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If former Vice President Mondale for some reason winds up not running to replace Wellstone, the political world will be shocked and Democrats, who have no obvious alternative, probably will have little chance of keeping this seat.

For the sake of argument of today's Note, we are assuming that Mondale will run, and that full, formal word of that will come on Wednesday.

Tomorrow night's certain-to-be-packed memorial service will create a lot of political energy in Minnesota, to Democrats' benefit. Whether the national coverage of the service creates some sort of echo effect is TBD, somewhat depending, we would guess, on how much live cable coverage there is, and who the speakers are.

Republican strategists in DC and Minnesota are still playing this one like major league football (with lots of meetings, option considerations, ad strategizing, etc.), while Democrats, because they are truly stricken and because they are going to be relying on a free media effort, are treating it like pick-up one-hand touch football on the street in front of the house.

Republicans are vastly overestimating the extent to which Democrats are orchestrating the timing of all this. Mondale has a lot of political sharpies around him, but the "Mondale campaign" is not on overdrive — it doesn't even exist.

It looks like things will begin in earnest politically on both sides on Wednesday. It's possible that Democrats won't run a single TV ad. Republican Norm Coleman's campaign says he shot some material for ads yesterday. Most of the interest groups on both sides have stopped all activity, except for grassroots.

In one sense, the focus on Minnesota has elevated national awareness of the election — something Senator Wellstone surely would have liked. But it also threatens to distract news planners and the general public from the fact that there are a lot of other very close races out there, particularly in the crucial fight for the Senate.

And in that crucial fight, the White House would appear to be throwing some races from the sled.

Mr. David Sanger of the New York Times , whose love for politics is apparently boundless, writes thusly, moving along the dynamic by which the National Republican Senatorial Committee and some of the individual Senate campaigns are getting more than just a little PO'ed at the White House:

"Behind the scenes, [Bush] aides concede they are growing more pessimistic about winning in New Jersey, where Democrats switched horses at the last moment. On Saturday, several of Mr. Bush's operatives discussed how to deal with Minnesota, where he has repeatedly visited on behalf of Norm Coleman … The aides said they doubted that Mr. Bush could visit the state again under the circumstances. One participant in the conversation said that if former Vice President Walter F. Mondale agrees to enter the race, 'I think this one is over for us.'" LINK

Sanger's timing reflects his usual deft campaign ear on the question of how the Commander-in-chief finds time to do all this campaigning in the midst of a two-front war.

The Washington Post 's Allen also captures Bush's juxtaposing UN negotiations and campaigning. "A White House official said the communications gear and national security aides aboard Air Force One allow him to run the war from anywhere." LINK

"Political scientists said the prolific campaigning carries risks for Bush and may lead voters to wonder who is minding the store."

The Wall Street Journal 's front page leads with the Mondale story, and makes these key points: "Handicapping a new contest against Mr. Mondale, which may not involve any campaign appearances or TV ads by either side, is now an exercise in guesswork. But then handicapping a half-dozen other, too-close-to-call Senate races — and by extension the national agenda for the remaining two years of President Bush's term — is no more certain."

The big pending political questions for the Minnesota race are:
1. When does Mondale privately tell someone it is 100% "yes?" (And how does John King break that from the White House filing center?)
2. When do TV ads start again, if at all? What kind? Does Mondale do an ad to camera, the way Jean Carnahan did in 2000?
3. When does Coleman start campaigning again? What is his message? Does he pursue the "past versus the future" argument?
4. Does the new ballot situation cause confusion?
5. Do the dynamics in this race affect other races in Minnesota? Other races around the country?

The Journal raises the specter of national fallout, but our sources don't see that (yet): "Indeed, some Democratic strategists are even holding out hope that the combination of Senator Wellstone's death and the re-emergence of Mr. Mondale's stature could do something more: a charge of emotion that could boost Senator Jean Carnahan, now running on her own for the Missouri seat her late husband won, and galvanize the party's liberal base elsewhere. Following a national campaign debate that so far has veered from economic woes to potential war with Iraq, any resurgent liberalism could especially assist Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, another endangered Democrat, and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. Both states share the Minnesota media market."

