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Can Any of These House Underdogs Survive? Stuart Rothenberg June 8, 2012 · 1:48 PM EDT Remember their names: Reps. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), John Barrow (D-Ga.), Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Robert Dold (R-Ill.). If any of these five House incumbents survive, it will surprise most dispassionate observers (including some in their own parties). But upsets happen, and each of these candidates has a scenario for victory. Moments after Bass was declared the winner in November 2010, most political insiders figured he would be doomed in 2012. But considering his past electoral success, reports of his political demise...

Democrat Rep. Paul Hodes is running to replace Senator Judd Gregg, who is retiring at the end of the year. In a recent TV ad, Hodes makes this bold statement: "I approve this message because you deserve a senator who's a real fiscal conservative - and who gets rid of the pork." Politicians are notorious for massaging the truth in order to appear fiscally conservative to voters, but what Hodes is declaring is outright deception. Does a fiscal conservative vote for the $814 billion Stimulus, ObamaCare, Cap and Trade, the auto bailout, and Cash for Clunkers? Does a fiscal conservative...

MANCHESTER – U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., said yesterday he intends to introduce a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision last week that removed corporate and other special interest campaign spending limits. "The upcoming election in New Hampshire should be decided by the people of the Granite State, not special interests with unlimited cash," said Hodes, who is a candidate for the U.S. Senate. "Washington is broken, and this will only make business as usual worse." Hodes said he has been "fighting to stop the power of money in politics and now, after consulting with...

Not the first to go on the milk carton but the first to bail on her constituents — and it looks like she’ll have company. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, whose decision to duck town-hall forums surprised New Hampshire constituents who remember her pre-election town-hall antics, has decided to grace voters with her presence after all. However, she’s managed to schedule it at a time next Saturday when activists had planned to be elsewhere. Don’t worry about attending Rep. Paul Hodes’ forum, however. Granite Grok reports that Hodes is holing up in a union hall for his constituent outreach. Apparently, he feels...

The approach of Missouri represenatives to dealing with the outcry against the health care bill has run the gamut. In St. Louis, Rep. Russ Carnahan has held three disastrous public events. In Lee’s Summit, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver — no doubt influenced by the experiences of Carnahan and others — held a “tele-town hall” and a morning coffee, taking no questions from the audience, all the while insisting that “there is no health care bill” to talk about anyway. It appears Ike Skelton has one-upped them both. He hasn’t held, and apparently might not hold, any public meetings on the matter....

Leadership: Scores of congressmen and women are trying to hide from their constituents this August recess as the revolt over ObamaCare continues. If you haven't seen him or her lately, you might try your refrigerator.IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For FailureIt's amazing how frightened of the community the party of the great community organizer has become now that the community has organized itself against his attempt to impose socialized medicine on the country. They cheered when he told them to get in the faces of their opponents. Now they won't show their faces, period. Senate Majority Whip Dick...

-By Warner Todd Huston Congressional Democrats announced early in May that they wanted to make "military propaganda" illegal. To achieve this goal they passed new legislation that strengthened previous legislation that is supposed to ban the Pentagon from indulging in "propaganda" for the military. This bill is supposed to stop the military from sending "any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes or behavior of the people of the United States in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly." In other words, the military is not allowed to talk to...

HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi was in New Hampshire last week to sing the praises of 1st District Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. She gushed about Shea-Porter, and no wonder. In the representative from Rochester, Pelosi has a guaranteed rubber-stamp vote. New Hampshire Republicans are calling Shea-Porter and 2nd District Rep. Paul Hodes the "Pelosi twins," and it's a fitting name. After criticizing their predecessors for voting too much with President Bush, Shea-Porter and Hodes have wound up voting with Pelosi 99 percent of the time. (They vote with each other 98 percent of the time.) Shea-Porter, a self-proclaimed independent voice in Washington,...

CONCORD – Families with loved ones serving in Iraq lashed out at U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, questioning how he can claim to support American troops while backing a deadline for bringing them home. Hodes recently joined a majority in the House in voting for an Iraq spending bill that set a timeline for a troop withdrawal. He spent one hour Saturday meeting with military families, many of whom became angry when he tried to explain his position. One woman stormed out of the session after Hodes said he didn’t know whether the spending bill would have passed without the millions...