Poll shows Democrats leading competitive House races
Democrats have opened a double-digit lead in competitive House campaigns around the country in a new poll and are within 2 percentage points in districts once considered safely Republican.
Democrats lead Republicans by 50 percent to 39 percent in 40 closely contested districts that are most likely to determine control of the House on Election Day, Nov. 7, according to the Pew Research Center poll.
More troubling for Republicans: They lead by only 44 percent to 42 percent in all other Republican-held districts, which went heavily for President Bush in 2004.
In House districts that gave Bush between 50 and 60 percent of the vote, Democrats lead by 45-40 percent. The only place where Republicans hold an overall lead is in House districts that gave Bush over 60 percent.
The poll didn't look at individual races, which arguably is a more accurate way to examine races. But the overall trend in both the 40 competitive districts and the rest of the country underscored that Democrats enjoy an edge that could give them enough seats to win back the House.
Most of the 40 contested districts - 34 - are now held by Republicans. A net loss of 15 or more would cost them control of the House for the first time since 1994.
Google's political action committee reaches out to GOP
Google, an economic force but a latecomer to Washington politics, is trying to boost its influence in Congress with campaign contributions from its new political action committee.
The initial round of $1,000 donations is modest by big-league PAC standards, but the recipients are noteworthy. Google NetPAC, launched last month, is contributing to three Republicans, including two of the most endangered GOP House members. In the past, Google executives have given overwhelmingly to Democrats and liberal groups.
The Republican recipients include Reps. Heather Wilson of New Mexico and Deborah Pryce of Ohio, whose districts are now rated as a toss-up in the Nov. 7 election, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin. He chairs the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over some Internet commerce laws.
The new Google PAC also gave $1,000 each to two Democrats: Rep. Anna Eshoo of California, whose district includes Google's headquarters, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
NATO unlikely to invite former Soviet states next month
NATO is not planning to invite new members at its November summit in Riga, Latvia, the secretary general of the Western security alliance, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said Thursday on his visit to Moscow.
A senior Russian diplomat earlier reiterated Moscow's stance that the admission of Russia's ex-Soviet neighbors to NATO will seriously affect the country's political, military and economic interests, and have a negative impact on trouble spots.
NATO has expanded to include many of Russia's former Communist-bloc allies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the Baltic Region.
A NATO ministerial meeting in September decided to step up dialogue with Russia's neighbor Georgia, with the aim of admitting the Caucasus state next year.
-compiled from McClatchy Newspapers