Let's see how much national coverage Tuesday night's memorial service gets. There are no indications that it is being planned for maximum political effect, but if the tributes to Senator Wellstone, which have flowed since Friday, are any indication, we'd imagine that there will be at least a 24-hour Democratic high.

Apparently, we should have called John Podesta (something we say to ourselves, belatedly, all the time): "'Saturation coverage lauding a populist Democrat this close to an election is the Republicans' worst nightmare,' says Larry Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota. Adds former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta: 'If you're a canvasser going door to door in Iowa or anywhere else, you remember this election is worth fighting for.'"

Two more key graphs from the Journal: "Other Democrats say any such benefit will be marginal, and in any case Republicans quickly signaled a willingness to fight back, the tragedy notwithstanding. On NBC's 'Meet the Press' Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted the undeclared candidate Mondale as a politician 'with a long history of raising taxes' and warned that Democrats will run 'an emotional campaign' that tries 'to ensure that nobody thinks about who Walter Mondale is or what he stands for.'"

"The situation in Minnesota is the subject of 'very intense interest' at the Bush White House, says former Rep. Vin Weber, a Washington lobbyist who remains a leading figure in Minnesota GOP politics. Mr. Weber notes that he has consulted with the president's top strategist, Karl Rove, about how any next steps in the race must be taken with a 'high minded' tone."

The Journal gets at the GOP's still unfolding strategy: "One possibility: challenging Mr. Mondale to one or more debates in the precious few days left before the election. Another, now under discussion in closed-door strategy sessions involving Republicans here and in Washington: to find and publicize unflattering elements of Mr. Mondale's record that won't provoke a public backlash. Aside from his tenure in the Senate and in Jimmy Carter's administration, that record includes service as U.S. Ambassador to Japan and as a lawyer in private practice."

Do members of the conservative commentariat REALLY believe that Wellstone and Coleman were getting along famously?

Echoing Kate O'Beirne on "Capital Gang," and many others, Fred Barnes writes on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal : "In a year of bitter Senate races, Mr. Wellstone had a cordial relationship with his GOP opponent, Norm Coleman. Mr. Coleman, after all, was a Democrat until 1998 and voted for Mr. Wellstone the three previous times he'd been on the ballot in Minnesota, including a losing race for state auditor. This year Mr. Coleman described Mr. Wellstone as a liberal far out of the mainstream."

The truth is, Coleman's campaign was based almost completely on destroying Wellstone.

Mort Kondracke and Barnes on "Fox and Friends" this morning sort of tittered their way through making the accusation that Democrats have somehow invented the notion that Coleman was running a negative campaign against Wellstone, and that Democrats were saying this to help Mondale.

You can argue that there is nothing wrong with negative campaigns; you can argue that Wellstone and his allies were running their own negative campaign against Coleman; and you can argue that Coleman (and the White House) didn't have 100-percent control over the allied groups' negative attacks on Wellstone.

But how all these conservative voices have come up with this talking point is completely beyond us. Unless some central Republican voice is spreading that message …

Beltway Boys: on what evidence do you possibly make this charge? Do you have a screening reel of the NRSC spots from this race?

If Democrats could distribute Newt Gingrich's Meet the Press attack on Mondale to every voter in Minnesota, believe us, they would.

One other note here: Gov. Jesse Ventura (IP) will appoint an interim Senator to fill Wellstone's seat until the general election winner is certified, in time for Congress' lame-duck session. LINK

"Democratic officials have urged him to wait until after the election and appoint the winner of the Nov. 5 election. But John Wodele, a Ventura spokesman, said the governor would act sooner because of concern that the election results would not be certified in time for the lame-duck session." LINK

Outside of Minnesota, at least two Democratic Senate hopefuls have made explicit appeals to liberals based on their affection for Senator Wellstone:

Former Senator Frank Lautenberg invoked Wellstone's memory, triggering a response from Republicans that he was politicizing the death.

