In the coda to yet another Washington ethics scandal, Paul Magliocchetti, founder of the once influential defense lobbying firm PMA Group, was indicted yesterday in federal court for making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions.

Tiarht, continuing in the storied tradition of former Defense Appropriations chair John Murtha (D-Pa.), has made numerous relationships “fraught with potential conflicts of interest,” and has been involved in a more than a few questionable earmarks as well, reports The Center for Public Integrity:

Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) has spent 13 of his 15 years as a congressman on the Appropriations Committee. Lobbyist Brad Ayers worked in Tiahrt’s office as a legislative assistant from 2001 to 2004. When Ayers started a solo lobbying practice at the end of 2004, one of his first clients was Radiance Technologies, an Alabama-based company with an office in Wichita. Ayers has donated $11,400 to Tiahrt since leaving his employ and Radiance’s political action committee and executives have donated $17,300 to the Kansan. Radiance benefitted from two 2008 earmarks requested by Tiahrt — one for “upward looking sonar” technology ($1 million) and the other for an “integrated vehicle health monitoring system” ($1.2 million). Last November, when the House Republican Conference created a committee to examine the earmark process in the House, Tiahrt helped strip out a provision that would have sought a stop to earmarks during the period of the committee’s inquiry. Ayers, Radiance, and Tiahrt’s office did not respond to the Center’s requests for comment.

Sestak led Specter 54-46 percent in the Democratic Senate primary as of 1 p.m. Wednesday, with more than 99 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press and other outlets called the race for Sestak at 10:15 p.m. Earlier they called the Republican primary for former Club for Growth President Pat Toomey, who led activist and perennial candidate Peg Luksik 81-19 percent.

The AP also called the race between Democrat Mark Critz and Republican Tim Burns in the special election to replace Murtha. Critz led Burns 53-45 percent, with 99 percent reporting.

Specter, a five-term incumbent, became the second senator to lose re-nomination this election cycle. Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) lost his re-nomination bid earlier this month. His race against Sestak had become tougher in recent weeks as polls began to show the two tied or trading small leads. The last poll to be released, from Qunnipiac University, showed Sestak leading Specter by one point. Specter had been a Republican for 44 years before rejoining the Democrats in late April 2009. He was previously a registered Democrat from 1951 through 1965.

Burns hoped to make the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th house district a referendum on Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, while Critz distanced himself from the national party to a degree, labeling himself an “independent thinker.” Polls generally showed a close race in the campaign’s waning days. The latest poll, from Public Policy Polling, had Burns leading Critz by one point, 48-47. The special election only allows Critz to serve for the remainder of the current congressional term. He will face Burns again in the general election.

Update at 11:01 p.m.: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just released a statement thanking Specter for his aid to the Democratic agenda and giving Sestak his full support in the general election:

“Arlen Specter has been a valuable member of our caucus over this past year. Without Arlen’s support, we could not have passed health insurance reform, the Recovery Act or other key parts of our agenda. I am extremely grateful to Senator Specter for his career of service to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and to our nation.

“Joe Sestak served our nation admirably in the Navy for over 30 years and has been a tireless advocate for the people of the 7th district in Pennsylvania for the last four years. He will bring that dedication and tenacity to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and will stand on the side of middle-class families. We will wholeheartedly support Congressman Sestak as the Democratic nominee, and we look forward to working with him in the 112th Congress as the junior Senator from Pennsylvania.”

Update at 2:20 a.m. May 19: Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) fended off primary challenges from Lackawanna County commissioner Corey O’Brien and the tea party-affiliated Independence Hall PAC candidate Brian Kelly, albeit with only 49 percent of the vote. All other incumbents won re-nomination by default or received at least 65 percent of the vote.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato (D) and state Attorney General Tom Corbett (R) will face each other in the gubernatorial election. Both candidates had been heavily favored to win and led significantly in recent polls.

Senate candidate Trey Grayson, Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state, received the early backing of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and soon became regarded as the favored GOP candidate to succeed Sen. Jim Bunning (R). The NRSC created a joint fundraising committee with Grayson, Dick Cheney and other GOP figures offered their endorsements, and other lawmakers quickly signed on to support Grayson’s campaign.

