“If you enforce the law, people will obey the law,” Hayworth told the Thunder Mountain Republican Women, praising a strict new statute designed to curb illegal immigration. In a closely watched campaign increasingly defined by who can take the hardest line, Hayworth is a border hawk who called his book about immigration policy, “Whatever It Takes.”

And the thought of a Hayworth upset has some Democratic strategists drooling — with good reason. An April poll has Democrat Rodney Glassman, a relatively unknown Tucson city councilman, leading Hayworth by three points in a hypothetical matchup. (By contrast, McCain leads Glassman by 16.)

An internal polling memo out of Glassman’s office is hopeful that the anti-incumbency sentiment that uprooted GOP Sen. Robert Bennett in Utah will also extend to Arizona, noting the baggage Hayworth carries with him after a 12-year run in the House of Representative.

Let’s not forget — Hayworth was named one of the most corrupt members of Congress [by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] … and lost his Congressional seat in 2006 in large part due to his corrupt record and his dealings with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Still, to be taken at all seriously in this election, Glassman better start raising some cash. The $0 he had in his war chest at the end of March isn’t likely to go very far.

Update: Glassman spokesperson Dawn Teo updates her boss’ finances: ”Rodney seeded the campaign with $250,000 [on] …. April 6th, with the goal of matching that with supporters’ contributions during the first month. We exceeded that goal within 3 weeks.”

Various reform advocates — including New York Uprising, a coalition of groups led by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch (D) — have pressed the state to turn over redistricting control to an independent, nonpartisan commission. Koch’s group announced last month that it had gotten the four leading candidates for governor — former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio (R), Suffolk County Exec. Steve Levy (R), Buffalo developer Carl Paladino (R) and state Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo (D) — to commit to creating a redistricting advisory commission and to veto any plan that includes partisan gerrymanders. Currently, a legislature-controlled commission controls redistricting, with the governor having veto power over any plan.

State Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson and State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) both said at a government reform forum Wednesday they were not in favor of creating an independent commission, instead advocating incremental changes to the current redistricting process.

State Senate President Malcolm Smith (D) sparked controversy when he weighed in on the issue during a party dinner on April 30. He claimed that if Democrats still control both chambers next year, they should “draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.”

Former Gov. George Pataki (R), who was in office during the last redistricting cycle, told NBC New York he did not believe legislators would allow their districts to be changed in a way that might threaten their re-election prospects.

Koch said he disagreed with Pataki’s assessment, citing growing voter discontent as a good reason for the legislature to reconsider.

This is the year they’ll agree to change the system because all incumbents are in danger. The voters are ready to throw them out and the legislators have to show that they’re ready to reform the government if they want to get re-elected.

“I’m ready to turn the page,” he said. “Frankly, I am bone tired.”

As we noted earlier, Obey faced a tough re-election fight in the candidacy of “The Real World: Boston” star and Ashland County District Attorney Sean Duffy. Duffy had received Sarah Palin’s endorsement and had raised almost $300,000 in 2009.

Obey denied he was retiring because of Duffy’s candidacy.

“The fact is there isn’t a chance of a snowball in Hades of that progressive congressional district electing someone who is a poor imitation of George Bush’s policies on a bad day,” he said. It is worth noting that while Obey’s district voted 56 percent for Obama, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry only won it by about 5,000 votes. Obey had won re-election with at least 61 percent of the vote in every race from 2000 on.

Obey has been in the House since winning a special election in 1969 — two years before Duffy was born. He claims his long tenure in the chamber is the main reason for his retirement.

“The wear and tear is beginning to take its toll,” he said.

Obey claimed he would have retired some time during the last decade had he not had qualms with the Bush administration.

Instead, the Cincinnati businessman is claiming that the victor, Indian-American Surya Yalamanchili, won only after “playing the race card” — a reference to recent allegations that Krikorian made racially charged comments about Yalamanchili’s name in the run up to the vote. It’s a curious claim considering that the allegations never really came from Yalamanchili himself.

