On Monday the Tea Party Express, joined by Sarah Palin, began a nationwide tour to press their radical agenda.  First stop: Nevada, where they have targeted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

That radical movement has dominated the Republican primaries.

Tea Party candidates are determined to turn the country back to the “good old days” – days before Social Security was created to protect our senior citizens, unemployment insurance helped those out of work, corporations could pollute the environment with impunity and maintain lax safety standards, and bank failures caused millions of Americans to lose their savings.

Tea Party candidates such as Sharron Angle in Nevada, Rand Paul in Kentucky, Ken Buck in Colorado and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware object to the reforms implemented over the last 70 years that protect ordinary Americans. They argue these improvements are unconstitutional.

Senator Harry Reid in Nevada, Jack Conway in Kentucky, Senator Michael Bennet in Colorado and Chris Coons in Delaware, all Democrats, are working hard to keep the Tea Party extremists out of the U.S. Senate, but they need your help in the last two weeks of the campaign.

Please contribute to keep the Tea Party Foursome out of the U.S. Senate.

The Tea Party Four – Angle, Paul, Buck and O’Donnell – represent a broader movement taking over the Republican Party and hold positions such as:

– Accusing the United Nations of a conspiracy to take over the United States;
– Joining South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint in advocating building an unworkable and hugely expensive national missile defense system that could set off a new arms race with Russia;
– Supporting privatizing or outright eliminating Social Security and Medicare and shredding the safety net that protects the elderly;
– Refusing to hold BP responsible for its huge oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast or coal mine owners for deaths in the mines;
– Calling unemployment insurance unconstitutional and advocating the abolition of the Department of Education.

Help Reid, Conway, Bennet and Coons keep the Tea Party at bay.

Reid, Conway, Bennet and Coons all support the New START nuclear reductions agreement and ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

On the other hand, Angle has floated the possibility of armed rebellion against the government and the other Tea Party candidates have equally outlandish positions.

Please make a contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250, or even more.

These candidates need the help; the United States needs the protection.

In support of Pennsylvania Senate candidate Joe Sestak’s campaign, I am forwarding an email from his campaign entitled “Sestak 47% – Toomey 44% !!?”

I hope you’ll support Joe Sestak by making a contribution.

Sestak  faces the very conservative former Rep. Pat Toomey and he needs our help.  The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee is pouring money into the state to run ads attacking Sestak

Please read the message below from Joe Sestak and contribute $25 or more to his campaign today.

Thanks,

John Isaacs, Council for a Livable World

PS: Click here if you’d like to support more of our progressive candidates in this upcoming election.

Dear Friend,

Sestak 47% – Toomey 44% !!

In a just released Garin-Hart-Young Poll, we’ve pulled ahead of Congressman Toomey … the early stages of our closing “Get-Out-The-Vote” (“GOTV”) Operation – “Bring It On Home” – are working.

There is no more critical contribution you can make than to help us fund our closing “GOTV” strategy/operation! Please make a contribution.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that yesterday the National Republican Senatorial Committee (“NRSC”) – in response to the poll numbers “moving in this race” – launched its first ad on behalf of Congressman Toomey. We’ve since learned that the NRSC has now doubled its ad buy in these last few weeks as the race has started to shift to the Democrats.

The momentum is on our side … and we’re asking you to please maintain it by making a needed contribution!

We are driving forward.

In response to this latest poll, Pennsylvania’s Patriot News put forth its headline, “Joe Sestak has taken lead over Pat Toomey”, while the Philadelphia Inquirer reported “Sestak has clawed his way” into the lead, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stated “Sestak catching the wind.”

And Hotline said it well:

“Sestak … is finally closing in the race’s final three weeks …

The Sestak campaign and DSCC have carpet-bombed the state’s airwaves since early September with millions of dollars in ads, and most of them, like a recent spot that criticized Toomey for outsourcing jobs, have focused on bringing moderate Democrats back into the fold.

In a state where Republicans have a million fewer registered voters, Democrats need only win over their party members to win the state.”

There are 1.2 million more Democrats than Republicans in our state … but we are focused not only on bringing Democrats “back into the fold,” but also Independents and moderate Republicans that are turned off by Congressman Toomey’s extreme views and are accepting of our pragmatist approach to getting our country moving again.

We’ve “caught the wind” … but to keep it … we are going to need you to please make a contribution of $15, $25, $50, $100, $250, or even more.

Thank you for getting us this far … let’s keep the momentum moving forward … we are just 13 days away from victory!

Warmly,

Joe

MUHLENBERG COLLEGE MORNING CALL:  TRACKING POLL RESULTS –OCTOBER 20th TRACKING PERIOD from Oct. 16-19 – Sestak 44%, Toomey 41%. The previous tracking period Sept. 28 – Oct. 4 had Toomey ahead 46%-39%. Average sample size 400, margin of error +-5% at a 95% level of confidence. From Allentown Morning Call:  “The numbers are the first from a nonpartisan source to confirm the race has tightened two weeks before Election Day.. Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling on Tuesday put Sestak up by 1 percentage point. And two internal Democratic Party polls last week showed the Pennsylvania contest closing. It wouldn’t be the first time Sestak surged with the finish line in sight. In two previous elections, when political pundits had counted him out, Sestak came from behind with just weeks to go and emerged victorious. In May, the same tracking poll was the first to show Sestak catching and eventually surpassing U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary.”