And Chellie Pingree, the somewhat longshot Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, e-mailed supporters with the following plea: "What's here, as a result of this unthinkable tragedy, is the realization that what might happen as a result of a dangerously close election. Even more now, for Paul as well as for every citizen of Maine, we must win."

The New York Daily News says, "One Democratic source said Democrats running from New Hampshire to Florida were rallying troops with a call 'to win one for Wellstone.'" LINK

An open memorial service for all the victims of the plane crash will be held on Tuesday at the University of Minnesota's Williams Arena at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Per ABCNEWS' Textor, President Bush will send a representative. Democratic leaders are all expected to attend, including former Vice President Gore and former President Clinton. Wellstone's campaign page has logistical details about Tuesday's memorial service. LINK

"'There will be speeches, people will be eulogized, there will be music — there will be remembrances of everyone,' said Dobson. 'There will be a formal program, but at the same time, it's not going to be stuffy. I don't think it makes any sense, given who these people were. We want to put together something to celebrate the lives of these six beautiful people." LINK

Broadening out our scope to the national political scene, the Los Angeles Times ' Hook offers this unhappy but not unexpected lead for Democrats: "Even though history and economics are on their side, many Democrats are despairing of their chances of winning control of the House of Representatives this fall — unless something dramatic changes between now and the Nov. 5 elections." LINK

"Worried that conventional wisdom has coalesced around the idea that Democrats cannot win the House, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) has circulated a memo to his colleagues reminding them how far off preelection forecasts were in 1998, when Democrats defied expectations and gained seats, and in 1994, when few predicted Republicans would win control of the House."

The Washington Times ' Sammon gets an anonymous WHO (White House official) on background saying the GOP is going to lose governorships, but "White House Political Director Ken Mehlman told The Washington Times that he is 'cautiously optimistic' about Republicans retaining control of the House. And he said Republicans have a 'historic opportunity' to retake control of the Senate." LINK

"Mr. Mehlman sounded more hopeful than White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who pointed out that a first-term president's party usually suffers 'massive setbacks' in the midterm elections … One White House official said Mr. Fleischer was not lowering expectations in order to mitigate political fallout if the Republicans take a shellacking next week."

"'We're going into this as a very uphill battle,' Mr. Mehlman said. 'If we are able to either keep the House or win back the Senate, either would be a huge historic accomplishment for the president.'"

President Bush has no public events as of now on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Laura Bush on Tuesday will present the 2002 National Awards for Museum and Library Service, at the White House, and on Wednesday, she will headline an event for vulnerable moderate GOP Rep. Connie Morella.

On Thursday, Bush will head to Tom Daschle's hometown of Aberdeen, SD to give a boost to that state's Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates, then jet to South Bend, IN to appear with another top GOP House candidate, and then to Charleston, WV to appear with an endangered Republican House member.

Bush's events on Friday are TBD.

Laura Bush will travel to Atlanta on Friday to address The College Board's National Forum.

The replacement process

The Star-Tribune notes that Minnesota DFLers have historically disliked dictums, and so even if party leaders deign Mondale as the nominee, the 875 members of the state central committee will make the ultimate decision.

Mondale's grassroots support appears strong.

"A spot check of DFL Party Central Committee delegates and other grass-roots party activists suggests that Mondale's support does extend beyond the party's top officers. DFL activists over the years have been resistant to anything they perceive as top-down manipulation, but several Central Committee members said Sunday that Mondale would probably be approved by acclamation." LINK

How Will Coleman and Republicans Campaign

The Pioneer Press's Bill Salisbury calls the next week "unprecedented." LINK

"Brief, civil and entirely different from the last 18 months, when Coleman had an unabashedly liberal opponent."

"With just eight days before the election and the next two days reserved for mourning, the U.S. Senate campaign will not resume until late this week. Coleman said Sunday on KSTP-TV that he expects it to be a four-day campaign."

"That leaves little time for candidate forums or debates. None are scheduled at this time."

