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My gut feeling is still that we ought to be able to defeat the House-passed Dream Act amnesty when it comes up for a vote in the Senate later this week. But . . . Do you really want to rely on my gut? The PRO-amnesty TV network Univision is reporting that the DREAM Act amnesty is 4 votes short of the 60 needed for passage. Mass. Sen. Brown's courageous announcement of his NO vote at a Salvation Army fundraiser yesterday puts Senate passage of the House-passed amnesty farther out of reach. But the PRO-amnesty forces claim they have already...

Sen. Scott Brown says he will not support the DREAM Act and called the bill aimed helping illegal immigrant college students "backdoor amnesty." Massachusetts Republican made the comments Monday during a Salvation Army charity event in downtown Boston. The federal proposal would allow some illegal immigrants to qualify for permanent legal residency by graduating from college or by joining the military. The Senate is slated to vote on the measure this week. But Brown said he wasn't supportive of the bill. Brown's remarks come as a coalition of educators, religious leaders, and immigrant advocates made a last ditch appeal to...

Apparently, Senator Snowe has now said she’ll vote no on DREAM, and the plans of the pro-amnesty folks were based on her voting yes. According to Numbers USA, this is her statement: “Millions of illegal immigrants could attempt to become legal residents as a result of this proposal, according to some estimates, and it is incumbent upon the Senate to ensure our policies never again lead to a situation where we are confronted with upwards of 12 million illegal immigrants residing within our borders.”

NY-01 Bishop (D) leads Altschuler (R) by 264. IL-08 Walsh (R) defeats Bean (D) by 291. NY-25 Buerkle (R) defeats Maffei (D) by 561. KY-06 Chandler (D) defeats Barr (R) by 648. TX-27 Farenthold (R) defeats Ortiz (D) by 797. VA-11 Connolly (D) defeats Fimian (R) by 981. WV-01 McKinley (R) defeats Oliverio (D) by 1,440. NC-02 Ellmers (R) defeats Etheridge (D) by 1,489. NV-03 Heck (R) defeats Titus (D) by 1,922. NY-23 Owens (D) defeats Doheny (R) by 1,990. IN-02 Donnelly (D) defeats Walorski (R) by 2,538. CA-11 McNerney (D) leads Harmer (R) by 2,658. PA-12 Critz (D) defeats...

Things don't look good for Republicans in Long Island's 1st Congressional District, where election officials finished counting absentee ballots less than an hour ago. A source close to the campaign of Republican candidate Randy Altschuler tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that with all absentee ballots counted, Democratic congressman Tim Bishop is in the lead by 234 votes. There is a pile of about 1,900 challenged absentee ballots that have not been counted, but it seems unlikely that Altschuler can make up his 234-vote deficit here. In New York, if a campaign representative challenges the validity of a ballot before it is...

1st C.D.: Altschuler re-takes the lead by 10 (or 9) 32 m ago By Reid Epstein As of 10:30 a.m., Randy Altschuler has re-taken the lead from Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) by 10 votes in absentee ballot counting, Altschuler spokesman Rob Ryan reports. Altschuler gained 24 votes today, Ryan said. At the end of the day Friday, Bishop led by 15 according to his camp, and 14 according to Altschuler's. Bishop's people have yet to return our calls this morning. We'll update...

NY-01 Bishop (D) leads Altschuler (R) by 15 IL-08 Walsh (R) defeats Bean (D) by 291 NY-25 Buerkle (R) leads Maffei (D) by 411 KY-06 Chandler (D) defeats Barr (R) by 648 TX-27 Farenthold (R) leads Ortiz (D) by 792 VA-11 Connolly (D) defeats Fimian (R) by 981 WV-01 McKinley (R) defeats Oliverio (D) by 1,357 NC-02 Ellmers (R) defeats Etheridge (D) by 1,492 CA-11 McNerney (D) leads Harmer (R) by 1,783 NV-03 Heck (R) defeats Titus (D) by 1,922

With more than half of the absentee ballots received in the 1st Congressional District race counted, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) has pulled ahead of challenger Randy Altschuler (R-St. James) by 15 votes. SNIP According to Ryan, 2,004 of the remaining ballots — more than 40 percent of them — are from registered Republicans; 1,826 are from registered Democrats, 920 are from unaffiliated voters, 160 are from people registered to the Independence Party, 137 are from registered Conservatives, and the remaining 50 are from others.

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) -- A day after adjusted numbers showed the margin between the candidates in the 60th State Senate District race narrowing, challenger Mark Grisanti appears to be extending his lead again. Grisanti is now ahead by 812 votes. "Every absentee ballot, for the most part, has been counted in both Niagara and Erie counties," Grisanti campaign spokesman, Doug Curella, tells WBEN. That 812-vote lead for Grisanti reflects all of the scanned ballots, emergency ballots, and absentee ballots that have been received so far in both counties. It also includes the affidavit ballots from Niagara County, only. "In the...

