Darcy Burner is now down by 10 points to Dave Reichert according to Survey USA, 54-44. JamesL points out that the cross tabs of the poll are screwed up, with younger voters going for Reichert by 16 points. Still, McCain's rise in the state is pretty dramatic, and this is helping downticket candidates like Reichert.
Meanwhile, Alice Kryzan in NY-26 was backed by the DCCC's Red to Blue program, and the Working Families Party switched from Jon Powers to Kryzan. EMILY's list is looking to back Kryzan. Despite his loss, Powers has not yet endorsed Kryzan. I'm assuming he'll do that eventually. He lost. He should endorse the Democratic nominee.
But back to Obama. Tactics aside, I've heard from various Congressional insiders that Obama has had a relatively muted coattail effect, which will constrain his governing options should he win. His campaign's strategy with regards to Congressional campaigns has been to argue that Obama's turnout operation and map-changing ability will lift all boats, so specific fundraising for candidates is unnecessary (this is the 'glue politics' problem institutionalized). This year, it looked like a Presidential campaign and a variety of Congressional campaigns would all succeed in a nationalized environment centered around change.
It's looking more and more like candidates are going to be running localized campaigns where both Republicans and Democrats are running against Washington and partisanship. This is not necessarily a bad thing (though it's not my cup of tea), and it could easily change as quickly as the environment changes. One unexpected consequence is that Congress might be a more important seat of power than we had expected next year.
In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms. But so far, it's been all over the map. I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.
First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill. They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.
Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.
I'm starting to collect candidate statements on the FISA fight in reaction to Bush's call for amnesty for the phone companies that broke the law and spied on Americans and the expansion of powers Congress is considering making permanent.
