(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Elizabeth Warren, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate in Massachusetts, released a new ad today that continues to introduce the Harvard Law School professor and consumer advocate to voters.

“Her father was a janitor; my father was a janitor,” a woman says at the beginning of the ad.

“She’s one of us!” says a man, reflecting a sentiment seen at a recent Warren event with union voters.

The ad was rotated into an earlier buy of about $760,000 that ends May 20. It will also be part of a new significant statewide buy that will go beyond Saturday. Warren has had a substantial presence on Massachusetts TV in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, she has struggled to turn the page from a weeks-long controversy about her identifying as a Native American intermittently during her professional career.

Warren will face Sen. Scott Brown (R) in a tossup race this November.

“Big banks, institutions, Wall Street — she’s not afraid of anybody,” the woman says in the ad.

Rep. Connie Mack IV (above) got the endorsement of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Florida Rep. Connie Mack IV (R) today got the endorsement of presumptive GOP White House nominee Mitt Romney, boosting his effort to win the GOP nomination to take on two-term Sen. Bill Nelson (D).

“Connie Mack is a friend, a strong conservative and the type of principled leader we need in Washington to restore fiscal responsibility,” the former Massachusetts governor said in a statement. “By electing Connie Mack, the people of Florida will be sending a clear message to Senator Nelson and President Obama that their failed policies have not worked to change the borrow and spend ways of Washington.”

Mack, who strongly supported Romney in the Florida GOP presidential primary, faces former Sen. George LeMieux in the Sunshine State GOP Senate primary, which will take place Aug. 14.

Even in a presidential tossup state such as Florida, Nelson has an edge in the race, as he is widely expected to outperform President Barack Obama in November. Roll Call rates the Florida Senate race as Leans Democratic.

(Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

As Republicans sought to interpret Deb Fischer’s upset victory in Tuesday’s Nebraska Senate primary and what it portends for the 2012 elections, Sen. Mike Johanns (R) told Roll Call that the third-party groups who spent heavily to boost Don Stenberg are responsible for his last-place finish.

Johanns, a former Nebraska governor, said the Club for Growth’s television ad campaign that targeted frontrunner Jon Bruning, the state attorney general, was “tone deaf” and left Nebraska GOP primary voters with an overwhelmingly negative impression of Stenberg, the state treasurer. Johanns referred to Stenberg as a “true blue conservative” who has a solid base of support in Nebraska and should have finished with at least around 35 percent of the vote. Bruning, who fought back against with negative attacks of his own, was also damaged in the fray.

“In a state like Nebraska, when the dirt starts flying, those throwing the dirt are going to get dirty too. It not only cost Bruning, it cost Stenberg significantly,” Johanns said this morning in a telephone interview. “It was an error in strategy.”

Johanns said Stenberg’s outside support damaged his candidacy such that even the extensive positive ad campaign run on his behalf by Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) Senate Conservatives Fund was viewed by voters as being a part of the negative air war run to damage Bruning, who finished second in the three-way contest. Johanns said Stenberg “stalled, and then his numbers started to go backward” from the moment the Club for Growth and other outside groups entered the race.

Nebraska’s junior Senator expressed sympathy for Stenberg and dismissed claims by the club — made in a statement released following Fischer’s victory — that it succeeded in the Cornhusker State primary because defeating Bruning was its main goal. In a statement, Club for Growth President Chris Chocola congratulated Fischer for defeating Bruning but made no mention of Stenberg.

“I feel bad for Don because he is a good guy that worked hard and beat his brains out trying to put this Senate race together. But at the end of the day I really think [the outside groups] hurt,” Johanns said. “The club came to Nebraska to elect Don Stenberg. Deb Fischer wasn’t on the radar screen with them. For them to argue that this was about Bruning is to rewrite recent history.”

Similar to Fischer, Johanns scored an upset victory in the 1998 gubernatorial primary when he surged from third place to first in the campaign’s waning days. Although some are crediting 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s late endorsement for Fischer’s upset, Johanns said the state Senator deserves credit for her victory. Johanns said Fischer stayed out of the Bruning-Stenberg fight and ran a positive campaign, and she was “rewarded.” Additionally, Johanns said, she assembled a cadre of supporters that included respected Nebraska Republicans with years of political experience in the state — and she campaigned hard.