Randy Altschuler's lead in the 1st Congressional District race narrowed to 275 votes after the second day of counting absentee ballots at the Suffolk County Board of Elections in Yaphank. Rep. Tim Bishop has had a net gain of 108 votes in the absentee ballot tally so far, which has been completed for 93 of the 460 election districts of the 1st Congressional District, which stretches from the tips of the twin forks west to Smithtown. Elections workers have counted absentee ballots in 59 of the 60 election districts in Smithtown, which is considered the strongest town for Altschuler, who...

According to Randy Altschuler's spokesman, Rob Ryan, the Republican challenger for the First Congressional District seat which currently belongs to Rep. Tim Bishop, D - Southampton, lost 27 votes to the incumbent after day one of absentee ballot counting on Tuesday. "The good news is that they counted Southampton today," said Ryan. "And we did much better there than we expected, considering that's his hometown. We're pleasantly surprised." Along with Southampton, election workers counted absentee ballots from Smithtown as well, which is where Altschuler resides - specifically, St. James. And in total, according to Bishop's spokesman, Jon Schneider, election workers...

Rep. Dan Maffei’s (D) strategy for bitterly clinging to the NY25 House seat is becoming clear. He’s hiding behind his attorneys who are doing his dirty work for him. He isn’t having bags of ballots appear, he’s trying to make bags of ballots disappear. Absentee ballots were counted in Monroe County, and Ann Marie Buerkle’s lead expanded, yet again, over Maffei. Maffei’s campaign calls this good news. Maffei’s campaign noted that Buerkle carried the 25th District’s three towns in the Rochester suburbs (Irondequoit, Penfield and Webster) by 10 points on Election Day, 55 percent to 45 percent. When the absentee...

Auburn, NY -- Republican Ann Marie Buerkle picked up 24 votes today in the undecided race against Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, after Cayuga County finished counting its absentee ballots. When the counting finished this afternoon, Maffei had received 35 absentee votes and Buerkle 59 absentee votes, acccoridng to Cayuga County Election Commissioner Kate Lacey. The difference means that Buerkle has now widened her overall lead in the four-county district to 711 votes...

Democratic Rep. Jim Costa has declared victory in his race against Republican challenger Andy Vidak. New vote tallies from Fresno County put Costa 1,200 votes ahead of Vidak — Costa was losing to Vidak Tuesday by 145 votes — and his campaign believes his lead will continue to increase as the final absentee ballots are counted. “This has been a hard-fought campaign. It appears that it is now over. I believe our 1,200-vote margin will not only stand up, but will increase as the remaining few ballots are counted,” Costa said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Rep. Melissa Bean inched closer to Republican challenger Joe Walsh in continued absentee ballot counting this morning, narrowing his lead by three votes to 347 out of more than 200,000 votes cast. Bean still considers the race too close to call, pending the counting of absentee ballots in Cook, Lake and McHenry counties, according to a statement this morning from Bean spokeswoman Gabby Adler. Election officials in all three counties have said remaining absentee votes will be tallied Nov. 16, the last day the votes can be received. About 500 absentee ballots remain unaccounted for in Cook County, election officials...

In New York's 23rd district, Republican Matt Doheny trails the Democrat by 3,762 votes. Conservative Doug Hoffman took 9,536 votes. In Arizona's 8th district, Republican Jesse Kelly trails the Democrat by 3,639 votes. Libertarian Steven Stoltz took 10,642 votes. In California's 11th district, Republican David Harmer trails the Democrat by 421 votes. The American Independent candidate took 9,058 votes.

Congressman Jim Costa, D-Fresno, went from optimistic to confident about his re-election chances Friday as new numbers from Kern and Fresno counties chopped opponent Andy Vidak’s 1,823-vote lead down to 648 in the race to represent the 20th Congressional District. SNIP All this happened after Fresno County counted 3,878 outstanding 20th District ballots Friday and Kern County counted 1,403 new ballots from the district. Costa received 443 more votes than Vidak in Kern and 732 more votes than Vidak in Fresno County. But the ballot counting isn’t over in Kern and Fresno. The trends still didn’t look good for Vidak....

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski told a half-filled gymnasium gathered for a rally featuring former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday that while his battle with Republican challenger Lou Barletta was neck and neck, “the momentum is on our side.” In the previous two polls conducted by The Times Leader, and in a handful of other independent polls released over the past month, Barletta has been out in front, but the latest Times Leader poll shows likely voters chose the 13-term Democrat from Nanticoke over the three-term Hazleton mayor. Of the 400 likely voters in the 11th Congressional District polled, 47 percent...

Colorado's U.S. Senate race has clenched into a dead heat nine days before polls close, as incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet climbed to meet GOP hopeful Ken Buck's early lead, each man garnering 47 percent support among likely and actual voters, according to a Denver Post/9 News poll.

Approve 42% Disapprove 50% October 19-21,2010