"A Mondale-Coleman race 'would be one of the quietest, most dignified campaigns of all time,' predicted former DFL Attorney General Warren Spannaus, one of Mondale's closest friends and the man who hired Coleman as an assistant attorney general."

"Out of respect for Wellstone, Spannaus expects the candidates to avoid negative attacks and to strike a positive, serious tone."

"Coleman is in a tough spot. 'Mondale is extremely well-liked in Minnesota,' said Washington University congressional scholar Stephen Smith. In a normal campaign, Coleman would try to drive up Mondale's negatives. But under the current circumstances, "being critical of Fritz Mondale won't reflect well on the mayor," Smith said."

"While Coleman may not have chosen a strategy yet, Republican Party leaders have picked at least one message to use against Mondale, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1964 to 1976 and as vice president from 1977 to 1981."

A senior Minnesota GOP source told ABCNEWS on Sunday, the state GOP will take care of the anti-Mondale message, consisting of three interrelated elements:
1. "Past versus the future. Mondale had a career in the U.S. Senate, but it's decades ago. Norm Coleman is ready to serve and ready to lead. A blast from the past versus a future leader."
2. "Is he prepared to serve six years?" — which, obliquely, raises the age issue.
3. "Walter Mondale is not Paul Wellstone." Mondale sits on the board of several multinational corporations (Target, Northwest Airlines); wrote the legislation that helped HMOs achieve prominence in the health insurance world; and apparently has considered supporting personal retirement accounts for Social Security. They hope to blunt the wellspring of new liberal voters by trying to remind people that Mondale isn't as liberal as Wellstone is.

The source said a decision about whether to run ads about/against Mondale hasn't yet been made.

Reflecting the Wellstone camp's rising ire over the Coleman posture, fiery Senator Harry Reid of Nevada took off Orrin Hatch's head on "Late Edition:"

REID: "I've spoken to the Wellstone family, both Sheila and I've talked to Paul, and I know how they felt about Coleman and his campaign. So I'm willing to go along and be nice guy, but don't talk about principled race that he conducted against Paul Wellstone, because it wasn't. Maybe he'll try to change tactics like he did parties and have a positive campaign now, but his was the most negative campaign in America."

Jodi Wilgoren's New York Times story hints at the rhetorical shift that Coleman has undergone in talking about Wellstone in death as compared to life. LINK

Someone dug this up for the Washington Times : "in 1989, Minnesota Democrats had hoped that former Vice President Walter Mondale would be their best hope to defeat incumbent Senator Rudy Boschwitz. Mr. Mondale turned them down. 'One of the requirements of a healthy party is that it renews itself,' Mr. Mondale said at the time. 'You can't keep running Walter Mondale for everything.'" LINK

Mondale

"One reason that returning to the Senate might be an attractive option, his friends say, is that Mondale has viewed his years there as among the happiest of his career. 'To finish at the place that he loved the best would be wonderful,' said Michael Berman, a former top aide to Mondale." LINK

"If he ran and won, Mondale would be the first vice president to return to the Senate since Minnesota Democrat Hubert Humphrey did so in 1970." LINK

ABC 2004: The Invisible Primary

ABCNEWS Business Correspondent Betsy Stark explains the Bush Economy, and what the president's best friends (those Wall Streeters and CEOs whose work he so respects) think of said Bush Economy, on ABCNEWS Radio's "Here's the Point" with Mark Halperin this week. LINK

And the music to take your mind off the election (briefly): Buddy Holly, Marilyn Monroe, and Eddie Money.

The Vote

Dick Gephardt always has been engaged in trying to win back the House. But is it just us, or are the Gephardt folks really pushing that in these final days? Which would be for obvious reasons, of course.

US News' Roger Simon went tripping among the garden gnomes in suburban (or "subdivisioned") St. Louis with a stumping Gephardt to write up his quest to retake control of the House.. and other ambitions.

"Gephardt is probably the only politician in the nation simultaneously engaged in three campaigns." LINK

"There are some signs … that Gephardt, an analytical man, has analyzed where he went wrong in 1988 (he believes he didn't raise nearly enough money, for one thing) and what he needs to do in 2004."

