re-rematch against freshman Democrat Larry Kissell.

Hayes, who defeated Kissell by just 329 votes in 2006 and then lost to him in 2008 by a margin of almost 10 times that number (30,551 votes, to be precise), announced Wednesday that he would not try to regain his 8th District seat in 2010, the Associated Press reported.

Instead, Hayes told the AP, he plans to play a behind-the-scenes role in the campaign.

Hayes' decision doesn't mean that Kissell has an easy path back to Capitol Hill. Although he currently lives just outside the 8th District boundaries, Pat McCrory, the longtime mayor of Charlotte, has been mentioned as a potential top-tier GOP challenger. He is already well known outside the city; in the 2008 gubernatorial campaign, McCrory ran a highly competitive (but ultimately unsuccessful) race against Democrat Bev Purdue.

Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, a first-term Democrat, drew her first official Republican challenger Tuesday when banker John Guedry filed paperwork to open a campaign committee.

Guedry, who has been testing the waters for the 3rd District House race since spring, released a statement saying his campaign launch marks the beginning of "the journey to rebuild a level of trust between our government and the people."

Guedry also claimed Nevadans "are fed up with the reckless spending and lack of accountability in Washington."

Guedry told CQ Politics in June, as he was planning for his bid, that he recognized that "anytime you take on an incumbent it's an uphill battle." But he said he was eager to contrast his private sector experience with the long political tenure of incumbent Titus, who was a state senator for 20 years (the last 16 of those as the chamber's Democratic leader) and ran a competitive but unsuccessful campaign as the 2006 Democratic nominee for governor.

Illinois state Rep. Elizabeth Coulson will be joining the Republican field competing for the open -- and highly competitive -- 10th District near Chicago.

Coulson, a centrist who has served in the Illinois legislature since 1997, confirmed to CQ Politics Tuesday that she would be a candidate in 2010 and that she would hold an announcement event next Monday. The Team America's 10th District Blog reported earlier Tuesday that last night, Coulson told Republican activists in Lake County that she would run for the 10th District seat, which Republican Rep. Mark Steven Kirk is giving up to run for the Senate. The district includes parts of Cook and Lake Counties.

In an interview Tuesday afternoon with CQ Politics, Coulson said that health care would be a major focus of her campaign. A licensed physical therapist, she was a professor at the Chicago Medical School from 1981 to 2002.

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2-ranking House Republican, has established himself as one of his party's most prolific fundraisers -- and one of the top donors to his GOP colleagues' campaign treasuries.

House GOP incumbents and candidates received a combined total of $120,000 last month from Cantor's leadership political action committee, Every Republican Is Crucial -- yes, its acronym matches the congressman's first name -- according to the PAC's filing Monday with the Federal Election Commission.

Overall this year, Cantor's PAC has donated $512,500 to Republican candidates and committees.

Pennsylvania Democrat Doug Pike has solidified his grip on his party's nomination in the politically competitive 6th District.

On Monday, Pike's campaign circulated a report in a local newspaper that state Sen. Andy Dinniman has decided not to run against Pike in a Democratic primary next spring.

Among the reasons Dinniman cited is the redistricting that will ensue after the 2010 election. Pennsylvania is likely to lose one of its 19 House seats in reapportionment, and many of the state's congressional districts could be dramatically reshaped.

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.

During an interview today with KFDI News of Wichita, Republican Willis "Wink" Hartman Sr., a wealthy oilman, announced his intention to run for Kansas' open 4th District seat.

"I've been very fortunate, not only financially but providing jobs and building different infrastructures and different companies. So now I'd like to take that talent, that I've ... whittled down to a fine art, I'd like to take that to Washington and see what I can do for the 4th District," he said.

Hartman joins state Sen. Dick Kelsey, Republican National Committee member Mike Pompeo and businessman Jim Anderson in the race for the GOP nomination to succeed Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sam Brownback.

Pompeo leads in early fundraising with $253,000 raised through June 30, and Kelsey loaned his campaign $223,000 for a total of $230,000 raised through the same date. Anderson entered the race in July, after the close of the fundraising quarter.

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.

Republicans' hopes of ousting freshman Democrat Jim Himes in Connecticut's 4th District suffered a serious blow, as heavily recruited GOP state legislator John McKinney has taken himself out of the running.