Cincinnati.com reports:

Krikorian blamed his apparent loss on allegations last week that he had made fun of Yalamanchili’s name. He strongly denied the accusations.

“That clearly affected the final outcome,” he said. “That was the difference. We tried to run a very positive campaign, but one of our opponents stooped to the level of playing the race card.”

Krikorian, who had run against (and lost to) Schmidt as an Independent in 2008, had also rankled Democratic leaders for his recent criticisms of government unions.

Update: It’s worth noting that the allegations of racism originated with Schmidt, who cited attendees at one of Krikorian’s campaign events. Indeed, Yalamanchili appears to have waded into the scandal only reluctantly, telling local media last week that he was more offended for the voters of the district than for himself.

“Whether or not the comments were intended to be racist, I think they make certain assumptions about how people of the 2nd district view things,” he said at the time.

“I’m not sure,” Yalamanchili said today in a phone interview, “that’s really playing the race card.”

With the Democratic primary just days away, state and local party leaders are ripping into David Krikorian, one of the hopefuls to challenge GOP Rep. Jean Schmidt in November, for disparaging remarks he’s made recently about his chief primary opponent, Surya Yalamanchili.

According to accounts given to local politicians, Krikorian has appeared at campaign events to ridicule Yalamanchili, an American of Indian descent, by dramatically pronouncing his name to emphasize its foreign nature.

“Now do you really think that a guy with a name like that has a chance of ever being elected?” Krikorian allegedly said to members of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Clermont County.

The comments —  which Krikorian denies – drew a quick response from local Democratic leaders, who shot off a letter to Krikorian Wednesday calling his behavior “deeply disturbing.”

“Your comments on Surya’s name are are best insensitive and worse appear racist,” wrote Timothy M. Burke and David Lane, the Democratic chairmen in Hamilton and Clermont counties, respectively. “It is deeply disturbing to us that you would use his name, which is obviously derived from his ethnic heritage, against him in a denigrating manner, especially considering how strongly you value and celebrate your own heritage.”

They added: “We will be voting for Surya next week, just as 18 months ago we were delighted to vote for someone else with an unusual name — Barack Obama.”

That isn’t all. Chris Redfern, chairman of Ohio’s Democratic Party, also caught wind of Krikorian’s alleged comments, and penned his own letter of disgust, calling Krikorian’s words “destructive.”

“We are a Party that proudly values diversity and inclusiveness,” Redfern wrote. “Your words fall short of these ideals.”

Yalamanchili, who recently starred on “The Apprentice,” hinted this week that he’s more concerned about what the comments say about Krikorian’s take on voter attitudes around Cincinnati than he is personally offended. “What’s most disappointing is that they seem to assume a certain level of racism on the part of the people of the 2nd district,” he told local media.

It’s not the only reason the Democrats are attacking Krikorian in the lead up to Tuesday’s primary. The Ohio businessman, while running for the same seat as an Independent in 2008, referred to himself as a “Reagan conservative,” a distinction that doesn’t exactly win points among the Democratic faithful. And during a primary debate last month, Krikorian attacked the notion that government workers should have the right to organize under unions, saying that “it puts the public at a disadvantage.”

Still, it’s the more recent charges of denigrating Yalamanchili’s heritage that are attracting most of the attention this week. And many say there’s good reason for that.

“They aren’t borderline racist remarks,” Cliff Schecter, an Ohio-based political consultant who is not involved in this race, told TWI Thursday. ”They are racist remarks.”

The episode has even attracted attention on Capitol Hill, with Schmidt herself condemning Krikorian’s remarks in an April 26 letter to the Democratic hopeful.

“Your remarks … were offensive to all that find even the hint of racism appalling,” Schmidt wrote. “You owe Mr. Yalamanchili and the Indian-American community an apology. Though I doubt one is forthcoming given your history.”

Krikorian, for his part, has denied the charges, and says he’ll be issuing a longer statement today.

The political advantage of that move is clear: The American Medical Association has been screaming from the rafters for Congress to step in and scrap the flawed formula that dictates Medicare payments to doctors — a formula that would have cut those payments by 21 percent this year without congressional intervention — only to see lawmakers continually apply short-term fixes instead.