But then Grayson began to sink in the polls and GOP anti-Washington candidate Rand Paul, eye doctor and son of Ron Paul, began gaining traction. Sarah Palin, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Bunning all came out with endorsements for Paul, and Focus on the Family chairman James Dobson switched his support from Grayson to Paul.

As we head into tonight’s race, Public Policy Polling has Paul leading Grayson by 18 percentage points.

Back in Pennsylvania, Specter has seen his status go from “major coup” for the Democratic party to candidate for whom the party isn’t willing to trot out the top brass. Vice President Joe Biden was actually in Pennsylvania yesterday, but chose not to make a stop for Specter. Barack Obama last appeared with Specter at a rally in September.

Voters in Pennsylvania did see Obama’s image in a campaign commercial this cycle, but the ad used old footage and was financed by Specter’s campaign. When asked about the White House’s involvement in the race, Specter told The Associated Press: “They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do.”

Specter tonight faces Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak; polls show the race is a toss-up.

In Arkansas, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) is being challenged from the left by Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, and the two appear likely to be forced into a runoff (a candidate must win a majority tonight to avoid a runoff, and there are more than two candidates present in this competitive race.) Though the president did not personally step in to help Lincoln, he did record a robo-call for the senator. Additionally, Lincoln’s party is attempting to protect her legislatively by delaying a vote on her derivatives language.

Polls show Lincoln’s chances of coming out ahead tonight are better than Specter’s and certainly better than Grayson’s, although an outright majority may be out of reach.

Either way, considering the anti-incumbent/anti-Washington mood in the country these days, behind-the-scenes help instead of visible support from Washington may be just what candidates are looking for this cycle.

In other races around the country tonight:

• Pennsylvania 12: The special election to choose a successor to John Murtha will coincide tonight with the state’s regularly scheduled primary. Democrat Mark Critz, a former aide to Murtha, is competing against Republican businessman Tim Burns for the chance both to serve out the remainder of Murtha’s current term and to appear on the November general election ballot to serve out the next full term beginning in January.

• Kentucky Senate (D): State Attorney General Jack Conway and Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo are locked in their own competitive primary for the Democratic nomination. Additional Democrats are running. A competitive general election race is expected for this open seat in November.

• Oregon Governor: Voters are choosing candidates for the open gubernatorial race tonight. On the Democratic side, former Gov. John Kitzhaber is the likely leader over former Oregon secretary of state Bill Bradbury. Chris Dudley, a former professional basketball player, is regarded as the top Republican heading into tonight’s race.

• Arkansas Senate (R): Former Rep. John Boozman is expected to place first in tonight’s GOP primary, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be able to avoid a runoff. Former state Sen. Jim Holt appears likely to come in second in the GOP race.

For three of the incumbents listed below, this is the second quarter in a row where their challengers beat them in total receipts: Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.)  and Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.). And several incumbents who outraised their challengers through last quarter failed to do so through this second quarter (through March 31): Ron Klein (D-Fla.), John Hall (D-N.Y.), Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Betty Sutton (D-Pa.) and Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.).

Two members who were outraised as of Jan. 31 have since turned things around: Florida Republican Bill Young and Washington Republican Dave Reichert. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) was also outraised as of Jan. 31, but Murtha died in February.

Our complete list of House challengers who outraised incumbents:

Randy Altschuler (R-N.Y.): Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop raised a healthy $1.3 million through Mar. 31 and still found himself outraised overall by Altschuler. Altschuler, who is running against Bishop in New York’s 1st District, reported raising $2 million through Mar. 31. But Altschuler’s fundraising take isn’t indicative of donations — he loaned himself more than $1 million. Regardless of how he got the cash, Altschuler was also left with $200,000 more than Bishop after expenses. Republicans have long viewed Bishop as a potential target, due to GOP competitiveness in the district on the local and national levels. The party believes 2010 may be its time to strike because of the national climate and its well-funded challenger — and Altschuler plans to use Bishop’s support for the president’s health care reform plan against him.

