We’ve been digging in on this “voter integrity” initiative that Illinois Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk is undertaking in black areas of the state on Election Day. Ryan Reilly reports on the broader GOP involvement in the voter suppression effort.

I’ve spent the morning trying to come up with the list of Senate races that I think we’ll be the real tells on election night and in these last couple weeks before election night. Given the profusion of polling data, it’s a relatively straightforward exercise: Nevada & West Virginia & Illinois are looking like the real late-night calls. Then after those California, Washington state, maybe Kentucky. I’m not saying other races aren’t in play. And certainly there will be a few that really surprise us. But you can see pretty clearly the half-dozen or more races that the next Senate is going to turn on.

In the House though it’s much less clear. Not because we don’t know the big picture but because it’s very hard to get a read on the small picture. Read More

Rich Whitney is the Green party candidate for governor in Illinois this year. But there’s been a small matter of a typo on the state’s electronic voting machines. On electronic voting machines in 23 wards — about half of which are predominantly African-American districts — Whitney’s name is set to appear as “Rich Whitey“.

Whitney is unhappy about this and is investigating what remedy he has. For whatever reason, the problem can’t be fixed, even those these are on electronic machines, rather than on paper ballots.

From Politico, Rich Iott’s latest argument …

“Rich Iott doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in his body,” said [Iott spokesman] Parker, who sought to distinguish between a Nazi uniform and an SS uniform, which he said is what Iott is wearing in the now-famous image.

The Nazis were Adolf Hitler’s party — and became shorthand for the German military under his rule — while the SS was an elite squadron of soldiers and law enforcers responsible for a variety of war crimes.

It wasn’t a Nazi uniform. It was a uniform of the Nazi paramilitary force!

Next. It was a concentration camp, not a death camp!

#toughdistinctionstorunon

The NRSC finally admits responsibility for that casting call looking for “hicky” actors to shoot a TV ad for the Senate race in West Virginia.

California Now Presidents says “Meg Whitman Could Be Described as a Political Whore.”

Actually for someone who’s trying to buy the votes of millions of Californians, I’d think more like a political john maybe? But that’s just me.

Federal Judge in Florida rules that state AGs’ lawsuit to overturn Health Care Reform can proceed.

There’s lots to mock and criticize about Christine O’Donnell’s candidacy. One of the most egregious and least discussed is her demonstrable penchant for hinting that her male opponents may be gay.

The “Conservative Caucus” has launched what it calls the “National Campaign for an Impeachment Inquiry”, a new direct mail fund-raising campaign. We got a copy of the flyer.

DOJ has filed for a stay of the ruling stopping enforcement of DADT pending an appeal.

To sort out the double negative. A federal Judge on Tuesday barred the federal government from enforcing DADT, effective immediately. The DOJ has now filed for a stay to allow the military to continue enforcing the policy while an appeal of her ruling is underway.