The Note: The Day After

— -- WASHINGTON, Sep. 12

While the White House press corps spars with Tony Snow over the meaning of the word "political," voters go to the polls today in nine states -- Arizona, Delaware, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin -- plus the District of Columbia.

The first polls opened at 6:00 am ET. The last ones (in Arizona) will close at 10:00 pm ET.

Vermont: polls open 6 am ET through 10 am ET -- 7 pm ET. Results: LINK

New York: polls open 6 am ET -- 9 pm ET. Results: LINK

Delaware: polls open 7 am ET -- 8 pm ET. Results: LINK

Maryland: polls open 7 am ET -- 8 pm ET. Results: LINK or LINK

Minnesota: polls open 7 am ET -- 8 pm ET. Results: LINK

Rhode Island: polls open: 7 am through 9 am ET -- 9:00 pm ET. Results: LINK

District of Columbia: polls open 7 am ET -- 8 pm ET. Results: LINK

New Hampshire: polls open 8 am ET -- 7 pm ET. Results: LINK

Wisconsin: polls open 8 am ET -- 9 pm ET. Results: LINK

Arizona: polls open 9 am ET -- 10 pm ET. Results: LINK

THERE ARE NO NETWORK EXIT POLLS.

The most closely watched race is in Rhode Island where the GOP is using its resources to help Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), a man who didn't even vote for President Bush in 2004, stave off a challenge from Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey, who has the backing of the anti-tax Club for Growth. In an unusual move, the NRSC has declared that it will cede the state to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse if Laffey prevails.

In New York, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is poised to receive the Democratic Party's nomination for her second term in the United States Senate. She is running against Jonathan Tasini, a labor activist who has struggled to gain traction against the former First Lady despite his sharp denunciations of her position on the Iraq war. With no exit polls, it will be impossible to say how Sen. Clinton's Iraq war vote impacted Democrats in her state. The Note sets the bar for success at 85.3%. The Note also Notes that the New York Times Election Day round-up doesn't even mention the two Republicans running for the party nomination to oppose Clinton in November. Quick: name them both.

In the race to replace retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) in Arizona's 8th congressional district, the NRCC has taken the unusual step of spending more than $200,000 to help Steve Huffman -- a state representative who favors abortion rights and federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research -- in his race against immigration hard-liner Randy Graf. In a sign that Democrats, like Republican leaders, view the moderate Huffman as the tougher opponent in November, the DCCC has spent $190,000 on a television ad criticizing Huffman on immigration. For Democrats, the frontrunners are Gabrielle Giffords and former local news anchor Patty Weiss.

In Maryland, Democrats will decide whether they want veteran Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD) or former NAACP head Kweisi Mfume to square off against Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R-MD), the first African-American elected statewide in Maryland's history.

In the District of Columbia, voters will choose between City Council Chair Linda Cropp and the Blackberry-wielding 35-year-old Adrian Fenty.

Sen. Clinton and former President Clinton were slated to vote at the Douglas Grafflin Elementary School at 6:45 am ET in Chappaqua, NY.

On the immigration front, House Republican Policy Committee holds a 2:00 pm ET forum to hear the views of House Republican committee and subcommittee chairmen who held field hearings on immigration issues during the month of August.

The Senate resumes consideration of the port security bill (HR 4954) today. Debate will halt between 12:30 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. for weekly policy lunches. The first vote is expected at noon.

The House meets for morning business at 12:30 pm ET.

President Bush has no public events today.

Today's primaries: Rhode Island:

Robert Tanner of the Associated Press discusses what's at stake with today's primaries, especially the role of Rhode Island GOP Senate primary as a litmus test for the "anti-incumbency" mood of the country. LINK

Aaron Blake reports in The Hill that, "Running in an open primary that could be largely decided by those independent voters, Laffey tries to avoid labels like "conservative" and "Republican.'" LINK

Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson pens an op-ed looking at the Rhode Island Republican primary Chafee vs. Laffey. LINK

Today's primaries: New York:

Pat Healy of the New York Times does some expectations setting for tonight's results by writing that Sen. Clinton "wants to demonstrate a breadth and depth of Democratic support to bolster her standing in the state and in the national party, which she may seek to lead as a possible candidate for president in 2008. Her primary challenger is Jonathan Tasini, an antiwar candidate; her advisers say they believe he could net around 20 percent of the vote today." LINK

But will the Clinton camp's 20% expectations-setting for Tasini's final number stem the "Heading into 2008, Clinton vulnerable on left because of Iraq war" stories? (The answer: no.)

"The only question for Clinton is her margin of victory. If she holds the anti-war Tasini to single digits, that will take the steam out of her "Iraq" critics in the Democratic Party," reads the caption to the New York Post graphic showing the final pre-primary Quinnipiac University poll numbers we told you about yesterday. LINK

Ben Smith of the New York Daily News writes up a Hillary Clinton campaign flyer from which it is hard to discern who her opponent is. LINK

Today's primaries: AZ-08:

Amy Sherman reports in the Hill that the GOP is following the Arizona eighth district primary closely to see how their focus on immigration issues plays out with voters.LINK

The Arizona Republic recommends Gabrielle Giffords as the Democratic candidate and Steve Huffman as the Republican candidate. LINK

Today's primaries: Maryland:

Per the Baltimore Sun's Andrew Green, polls have shown a close contest between Cardin and Mfume, with more than a dozen other candidates trailing them for Democratic Senate primary. LINK

A civil rights group representative Notes that the 8,500 would-be voters who received Notification that they were unregistered to vote have the ability to "tip the balance," per the Baltimore Sun. LINK

2006: landscape:

In his Congress Daily/AM column, Charlie Cook sets the post-Labor Day table and writes, "While Democratic hopes of winning a Senate majority still look decidedly uphill, over the last three months we've seen more and more GOP House seats move into the vulnerable column and worse, into extremely vulnerable status."

Cook goes on to write that Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) is "the most endangered Republican incumbent in the Senate this year."

More Cook: "New Jersey looks like an unexpected possibility" for a GOP pick-up.

"Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman predicted Monday that the GOP would maintain its control of both Congressional chambers, using a $47 million across-the-board financial edge," Notes Roll Call's Kane. LINK