The race in California’s 4th Congressional District has gotten ugly.  The Council-endorsed Democrat in the race is Charlie Brown, a career Air Force officer and police official.  Brown ran against incumbent Rep. John Doolittle (R) in 2006.  Doolittle was mired in allegations of corruption because of his relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and Brown came close to defeating him.  Doolittle is now retiring, and Brown is running a strong campaign for the open seat.

The Republican in the race is Tom McClintock, a state legislator.  McClintock has been running television ads claiming that Brown attended an anti-Iraq war rally wearing his Air Force uniform at which a U.S. soldier was burned in effigy.  Brown acknowledges attending the rally – he is opposed to the war – but denies wearing his uniform.  It is unclear whether or not an effigy was burned.  Brown claims McClintock was impugning his patriotism, where McClintock claims he is only questioning Brown’s judgment.

It is clear that McClintock has gone negative because he is worried he is losing.  A poll last week found Brown leading 46-41%.

Frankly, this seems like a whole lot of fuss over nothing.  Brown attended a rally against a war he opposed.  Whether or not others attending the rally took objectionable actions is not his responsibility.  We do know that Brown has a strong background in national security policies and supports progressive foreign policies.  He will be a fine addition to Congress.

You can learn more about Brown and his positions here.

During the hot presidential primary season, polling firms focused on presidential primary outcomes and not too much on congressional elections.

Now there are several new polls on Senate races each day that provide a glimpse of the contests.

There are some very interesting developments in the past few days.

Most surprising – a Kentucky poll showing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) dead even with his challenger, businessman Bruce Lunsford. This is the second poll in a week showing Lunsford catching up.  It is rare for party leaders to lose re-election battles in their home states, but it happened to Tom Dashle in South Dakota a few years back.

In Georgia, while some polls show incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss with a comfortable lead, two recent polls — one listed below — show a margin of as little as two points.

In another unexpected development, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R), who appears to be spending all his time campaigning nationally for John McCain, is now only 9 points ahead of his little known challenger, Bob Conley (D). While no one believes that Graham is seriously threatened, he may have to spend more time before the home folks instead of strolling the country arm-in-arm with John McCain.

In two other Senate contests, Oregon and North Carolina, the Democratic challengers may have taken narrow leads over Republican incumbents.

In fact, political guru Stu Rothenberg has moved the Oregon Senate race to “lean takeover” for Jeff Merkley (D).

Nationally, most polls show Barack Obama with a narrow lead after trailing a couple of weeks ago.

Could there be a similar trend in Senate contests?  Stay tuned, and check back frequently.  This compendium will be updated almost every weekday.

Full polling data is here.

Rep. Thelma Drake’s (R) attack on Glenn Nye does not seem to be hurting the Council backed candidate.  As we blogged the other day, Drake criticized Nye for taking a tax exemption on a house he wasn’t living in.  The only problem is that Nye …

A new poll this week shows freshman Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D) locked in a tight race with the Republican she defeated in 2006.  Shea-Porter surprised the political world in 2006 when she upset Republican Rep. Jeb Bradley by less than 5,000 votes….

With Sen. John McCain perceived as having an advantage over Sen. Barack Obama in voter confidence on foreign policy issues, Obama showed confident poise in his positions during the first presidential debate last Friday.

The first 40 minutes focused on the candidates’ approaches to fixing the American economy due to the ongoing market crisis. Obama focused on closing corporate tax loopholes, combating greed and corruption on Wall Street, and implementing tax cuts for the middle class. McCain chastised earmark spending increases as the source of America’s economic woes.

As the debate switched to foreign policy, McCain repeatedly asserted that Obama “does not understand” the challenges the United States faces in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCain claimed that Obama’s support for direct talks with rogue nations would legitimize those regimes that want to cause the United States harm. Obama was quick to respond, highlighting that treating those we disagree with contemptuously only emboldens their motives. He used Iran and North Korea as examples.

On the issue of Iraq, Obama was quick to point out that he was correct in his judgment that Iraq was an unnecessary war and that the real central front in the war on terror is in Afghanistan, a conflict McCain has treated dismissively. McCain countered by stating that “The next president of the United States is not going to have to address the issue as to whether we went into Iraq or not.” The squabbling between the two candidates on this issue highlighted the ‘judgment vs. experience’ debate that has been a theme of the race for months.    

One of the highlights of the first debate was when Obama expressed his dedication and desire for urgent action to secure loose nuclear weapons and strengthen other non-proliferation measures. As he previously outlined in response to questions from Council for a Livable World, Obama said that the issue of non-proliferation is important because “The biggest threat to the United States is a terrorist getting their hands on nuclear weapons.” Obama has pledged to work extensively with other nations – including Russia, despite its recent aggressive actions in Georgia – to halt the proliferation of nuclear materials.  

The next presidential debate, in a town-hall format, is on Oct. 7th at Belmont University in Nashville. Prior to this debate will be the highly anticipated vice-presidential debate this Thursday, Oct. 2, at Washington University in St. Louis.  Many are looking to see if Gov. Sarah Palin can perform in an unscripted national debate against the unpredictable, knowledgeable, and always charismatic Sen. Joe Biden.