Here's some arguable wishful thinking on Team Gephardt's part, given that House members are 1) handy fundraisers and 2) superdelegates. "'The view of Washington insiders is that if we don't win the House, it will be some great detriment to Gephardt,' a senior staffer says. 'In fact, winning the House has little or nothing to do with his candidacy. Real people won't sit around and say he won or lost the House. When I used to travel with Dick, I was amazed at the number of people in airports or at fundraisers who thought he was a senator. What people know about him is that he is a big, important person.'"

Careful, "senior staffer" — Senators have a lousy record of getting elected to the presidency.

"Gephardt's importance figures heavily in his ability to raise money, not only through glitzy fundraisers and constant phone calls but through an unsexy but potentially lucrative method: direct mail. 'Dick Gephardt is awesome through direct mail, because everybody knows who he is,' says David Jones, a professional fundraiser who is close to Gephardt. '"He not only can get on the phone and reach the $50,000 raisers but can send out direct mail and reach the $10, $15, $20 donors. Nobody has a list of names like Gephardt except for Al Gore.'"

If you missed Simon, the Gephardts, and a man who looked suspiciously like Walter Shapiro going door-to-door together last night on C-SPAN, all we can say is: you missed about the best hour of television EVER.

As gripping as Andy Warhol's "Sleep." LINK

Just out of curiosity, if you could dress up as one '04 hopeful for Halloween, who would it be, and what would you wear?

On Thursday, Gore will campaign for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Paul Starr had an interesting story in the Washington Post Outlook section yesterday about how Democrats have tended to completely repudiate and reject their presidential nominees, with a heavy look at the effect thereof on Mr. Gore. LINK

Senator John Edwards is scheduled to appear on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central tonight. We wonder how he'll handle doing comedy in the wake of his colleague's passing.

Roll Call 's Wallison looks ahead to orientation for new House members, which will start on November 11 (which frankly, we think is kind of optimistic given the possibility for recounts and challenges … ), and writes about the anticipated Democratic leadership contests, "Any decision by Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) to step aside after more than a decade in the [Democratic leader] job would only feed the sense of chaos. While Gephardt has not publicly revealed his intentions, House Democrats have anticipated for some time that the leader will abdicate shortly after the elections in order to focus on a bid for the presidency — particularly if Democrats fail to win the majority. A Gephardt spokeswoman cautioned, however, that Gephardt has not suggested any timetable for making a decision on 2004." LINK

Senator Joe Lieberman will campaign with former Senator Frank Lautenberg and House candidate Anne Sumers in New Jersey today.

On Tuesday, Lieberman will chair a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the FERC's oversight of Enron. And on Wednesday, Lieberman will head home to Connecticut to campaign with Democratic candidates there.

Favored Granite State Note Source writes on Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's visit there this past weekend: "Dean gave a great speech concentrating on social issues — primarily universal access to health care. 'If Vermont can achieve 90-plus percent coverage of children in the middle of the worst recession since the depression, why can't the rest of the country do the same … '"

FGSNS adds that he heard there was a private dinner for Gen. Wesley Clark in Durham recently. "Invitees ran the gamut from across the liberal to moderate spectrum, with at least two of our National Democratic committee people in attendance. Clark made a speech about world affairs."

Dean campaigns in Rhode Island today. Tomorrow, he travels to Maine and New Hampshire (again). On Wednesday, he'll stop at home in Vermont, then return to New Hampshire on Thursday for more campaigning with local candidates.

Newsweek's Fineman makes no bones about where his Hillary Rodham Clinton profile is heading when he opens up with the Senator's reference to President Bush as the "'selected' president." (Though Fineman's depiction of the FPOTUS as heavily involved in finding a replacement for Senator Wellstone is, we're been advised by more than one source, a bit strong.)

