Newly filed campaign finance reports show that Republican senators moved quickly last month to boost the 2010 Senate campaign of Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.), one of the party's strongest candidates to capture a Democratic-held seat.

Eager to increase their ranks beyond 40 seats, several GOP senators donated to Castle through their leadership political action committees, according to reports the organizations filed before a deadline today.

Among those senators who reported giving to Castle in October were Thad Cochran (Miss.), whose Senate Victory Fund PAC gave $10,000; Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), whose OrrinPAC donated $5,000; Pat Roberts (Kan.), whose Preserving America's Traditions PAC gave $5,000; and Mike Johanns (Neb.), whose Prairieland PAC donated $2,000.

Political operatives from New York to Washington, D.C., are buzzing about whether former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) is getting ready to launch a campaign against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) next year.

New York media outlets reported Thursday afternoon that Giuliani has decided not to run for governor in 2010 but that he is still mulling a Senate bid. A report in the New York Daily News, citing unnamed sources, said Giuliani had decided to run for Senate.

But a Giuliani spokeswoman said in a statement that no decision has been made.

"Rudy has a history of making up his own mind and has no problem speaking it," spokeswoman Maria Comella said. "When Mayor Giuliani makes a decision about serving in public office, he will inform New Yorkers on his own."

If he runs, this would be the second time Giuliani has sought this Senate seat. He mounted a brief campaign for what was then an open seat in 2000 but ended his campaign after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) raised approximately $2 million more for her special election Senate bid over the past month and a half, nearly doubling her total receipts to $4.1 million, the campaign announced Thursday.

Coakley will report cash-on-hand of more than $1.9 million in her pre-primary financial disclosure, covering the period between Oct. 1 and Nov. 18.

Her fundraising edges fellow Democrat Rep. Mike Capuano (Mass.), who announced Wednesday evening that he raised $1.8 million in the period and had $1.1 million cash-on-hand.

With President Obama out of the country, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stepped out on the campaign trail over the past two days with stops in Nevada and Arizona to raise funds and rally support for local Democrats.

And the Connecticut Democratic party announced Monday that he will attend a luncheon in support of embattled Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn. Dec. 11, signaling a new level of intensity in the vice president's party-building efforts that have already seen him visit, by his count, 54 House districts this year.

Biden's made appearances Sunday and Monday with vulnerable Reps. Dina Titus, D-Nev., Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz.., and Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., all of whom face competitive races in states that have been particularly hard hit by the housing crisis and economic recession.

According to a report by the Pew Center on the States released last week, Arizona ranked second and Nevada fifth among states in the most "fiscal peril" in 2009. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., won Kirkpatrick's 1st District and Mitchell's 5th District in the 2008 presidential race, while Obama snared Titus' 3rd District.

Chalk up another congressional endorsement for the frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination in Illinois, Alexi Giannoulias.

Over the weekend, Rep. Jan Schakowsky became the fifth member of the state's congressional delegation to back him.

"Alexi Giannoulias is the best candidate to retain President Obama's seat because he has the courage to take on powerful interests and stand up for Illinois families," Schakowsky said in a statement. "He supports health-insurance reform that will rein in the soaring costs of premiums and protect families from losing coverage during these difficult economic times."

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison won't resign her seat until after she participates in a Republican primary for governor next March.

According to the Associated Press, Hutchison plans to say in a speech Saturday in Galveston that she'll remain in the Senate to fight Democratic proposals to overhaul health care and enact a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gases.

"I realize this will keep me in the Senate past the primary election," Hutchison plans to say, according to the AP. "These issues are too important to leave the fight to a newly appointed freshman senator who will be selected in the midst of a political storm."

Hutchison in July told a radio interviewer that she planned to resign from the Senate in October or November to concentrate on her primary challenge of Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who has been governor since December 2000 and is seeking a third full term. But she soon backed away from that statement and said it was possible she could stay in the Senate through the gubernatorial primary.

North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge has decided to pass, for a second time, on the opportunity to take on Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr.

"Ultimately, I believe that I can best help the people of North Carolina during this economic downturn by remaining in the House of Representatives and continuing to serve as North Carolina's only member of the House Ways and Means Committee," Etheridge said in a written statement.

The congressman's decision to seek re-election to his House seat is the latest, and maybe the biggest, recruiting set back for Democrats in a state that party officials had hoped would be a top pick-up opportunity next year.

Three Democratic candidates -- North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Durham attorney Kenneth Lewis and businessman Frank Deaton II have filed to run against Burr, but it's no secret that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was aggressively recruiting Etheridge.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's airwave offensive continued Friday with the launch of his fourth television ad of the 2010 campaign, a sign that despite his nonchalant attitude, the four-term Nevada Democrat is deeply concerned about his re-election chances.

The one-minute spot is the most direct yet in making what is Reid's central appeal: that his political clout is too valuable for the state to replace him.

"He's the most powerful senator Nevada has ever had," the ad begins, "And Harry Reid's working harder than ever to get Nevada's economy back on track." It goes on to list federal funds, tax credits and other pork projects Reid has delivered to the state.

Delaware state Rep. Greg Lavelle said Thursday that he has decided against seeking the Republican nomination for the at-large U.S. House seat that GOP Rep. Michael N. Castle is giving up to run for the Senate.

Lavelle said in a statement that he had discussed a possible House candidacy with family and friends and "reached the decision that it is not the time for me to run for this office."

"Winning this seat will take a tremendous and almost full-time effort," he said.

"I recognize, and others in the GOP who are considering a run for the office must also recognize, that organizing a genuine and effective campaign, including the challenges of raising more than $1 million, will be no small task," he said. "This is no time for chasing windmills."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will endorse Rep. Michael E. Capuano in the Massachusetts Senate special election.

"Whether taking on the CEOs of the financial services industry, supporting marriage equality, or voting against the Iraq War because he didn't believe Bush Administration made the case to take military action, Mike Capuano has a proven record of standing up for progressive values and what he believes is right. I am proud to endorse Mike Capuano for U.S. Senate," Pelosi said in a statement. The formal endorsement will come Friday in Boston, Mass.

Capuano, the only member of Congress in the race, has already received the endorsements of five out of the nine other members of the all-Democrat Massachusetts House delegation. Kitty Dukakis, wife of former governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, also voiced her support for Capuano earlier this week.

However, the six-term Boston-area congressman continues to trail well behind frontrunner Martha Coakley, the state attorney general, according to a new Suffolk University poll.