Politics - Congressional Quarterly

Drill, drill, drill is the message Americans want to hear on energy and GOP candidates should stay on that message, former Speaker Newt Gingrich told House Republicans Wednesday.

This Sunday will mark exactly 100 days until Election Day on Nov. 4 -- a political milestone of sorts that gave the leaders of the campaign organizations of House and Senate Democrats a pretext Wednesday to put an optimistic face on their prospects.

House Democrats' campaign arm raised more than $10 million in June, once again outpacing its Republican counterpart committee in fundraising while plotting to augment its 236-199 majority in the November elections.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain outspent his Democratic rival Barack Obama in June, signaling an effort by the McCain campaign to spend down his campaign account before the Arizona senator accepts spending limits imposed by the public financing system.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain and the Republican Party are knocking on the door of history when it comes to joint fundraising committees.

As congressional campaigns have heated up, many of the competitive contests have turned to the advantage of the Democrats.

It may be Barack Obama's consistency on Iraq policy, not the charge of flip-flopping, that puts him in the greatest political peril.

Barack Obama's fundraising machine is back in gear, thanks to a June haul of $52 million in receipts, according to his campaign. The take marked the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee's second largest month of fundraising, and the majority of those funds went right to the bank, giving Obama a commanding cash lead over presumed Republican nominee John McCain.

Democratic candidates for open House seats have expanded their cash lead in the second quarter of the year, new financial reports show.

Senate Democrats met Wednesday with leaders of business groups once closely identified with the GOP, perhaps catalyzing the realignment of Capitol Hill alliances as Democrats prepare to expand their majority.

Ralph Nader and five now-defunct presidential campaigns will receive a total of $7.4 million in public matching funds for their primary campaigns, the Federal Election Commission announced Wednesday. The funding for each candidate was determined by the amount each raised in individual contributions, up to a given limit.

Republican Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia's 10th District on Tuesday easily deflected a primary challenge from state Rep. Barry Fleming -- and dissolved the aspersion that his upset win in a special election held almost exactly a year ago was a fluke.

Republican candidates for Alabama's two highly competitive open-seat House races were nominated in runoff elections Tuesday.

Here's the latest installment in the GOP race to hold New York's 13th Congressional District seat: Staten Island Republicans have filed to replace deceased candidate Frank Powers with former state Rep. Robert Straniere as their designated candidate.

The vice presidency is now worth far more than a warm bucket of spit -- at least that's how leading vice presidential scholar Joel K. Goldstein sees it.

Democrats will augment their slender U.S. Senate majority in an election year in which CQ Politics rates nine seats held by Republicans among the 10 most vulnerable to takeover by the challenging party. But that raises the stakes in the one exception: conservative-leaning Louisiana, where two-term Democratic Sen. Mary L. Landrieu is facing a competitive challenge.

In another bizarre twist to the already confusing contest to replace retiring Rep. Vito J. Fossella, the Staten Island Republican Party has submitted petitions on behalf of the late businessman Frank Powers. Powers' sudden death on June 22 left the party scrambling for a replacement candidate to run for the only GOP seat in New York City.

John McCain's presidential campaign continued its steady fundraising progress in June, tallying just over $22 million in receipts, Campaign Manager Rick Davis announced today.

A full slate of Federal Election Commission members held their first meeting Thursday, promising to roll up their sleeves and quickly address a large list of campaign finance issues that effectively been on hold since January.

The primary elections may be over, but for one independent group formed to support the presidential bid of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, it also marks a new beginning.

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota is hinting more strongly than ever that he will enter the state's race for U.S. Senate.

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.

Lobbyists will be involved in writing the Democratic platform under Barack Obama, who has campaigned against special interest influence in Washington and bashed his rivals for accepting contributions from paid lobbyists.

Democrats say that a new survey shows their party's efforts to topple Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart in Florida are gaining traction.

Republicans are hoping to turn the energy debate into one of their new signature issues, believing that the rising concern among voters, driven by the ripple effect of soaring gasoline prices, can work in their favor in a year when most issues have been trending in favor of Democrats.

Ignoring ongoing logistical and fundraising challenges, the Democratic Party and the campaign of Barack Obama announced Monday that his presidential nomination acceptance speech during the Democratic National Convention will be held in Denver's Invesco Field instead of the convention hall at the Pepsi Center.

Video: Campaigns Court the Latino Vote

Catering for Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia: $14,063. A fundraising event for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio during an Arizona PGA tournament: $5,500. Beverages from Georgetown Wine & Spirits for contributors to Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. of Illinois: $1,186. Being able to charge expenses for your congressional campaign on a credit card: Priceless.