The not-to-miss graph: "When [Senator Clinton] wanted prime time — and lots of it — to explain in a lengthy floor speech why she was backing Bush in Iraq, Clinton asked Byrd to give her a chunk of his time. He happily agreed. When the hard-charging and Hollywood-handsome Senator John Edwards rushed to the floor at the last minute and asked to speak, Democratic leaders had no time left to give him. Clinton couldn't restrain a triumphant grim at the plight of a clear rival … She spoke to him in a near shout — loud enough for the galleries to hear, 'Just stand there and look pretty, John … '"

Fineman does his usual Rove/Bush history lesson, and makes about the strongest statement yet about the chances that Senator Clinton will run for the White House in 2008.

Why, oh why would Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe possibly want to bring his presidential nominating convention in 2004 into the intraparty racial roiling cauldron of New York City? LINK

Better to go somewhere in which race relations are placid and the city is like one giant United Colors of Benetton ad. Somewhere like, say, Boston …

Politics

The New York Times front-pages a long, important story on election reform in the states, with the ominous headline "Election Officials Braced for Big Problems at the Polls" … LINK

… and a somewhat-ominous lead: "Two years after the election fiasco in Florida, when hanging chads in the deadlocked presidential contest alerted the world to major flaws in how Americans vote, the states have made little progress in overhauling their election systems … "

" … officials are already bracing for what could be a day of mayhem, particularly since the polls show an unusually large number of neck-and-neck statewide contests … "

The twin evils of "bad" machines and under-performing poll workers get the full treatment.

Florida

E. Bumiller White House Letters Political Director Ken Mehlman in the New York Times , complete with Ken's arrival time at work (6:30 am — not bad), laudatory stuff from K. Rove and B. Paxon, backhanded praise from E. Rollins, and a kicker quote from Assistant Secretary of Commerce Bruce Mehlman. LINK

Some campaigns are being more sophisticated and frequent in targeting Hispanic voters through TV ads this cycle. LINK

"Negative advertisements, which consultants say are needlessly aggressive and turn off Hispanics, are almost nonexistent."

On the New York Times ' op-ed page, Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute looks at the status of the swing Latino vote. LINK

USA Today 's Kenworthy nicely looks at the GOP's solidification of its hold on the mountain West. LINK

Do Rush and Molloy have this event nailed in the Daily News? They write about "tomorrow's fund-raiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Sens. Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Jon Corzine are due to join Caroline Kennedy, Karenna Gore Schiff and others at the 'Art Exit,' where works by major painters will be auctioned to help the party." LINK

What will your local network affiliates show on election night in this non-presidential year? LINK

Per usual, Stephen Battaglio is ahead of the game. Bill Clinton has a secret admirer, according to the Democratic National Committee.

"You recently received an urgent message from President Clinton asking for your help supporting Democrats in tight races all over the country."

"Since we sent that letter, a special friend of the Democratic Party has made an incredibly generous offer: to match your contribution to the DNC dollar for dollar. That means your $50 contribution right now will mean $100 for the DNC. Your $100 contribution will mean $200 for the DNC."

Florida

This story is significant if true: "Support for an amendment to limit class sizes in Florida's schools has eroded substantially amid repeated warnings from Gov. Jeb Bush that the measure would spur higher taxes and cuts to programs, a new statewide poll shows. An overwhelming number of those surveyed agree that the class-size plan would increase taxes, and most said they oppose paying a penny increase in the sales tax to pay for the initiative." LINK

"The amendment is favored 51 percent to 32 percent in a poll conducted last week by the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a dramatic drop from the 66 percent to 17 percent advantage reported after a survey nearly five months ago. In each poll, 17 percent of the respondents were undecided."

What this means, essentially, is that Republican-leaning supporters who bought into the class size initiative are beginning to listen again to Governor Bush and his surrogates.

One of the political calculations behind the class size initiative was predicated on the belief that if voters linked poor education to Governor Bush and class size expansion to Democrats, they'd peel away ideological moderates in Central Florida, in particular--nominally Republican suburban women with families.

The Miami Herald calls it a "burden" for Bill McBride (D). LINK

Senator John McCain will visit the state on Tuesday to stump for Gov. Jeb Bush in Pinellas and Palm Beach counties.