Ami Bera (D-Calif.): Republican Rep. Dan Lungren finds himself outraised by first-time candidate Bera yet again in California’s 3rd District, according to the most recent campaign finance totals. Bera, a physician, raised $1.25 million total through March 31, including a $21,000 personal loan, and Bera reported $977,000 remaining in his campaign account after expenses. Lungren, who is serving his eighth term in the House (which includes a stint in the 80′s before he became state attorney general) raised $976,000 total and reported only $650,000 on hand. The district, located in the Sacramento suburbs, supported Barack Obama for president in 2008 while Lungren won re-election with less than 50 percent of the vote. The GOP contends Lungren is favored for re-election, but Democrats have already targeted the race and Bera’s totals are only bolstering their efforts.

Casey Clark (D-Md.): A $50,000 personal loan helped keep Clark ahead of Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) in total funds raised for the second quarter in a row. Clark reported $152,500 raised through March for his campaign in Maryland’s 6th District, and Bartlett raised $120,000. But Bartlett remains miles ahead of Clark on available cash. Bartlett reported $379,000 on hand while Clark had only $70,000 remaining at the end of March. That cash on hand advantage is one of several reasons why few are watching this 2010 race.

Tim D’Annunzio (R-N.C.): D’Annunzio has self-funded his way to the top in the race against Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell in North Carolina’s 8th District. After adding $850,000 in personal funds to his campaign, D’Annunzio reported $970,500 raised overall, placing him ahead of the other GOP candidates in the race as well as Kissell, who raised $676,000. A major bright spot for Kissell: D’Annunzio is spending virtually all the money in his account ahead of the competitive primary — D’Annunzio reported just $75,000 remaining at the end of March. Kissell reported $326,000 on hand. Republicans had been strongly recruiting for this race, and though they failed to secure their top-tier prospects, the district remains competitive.

Tom Ganley (R-Ohio): Ganley gave himself a whopping $2 million loan this past quarter, which easily made him the strongest total fundraiser in Ohio’s 13th District race. Ganley’s $2 million-plus total put him ahead of Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton, who raised a total of $504,000 through March. Ganley was previously running for Ohio Senate, but dropped out in February to challenge Sutton. Though Ganley’s wealth may complicate things for Democrats, the party’s edge in the district continues to bodes well for Sutton.

Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.): Hayworth, an ophthalmologist, counts a $400,000 personal loan among her total receipts, which has put her ahead of incumbent Democratic Rep. John Hall in total campaign money raised for the New York 19th District race — $918,000 to $856,000. But it’s Hayworth, not Hall, who will need cash to endure a potentially difficult primary. Multiple Republicans are jockeying for the position, while incumbent Hall stands alone on the Democratic side. Hall reported $553,000 on hand and Hayworth reported $658,500 on hand.

Rich Iott (R-Ohio): A $390,000 loan helped boost Iott’s campaign finance totals ahead of incumbent Democrat Marcy Kaptur in Ohio’s 9th District. Iott was able to report $399,000 raised through Mar. 31 while Kaptur reported $214,000 raised. But Kaptur saved an enormous amount of money from her last re-election bid. Kaptur boasts more than $1 million cash on hand and Iott reported just $179,000 remaining at the end of March. Republicans cast Kaptur, a 14-term incumbent, as vulnerable because of her support for health care reform, but she has a record of consistently winning past re-elections with ease.

Doug Pike (D-Pa.): And the last major self-funder on this list is Pike, who gave himself more than $1 million for a total of $1.6 million raised through March. That total beats out Pennsylvania’s 6th District Rep. Jim Gerlach (R) who reported raising $891,000. Gerlach is not new to competitive re-election races. He is a perennial  target because of his split district (voters their supported Barack Obama for president in 2008 by 17 percentage points while simultaneously re-electing Gerlach). Gerlach has never won an election by more than 52.1 percent.

Allen West (R-Fla.):
At the beginning of the cycle, it was Republican state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner who most worried Rep. Ron Klein’s (D) campaign. When Hasner declined to run, that left Klein’s unsuccessful 2008 challenger, West, in the race. But this cycle, West’s fundraising totals are beginning to overshadow Klein’s and additionally, Republicans have been offering West a national platform for his campaign. West raised more than $2 million through March, while Klein raised $1.9 million. Klein still has an advantage in cash on hand, reporting $2.65 million remaining as of Mar. 31 while West reported just over $1 million remaining. West has been employing the campaign services of BaseConnect, which has drawn scrutiny for its high direct mail costs. But West and other clients have defended the group’s tactics, noting that in addition to fundraising support, BaseConnect has increased his campaign’s visibility and his access to the party.