Johanns said Fischer comes from a respected ranching family, which he said served her well in the campaign despite being perceived in some quarters as the least conservative of the three primary candidates. However, Fischer won at least 75 of Nebraska’s 93 counties and cleaned up in the state’s rural counties that are home to some of the state’s most conservative voters.

“I would not classify her as tea party,” Johanns said. “She is a practical, common-sense conservative — and that is very typical of Nebraska. … I think you’re going to find her to be someone who can work with anybody but is very firm in her convictions. Deb is her own person.”

Johanns described Fischer as someone who is “as comfortable in blue jeans as a pant suit in the Legislature” and predicted that her Democratic opponent, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, would lose to her in November. Johanns said Kerrey is on the wrong side of too many issues and would be weighed down by President Barack Obama, who he predicted would lose Nebraska by 15 to 20 points. Meanwhile, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has already attacked Fischer for voting in the Legislature to support a gas tax increase.

“I would call Bob a friend. But my goodness, setting aside New York and where he’s lived, he supports cap and trade, believes the health care bill did not go far enough and voted five times to uphold partial-birth abortion,” Johanns said. “I don’t know where Bob goes.”

Abby Livingston contributed to this post.

VoteVets.org, the largest progressive organization of veterans in the country, spent $75,000 to air the ad for 10 days on broadcast television and plans to spend more as the Aug. 11 primary approaches. The ad features several Iraq War veterans describing Gabbard’s biography, which includes military service and public office.

“You could call her a hero for enlisting in the Hawaii Guard after 9/11, but we call her Tulsi,” veteran Greg White says in the ad. “You could call her a patriot for giving up her seat in the Legislature to serve two tours in Iraq and Kuwait, but we call her Tulsi,” veteran Ron Haskell says in the ad.

Several Democrats are vying for the nomination in the safe Democratic district of Rep. Mazie Hirono (D), who is running for Senate. Gabbard and former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann are the leading candidates, along with longtime Congressional aide Esther Kiaaina and former state Rep. Bob Marx.

The group endorsed Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer in North Dakota’s at-large seat; Lewis County Judge Executive Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s 4th district; and former state Sen. Sam Aanestad in California’s 1st district.

All three candidates are running in open-seat races. FreedomWorks’ support is notable because it’s backing the underdogs in each race and, in one case, going against the state party’s endorsement.

In North Dakota, the state GOP endorsed Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk at its convention last month. Cramer opted to challenge Kalk outside the convention system, forcing the two to run in a rare contested primary on June 12.

In Kentucky, Massie faces two candidates with establishment backing: state Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington and Boone County Judge Executive Gary Moore. Retiring Rep. Geoff Davis (R) and former Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning (R) endorsed Webb-Edgington. Massie also has been endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

In California, the PAC is backing Aanestad in the “jungle primary” for the open 1st district, a safe Republican seat. Aanestad faces state Sen. Doug LaMalfa, who has the backing of 12 Members of Congress, including Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), National Republican Congressional Committee Deputy Chairman Greg Walden (Ore.) and Rep. Wally Herger (Calif.), who is retiring from the seat.

The trio joins the stable of 10 House candidates with FreedomWorks’ backing this cycle.

Joshua Miller and Kyle Trygstad contributed to this report.

The conservative group spent $8 million on the initial buy to air the first spot, “Obama’s Promises,” through May 31, according to the group’s spokesman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT8xAlxKV-w

Here’s the state-by-state breakdown of the first phase of the buy:

• $208,000 in Colorado
• $1.5 million in Florida
• $474,000 in Iowa
• $526,000 in Michigan
• $624,000 in Nevada
• $535,000 in New Hampshire
• $1.1 million in North Carolina
• $849,000 in Ohio
• $487,000 in Pennsylvania
• $1.4 million in Virginia

The buy comes just after President Barack Obma’s re-election campaign announced today that it raised $43.6 million during the month of April. That total includes fundraising for the Democratic National Committee.

Clinton, who already endorsed Marty Chávez,  can now be heard on a robocall for the former Albuquerque mayor, who is in a heated three-way race in the 1st district.

“I strongly encourage you to vote for Marty Chávez,” Clinton says in the call. “He’s a proven problem-solver. We need somebody who can get things done in Washington with practical ideas, that in the end, no amount of partisan extremism on the other side can resist. Again, this is Bill Clinton, asking you to vote for my friend Marty Chávez.”