John Mckinney

"It is definitely my intention to run for re-election to the state Senate," McKinney said. "The course I'm choosing right now gives me the opportunity to do something I love, which is to help others; be a public servant; help the people of the state of Connecticut; and at the same time it allows me to stay at home and be the father I want to be for my kids."

Danny K. Davis, the seven-term Democratic representative of Illinois' 7th Congressional District, appears likely to run in 2010 for a key local office. And other Democrats in his Chicago-based party stronghold are starting to take that intention seriously by moving toward entering what likely would be a crowded February primary contest.

Darlena Williams-Burnett -- chief deputy recorder of deeds for Cook County and a member of the party's state central committee -- is the first candidate to file paperwork to launch a campaign and start raising money for the 7th District seat.

The Federal Election Commission this week processed a statement of organization for Williams-Burnett, who is married to Walter Burnett Jr., a Chicago alderman.

And Williams-Burnett undoubtedly won't be the last entry if Davis does leave the House seat open.

Tarryl Clark, a high-ranking Democrat in the Minnesota Senate, officially announced Wednesday that she will seek to challenge two-term Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann in what could be one of the most hotly contested House races in 2010.

Tarryl Clark

Wrote Clark: "For the past few years, the 6th District's representation in Congress has been about missed opportunities."

"It's time to deliver more than a sound bite," she continued. "Representative Bachmann's biggest accomplishments are creating controversy instead of creating good jobs, and working the talk-show circuit instead of helping working families."

Dan Seals

But there is a big difference between the 2010 contest and Seals' competitive but losing challenges in 2006 and 2008: Kirk will not be the Republican nominee in the 10th District House race, as he on Monday confirmed his plans to run for the U.S. Senate.

Seals, who will face stiff competition for the 2010 Democratic nomination, in fact had made his candidacy contingent on Kirk leaving the House seat open to run statewide. Seals, a business consultant, took 46.6 percent of the vote against Kirk as a first-time candidate in 2006, and 47.4 percent in their 2008 rematch.

Republican Frank Guinta is challenging two-term Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in New Hampshire's 1st District, and GOP officials are touting the mayor of Manchester -- the state's biggest city -- as one of their top recruits for the 2010 elections. But Guinta, whose campaign has had a bumpy start, filed an initial campaign finance report in which the numbers fell short of stellar.

While Guinta's amount was close to the $120,000 that Shea-Porter raised during the same three-month period, the incumbent had an earlier start, and her combined total as of June 30 was $254,000 overall. Another key measure produced a similar gap, as Shea-Porter reported $211,000 remaining on hand and Guinta reported $93,000.

Tim Walberg

Walberg's decision to run in 2010 -- which he had signaled was likely -- will be one of the key rematches in districts that the Democrats captured from the Republicans last year, expanding the House majority they claimed in the 2006 elections.

Schauer won by just more than 2 percentage points, and Democrat Barack Obama won the presidential vote by 6 points in the largely rural 7th District, where the biggest city is the cereal-making capital of Battle Creek. But the south-central Michigan district has a heritage as GOP turf that dates way back to the 1850s, when one of the founding meetings of the Republican Party was held in the city of Jackson.

Steve Pearce

But the GOP will have to wait a bit longer than Pearce initially indicated. After earlier saying he would reveal a decision by the end of June, Pearce told CQ Politics Friday that he is still weighing his 2010 plans and will withhold his announcement until sometime between July 20 and July 27.

Pearce in 2008 edged then-Rep. Heather A. Wilson for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat opened up by the retirement of six-term GOP incumbent Pete V. Domenici. But Democrat Tom Udall, then the state's other U.S. House member, trounced Pearce in the general election by 61 percent to 39 percent.

Willie Herenton

"I look forward to the opportunity to take my local government experiences of dealing with tough urban challenges to the halls of Congress to benefit this great city, which I have served tirelessly for my entire career," Herenton said while reading his resignation letter aloud during a press conference at City Hall.

Herenton has headed Tennessee's most populous city since 1991, and his upcoming battle with the incumbent congressman is sure to attract national attention.

Richard Jones

Richard K. Jones, the elected sheriff in Butler County, has decided to not challenge Boehner after mulling the possibility for a few weeks, the Dayton Daily News reported. Boehner is expected to seek a 10th House term next year in Ohio's 8th District north of Cincinnati and north and west of Dayton.

"After extensive review and discussions with various individuals in the political and private sectors, and given the current economic conditions and local needs, I have decided to continue as sheriff of Butler County," Jones said in a statement.