Public Policy Polling – October 19: “The race for Senate in Pennsylvania has seen dramatic movement over the last two months and Joe Sestak has now taken the slightest lead over Pat Toomey, 46-45. On PPP’s previous survey of the state, in mid-August, Toomey led by a 45-36 margin. Three things have happened in the last 2 months to move this race back to toss up status: Sestak has made up a large deficit with independents, he’s consolidated his base, and Democratic interest in the election has picked up with election day moving closer. In that August survey Toomey held a commanding lead with independents, 50-23. Sestak has picked up the support of virtually all of the undecided independents and has pulled into a virtual tie with Toomey with that voting group, trailing now only 49-48.” Survey taken Oct. 17 and 18 with 718 likely votes, margin of error is +/-3.7%.           .

Chris Cillezza in Washington Post of October 20: “When we moved the Pennsylvania Senate race to “leans Republican” in late September, Democratic strategists warned us that we would be moving it back to “Toss Up” before the election ended. They were right. Amid an onslaught of spending by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — $4.7 million in independent expenditures to date — Rep. Joe Sestak (D) has climbed back into a statistical dead heat with former Rep. Pat Toomey (R) in the Keystone State . . . No matter what happens on Nov. 2, this race seems headed to a photo finish. And that makes it a “Toss Up” in our ratings.”

Nate Silver 538 (after Public Policy Polling but before Muhlenberg College poll): “The most prudent conclusion is that Mr. Toomey still holds a lead, but it is probably smaller than the one he held before. . . When I reran our numbers with the Public Policy Polling survey included, Mr. Sestak’s chances were improved, but only to 10 percent. With that said, our Senate model does not use partisan polling in its forecasting. But publications like The Hotline have indicated, and some contacts of mine have related, that not only do Democratic internal polls show the race tightening, but Republican ones do as well. For that reason, I would be inclined to take Mr. Sestak’s side of the 9:1 odds that our model is offering him. We’ll need quite a bit more evidence, however, before the race can rightly be thought of as a tossup.”

Polls today show Republicans poised to make major gains in the House and Senate elections, perhaps capturing one or both chambers.  Republicans claim that their polls show more and more vulnerable House Democrats while Democrats assert that their base is coming home and a number of Senate and House elections are looking better.

Will the Republicans sweep the Senate and House of Representatives as predicted by some political pundits? Will public disenchantment with incumbents in general instead cause upsets for both parties?

Here’s your chance to make your best guess – and win some money and notoriety while you do it.

Click here!

This year, we want you to predict who will win the House and Senate as well as a number of the hottest, most-contested, most-watched congressional and gubernatorial races across the country.

So, here’s your chance to cast your best guess as to what will happen on Nov. 2 (and, win $100). Enter now!

Send this contest to your friends, colleagues and fellow political pundits (even though we know you probably don’t want the added competition). This year’s races are too interesting and too contested to sit on the sidelines.

With just a few weeks left in the campaign, recent polling shows two Council backed candidates in Washington State in races that are too close to call.  Both these candidates are strong supporters of progressive foreign policies and the vision of a nuclear weapons free world.  These races will be decided in the final days, and your contributions can make a huge difference.

Click here to support Patty Murray running for Senate and Suzan DelBene running for the House of Representatives in Washington State.

Senator Murray’s political career began when, as a parent lobbying for funds for local schools, she was ridiculed by a state legislator who told her gruffly, “You’re just a mom in tennis shoes, you can’t make a difference.”  Murray made his put-down her campaign slogan and has proven time and again that a mother in tennis shoes can be an effective Senator.  She has fought hard for progressive causes in Washington DC.

Now she is facing a right wing challenge from Dino Rossi, a politician well-known to Washington voters from his two runs Governor.  While Murray is well-liked by the voters of Washington State, in the current political environment, no incumbent can be considered safe.  Polls show that Rossi is in a position to win an upset.

Help the “Mom in Tennis Shoes” turn back this right wing challenge.

In Washington’s 8th Congressional District, Council for a Livable World is backing Suzan DelBene for Congress.  DelBene is an unusual candidate this year, a Democratic challenger poised to defeat a Republican incumbent.

DelBene is challenging Rep. Dave Reichert. On national security issues, the difference between DelBene and Reichert could not be starker.  Where Reichert earned a 14% on the PeacePAC voting record over his first three terms in office, DelBene earned a perfect score on the Council’s Candidate Questionnaire.

A longtime incumbent, Reichert began the race with a sizable lead in polls. Polling over the summer showed DelBene steadily closing that gap and two polls last week found them in a virtual tie.

Please help DelBene in a final push to unseat Reichert.

Remember that 100% of your contributions go to the candidates and zero to Council for a Livable World.