The latest Band-Aid came earlier this month, when Congress delayed the scheduled pay cut until June. That’s better than actually having the cut realized, but it hasn’t satisfied AMA leaders, who endorsed the Democrats’ health care reform bill with the understanding that Congress would solve the Medicare payment problem once and for all.

“If the formula is not repealed, the problem will continue to grow,” AMA President J. James Rohack said in a statement earlier this month.

No word yet on how the Democrats would pay for the five-year fix, or even whether it would satisfy a doctors lobby that wants a permanent solution. But Van Hollen, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, clearly doesn’t want to step into November’s mid-term elections without at least the hint of something more long-term than another Band-Aid.

Dissatisfaction is widespread, crossing party lines, ideologies and virtually all groups of voters. Less than a quarter of independents and just three in 10 Republicans say they’re leaning toward backing an incumbent this fall. Even among Democrats, who control the House, the Senate and the White House, opinion is evenly divided on the question.

This isn’t a new trend. Indeed, elections experts were warning months ago that Americans’ distrust in Congress crosses party lines to target all incumbents. Because the Democrats control more seats, of course, they stand ready to suffer the backlash more severely. But today’s poll results are a warning to Republican leaders that, in November, they’re in for a fight as well.

No matter. The business community is upset with the Democrats for what it perceives as a heavy-handed approach to new regulation. And, behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it intends to go after the party in November’s elections. The Washington Post’s Dan Eggen reports:

Modeled in part on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign juggernaut, the [Chamber] has built a grass-roots operation known as Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It has a member list of 6 million names, aimed at lobbying on legislation and swaying voters to back preferred candidates, primarily Republicans, in battleground areas, officials said.

The group will target vulnerable Democrats in up to two dozen states with ads, get-out-the-vote operations and other grass-roots efforts. The chamber plans to spend at least $50 million on political races and related activities this year, a 40 percent increase from 2008.

And this is the pickle for reform-minded lawmakers since the dawn of time. How do you protect citizens from the banks that wrecked the global economy, or the food conglomerates that have poisoned their customers with impunity, or the phone companies that tapped lines without a judge’s OK, or the coal companies that ruin entire mountain communities, when your re-election hinges on campaign cash from those same groups?

The answer — you don’t — makes a strong case for campaign finance reform.

“I do think they’re angry,” Boehner said of voters on “Fox and Friends” this morning. “They’re angry about the economy and jobs. They don’t trust either party.”

Boehner went on to claim that Republicans have offered clear alternatives to the Democrats’ stimulus bill, health care reform and “all of their nonsense.” (Remember, for example, this little gem outlining the GOP’s plans for health reform.) Still, his concession that Americans are across-the-board angry is indication that Republican leaders, for all their gloating over the last week, are also worried that the voters in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey were revolting, not merely against Democrats, but against incumbency.

Also, if the Republicans are to make real gains, they’ll have to come up with a better message than that uttered by Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) last week.

“The American people have fallen out of love with the current direction, but they haven’t fallen in love with Republicans,” Putnam told The Washington Post. ”Last year was about picking up ourselves and dusting ourselves off. Now we need a direction and vision.”

Which begs the question: If you don’t already have direction or vision, what are you doing on Capitol Hill?

Others aren’t so sure. MoveOn.org, for example, is joining Martha Coakley in arguing that Massachusetts voters were revolting against the Democrats’ proclivity to put corporate interests above those of regular folks (as evidenced here, here, here and here). In that vein, Robert Borosage, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, is calling for a shift, not to the center, but to the left.

Unlike Republicans, Obama actually believes in bipartisanship, to a fault. Yet the most bipartisan of his policies — the Wall Street bailout which in policy and personnel is virtually indistinguishable from the Bush administration — is by far the least popular.

Democrats are in trouble, but moving to a mythical “center,” focusing on deficit reduction, abandoning health care won’t help.

Today, in proposing new restrictions on the Wall Street firms, Obama has taken the first step toward heeding that advice.