Tim Holden

Holden's image as a Democratic centrist enabled him to win an incumbent-incumbent matchup with longtime Republican Rep. George W. Gekas in the 17th District, designed with an overall GOP lean, and boosted him to easy victories in his three re-election campaigns since.

Republicans, though, contend that they should be able to compete for the 17th District seat. They point out that the district twice gave heavy support to George W. Bush in his bids as the Republican presidential nominee -- 55 percent in 2000 and 58 percent in 2004 - and favored 2008 Republican nominee John McCain with 51 percent even as Democrat Barack Obama carried the state as a whole.

"My goal for the 17th is for Republicans to vote for a Republican," said John J. McNally, Republican Party chairman for Dauphin County, which includes the state capital of Harrisburg. "My hope is that we are able to encourage Republicans to vote their principles."

Kendrick Meek

The development marks the latest in Meek's efforts to consolidate support and fend off a potential primary challenge from Rep. Corrine Brown.

"He has been battle-tested time and time again and that's the kind of leader we need" in the Senate, said Wasserman Schultz during a conference call with reporters Monday morning.

Wasserman Schultz is the vice chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in charge of retaining the party's incumbents in the 2010 elections, and Meek is one of the few House Democrats so far who is not running for re-election. That is not seen as a problem though, as he is virtually certain to be succeeded by a Democrat in the overwhelmingly Democratic, black-majority 17th District in the Miami area.

Michael Castle (Getty)

Castle was interested in becoming the ranking Republican on the Education and Labor Committee -- a post that California Republican Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon is vacating to become the top-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee. But Castle said in a statement that he couldn't commit to Republican leaders that he will run for a tenth term next year in his state's at-large congressional district.

Steve Pearce

Now district Republican activists are waiting to hear whether ex-Rep. Steve Pearce -- the losing Republican nominee in the 2008 U.S. Senate race -- will seek a political comeback by trying to reclaim his old 2nd District House seat.

Pearce, who first won the 2nd District seat in 2002 and held it for six years, says they won't have to wait much longer. He told CQ Politics in a phone interview Friday that he is likely to have an announcement by the end of this month about what, if any, 2010 political plans he has.

Jim Barnett

But Barnett is unlikely to be the least in the Republican field. In fact, the high profile he achieved as the 2006 GOP nominee for governor could certainly boost him into the top tier of candidates competing in the 1st, one of the nation's leading Republican Party strongholds.

Barnett lost that governor's race pretty badly, by 58 percent to 41 percent, to incumbent Kathleen Sebelius, a rare popular Democrat in statewide politics who recently resigned to become secretary of Health and Human Services under President Obama. But Barnett did better on the strongly Republican turf of the 1st, finishing first in roughly half of the 69 counties that are all or part in the district.

Dan Kapanke

But state Sen. Dan Kapanke, who is thinking about launching a challenge, might at least give the GOP an experienced candidate after it ran a series of little-known contenders in Kind's recent elections.

Kapanke said he will officially announce this summer whether he plans on joining the 3rd District race. He told CQ Politics that he has been "approached by people" who are familiar with him and aware of how he works as state senator, adding that he is "encouraged by what he is hearing."

Republican Jay Fleitman, a physician and first-time congressional candidate, faces prohibitive odds in his planned 2010 challenge to 11-term Democratic Rep. Richard E. Neal in Massachusetts' 2nd District.

But by staging the first Republican challenge to Neal since 1996 -- that's seven elections ago -- Fleitman is acting on the obvious political truism that you can't beat somebody with nobody.

Fleitman, a specialist in internal and pulmonary medicine and chairman of the board of health in his hometown of Northampton, said that he is "optimistic and enthusiastic" about his bid. He said he wasn't "looking to run for office" as he likes what he's doing, but decided to run "because people are going to be increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of the country."

Ethan Berkowitz

"My sights are now on the governor's race," Ethan Berkowitz, a former leader of the Democratic minority in the state House, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

In 2008, Republican Young defeated Berkowitz by a 5 percentage-point margin -- a difference of 16,379 votes -- after easily topping his 2006 Democratic opponent by nearly 17 points and nearly 40,000 votes, and winning a landslide victory as recently as 2004 by nearly 50 points and 150,000 votes.

