Leveraging the Lobbyist Scandal

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As for Doolittle, his opponent Charlie Brown is a retired 26-year Air Force veteran whose campaign consists largely of charges that Doolittle and his wife, who worked for Abramoff, are lining their pockets at constituents' expense. Doolittle's spokesman Richard Robinson admits he faces a "tough challenge." All the same, Democrats in Washington at first paid Brown no attention. "They told me, 'We're only going to believe it if you can raise money in the district and if you do a poll that shows you're in the running,'" Brown says. He says he promptly raised $600,000 and commissioned a poll that showed him closing to within 2 points of Doolittle. Now Brown says the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has agreed to send him a check. He's still a long shot. But says Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report: "If it weren't for the Abramoff scandal, we wouldn't even be talking about these races."