Josh Kraushaar, reporting on the developments that may lead to Beau Biden becoming the next Senator from Delaware, makes what seems from this vantage an even more important catch: The Democrats may finally have a viable challenger for Republican Congressman Mike Castle.

[Beau Biden's] biggest rival for the Democratic nomination, former Delaware lieutenant governor John Carney, appears to instead be looking at the state's House race against Republican congressman Mike Castle.

"It's been difficult to get people to step up to the plate and run against Congressman Castle. I've got to tell you, that's something I'm looking at right now," Carney told a Delaware radio station earlier this week.

Carney was passed over for the Delaware Senate appointment in favor of longtime Biden adviser Ted Kaufman, who is only holding the seat before the special election occurs in two years.

After winning his first term in the House back in 1992 by a 55 percent to 43 percent margin, Castle has never won by fewer than 18 points, with no Democrat even crossing the 40 percent threshold. But with John Carney potentially in this race -- probably the strongest opponent Castle has ever faced, including his successful runs for Governor in the 1980s -- Castle's path to reelection is far from assured. Throw on top the fact that the Obama-Biden ticket received 62 percent of the vote in the state last November, and all of the sudden this could be a real contest.

There's more...

The Northeast (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island & Vermont) has been sharply trending towards the Democratic party for some years now. Increasingly at a State and Federal level Republicans are finding it harder to get elected in the Northeast, be they conservatives or moderates, particularly in statewide races. And this years election seems certain to thin out their ranks even further.
We now have 7/9 Governors, 14/18 Senators and 51/65 House Districts!

Below the line for a look at the 14 GOP held House Races in the Northeast in 2008.

There's more...

This afternoon the House of Representatives held an important vote on legislation that would, for the first time, allow shareholders of corporations to at least have a say in the salaries given to executives. While the legislation did not give shareholders veto power, the power to make a statement of approval or disapprobation could go a long way towards reining in excessive CEO pay -- particularly in cases in which corporations are hemorrhaging money but executives still receive fat paychecks and ridiculous bonuses.

Yet on this sensible piece of legislation, how did most House Republicans vote? Nay, naturally. Of the 184 memberds of the House Republican caucus who voted on this bill this afternoon, fully 70 percent (129) voted in the opposition. This group not only included members of the leadership, like Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Roy Blunt, but also potentially endangered members, including (and I got a lot of them, but certainly not all of them): Vern Buchanan (FL-13), Mike Castle (DE-AL), Tom Davis (VA-11), John Doolittle (CA-04), Phil English (PA-03), Vito Fossella (NY-13), Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Peter King (NY-03), Randy Kuhl (NY-29), Tom Latham (IA-04), Thad McCotter (MI-11), Dave Reichert (WA-08), Rick Renzi (AZ-01), Tom Reynolds (NY-26), Mike Rogers (MI-08), Jean Schmidt (OH-02), Chris Shays (CT-04), Tim Walberg (MI-07) and Heather Wilson (NM-01).

But it's not only the House Republicans, including some of their most vulnerbable members, who are staking out a position against the average shareholder and in favor of corporate CEOs making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars each year (even as some of their companies lose money). Today we learned that the White House also opposes such a move by Congress to empower everyday Americans to take real ownership over their investments, just as the extremely wealthy are able to do. While the President has apparently stopped short of issuing a veto threat, it has nonetheless indicated quite clearly to the American people just whose side it's on.

Judging by the vote in the House today, Democrats could be within fewer than 10 votes of a veto-proof margin in the House (if you count the dozen or so Democrats not voting as "ayes"). Now action will move to the Senate where the corporatists up for reelection in 2008 -- the John Sununus, Gordon Smiths, Norm Colemans and others -- will have to decide whether they care more about appeasing their big-money supporters or the people who will actually have more of a say as to whether or not they will have another term in Congress. My guess is that most of these endangered Republicans, just like their brethren in the House, are dense enough to believe that they can get away with voting for corporate CEOs and against the average shareholder, but we shall have to wait and see.

There's more...

Well the 50 State page is up to date and with candidate filings closed in Ohio and Indiana the unopposed scoreboard reads 7 Dems to 1 Repug (2 including Lugar in the Senate). Nice work. : http://www.barrywelsh.org/fiftystate/ind ex.html In his kos diary: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/18/ 12428/6394 - Rex Freedom asks for confirmation for a candidate in Delaware. In fact there are quite a few where we are all waiting for confirmation of their candidacy.

Have a look below the fold for more.............

There's more...

As we move further and further into the filing season for this years midterms it seems that interest is continuing to rise in seeing Democrats running in as many House districts as possible.

The gang over at Barry Welsh's campaign - IN 6 have updated their "50 State" page:  http://www.barrywelsh.org/fiftystate/ind ex.html - 54 districts left to fill according to their strict criteria.
But join me below the fold as we get to 47 districts remaining............

There's more...