Two years before his 2008 House race, Berkowitz ran for lieutenant governor; the Republican ticket of Palin for governor and Sean Parnell for lieutenant governor defeated the Democratic ticket of former Gov. Tony Knowles and Berkowitz, 48.3 percent to 41 percent.

Bill Stephens

"Strong, proven leadership is essential in the challenging times we face today. North Georgia deserves a member of Congress who knows them, will represent their interests and knows how to take on the power structure--and win," Stephens said in a written statement. "Given the opportunity to represent the 9th District, I will make sure that the voices of North Georgia are heard in the halls of Congress."

Stephens said he has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to establish a 2010 campaign committee. Deal, a nine-term lawmaker, is leaving the seat open to vie for governor.

Veteran Rep. Nathan Deal announced May 1, just five days ago, that he is running for governor of Georgia. And fellow Republicans who want to succeed him are rushing to get a jump on the open-seat race in Georgia's 9th District -- the most heavily Republican among the state's 13 districts.

Former state Sen. Bill Stephens said Wednesday he is preparing to enter the 9th District race. He said six generations of his family have roots in the district, which shares a border with Tennessee in the northernmost part of Georgia.

"I feel like my DNA matches the district," Stephens said, adding, "And I think this is a crucial time not only in Georgia, but in the country, and I want to be a part of that."

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."

When Georgia Rep. Nathan Deal announced Friday that he's running for governor next year, he became the ninth House Republican to forgo a 2010 re-election campaign. Just four House Democrats have done the same.

That partisan skew of the early 2010 open seats might be bad news for the GOP. The Republicans endured another round of big seat losses in 2008 after losing the House majority in the 2006 elections -- and the party suffered a greater net loss last year in districts that departing incumbents had left open than in districts that incumbents were defending.

There is some salve for the GOP, though, in its early 2010 cycle open-seat situation. The districts that are being left open by Republican retirees or seekers of other offices are reliably Republican-leaning.

Keep an eye on two adjacent House districts in California, where Democrats will be going all-out to convince voters who went for President Obama to oust their Republican members of Congress.

Two Democrats made their California campaigns official this week: Democrat Bill Hedrick in the 44th District and Democrat Steve Pougnet in the 45th District.

Hedrick, a member of the Corona-Norco Board of Education, announced Wednesday he will seek a rematch with Republican Rep. Ken Calvert after Hedrick's narrow 2008 loss to the incumbent. Calvert narrowly won re-election to a ninth term in November with just 51 percent of the vote over Hedrick, who received 49 percent.

The southern California 44th and 45th are among eight Republican-held House districts being closely targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for 2010. All eight districts were carried by Barack Obama last November.

Republican Rep. Steve King has has indicated that he is considering a challenge to Democratic incumbent Chet Culver in next year's race for governor of Iowa. And while King told CQ Politics Thursday morning that the matter isn't on his mind when he goes to sleep at night, he left the door open to the possibility.

"No decision has been made," King said in an interview at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The adjournment of the state legislature's annual session -- which will start the run-up to the state's 2010 election season in earnest -- just occured on Sunday, and King said he's going to "let the dust settle."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee triggered a war of words Monday with a certain outspoken Minnesota congresswoman after it launched a new Web site, Bachmann Watch.

The site purports to highlight the "extreme rhetoric and false claims" Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann "makes to bolster her outrageous statements." And it hits Bachmann, a two-term incument and frequent Fox News guest, for her assertions on cap-and-trade energy legislation, her record on earmarks, and government spending.

Criticism of Bachmann, a pariah among liberals, is certain to energize the Democratic base. But it also may generate support for Bachmann herself. At least that's what she's hoping for, after sending out a fundraising e-mail to supporters less than an hour after the DCCC sent word of its site.

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton (c) at a Pioneers of the NBA Symposium with Memphis Grizzlies owner Brian Heisley (l) (Getty)

"My 30 years of public service has uniquely prepared me to represent Memphis at the federal level as our national leadership faces some very difficult challenges," Herenton said in a statement, according to the Memphis Commerical Appeal.

Herenton in 2006 publicly endorsed Cohen following Cohen's Democratic primary win in the open seat race.

Joan Buchanan

"There are times in our lives when an opportunity knocks quite unexpectedly," Buchanan stated in an open letter to supporters Wednesday.