New York

Is there anything Roger Stone could say to Fred Dicker that the latter wouldn't believe? LINK

New Jersey

The New York Times gives the profile treatment to former and possibly future Senator Lautenberg. LINK

Arizona

President Bush's campaign swing for GOP gubernatorial nominee Matt Salmon and other Republicans earned boffo coverage in the Star. But an anti-war protest just outside the main event was given prominent, extensive play as well. LINK

California

Gov. Gray Davis will broadcast an ad in five Asian languages, spending $500,000 of his estimated $12 million in the bank. LINK

The Los Angeles Times ' Finnegan went to GOP stronghold Bakersfield and found, at least anecdotally, a seeming dearth of affinity for gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon. LINK

Both Simon and Davis sought to rally their base vote this past weekend. LINK

Iowa

Iowa Republicans really want President Bush to visit before November 5. LINK Jane Norman examines how Social Security has become a key issue in Iowa congressional debates, but notes that its effects on voters and voting aren't too clear. LINK

Gubernatorial hopeful Doug Gross (R) went to a synagogue and was sharply criticized and minutely questioned. LINK

The Washington Post front-pages a VandeHei story on how Iowa has the most competitive races per capita of any state in the country. LINK

Colorado

The Denver Post follows the "soft money" used to finance the blitz of issue ads in the Senate race. LINK

Conservative groups, the Post says, will spend about $1.4 million in the final days.

"But the $500,000 to $600,000 each being spent by the League of Conservation Voters and Every Child Matters could nearly cancel out the $1.4 million spent by conservative groups. That would mean that the Sierra Club, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and the AFL-CIO are left to counter [Senator Wayne] Allard's roughly $600,000 fundraising advantage." LINK

Here's a link to the latest Rocky Mountain News/News 4 tracking poll. LINK

Maryland

It's fair to say that Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's problems in her surprisingly tough run for governor have only been magnified by the fact that her local paper isn't, well, like most local papers.

The Washington Post today front-pages Townsend's "eight well-behaved years" as LG. LINK

Noting how "the very characteristics that make Townsend a good person may also hurt her as a politician," the Post 's Pressley notes, "Her stump style has been criticized as awkward, uninspiring and prone to the kind of verbal gaffes that haunt her for a long time. More serious, however, are questions about her leadership skills, whether she is too careful and tentative, even too philosophical, to be an effective chief executive in a time of huge budget deficits and rising needs."

The Post also looks at the gubernatorial candidates' battle for the black vote in Prince George's County in a story which includes this: "Townsend is devoting a large portion of the remaining days to appealing to black voters, attending union rallies, urging clergy to remind their members to go to the polls and campaigning with Clinton, with whom she will appear at a Prince George's rally Friday. Townsend and former vice president Al Gore will woo voters in Prince George's on Thursday." LINK

The Human Rights Campaign has gone on the DC airwaves with a radio ad in which Candace Gingrich tells listeners that GOP nominee Bob Ehrlich is an "extremist" — unlike moderate GOP Rep. Connie Morella. LINK

Georgia

Pegged to yesterday's Senate debate, the New York Times checks in on Cleland (D) vs. Chambliss (R), also known as Max vs. Sax. LINK

The star of yesterday's debate was … Senator Zell Miller (D). LINK

New Hampshire

GOP Senate nominee John Sununu has introduced prescription drugs into his campaign message, following President Bush's generic drug declaration last week. LINK When not appearing on CNN's Capital Gang or guest-writing for the Washington Post 's Outlook section, the famous Kevin Landrigan found time to trail along and watch the campaign of Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D), and chronicled his thoughts thereabout. LINK

Shaheen and Sununu will next debate Wednesday. LINK

Are guns an issue in New Hampshire this year? Depends on you ask. LINK

Louisiana

We have a devil of the time trying to navigate the Times -Picayune web site. LINK

Does anyone out there know a better way to get news-of-day clips from Orleans Parish? Or from the Red Stick?