Chávez faces state Sen. Eric Griego and Bernalillo County Commissioner Michelle Lujan Grisham in the June 5 primary. The winner will be the heavy favorite in November. Roll Call rates the general election race as Likely Democratic.

The numbers provided indicate that Oceguera has reserved $760,000 in airtime from Sept. 25 through Nov. 6. Heck has reserved $655,000 from Oct. 2 to the election. But Heck campaign manger Dick Leggitt told Roll Call that the incumbent will eventually reserve $700,000.

“Our concern is in this market there is going to be a lot of clutter,” Leggitt said, referring to competitive presidential, Senate and House campaigns that will look to advertise in Las Vegas. Leggitt added that every campaign will have to adjust to the proliferation of super PAC advertising, which will soak up the good time slots.

“We think we’re doing the prudent thing by placing this buy now,” he said.

Oceguera outraised Heck in the first quarter, $376,000 to $279,000. But Heck ended March with more than $1 million in cash on hand, more than twice as much as Oceguera. This is the most competitive House race in the state, and Roll Call rates it a Tossup.

(Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Coming off a last-minute surge, state Sen. Deb Fischer won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate tonight, according to the Associated Press.

Up until about two weeks ago, Fischer was largely written off as a candidate. For most of the cycle, state Attorney General Jon Bruning was the undisputed GOP frontrunner. He came in second place.

Bruning had a deep organization, but Fischer’s momentum proved too strong.

The favorite among anti-establishment conservative groups, state Treasurer Don Stenberg came in third place. In recent days, state and national Republicans began to describe the Stenberg effort as a miscalculation on the part of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and others.

The Club for Growth, which had supported Stenberg, moved within seconds of the Associated Press story to congratulate Fischer.

“While we did not support Deb Fischer, we are encouraged by the strong pro-growth stands she took in this campaign, and we expect she will live up to those commitments in the Senate next year,” the club’s president, Chris Chocola, said in a statement.

The club is widely credited with mortally wounding Bruning with negative advertising, which gave Fischer a path to victory.

As for the Democrats, one national strategist insists Fischer’s surprise nomination does not improve GOP chances to pick up this seat. The source says she is unvetted. He also added that because her campaign was so scrappy until so late, national Republicans will need to pour resources into the race to keep pace with Democratic nominee, former Sen. Bob Kerrey.

Looking ahead, this race is central to both parties’ strategies for Senate control. It is a top opportunity for a Republican pickup in the fall, but Democrats managed to pull out a top recruit in Kerrey.

Roll Call rates this race as Leans Republican.

Instead, Democrats will focus their efforts on a rerun race between freshman Rep. Dan Benishek (R) and former state Rep. Gary McDowell (D) in the state’s Upper Peninsula.

The Wolverine State’s Congressional races were set today, when the candidate filing period closed at 4 p.m. There were no major surprises among the dozens of petitions, including Walberg’s race. A couple of weeks ago, former GOP Rep. Joe Schwarz declined to challenge Walberg as a Democrat.

Michigan shed a House seat due to population loss, and Republicans led a redraw of the state’s Congressional boundaries last year. As a result, a few Democrats filed to run for re-election in new territory around Detroit.

As expected, Reps. Gary Peters and Hansen Clarke filed to run in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary for the Detroit-based 14th district, a heavily Democratic seat. Republicans dismantled the current districts represented by both Democrats, and they are seeking re-election in this district instead. A third Democrat, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, also filed for this seat.

Twenty-four term Rep. John Conyers attracted four primary challengers, including two current elected officials in the 13th district, state Sen. Bert Johnson and state sen. Glen Anderson. Conyers also faces a great deal of new territory under the new map.

Former Genesee County Treasurer Dan Kildee was the only Democrat to file for the open 5th district, which means he’ll in all likelihood become a Member of Congress. Kildee’s uncle, Rep. Dale Kildee (D), is retiring from this reliably Democratic seat.

Freshman Rep. Bill Huizenga (R) will avoid a primary battle in western Michigan. A conservative state lawmaker discussed challenging Huizenga but eventually decided against it.

The fundraiser’s hosts include Minnesota’s entire Democratic Congressional delegation and non-Gopher State Members that Nolan served with during his previous stint on Capitol Hill. Nolan has a competitive primary and is trying to send a message that Minnesota’s Democratic establishment and others are coalescing around his candidacy.