"After consulting with hundreds of community leaders, voters, elected colleagues and activists across our region; after considering the extraordinary financial challenges facing the country; and after carefully evaluating where I can make the most significant contribution, I have decided that I will be a candidate for Congress in our district," Buchanan wrote..

Joe Courtney

Novak, whose campaign statement of organization was posted Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission, confirmed to CQ Politics that she is running, and is planning an official kick-off event around the end of May. The first-time candidate intends to build a "real grass-roots campaign" with a focus on local organizing.

Novak's announcement comes after former Hebron Board of Finance member Matthew M. Daly told local reporters in March that he was running. Republican sources say lawyer and Navy veteran Sean Sullivan, who lost to Courtney, 32 percent to 66 percent in 2008, is mulling another run. And former state Rep. Andrew Norton may also be interested.

Michele Bachmann (Getty)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Nope. Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer? Another nice try, but wrong again.

The answer is actually someone who doesn't even serve in Congress: Elwyn Tinklenberg, a Minnesota Democrat who fell short in his bid last year to represent the 6th District north and east of the Twin Cities. His campaign committee, Tinklenberg for Congress, gave the quarter-million to the DCCC in two $125,000 installments, according to a campaign finance report the DCCC filed Monday.

Greg Ball

"Let's show Greg how much we support and appreciate him by having a great event with a great turnout to start off the campaign!!" wrote volunteer coordinator Jacqui Ambrosino.

All signs indicate Ball will announce that he is taking on second-term Rep. John Hall, though his communications director cautioned that the assemblyman is still in the decision making process.

Ball, 31, just completed a three-day exploratory "listening tour" across the district, which encompasses the lower Hudson Valley including part of Westchester County and Peekskill. The former Air Force lieutenant has served in the Assembly since 2007, where he is the ranking member on the Standing Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, which oversees the state's public and private corporations.

For some congressional candidates preparing early for the 2010 elections, the best seed money is their own personal funds.

Suzan DelBene, a Democrat from Washington state, and Kansas Republicans Dick Kelsey and Tim Barker all reported six-figure personal loans to their campaigns in this year's first quarter, according to just-filed campaign finance documents. There is no limit on how much personal money a candidate can put into his or her own campaign.

DelBene, a technology executive who is running against Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in the state's 8th District near Seattle, contributed or loaned her campaign $209,000 -- about two-thirds of her total first-quarter receipts of $315,000. Her personal funding enabled DelBene to post more overall receipts than Reichert, who raised $195,000 during the reporting period.

Steve Israel (Getty)

Israel has yet to file his first quarter report, which is due to the Federal Election Commission by midnight Wednesday.

Israel had demonstrated his fundraising prowess in past campaigns, raising large sums for the Democratic party as well as for his own safe House seat. He will need to rally his entire fundraising network and then some to mount a credible primary challenge to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and statewide general election campaign, something he has not ruled out.

Oakland County Republican Paul Welday is going to try to do something his former boss, ex-Rep. Joe Knollenberg couldn't do: beat Democrat Gary Peters.

Welday announced Wednesday that he was mounting a campaign to unseat Peters in Michigan's 9th District, which takes in suburban Detroit, including eastern Oakland County. Welday used to be the chief of staff for Knollenberg, an eight-term incumbent whom Peters upset in 2008.

"For over six years Michigan's economy has been in the tank, and now America is feeling much the same pain we have become all too familiar with," Welday said during an anti-tax Tea Party in Troy, Mich. "While we have been promised hope and change, what we are getting from our current congressman is grandstanding and massive deficit spending."

Texas Rep. Joe L. Barton, whose campaign lost $703,500 in the financial markets last year, reported Wednesday a $104,800 hit he took in the first quarter of 2009, not including income from interest-bearing checking accounts.

Joe L. Barton

Much of the losses are attributable to the plummeting value of stock Barton's campaign holds in two companies -- General Electric and General Motors -- that are regulated by the Energy and Commerce Committee, where he is the top ranking Republican.

Barton's report to the Federal Election Commission shows $57,800 in losses from GE stock in the first three months of 2009 and $12,600 in losses from GM.

Every election cycle, a handful of congressional candidates who fell short in the previous election plan rematch campaigns, confident that an earlier start and better preparation will lead them to success the second time around.

One rematch-minded candidate in the 2010 cycle is Alabama Democratic lawyer Josh Segall, who announced Tuesday that he will challenge Republican Rep. Mike D. Rogers in the 3rd District, which includes part of Montgomery and most of Alabama's border with Georgia.