Shortly, these might become more than academic questions.

If Louisiana has a Senate run-off that will decide control of the chamber, we are warning you now: The Note is going to rebase in the bayou, and in keeping with the state's ethos, we are going to charge a fortune for the Special Note Louisiana Run-off Edition.

As Cajun James Carville said on network television yesterday, "You know, the best time to plant an oak tree was 25 years ago. The second best time is today."

South Dakota

The Argus Leader has a big-think piece on whether the mere allegation of voter fraud will deter legitimate voters. LINK

Tennessee

Natural tightening or something else? Rep. Bob Clement (D) has "cut" Republican Lamar Alexander's lead in half; Alexander still leads by 10 points, according to the last polling. LINK

Texas

"Democrat Tony Sanchez threw gasoline on an already burning gubernatorial race Sunday when he called Republican Gov. Rick Perry 'by far the most disgusting human being I have ever known.' Sanchez was reacting to a commercial that attempts to link Sanchez to the 1985 murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Mexico." LINK

The Morning News of Dallas profiles Sanchez. LINK

For the two Senate candidates, Ron Kirk (D) and John Cornyn (R), it was stump, stump, stump. LINK

Missouri

"Democrat Jean Carnahan returned to the campaign trail for the U.S. Senate Sunday, wooing voters at church services, union hall rallies and a swank fund-raiser headlined by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and West Wing star Bradley Whitford." LINK "Republican Jim Talent, meanwhile, scaled back his activities because of the death of his father early Sunday."

"With Talent missing from his rally Sunday in Columbia, the event began with a moment of silence. Then Republican leaders exhorted the party faithful to make the last nine days before the election count."

"Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., said that when his mother died in 1986, 'I stopped my campaigning, but fortunately, my friends kept campaigning and worked harder than ever.'"

Arkansas

The Washington Post 's Romano does the Senate race. LINK

The Benton Courier assesses early voting. LINK

South Carolina

Republican Senate nominee Lindsey Graham has, not surprisingly, been casting Democratic opponent Alex Sanders as a liberal. Close observers know that label doesn't fit as neatly as Republicans would like. The State maps out Sanders' somewhat more complex ideology … LINK

… and pairs it with a look at Graham's record of taking strong stands. LINK

Friday night's Senate debate was a mudslinging brawl: LINK

If you missed this debate on C-SPAN, you missed Sanders attacking Rudy Giuliani for his attitudes on gays and abortion, and for moving in with some homosexuals and a dog after his wife tossed him out — one of the highlights of the 2002 cycle.

Massachusetts

Tim travels again for a debate, moderating a Tuesday night gubernatorial match-up sponsored by the Boston Herald, which eagerly anticipates, as we do, a stellar repeat of Tim's Florida performance. LINK

The third-party candidates will not take part in this debate.

"The format — Romney and O'Brien sitting at a table on either side of Russert — will be much different than earlier debates, which included panels of questioners." LINK

"Both campaigns have been watching tapes of other debates moderated by Russert, known for his aggressive questioning and his unwillingness to let candidates get away with pat answers."

The Boston Globe gives Democratic gubernatorial nominee Shannon O'Brien as fair and thorough a look at her public service record as they gave GOP nominee Mitt Romney late last week. LINK

Nevada

Not a bad lede: "Sin City soon could be Sinsemilla City." The reference is to a ballot measure that would legalize possession of three ounces of marijuana or less. LINK

Bush Administration Strategy/Personality

Dr./Senator Bill Frist has gotten lots of ink already this cycle as chairman of the GOP Senate campaign committee and as a possible Veep-in-waiting for President Bush should Cheney not run for the job again. But Mike Kranish's Boston Globe Magazine job on Frist is well worth the time. LINK

Media

The world of politics, and the world in general, suffered a handful of crippling losses last week. Hardly the least of which a man who grew corn and soybeans, lived a wonderful life, and raised one heck of a political journalist, in Fillmore County, NE. LINK

Our thoughts are with you, Jeff.