List of races originated from Center for Responsive Politics information. All fundraising totals were obtained from the Federal Election Commission.

Julissa Treviño contributed to this story.

Current Federal Election Commission reports indicate that the National Republican Congressional Committee has already spent $247,000 on the race, the majority of which went towards a television ad aimed to draw on voter discontent about health care reform. And now Vice President Biden is scheduled to appear at an April 23 fundraiser in Pittsburgh for Democratic candidate Mark Critz.

The May 19 contest is being held to elect a successor to John Murtha, who died in February and left open Pennsylvania’s 12th District, which encompasses the city of Johnstown. A poll conducted in March shows Republican candidate Tim Burns leading Critz by just 4 percentage points with 13 percent undecided, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Base Connect office in Washington, D.C. (Photo by David Weigel)

Bill Russell couldn’t catch a break. He’d made his first run for Congress in 2008, as a Republican trying to take down Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), and winning broad support with grassroots conservatives. He’d lost that race by 16 points and kept on campaigning, eyes on the prize — until, on Feb. 8, 2010, Murtha died from complications related to gall bladder surgery. That forced a special election for May 19, and gave the power to choose a GOP nominee to a conference of local Republicans. On March 11 they met and handed the nomination to Tim Burns, a businessman making his first bid for office.

[GOP1] Russell, speaking to TWI on March 12, explained his thinking on just how he’d lost. One factor was the “coercion” of Republican officials by the state party chairman, Rob Gleason. But another factor was a “whisper campaign” against Base Connect, the Washington, D.C. political firm that Russell has employed since 2008 for direct mail fundraising. While Base Connect paid for ads and polls in the district to show Republican voters backing Russell over Burns, the word went out from Burns supporters that the D.C. firm could not be trusted. (See Base Connect’s mailings for Russell here.)

A few weeks before the candidate selection vote, in an interview with TWI, Gleason pointed to Russell’s high “burn rate” as a reason to be skeptical of his chances. A week later, influential political strategist and blogger Bill Pascoe accused Base Connect of “subprime fundraising” and “highway robbery.” The next day, Erick Erickson of RedState tweeted that hiring Base Connect could cost candidates support from his website; hours later, the influential blog endorsed Burns. If it wasn’t the key factor in denying Russell the nomination, it still struck the candidate as playing dirty pool.

“There were certain people who were posing as journalists, like these guys from RedState, who were making a bid deal out of how I use Base Connect,” Russell told TWI. “Well, in the last ten days I netted $112,000. That’s after expenses. What they were attacking me on, and attacking Base Connect, on was baseless.”

The episode has brought the spotlight back to Base Connect, a direct mail firm with millions of dollars in business and a persistent chorus of critics on the right and left.

Inside of Base Connect, Russell’s setback was no surprise. The special election nomination might have been a poison pill anyway, as one internal poll showed any of the likely Democratic candidates trouncing Burns or Russell. But the fact that it had become an issue was upsetting. The same week that Russell lost, TPM Muckraker ran a story accusing Base Connect of “fleecing longshot candidates,” basing the charge on ugly 2008 stories about defeated Base Connect candidates and the current coverage of Russell. The panicked campaign of Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.) scrambled, telling local reporters that it was cutting off business with Base Connect. According to Base Connect Chief Operating Officer Michael Centanni, the Cao campaign spoke too soon — Base Connect had just dropped another Cao mailer to more than 10,000 people, and at the beginning of April it would assess whether Cao was still able to benefit from its services.

“What happened with Cao,” said Centanni, “is that our first piece of mail was a huge success. Then he voted for the health care bill, and the drop-off in donations was just massive.”

In a conversation with TWI, Centanni had responses for all of the charges that have bedeviled the firm for three years, before and after the name change. (The change to “Base Connect” happened in 2009 — one staffer acknowledged that the bad press was one reason for the change, but Centanni said it was wholly the result of a “cease and desist” letter from the car company BMW.) Critics, said Centanni, simply don’t understand how direct mail works.

