Manager leaves Jennings campaign

Mitch Kates has dropped off as campaign manager for the Christine Jennings campaign against Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, citing family issues he needed to focus on. "She's a hero to me," Kates said of Jennings. "She's really on a roll, she's raising a lot of money, and organizationally she's doing fabulous. Everything is going really well."

Jennings just made it into the DCCC's "Red to Blue" fundraising program proving money and structural support to candidates deemed strongest across the country.

GOP Poll: Buchanan crushing Jennings in CD13

The NRCC's 3/5-6 internal poll shows U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan beating Christine Jennings 53%-37%. "Jennings is perceived to be a sore loser, and her negative image has driven her vote down,'' said the memo from pollster Public Opinion Strategies.

---Adam Smith

Florida 13: All but over

The congressional task force investigating the contested election for the Sarasota-area U.S. House seat, District 13, on Friday dismissed the case, likely closing the books on Christine Jennings' last hopes.

As you might recall, back in November 2006 Jennings narrowly lost to Republican Vern Buchanan in the race to fill the seat vacated by Republican Rep. Katherine Harris.

But some 18,000 people in a Democratic-leaning area of the district who voted in the U.S. Senate race that day for some reason never registered a vote in the House race , leading Jennings to claim that faulty touch-screen voting machines were to blame.

Democrats going after Young, Buchanan and Feeney

The ads are airing in the members' districts. No audio was available and the DCCC would not say how large the ad buy was.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committ is launching a radio ad campaign against Reps. C.W. Bill Young, Vern Buchanan and Tom Feeney.

The ads highlight the Republican incuments' votes on Medicare deductibles and, using the standard DCCC language, urge listeners to call the congressman and tell him "to put seniors first."

Jennings campaign botches tax payments

From The Hill: "Democratic congressional candidate Christine Jennings went more than a year without paying taxes on both of her campaign committees’ payrolls, Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports show.

“When Christine recognized the problem, she took steps to fix it — to correct the problem,” spokesman David Kochman said. “That includes contracting with a payroll service.”

Sarasota paper calls on Jennings to concede

Christine Jennings' hometown newspaper, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, called on her to give up her fight for the Sarasota area congressional seat.

"She should concede the political contest...and let Buchanan turn all his energies toward job No. 1: representing the people of District 13."

Read full editorial here

Buchanan beware: Stanton may want your job

If it's not enough that U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, already faces one long-time competitor, Democrat Christine Jennings, who continues to fight to have his election overturned. But could he soon have another? Susan, formerly Steve, Stanton?

Tucked in a story today in the St. Petersburg Times about Stanton's failure to win a job as Sarasota City Manager are a few tidbits about Stanton's future plans, including moving to Sarasota and "maybe even running for Congress." Read the full story here.

For the record, Stanton, back in 1991, registered to vote as a Republican.

Vote machines make under fire

In Waldenburg, Ark., population 80, one mayoral candidate garnered zero votes -- a number he knew was incorrect because he had cast a ballot for himself.

In Westmoreland County, Pa., some machines shut down prematurely and had to be restarted manually after every vote, forcing poll workers to switch to paper ballots in some precincts.

In each of those Election Day cases last November, county officials were relying on touch-screen machines made by Election Systems & Software -- the same ones used in the disputed congressional race in Sarasota County.

Read full story

Jennings asks court to postpone case

Democrat Christine Jennings is asking a Florida court to hold off on making a decision on her lawsuit over the Florida 13 congressional race until federal investigators finish their inquiry.

The U.S. House, which has ultimate authority in the matter, has asked the Government Accountability Office to examine why touchscreen machines failed to record 18,000 votes.

"Jennings' latest tactic exposes her true motive — getting her partisan allies in Washington to side with her against the voters and the courts of Florida," Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer said in a statement.

House likely to dismiss contested races

A U.S. House committee is recommending that the full chamber dismiss four contested congressional races whose losing candidates appealed their election results to the House.

They include three races in Florida: Democrat John Russell who lost to Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville; Democrat Clint Curtis who lost to Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo; and Democrat Frank Gonzalez who lost to Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.

The House Administration Committee will continue to investigate the close race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings.

Congressional panel to investigate Sarasota election

Frustrated by a lack of action by Florida courts in the Sarasota election dispute, a House task force voted Wednesday to formally launch an investigation. The panel, headed by U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez, voted 2-1 along partisan lines to investigate whether problems with electronic voting machines skewed the outcome in the 13th Congressional District last November.

The panel is controlled by Democrats, but it stopped short of fulfilling a request from Christine Jennings' attorneys that the campaigns for Jennings and Rep. Vern Buchanan be given access to the source code for the voting machines. Still, Jennings' attorney Sam Hirsch said he was satisfied with the plan, which would rely on the non-partisan Government Accountability Office to do the work.

The panel said it would like to have the work done in 45 days, although Gonzalez said that might be too ambitious.

Will the Florida 13 investigation continue?

The three-member congressional task force examining the disputed Sarasota area congressional race will have its first open meeting next Wednesday.

Members expect to decide whether they will actually begin an investigation. With two Democrats and one Republican, we're guessing they will proceed.

FL 13 task force meets

The three-member task force formed to investigate the disputed Sarasota area congressional election met Tuesday morning for more than 90 minutes behind closed doors.

Chairman Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, said the group will meet again within the next two weeks when they will decide whether or not to proceed with an investigation. That meeting will be open.

Democrat Christine Jennings and her lawyer attended the meeting. Jennings said she was not disappointed with the outcome. "This is exactly what I expected,'' she said.

Republican appointed to FL 13 task force

The Republican minority in the U.S. House has decided to appoint a member to the three-person task force investigating the disputed Sarasota congressional race.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California was named to the task force. Rep. Dan Lungren of California has been asked to observe.

Republicans has repeatedly said they wanted to wait until the Florida lawsuits were completed. "Despite my deep reservations about the hasty initiation of this task force, the Republican members of the committee will be involved in its work,'' Rep. Vernon Ehlers, the top Republican on the House Administration Commmittee.

FL 13 investigation begins

The U.S. House will begin an investigation into the disputed Sarasota area congressional race tomorrow morning with the first meeting of its task force. The meeting will be closed to the public but all future hearings are expected to be open. Democrat Christine Jennings will be in Washington for the meeting.

Texas Democrat Rep. Charles Gonzalez chairs the three-member panel which includes California Democrat Zoe Lofgren. Republicans have yet to appoint a member to serve because they do not think the House should investigate until all Florida lawsuits have been settled.

They haven't always taken that stance. Just last year in a case involving a disputed California election Republicans argued "state courts do not have jurisdication to decide an action contesting the election of a member of United State House of Representatives."