Segall, who won 46 percent of the vote against Rogers in 2008, said in a statement that "it's time for a new direction" and that he is a "fiscal conservative who will work to create and attract 21st century jobs to east Alabama so that hardworking people can get ahead."

The National Republican Congressional Committee isn't letting Democrats take a break from Washington politics over the spring recess. The party committee is going on the air this week with a mix of television ads, radio ads and robocalls accusing 43 House Democrats in swing districts of supporting "a reckless spending spree" by voting for the recently passed budget resolution (H Con Res 85).

The ads -- an example of which, targeting Rep. Zack Space of Ohio, is on YouTube -- accuse the Democrats in question of joining Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to push through more than $1.2 trillion in new spending since the 111th Congress began.

Pennsylvania Democrat Doug Pike, a freelance journalist and a former newspaper editorial writer, said Wednesday that he's running in 2010 to represent the 6th District in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Pike, who worked for 14 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer and previously was an aide to Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Paul Tsongas (1979-85), said that he was running to "bring a renewed focus on the needs of everyday citizens."

Pike also criticized the voting record of the 6th's current congressman, four-term Republican Jim Gerlach, who may forego re-election to the House in 2010 and instead pursue a campaign for governor that is presently in the "exploratory" phase.

Mike Halfacre (Campaign site photo)

New Jersey Republican Mike Halfacre has filed paperwork to prepare for a possible 2010 campaign against Democratic Rep. Rush D. Holt in the state's 12th District.

Halfacre is a lawyer and the mayor of Fair Haven, a small borough in Monmouth County that is near the eastern end of a Democratic-leaning district that meanders across the midsection of the state.

Tom Fitzsimmons, a spokesman for Halfacre, said in an e-mail message to CQ Politics that Halfacre is "considering running" for Congress next year and that "right now he is talking to people and gauging interest in his candidacy."

Democrats seem to be learning a lesson from the long-running legal battles over the 2008 Minnesota Senate race -- the New York state party and Democratic candidate Scott Murphy responded to the whiff of legal conflict in New York's 20th District special election by forming the New York Victory Protection Fund.

The fundraising committee will allow the Murphy campaign and the state party to jointly raise money for expenses incurred in the current ballot canvassing and counting process, as well as any legal fights that arise. Donors to the committee are not subject to aggregate limits, meaning a donor who already gave the maximum allowed to the Murphy campaign under federal limits can donate again to help with legal fees, up to the federal limit.

The Federal Election Commission ruled in March that the same is true for recount funds established by national party committees, in response to a request by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee regarding fundraising for the Minnesota recount. The two candidates in Minnesota -- Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman -- have spent millions on legal fees in the unresolved race.

Republican Tracey Mann, a real estate agent, will announce his candidacy on April 4 for Kansas' open 1st District.

Mann will join an already crowded GOP field to succeed Republican Rep. Jerry Moran, who is running for governor.

Republicans Tim Huelskamp, a state senator, businessman Tim Barker, former senate aide Rob Wasinger, and educator Sue Boldra are each campaigning for the Republican nomination.

Voters in the largely rural district supported John McCain for president with 69 percent of the vote, according to a CQ Politics analysis.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is among the voters whose late-counted ballots will determine the outcome of the race to succed her in New York's 20th District.

Gillibrand, who was appointed to the Senate after Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of State, said Wednesday that she voted by absentee ballot. She, of course, cast her ballot for fellow Democrat Scott Murphy, who held a slim lead over veteran Republican state lawmaker Jim Tedisco when counting stopped Tuesday night

All paper ballots, including those cast by absentees, have been impounded under court order, and it is not clear when a winner will be declared.

Will Gillibrand's vote make the difference for Murphy?

"I hope so," she said.

Texas Democratic businessman Jack McDonald is touting a fast early start in fundraising as he readies his 2010 campaign against Republican Rep. Michael McCaul in the 10th District in and around Austin.

McDonald's campaign announced Wednesday that it had raised nearly $309,000 since it organized an "exploratory" campaign with the Federal Election Commission about five weeks ago.

McDonald, who heads an information technology firm and is a vice chairman of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, attributed his early fundraising success to "the set of issues that we're talking about."

"What we're hearing out there from people is that they want folks in Washington that have real world experience," McDonald said. "Our economy is in crisis right now and we face long-term economic challenges."