“Some of these folks say, oh, they raised a million dollars and only got $250,000,” says Centanni. “Well, these candidates probably don’t have a way to replace that $250,000. Let’s look at Bill Russell. Twenty-year army veteran. Not a rich guy. He decides he’s going to run this race out of principle. We look at that race, and we’re of the opinion that it’s a bad thing to let incumbents go unchallenged.”

The huge initial hauls help the candidates generate headlines about — to use Russell’s 2008 run as an example — how they raised $700,000 in a single quarter. That, says Centanni, lets them build more buzz.

“Russell raises $700,000 and what happens? Michelle Malkin sees it and publishes an article: ‘This might be the guy to beat John Murtha.’ In the next 24-48 hours, $150,000 comes in online — which has a much lower cost. How is that possible without direct mail?”

But the stories of the last month have emphasized the second act of those fundraising stories. When news outlets decide to dig into FEC records, and when they find out how much Base Connect and its components are being paid, the negative coverage starts to churn. That’s not fair, argues Centanni. First, if the cost-to-fundraising ratio of early mailings are high, the system is working. One Base Connect staffer argued that if you looked at the numbers in April, you would think the candidates were being fleeced; look again in October, and the money has rolled in for a serious ad campaign. Second, Base Connect doesn’t conceal the fact that its clients are billed for the services of several different components of the firm, based in the same suite of the same office building. The placard at Base Connect’s 15th Street headquarters informs visitors that they’ve arrived at Base Connect Inc, Century Data Systems Corp, and Legacy List Marketing Inc.

“Every direct mail operation is the same,” says Centanni. “There is a creative agency — do you remember the show ‘Bewitched?’ Darren worked at a creative agency. That’s what Base Connect is. We’re the creative agency. The next piece of it is Legacy List — we get a book here, about the size of the Manhattan telephone book, with nothing but lists in it. We have lists that we market and lists that we mail.”

The defeats of candidates like Russell, Centanni argues, doesn’t prove that the strategy isn’t working. They choose long-shots because they want everyone to be challenged. “Every other time he ran,” says Centanni, “Murtha was able to dip into his war chest and give that money to other candidates. He couldn’t do that in 2008.” Their high-profile candidates lost in years when, as he puts it, “everybody lost.”

There’s a certain type of long-shot that Base Connect seeks out. To succeed in direct mail, the candidate needs either a hated opponent or a compelling narrative. That’s where the African-American candidates come in — and where some of Base Connect’s image problem also comes in. Two of Base Connect’s eight current clients — Florida’s Allen West and Alabama’s Les Phillip — are African-American. Appeals for previous African-American Base Connect clients like Ada Fisher and Deborah Honeycutt stressed the threat they posed to the African-American political establishment. But up to now, these candidates have been among Base Connect’s least successful. One strategist credited some of Honeycutt’s problems to a “blinged out” campaign that spent money unwisely. That doesn’t explain the low hit ratio of the Black Republican PAC, a Base Connect project that has crystallized this narrative to, so far, little impact. In 2008, the Black Republican PAC raised $1.3 million. By the end of the cycle, only $5000 had been given to black candidates. If that looks fishy, says Centanni, it’s another misunderstanding.

“Black Republican PAC was a new organization for the 2008 cycle,” says Centanni. “And you know what? It might take two or three cycles for it to become a political PAC that becomes really effective. So what you need to look at is whether it’s becoming more effective each time.”

Allen West — also a recipient of $1,000 from Black Republican PAC in 2008 — stands by his partnership with Base Connect. “It’s kind of like investing,” he told TWI, analyzing the high cost, eventual high return strategy. “If you’re a nervous nellie and you screw around with your investments early on, just because they’re not immediately gaining a lot, you can screw with your portfolio.”

West also nailed down a reason why, despite some off-the-record attacks of the kind that helped Tim Burns, Base Connect endures its bad press. It’s got connections. West got a prime speaking slot at CPAC, right before Glenn Beck, through Base Connect’s President Kimberly Bellissimo. “They open the doors to influencers,” said West.

