Congressional Elections

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrat Barack Obama Wednesday called for aggressive diplomacy with Iran while Republican John McCain warned against making any concessions, as Tehran's missile tests jolted the White House race.

A big and expensive television ad campaign began Tuesday for Democratic congressional hopeful Dan Maffei in his bid for the seat of retiring Republican Rep. James T. Walsh of New York's upstate 25th District.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate moved closer on Monday to passing election-year legislation meant to save hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners from foreclosure.

PONTIAC, Mich. - Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian has collected enough signatures to be on the November ballot as a congressional candidate in Michigan.

WASHINGTON - Democrats bent on showing they can govern and Republicans anxious about a sour re-election climate are pushing a pared-down summer agenda in Congress. Lawmakers want to try to save homeowners from foreclosure, avert Medicare cuts and give the government power to spy on suspected terrorists.

BILOXI, Miss. - Roger Wicker leaned up against the rails of the oyster schooner Mike Sekul, enjoying the slight Mississippi Sound breeze and some scrumptious, bone-sucking ribs with his son McDaniel.

NAME — Ronnie Musgrove

NAME — Roger F. Wicker

BISMARCK, N.D. - A Republican congressional candidate's small plane had less than a quart of fuel in its tanks when he crash landed in a cornfield last month, a federal National Transportation Safety Board accident report says.

JACKSON, Miss. - A Republican congressional candidate in a majority-white Mississippi district runs ads trying to tie his Democratic rival with Barack Obama's former pastor, seen by some as an anti-white firebrand. Democrats distribute fliers accusing the Republican of wanting a statue to honor the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.

About 48 percent of voting age citizens voted in the 2006 congressional elections, the highest percentage in a non-presidential year since 1994, according to a report released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

WASHINGTON - Voting by Hispanics surged in the last congressional elections, showing strength that could swing this year's presidential vote in closely contested states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It'll be a busy year for Rep. Vic Snyder, but not because of the election. The congressman from central Arkansas said Monday that he and his wife are expecting triplets.

North Carolina Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole holds the edge in her bid this year for a second term. But fluctuating polls over the month and a half since state Sen. Kay Hagan won the May 6 Democratic primary have raised questions about how solid and secure Dole is in her status as the favorite.

BOSTON - Sen. John Kerry is facing his first primary opponent since he first took office 23 years ago, and his challenger has one issue in mind: The senator's 2003 vote authorizing President Bush to launch military action against Iraq.

WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed Elizabeth Duke on Friday to become a member of the Federal Reserve, which has been battling housing, credit and financial crises with a short staff.

Barack Obama has crafted an image as an unconventional candidate, a change agent and a post-partisan politician who represents a dramatic break from the status quo. But since securing the Democratic presidential nomination, when confronted with a series of thorny issues the Illinois senator has pursued a conspicuously conventional path, one that falls far short of his soaring rhetoric.

The Supreme Court's decision Thursday striking down the so-called "millionaires amendment" is not expected to have much of an impact on federal elections, although it could force a handful of this year's congressional candidates to rethink their game plans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court struck down on Thursday part of a U.S. campaign finance law that relaxes contribution limits for candidates facing wealthy, self-funded opponents, a ruling that could affect congressional elections in November.

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Elizabeth Dole has long been a Republican star: U.S. transportation and labor secretary, spouse of 1996 presidential nominee Robert Dole, and a candidate for president herself in 2000.

SALT LAKE CITY - U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, a conservative Republican who lost his primary to an opponent who accused him of not being conservative enough, said Wednesday that his defeat frees him to move on to pursue other opportunities.

SALT LAKE CITY - U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, one of the nation's most conservative congressmen, lost his bid for a seventh term Tuesday in a Republican primary that focused on whether he was conservative enough for Utah's 3rd District.

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Tuesday confirmed five nominees for the Federal Election Commission, breaking a prolonged partisan logjam and allowing the agency to resume functioning.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), the political arm of the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, raised $5.9 million in May, according to a report it filed Friday. Its partisan counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), reported raising $4.9 million last month.

The rhetoric in Tuesday's Republican primary in Utah's 3rd Congressional District has a lot in common with the Democratic presidential primaries. While the candidates espouse similar positions, six-term incumbent Rep. Chris Cannon is running on his record of accomplishments and experience, and challenger Jason Chaffetz is running as an agent of change.

A new round of Democratic challengers across the country will be getting financial and organizational support from the national party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced today.

Lanham, Md.-- Democrat Donna Edwards, best known for defeating incumbent Rep. Albert R. Wynn in a February primary, defeated Republican Peter James in Tuesday's special election in Maryland's 4th District.

John Frohnmayer -- a former chairman of the federal National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) who was expected to be a wild card in Oregon Republican Gordon Smith's contest for re-election this year -- has instead folded his hand.

A wide-open Republican field of challengers to first-term Democratic Rep. Harry E. Mitchell has sparked endorsements and bold claims of conservative credentials. But the GOP still has no single consensus candidate for Arizona's 5th District race.

When it comes to minority representation in the U.S. Senate, November’s election looks to be a zero-sum game: If America gets its first black president, it will also lose its only black senator.