Tuesday's special election in New York's 20th District has received substantial national attention, though it's probably a mistake to read too much into the result of the balloting between Republican James Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy.

The most obvious reason is that the Obama administration is barely two months old and that 20 months remain until the 2010 midterm elections, which will be a much broader referendum on the president's policies and the Democratic-run Congress.

Moreover, a history of House special elections dating to 1968, which I compiled and posted on Greg's List, should also give pause to ascribing too much importance to the outcome of a low-turnout election in a district that voted narrowly for Barack Obama in the 2008 election.

The National Republican Congressional Committee made one final pitch for donations before the first quarter fundraising deadline ends Tuesday at midnight.

"Our first FEC reporting deadline is less than 33 hours away," NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas wrote in an e-mail appeal to supporters Monday afternoon, adding that the committee is less than $50,000 from reaching an undisclosed fundraising goal for the quarter.

As an extra incentive, Sessions and fellow Minoirty Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy of California have pledged to match total contributions up to $50,000.

On the heels of two major endorsements last week, additional big-name supporters are expected to step forward to support Democratic state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier's campaign for California's 10th District, his staff said Monday.

His spokeswoman Shara Perkins confirmed Monday that DeSaulnier is currently in Washington, D.C., participating in meetings related to his campaign and that notable endorsements are expected to be announced later this week.

DeSaulnier has already received perhaps the most coveted endorsement in the race- The current representative of California's 10th District, Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, endorsed DeSaulnier as her successor last week. Tauscher has been tapped to serve as undersecretary of State for arms control and international security.

When they're on the hustings, members of Congress like to tout endorsements or praise from organizations that look favorably on their voting records. One group whose support many lawmakers embrace is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the mammoth business federation with more than 3 million members.

The Chamber today announced that 260 lawmakers had qualified for its 2008 "Spirit of Enterprise" award by siding with its positions at least 70 percent of the time on the most important votes in last year's session. (Some of the lawmakers are no longer in Congress because they retired, sought other office or were defeated for re-election.)

There is a Republican skew to the list of honorees: 233 of the 260 lawmakers who got the Chamber's nod align with that party, including 188 of 204 in the House and 45 of 56 in the Senate. The Chamber's free-market positions on trade, tax and regulatory issues generally draw more support from Republicans than from Democrats, who by and large line up more frequently with the positions of labor unions.

Jerry Moran (Getty)

"His election to the United State Senate would be a tremendous benefit to those of us fighting against the bailouts and irresponsible spending in Washington, D.C.," Coburn said of Moran, according to a fundraising letter Thursday. "I give him my strongest endorsement for the U.S. Senate." Coburn's home state borders Kansas to the south.

Moran, of Kansas' 1st District, faces a hotly contested primary battle against House colleague Todd Tiahrt of the 4th District for their party's nomination.

Democrat Scott Murphy scored a big endorsement Wednesday when President Barack Obama sent an e-mail to supporters asking them to back his candidacy in New York's 20th District special election.

"Scott has the kind of experience and background we desperately need right now in Washington," Obama wrote, urging his supporters to chip in by fundraising or volunteering for the first-time candidate and businessman in the last week of the race. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. followed up with a radio ad for Murphy released Thursday.

Not to be outdone, Murphy's Republican opponent, veteran New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco rolled out his own big endorsement yesterday -- from the Humane Society.

New York's Democratic special election candidate Scott Murphy is on a fundraising tear, disclosing $354,000 in contributions of $1,000 or above in the past 10 days. A large portion of that -- $77,500 -- was transferred from his joint fundraising committee with the New York Democratic party, while Democrats in Congress chipped in more than $43,000.

Murphy's Republican opponent in New York's 20th District race, longtime Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, reported $115,000 in large-donor contributions in the same time period. Past and present Republican members of Congress gave Tedisco $20,000 -- less than half of what their Democratic counterparts gave Murphy since March 16.

In the closing weeks of the campaign, the two candidates are required to file reports of all donations of $1,000 or more within 48 hours of receipt.

Jim Tedisco

The longtime New York assemblyman has raised more than $30,000 from corporate and trade association political action committees since March 13, new fundraising disclosure reports reveal.

That represents 60 percent of the nearly $55,000 Tedisco reported raising in the time period. Starting March 13, the two campaigns are now required to file reports of all donations they receive of $1000 or more.