Base Connect’s strategies also drew some support from Richard Viguerie, a pioneering Republican direct mail strategist who, at every point in his career, has faced the same criticism over the high cost of his work. (He doesn’t exactly conceal the mostly meaningless “gross” numbers, claiming on his web site to have raised “more than $7 billion” in the mail.)

“I was roundly attacked in the 1960s and 1970s for what I was doing,” Viguerie told TWI. “All of the criticism stopped in a few hours on election night 1980. That’s when they stopped and said, a-hah! That’s what Viguerie’s been up to! Building these lists!”

Centanni looks to similar vindication from what looks to be the first strong election cycle for Republicans since 2004.

“People are going to take another look when Allen West wins,” he says. “Hopefully Allen will give us a little bit of credit.”

Rachel Rose Hartman contributed research to this story.

The late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and candidates Bill Russell and Tim Burns (house.gov, Bill Russell for Congress, Tim Burns for Congress)

In the final weeks of the 2008 campaign, Lt. Col. (ret.) Bill Russell got a taste of political superstardom. He’d been running against Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for a year, inspired by the congressman’s opposition to the Iraq War. In a bad year for Republicans, he’d struggled to get traction. And then, two weeks out of the election, Murtha told a newspaper’s editorial board that he represented a “racist area” that wouldn’t support Barack Obama for president.

Online donations flooded in to Russell’s campaign. Polls showed him on the verge of knocking out Murtha, the chairman of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and one of the senior members of the House. National media trekked into the rural, southwestern 12th district of Pennsylvania looking for a ray of Republican hope. In the end, Murtha rallied and won by 16 points — his lowest margin in decades, but enough to make the Russell surge seem like a mirage.

[GOP1]On February 8, Murtha died unexpectedly, setting up a May 12 special election in his district — the only one in America that voted for the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004 and the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008. It’s the sort of largely white, largely pro-life, conservative area where political reporters once found ticket-splitting “Reagan Democrats,” and the sort of district that needs to flip if Republicans are to take back the House of Representatives in 2010.

But taking this seat, say Republicans, won’t be as easy as it looks on paper. Democrats interested in the race include former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer and former Lieutenant Governor Mark Singel, as well as Murtha’s plugged-in district director Mark Critz. Republicans, however, are grappling with Russell and one other candidate — elected Republicans in the district have, so far, begged off on the expensive-looking race.

Some local party leaders, who will choose the nominee on March 11 in a private vote, are looking past Russell at Tim Burns, who has more personal wealth and deeper ties to the district. Russell isn’t budging, telling TWI that he’ll wage a primary campaign for his party’s nomination — also on May 12 — even if denied the special election endorsement. Base Connect, the campaign firm that has managed Russell’s fundraising in both cycles — taking a substantial amount of it back in fees — is working to convince conservative voters across the country that denying Russell the nomination would be tantamount to a betrayal of the base.

State Republicans aren’t buying it.

“Bill has, the last time I checked, $216,000 in the bank,” Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Rob Gleeson said in an interview with TWI. “You and I know that’s not a lot of money for a House race.”

Russell, in an interview with TWI, said that Gleeson had always written him off because, despite their partisan differences, he was “directly beholden financially to John Murtha” thanks to business that Gleeson does in Johnstown, the district’s biggest city and Murtha’s old political base.

“In the last campaign, he did nothing for me,” said Russell. “The party produced a slate card for voters with the names of the candidates on the Republican ticket, and my name was left off. When the presidential campaign stumped here — three times — I was never invited to speak at the rallies. So I have very little trust and very little faith in the state committee. I’ve been busy building support with the people of the district.” Having moved to the district after retirement, Russell argued that his work has erased the “carpetbagger” charge that Murtha clubbed him with.

Gleeson shrugged off the criticism. “Bill’s always had a chip on his shoulder,” he told TWI. “I knew John Murtha for 38 years, and he weakened our Republican ticket by being larger-than-life. I lost a state legislature race in 2008 because Russell was surging in the polls and Murtha turned out his forces to come out for the Democrats. He hurt me!”