Those set to attend Nolan’s fundraiser included Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, and Reps. Collin Peterson, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison and Tim Walz. Also among the fundraiser’s hosts were the former occupant of the seat, ex-Rep. James Oberstar.

“We’re all in this together,” McCollum’s chief of staff, Bill Harper, said. He noted that it is highly common for Representatives to support candidates who have earned the state party endorsement in this manner, adding that the DFL endorsement “carries a lot of weight.”

The event will be held early Wednesday evening at the Capitol Hill home of Elena “Cini” McGrann. McGrann is married to Dennis McGrann, a lobbyist at Lockridge Grindal Nauen, according to the MinnPost website.

Contribution levels noted in the invitation include:

• $2,500 PAC
• $500 “Individual Host”
• $125 “Sponsor”

Three of the fundraiser’s hosts, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Oberstar, have long ties to Nolan. They were all elected to the House together in the Watergate class of 1974.

Nolan served in Congress from 1975 to 1981. Last week, he won his state party’s endorsement by a large margin. But he does not have easy sailing to his party’s nomination. Nolan faces former state Sen. Tarryl Clark. Clark remains formidable opposition. She challenged Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) in 2010 in a nationalized race that was described as “the costliest” in the country. As a result, Clark has a substantial voter email base. The winner will take on Rep. Chip Cravaack (R) in the fall.

Roll Call Politics rates this race as a Tossup.

Correction: 4:18 p.m.

An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect date for the fundraiser. The fundraiser is scheduled for Wednesday.

Vann, a Colusa County supervisor, is the leading Republican challenging Rep. John Garamendi (D) in Northern California’s 3rd district. While Democrats hope to net a few seats in the state, Garamendi is among the incumbents atop the NRCC’s target list.

The fundraisers next Tuesday come exactly two weeks before the June 5 all-party primary. Sessions will attend a noon luncheon at the Sutter Club in Sacramento and a reception at a private residence in Marysville at 5:30 p.m. PST. Both events have a minimum contribution of $500.

Garamendi, the only Democrat in the race, and Vann, one of four Republicans, are both expected to advance to the general election. Roll Call rates this race as Leans Democratic.

“In almost every conversation I had with delegates, they pointed to the unparalleled network of support we’ve built since the campaign started last year,” Murphy wrote in an email to supporters. “Our victory today was truly a team effort.”

Last week, he also picked up an endorsement from the National Organization for Women. While both are boosts, he must still face former Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz in the Aug. 14 primary.  Much of the state and national establishment has lined up behind Murphy. Bysiewicz has a trump card, though: an EMILY’s List endorsement.

This is an open seat race because Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) is retiring. Roll Call rates this race as Likely Democratic.

Richard Tisei (above) took 40 percent to Rep. John Tierney's 33 percent in a recent poll. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Congressional candidate Richard Tisei (R) led Rep. John Tierney (D) by 7 points in a recent 6th district poll.

In a confidential polling memo sent from GOP pollster John McLaughlin to Tisei’s campaign manager — and obtained by Roll Call — Tisei took 40 percent to Tierney’s 33 percent, with 27 percent undecided. The horse race numbers include voters who definitely, probably and lean toward voting for each candidate.

Six months before the election, it’s a potentially major development in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to the House since 1994. It’s also likely to be a fundraising boon to Tisei, who has outraised Tierney in each of the past two quarters.

Also in the Republican survey: 36 percent of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of Tierney, while 37 percent had an unfavorable view of the eight-term Congressman. Twenty-two percent had a favorable opinion of Tisei, a former state Senator, while 10 percent had an unfavorable opinion of him. Five percent had never heard of Tierney, while a third of those surveyed had never heard of Tisei.

Tierney has received a slew of bad press this cycle as a result of his wife’s family’s legal troubles.

Within the 6th district, Sen. Scott Brown (R) led presumptive Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren 57 percent to 33 percent, with 10 percent undecided.

The poll surveyed 400 likely general election voters in the district via live telephone interviews May 2-3. The margin of error was 4.9 points.

A Tierney campaign aide provided numbers from a late January poll that showed Tierney ahead of Tisei by 15 points, 46 percent to 31 percent. That poll, by Democratic pollster Jef Pollock, surveyed 409 voters and had a margin of error of 4.8 points. Roll Call rates this race as Leans Democratic.

