“Democratic challengers raised more money than Republican incumbents in 20 competitive House races from California to Virginia during the first three months of the year, and President Barack Obama's party has the upper-hand in eight other districts where congressmen are retiring,” AP writes.
MASSACHUSETTS: "Elizabeth Warren’s stumbling efforts to douse the firestorm surrounding her claims of being a Native American minority have raised concerns among local and national Democrats who are questioning her campaign’s competence. “There’s nobody watching this that doesn’t think she’s in big trouble,” one well-known Massachusetts Democrat said. Joe Trippi, a prominent national Democratic consultant, told the Herald that while Warren has time to recover, the campaign should have anticipated this issue would surface," The Boston Herald reports.
NORTH CAROLINA: The Charlotte Observer (via Political Wire) yanks endorsement of Republican Jim Pendergraph for 9th Congressional District seat. The Observer writes: "After winning the Observer’s endorsement in his bid for Congress, he has done nothing but embarrass us and himself. By buddying up to one of America’s more hateful egomaniacs and then joining with fringe “birthers” to question President Obama’s citizenship, Pendergraph has contradicted much of what he told the Observer’s editorial board in his endorsement interview last month. As a result, we have lost faith in him, and urge voters to consider Edwin Peacock or Ric Killian in the 9th Congressional District race."
VIRGINIA: “President Obama leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Virginia, but voters in the commonwealth are evenly divided on the White House’s major policies,” a new Washington Post poll shows. “Obama is ahead of the presumed Republican presidential nominee by 51 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. And Romney does no better against Obama than he did in a Post poll a year ago, despite his emergence as the GOP standard-bearer.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution: Virginia profile rises in presidential contest: "Move over Ohio and Florida. Virginia is becoming the hottest new battleground in this year's race for the White House.Shifting demographics have President Barack Obama fighting for another win in this Southern state four years after he became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry Virginia in more than four decades. Republican rival Mitt Romney is banking on buyers' remorse as he works to prove that Obama's unlikely 2008 victory was a fluke. Six months before Election Day, both sides concede that Virginia is truly up for grabs. And the outcome here could have dramatic consequences — for Romney especially. "This may well be the state that decides who the next president is," Romney told supporters Thursday in coastal Portsmouth, Va. "You're going to hear it all, right here in Virginia."