Nonetheless, Russell’s campaign team has been driving home the message that to nominate another candidate would be to throw the seat to liberal Democrats. At last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Base Connect employees handed out “No NY-23 in PA-12″ buttons, comparing Russell’s race, and his quest to win over local Republican leaders, with the mess that ended up sparking an intra-Republican Party war and electing Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.). Freedom’s Defense Fund, a 527 group which shares office space with Base Connect and works for the same candidates, showed conference attendees an ad campaign it was running in the district, selling Russell as a tried and true conservative who deserved the nomination. The 527 group even paid Zogby and Associates for a poll — it revealed Russell as the choice of Republican voters by 30 points, although most voters had heard of neither candidate.

Neither the poll nor the ad has done anything to dissuade Tim Burns, a small businessman and Tea Party activist who told TWI that he was confident of lining up the Republican leadership support he needed to grab the special election nomination.

“Bill Russell sat in my house,” said Burns, “and told me that the reason he got into race was that he was upset about what John Murtha had said about the Marines at Haditha.” Murtha had accused eight Marines of complicity in a 2006 massacre in that Iraq town; seven were later cleared. “He moved into district to take on Murtha. I grew up in the district, in Johnstown. And I will outwork the competition. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

At CPAC, some Russell allies told TWI that the local party committees backed Burns, who made a fortune in pharmacy technology before selling the business in 2003, because he could spend enough money to help the rest of the ticket. Gleeson didn’t knock down that speculation.

“Tim Burns has indicated he can be a self-funder, to a certain point,” said Gleeson. “I told him he’d better get ready to cut some checks. Raising the money you need for a race like this in two months is, like, impossible.”

The possibility of a self-funded race by Burns appeals to Republicans who worry that Russell’s fundraising might not translate to expenditures in the district. According to FEC reports, Russell has raised more than $2.8 million in this election cycle but only has, as Gleeson pointed out, $216,000 in the bank. Base Connect — which changed its name from BMW Direct in 2009 — is well paid for its work. In the final quarter of 2009, Russell’s campaign paid $85,542.83 for “direct mail – creative” to Base Connect. It also paid $2490 to Electronic Reporting Systems, $64,017.79 to Legacy List Marketing, and $18,400.70 to MacKenzie and Company. All are headquartered at Base Connect’s offices at 1155 15th Street NW in Washington. But Russell told TWI that he had built on their work to find more than 5000 donors and 1700 volunteers inside the district.

“Base Connect has raised a lot of money with direct mail,” Russell said, “and in our district that’s the best way to get your message out. It’s incredibly gerrymandered.” There are, he pointed out, five different TV broadcast areas covering the district.

Typically, races for open seats draw more candidates than challenges against incumbents. But the absence of Murtha — despised by conservative activists, dogged by investigations for his relationships with lobbyists — has cooled down national enthusiasm for this race. Russell, who’d been a conservative hero at blogs like HotAir.com in 2008, isn’t attracting much attention for his new bid.

“He’s an appealing candidate,” HotAir.com blogger Allahpundit told TWI in an e-mail. “But between the loss of anti-Murtha sentiment and the fact that there’ll be so many more races attracting attention and conservative dollars this year, I’m skeptical that he’ll do especially well. I haven’t heard any chatter about him in awhile, either; the buzz around GOP veterans who are running for House seats all seems to belong to Lt. Col. (ret.) Allen West.“

The Hill’s Roxana Tiron lends context:

Dicks would take the gavel of the Defense panel as the Pentagon decides whether Boeing would win a $35 billion contract for a new fleet of midair refueling tankers. Boeing has been going head to head with a team made up of Northrop Grumman and EADS North America. The Pentagon is scheduled to issue a final request for proposals Feb. 23….

Defense insiders have called Dicks an unapologetic supporter of Boeing, particularly when it comes to the tanker program. Boeing would build the tanker aircraft in Washington state, where it has large commercial aircraft operations. Dicks has long opposed the tanker contract going to EADS, the parent company of Airbus — Boeing’s rival on the commercial market.

Dicks’ office claims that the Washington Democrat, while interested in the contract, won’t enter the fray any more than he already has following Murtha’s death, Tiron reports. Still, the relationship between Dicks and Boeing is a close one. The aerospace giant is the top contributor to Dicks over the course of his congressional career, giving more than $142,000 since the 1998 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That trend remains true this cycle, with Dicks already raking in $10,500 from the Seattle company, which makes him the sixth highest recipient in Congress, CRP notes.