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So Vincent Sheheen turned up in Charleston this week, calmly and rationally bashing the tar out of Gov. Nikki Haley's education track record.

He pointed out that she's cut $110 million from education in her four years in office, that 81 of her 200 budget vetoes have been targeted at teachers and the classroom. "Failed leadership," he called it.

The Democrats - well, the few who were there - were happy to hear this spirited attack. See, some local Dems don't think the veteran state senator is running a very good campaign.

In fact, they are upset. They see Haley everywhere - eating burritos with Chris Christie, having suspected non-right wing bloggers run out of campaign events, showing up at every Starbucks opening to claim she's the reason those high-paying jobs are here.

Meanwhile, they only see Sheheen in Haley campaign ads, his face photo-shopped a la O.J. Simpson.

They expect more from the guy who lost a nail-biter in 2010. In fact, some of them have been trying to scrape up the money to put Sheheen's face on a milk carton.

Have you seen this candidate? He was last seen putting a big ol' scare into the GOP in 2010.

Four years ago, Sheheen took 47 percent of the vote in the governor's race to Haley's 51.4 percent.

That was two years into President Obama's term, when the tea party movement was at its apex, and Sheheen nearly pulled off a monumental upset in a state about as red as Little Orphan Annie's dress.

That showing won him the right to a rematch, and earlier this year Democrats were expecting big things. Because Haley now has a record, and it is decidedly mixed.

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Democrats are looking for Sheheen; he's looking for voters

WASHINGTON - Democrats took down a controversial attack ad in a heated South Jersey congressional race Tuesday, even as the Philadelphia-born firefighter in the ad stood by its message.

The cable TV spot attacked Republican candidate Tom MacArthur, accusing him of profiting from his former company, York Risk Services, as the insurance services firm denied claims from injured Phoenix firefighters.

But MacArthur had sold the company and left it nearly a year before York got involved with the firefighters' claims. His campaign threatened to sue the Washington-based Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) over the ad, which began running Sunday in the Burlington and Ocean Counties district.

MacArthur called the DCCC's decision to pull the ad "a victory for the truth." In a news release he also called it "a devastating blow to the empty, dishonest campaign" of his opponent, Democrat Aimee Belgard, and accused her of being a "puppet" of the "Washington, D.C., handlers" behind the attack.

Belgard, a Burlington County freeholder, has strong backing from the DCCC, which sees the South Jersey race as one of its few good chances this year to pick up a GOP-held seat.

The Phoenix fire captain featured in the ad, John Teefy, said he stood by his criticism of the York firm and of MacArthur, even though the candidate sold the company before it got involved with the Phoenix Fire Department.

"Companies don't all of a sudden create a new culture in one year when the boss leaves. The boss sets the tone," Teefy, a fire captain for 15 years, said Tuesday in an interview.

For years, he said, he has faced persistent insurance delays as he coped with job-related injuries, including one that required surgery in August to fuse together two vertebrae. He accused York of pressuring his doctors to suit their business needs.

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Democrats pull ad in N.J. congressional race

AUSTIN Democrats and their allies slammed Republicans on Monday, saying theyve turned a deaf ear toward serious womens issues.

The GOP has no female candidates for statewide office on the November ballot. And Democrats, whove been waiting for potential gaffes from the nearly all-white male lineup, took aim at their rivals after remarks this weekend on abortion and pay equity.

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Dan Patrick dismissed the idea that government should be involved in pay disparity issues for women. And a GOP political consultant called the low number of rape and incest victims a minor issue amid the debates over abortion.

Democratic governor nominee Wendy Davis and lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte sent out fundraising pleas on Monday, citing the Republicans statements.

Both are expected to speak on the flare-up at a joint appearance Tuesday in Dallas for Annies List, a group that raises money for women candidates who support abortion.

Patrick, a state senator from Houston, was asked about unequal pay for women at a public forum and responded, I dont think it is a problem.

I dont think government should tell businesses how to pay their staff, he said.

Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Lisa Paul said Patricks dismissal shows that he is out of touch with the realities that women face in the workplace.

Despite Dan Patricks nonchalance and insensitivity, Texas women know they deserve equal pay for equal work, she said. She cited statistics that Texas women make 79 cents on the dollar for the same work as men.

Meanwhile, on Lone Star Politics on KXAS-TV (NBC5), GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak was asked about Greg Abbott, the partys pick for governor. Abbott has said abortion should be outlawed, even in cases of rape and incest.

Link:
Texas Democrats bash GOP over remarks on women

By Rod Boshart, Gazette Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES Democrats hope to take control of the Iowa House in Novembers election by offering an agenda aimed at improving economic security for middle-class families, revitalizing rural Iowa and growing the economy to expand opportunities for workers who are aided in upgrading their skills.

Rep. Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown, whose 47-member caucus is the House minority party, said a strong candidate recruiting effort has made him optimistic heading into the Nov. 4 balloting that Democrats will be able to seize power in a chamber led by a 53-Republican majority the past two years.

We think that all too often the House (under GOP control) is focused on special interests and on personal ideology agendas rather than what the needs are of regular Iowans, said Smith, who was joined at a Statehouse news conference by Rep. Marti Anderson of Des Moines.

He said the choice for Iowa voters is between House Democrats with common-sense mainstream ideas to move the state forward versus tea party Republicans with fairly right-wing agendas to do things like restrict birth control and restrict workers rights.

Smith said Democrats want to freeze instate undergraduate tuition at state universities for another year, expand preschool opportunities to more children, raise the states minimum wage, guarantee equal pay for women, improve the environment and protect the states vulnerable populations.

Other ideas include expanding job-training opportunities for workers to upgrade their skills, targeting state incentives to small businesses and entrepreneurs, making child care more affordable and giving Iowa companies the first chance at state contracts to create jobs in Iowa.

House Democrats also will partner with rural communities to capitalize on their unique strengths to create good jobs and improve quality of life, Smith said. Plans call for boosting renewable energy, improving air and water quality, expanding broadband and Wi-Fi to more communities and small businesses and supporting first-time farmers.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, was unimpressed with the Democratic to-do list.

House Democrats have been remarkably consistent with their agenda, Paulsen said in a statement.

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Iowa House Democrats offer middle-class help

President Barack Obama talks Friday with journalists from the Trotter Group, including the Free Press' Rochelle Riley, center. He acknowledges his administration hasn't assuaged Americans' fears fast enough. / CHUCK KENNEDY/White House The man behind the Trotter Group

William Monroe Trotter (1872-1934) was the first African-American Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University. Barred by racism from pursuing a career in international banking, he settled for becoming an uncompromising activist and newspaper publisher who attacked racists and people he called "African-American accommodationists."

Trotter was the founder and editor of the Guardian newspaper and made the front page of the New York Times when he went to the White House and confronted President Woodrow Wilson about lynching and segregation.

Rochelle Riley had one question for the president. Read her column to find out what it was -- and how the president answered.

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Obama: Democrats can win if voters can tune out attacks