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

The Member-vs.-Member battle in the Bayou has begun and this Pelican State brawl is going to get very, very dirty.

Freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Landry announced tonight he will face off with four-term Republican Rep. Charles Boustany in Louisiana’s newly configured 3rd district in the state’s November “jungle primary.” Calling himself a “consistent, common-sense, Cajun conservative,” he slammed Boustany.

“I am not your typical Congressman,” Landry said, according to his prepared remarks. “If that is what you are looking for, that’s not me; that’s the other guy.”

“With our nation in debt, burdening our children and grandchildren with huge deficits and uncontrollable spending, I do not believe Congress should have gotten a pay raise,” Landry said. “But, ladies and gentlemen, Charles voted with Nancy Pelosi to increase his own pay.”

After redistricting, Landry’s and Boustany’s districts were combined into a new district that is mostly Boustany’s current turf. The election will pit Landry, a tea-party-affiliated bomb-thrower, against Boustany, a mild-mannered former heart surgeon who is close with Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and the GOP establishment.

Boustany has the early edge by virtue of his potent bankroll and the fact that more voters in the newly configured district are his current constituents.

Boustany ended March with $1.5 million in cash on hand; Landry had $820,000.

“We prepare every two years and take on any and all challengers,” Boustany said in an interview late Monday evening with Roll Call. “This changes nothing for me. I’m committed to running a hard-nosed, aggressive, grass-roots campaign.”

Roll Call rates the race as Safe Republican, but that doesn’t mean it will be a cordial or short fight.

Louisiana’s election laws mean both candidates — and any Democrat — will face off in November. If no one gets to 50 percent, the top two finishers fight it out in a Dec. 1 runoff election.

(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Rep. Ron Paul announced today he will suspend active campaigning in the GOP presidential race, but will continue to campaign for delegates at state conventions. The news comes after his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), late last week dismissed the suggestion that his father is quietly planning a nominating convention coup.

“For all practical purposes, it is over. The numbers are there and Mitt Romney’s going to win the nomination,” Rand Paul said during an interview Thursday. 

Ron Paul has been racking up victories at state GOP convention contests across the country, where delegates to the nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., are in the process of being elected. But Paul has failed to win even one state presidential primary.

“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process,” the Texas Congressman wrote to supporters today. “We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.”

He asked supporters to “stay tuned” for an update from the campaign’s leadership on its delegate strategy.

Some political observers have speculated that Paul’s campaign might try to engineer a GOP presidential nomination victory during a vote of national convention delegates in Florida, even though Republican National Committee rules mandate that all delegates are pledged to the candidate who wins 1,144 delegates through ballot-box victories during Republican primaries in the states.

Rand Paul, who holds similar views to his libertarian-leaning father and is a top surrogate for his presidential campaign, expressed satisfaction with Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, as the Republican presidential nominee. The Senator said Romney’s nomination would set up an election of sharp contrasts and spark an important philosophical debate on the direction of the country.

“I think he’ll be head and shoulders above [President Barack] Obama,” Paul said. “Because [Romney has] sort of experienced the success of the American dream and President Obama is very much for deriding those who are successful and saying they’re not paying enough of their fair share, I think … the election in many ways will be about whether or not we still believe as a country … in economic mobility; whether we believe that our kids or ourselves could be successful and whether we want to divide up the shrinking pie and make things more fair or more egalitarian or whether or not we’re willing to accept that some people will make more money and by letting them make more money, their success also creates more opportunity for the rest of us.”

The latest is a 60-second spot featuring the Democrat’s wife, Sharla, and shots of Tester climbing into his tractor, reading to young students, sitting in a science lab with college students, speaking with veterans, sitting at a small table with senior citizens and walking with shotgun-wielding hunters.

“We’re not unique,” Tester says in the ad. “This is the story of Montana. Generations before us on this land. Hard work. Responsibility.”

A Democratic source tracking ad buys said the campaign spent $60,000 to air the ad statewide. Tester is being challenged by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R), who aired his first TV ad last week.

Roll Call rates this race as a Tossup.

The Obama campaign released a new 6-minute web ad attacking Romney’s record, particularly the profits he and Bain Capital made at a bankrupt company called GST Steel. The ad comes a week after the campaign had talked about what it said would be a largely positive $25 million ad buy in swing states.

The campaign also created a 2-minute version of the ad, which it will be running on television in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia. The ad will run for only one day – Wednesday – during the evening news in those states, according to the Washington Post.

Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, said Romney and Bain Capital structured deals to make money no matter what, and subsequently loaded up companies with debt and walked away with huge profits even when they failed.

Cutter said the “central premise” of the Romney campaign is “that he’s an economic wizard,” but she said the evidence shows that Romney made his money by manipulating balance sheets, not by building companies.

“His experience was about creating wealth: wealth for himself, his investors. … It wasn’t about creating jobs,” Cutter said.

The case of GST Steel – a company Bain took over when Romney was active at the company and which went bankrupt while he was on leave for the 2002 Olympics – shows Romney’s economic values, she said.

After Bain took over, the company added hundreds of millions of debt while securing Bain a big profit.

“He walked away with millions. … Workers were left without jobs, without pensions, without health care,” Cutter said. That’s not the way things are supposed to work, she said. “Most Americans know that even in the real world, you don’t walk away with millions … while workers are left holding the bag.”

David Foster, who negotiated for the GST workers, joined the conference call today and ripped Romney and Bain for setting the company up for failure while guaranteeing they were paid.

“I had to tell the hundreds of steelworkers and their families that there was little we could do. … Bain had broken its promises, underfunded its pensions, and they were on their own,” he said.

The Romney campaign, however, pointed out that at the time of the bankruptcy, Romney had long since stepped away from the day-to-day management at Bain. And Romney backers have highlighted other successes on his watch, including another steel company, Steel Dynamics; as well as investments in Staples and Sports Authority.

“We welcome the Obama campaign’s attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their failed record,” said Andrea Saul, a Romney campaign spokeswoman. “Mitt Romney helped create more jobs in his private sector experience and more jobs as Governor of Massachusetts than President Obama has for the entire nation.”

She pointed to stimulus spending that went to politically connected companies.

“President Obama has many questions to answer as to why his administration used the stimulus to reward wealthy campaign donors with taxpayer money for bad ideas like Solyndra, but 23 million Americans are still struggling to find jobs,” she said. “If the Obama administration was less concerned about pleasing their wealthy donors and more concerned about creating jobs, America would be much better off.”

And while the Obama camp accused Romney of loading up companies with debt and then extracting profits at the expense of workers, the Romney camp pointed to the record debt piled up in Obama’s first term — after he promised but has failed to cut the deficit in half.

The Obama ad also faced criticism from Steven Rattner, Obama’s auto bailout czar, who called it  “unfair” and defended Bain as a responsible firm in an MSNBC interview. Rattner said that unfortunately, people do sometimes lose their jobs.

“This is part of capitalism, this is part of life, and I don’t think there is anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about,” he said.

Hatch, who is facing a conservative challenge of his own in a primary next month, spoke with Mourdock for 10 minutes and cut him a check for $10,000 from his leadership political action committee, Orrin PAC.

According to a Republican aide with knowledge of their conversation, Hatch congratulated Mourdock, commended him for the TV appearances Hatch had seen him on, and said he was confident Mourdock could hold the seat for Republicans against Rep. Joe Donnelly (D).

Hatch and Lugar were both elected to the Senate for the first time in 1976.

A May 10 Talk Business-Hendrix College survey of likely voters found Cotton garnered 51 percent to Rankin’s 33 percent. Ten percent didn’t know for whom they would vote.

An earlier poll by the same group, conducted on April 17, found the race tied at 38.5 percent each.

Cotton has been up on local TV with some strong biographical ads, which may explain his movement in the poll.

He also has the backing of the GOP establishment in Washington, D.C.

Conservative Democrat Rep. Mike Ross is retiring, leaving the seat open this cycle.

If Cotton is the GOP nominee in the district, Republicans are likely to pick up the seat in November. The primary is May 22.

Both polls were conducted using interactive voice response technology, also known as robopolling. That technology, while substantially cheaper than traditional live-interview polling, can introduce significant error into polls because, among other reasons, IVR polls don’t survey cellphones. That means the poll misses the many households that don’t have a land line telephone. Still, some IVR polls have been shown to be as accurate as live-telephone polls in the days before an election.

The May 10 poll surveyed 437 likely Republican voters in the district. It had a margin of error of 4.7 points. The April 17 poll surveyed 542 likely Republican voters in the district and had a margin of error of 4.2 points.

Here’s one of Cotton’s recent ads: