Election Day is exactly one week away, so call every Democrat you know in Virginia, and remind them to vote! Meanwhile, these are a few of the Virginia Delegate races making news this past week:

• HD-10: Democratic Minority Leader Ward Armstrong continues to set a good example for his fellow delegates by taking nothing for granted in his re-election campaign. Armstrong, who also serves as the DLCC’s Finance Chair, has sent word that he’ll be busing local constituents to a November 19th hearing on a proposed utility rate hike. Armstrong has spent more than a year leading opposition to the rate hike.
  
  

• HD-23: Democratic Delegate Shannon Valentine of Lynchburg just picked up a late endorsement from Preston Bryant, a prominent local Republican from the Lynchburg area. Bryant served ten years in the House of Delegates before joining Governor Kaine’s administration, but he sided with Valentine because of her strong record in the legislature and her opponent’s “distasteful campaign tactics.”
  
  

• HD-42: Several families of Virginia Tech shooting victims have come out against Republican Dave Albo’s re-election bid. The families believe Albo used political maneuvering to block a bill to close the gun-show loophole, despite his promise to support the legislation. And when the families asked Albo to explain his betrayal, he told them to “just forget it.” Albo’s Democratic challenger is Greg Werkheiser.
  
  

• HD-51, 52: U.S. Senator Jim Webb campaigned with 51st District Delegate Paul Nichols and 52nd District Democratic candidate Luke Torian (who’s running in an open seat) over the weekend. Both are considered key races in any scenario where Democrats reclaim a House majority.
  
  

• HD-99: Democratic Delegate Albert Pollard also earned a late endorsement from a well-respected local Republican, former State Senator John Chichester, who represented the area for nearly 30 years until 2007. Meanwhile, another group of 15 victims’ families from Virginia Tech and Appalachian School of Law has denounced Republican challenger Catherine Crabill for encouraging people to take up arms in the event of an election loss (the infamous "Bullet Box" speech).
  
  

• State Senate: The Richmond Times-Dispatch is looking past this Tuesday for clues about how the Virginia elections will affect the ballance of power in the State Senate. Three sitting Senators are running for other offices (Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republicans Ken Stolle and Ken Cuccinelli). Each of these seats would be filled by special election if the Senators win their elections next week. In addition, whoever wins the governorship may try to appoint Senators to his cabinet, triggering even more special elections.

Republican Rich Anderson, who’s challenging incumbent Delegate Paul Nichols in Prince William County, is now facing a criminal investigation over a campaign mailer that revealed Nichols’ complete Social Security Number to nearly 15,000 district residents:

Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert has asked that a special prosecutor investigate claims that a campaign mailer wrongly released the personal information of Del. Paul F. Nichols.

Whatever happens in the investigation, this is clearly not the sort of publicity Anderson wants with only two weeks left in the campaign.

But this story is not over yet. The Manassas News and Messenger has now blasted Anderson for both the release of Nichols’ Social Security Number and the false claims made by Anderson’s mailers:

Even if the Anderson campaign felt it necessary to launch this attack on Nichols, it should have at least had the decency and respect to keep Nichols’ personal information off two mailers that were sent to many homes.

In this day of identity theft, that action reaches a new low. In fact, Nichols was forced to cancel credit cards because of the mailers.

These mailers are just another example of the depths to which politics has fallen, and they cross the line from mean-spirited into harmful.

Rich Anderson owes Paul Nichols an apology.

Unfortunately, an apology will not be forthcoming, as Anderson still “doesn’t feel he has done anything wrong.” Don't expect an apology for Anderson's lack of class either.

We’ve known since June that Republicans were planning a hard charge to retake control of the New Jersey Assembly, but the Democratic Assembly Caucus has met the challenge head-on. With two weeks to go before Election Day, New Jersey Democrats have built up formidable advantages in fundraising, candidate quality, and organization – advantages that give the party ample reason for optimism this November.

First, Democratic Assembly candidates are enjoying the second straight fundraising period in which they’ve swamped their Republican opponents:

As in past years, Democrats are raising and spending more money than Republicans.

Assembly Democrats have raised $6.8 million, spending $4 million so far. Meanwhile, Assembly Republicans have raised $2.9 million and spent $1.2 million.

This advantage also extends to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee and Republican Assembly Victory 2009 – the two major-party Assembly campaign organizations. The DACC raised more than twice as much as the Republican caucus in the latest fundraising period, and they ended the period with a 3-1 advantage in cash-on hand.

Even when looking at the Republicans’ best pick-up opportunities across the state, it’s clear that Republican candidates simply aren’t raising the money they need to stay competitive. In district after district, even the most endangered Democratic incumbents enjoy at least a 2-1 fundraising advantage over their challengers – a strong indication that Republicans failed to recruit candidates who have what it takes to win.

Finally, Assembly Republicans have failed to offer solutions on property taxes, one of the biggest political issues in New Jersey. A few weeks ago, a group of Republican candidates held a press conference touting a property tax “plan” that was so bad a sitting Republican Assemblyman said he was “embarrassed for my party if this [is] the best they can do.” A Newark Star-Ledger political columnist examined the plan and declared that the party “should just give up.”

In short, Democrats are running a superior campaign, with better candidates, against a party that’s ignoring one of the top issues in the state. With just two weeks left and with so many factors working against them, it’s tough to see how Republicans can capture the 8 seats they need to tie the Assembly.

For more information, be sure to visit the New Jersey newsfeed on DLCC.org

No one expects a competitive election to be friendly. Emotions run high, feelings get hurt.

But Rich Anderson -- a Republican -- is setting a new standard for mudslinging in his race against Delegate Paul Nichols.

In 2006, Nichols was on a vacation in North Carolina with friends. On the way back from a dinner trip, the group was pulled over by the police. Nichols was not driving -- he was a passenger in the second of the two cars, which hadn't even been pulled over. But as a lawyer, Nichols thought he might be able to offer some assistance to his friend who had been stopped, so he stepped out of his vehicle.

As soon as he approached the first car, a police officer confronted him. The officer grabbed Nichols, and forced him to ground, where he struck his head and broke his nose. An ambulance was called for Nichols, but he was arrested for obstructing a police officer.

Now, as soon as the charges reached court, they were dropped. And Nichols' friends verify his account of the evening.

But that didn't stop Anderson from sending a mail piece to voters in the district which read:

In 2006, Paul Nichols and a friend were stopped by police for suspicion of DWI. … Fifty-one minutes later, an ambulance had been called to the scene, and Nichols had been arrested...

There's a difference between playing hardball and breaking the truth. With this mailing, Anderson blurs the line between fact and fiction and does a disservice to voters because of it.

To the prove the point, Delegate Nichols called his opponent from 2007. Faisal Gill -- another Republican -- confirmed that his campaign knew about North Carolina incident, but decided that using the issue as an attack would not be fair.

With this line of attack, Anderson is crossing lines even other Republicans avoid.

And if the dishonesty of the ad weren't bad enough, Anderson was also unbelievably reckless. His mail piece included an image of the arrest record -- with Nichol's personal information, including his Social Security number, clearly visible.

With less than a month before Election Day, Nichols is now spending time canceling credit cards and trying to verify that his identity hasn't been stolen.

As simple as that, in an election which had been focused on debating the issues, everyone is talking about an incident that never really happened.