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WASHINGTON — Union leaders said Wednesday they will mobilize millions of members in 26 states with a message about “economic patriotism” as they try to help Democrats hold onto their majority in the House and Senate.

The nation’s largest labor federation plans to spend more than $50 million leading up to the November elections, targeting 70 House races and 18 Senate races with television ads, phone banks and leaflets.

In a response to the anti-establishment anger of Tea Party activists, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka called on voters to think about “economic patriots” and “corporate traitors.”

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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — An elections board in Ohio says a former congressman who served time in federal prison has enough valid signatures to run again for a U.S. House seat.

Director Tom McCabe says the Mahoning County board on Monday approved more than 30 disputed signatures to allow Jim Traficant (TRAF’-eh-kehnt) to make the November ballot in northeast Ohio’s 17th district.

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WILMINGTON, Del. – John Carney of Delaware is a rarity in a campaign season of foreboding for Democrats, a practicing politician with a strong chance of winning a Republican-held seat in Congress.

Not that Carney is interested in attaching any national significance to his race. “I’ll support (President Barack Obama) when I think he’s right and I won’t when I think he proposes something that isn’t in the best interests of Delaware,” he says.

But with House Republicans on offense in dozens of races in all regions of the country, victories by Carney and a few others challenging for GOP-held seats — most prominently in Louisiana, Hawaii and Illinois — could amount to a last line of defense for Democrats in their struggle to maintain a majority.

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(CNN) — Primary voters are set to head to the polls this weekend, this time in Louisiana and West Virginia.

In Louisiana, GOP Sen. David Vitter is expected to easily overcome a primary challenge Saturday in his first appearance on the ballot since a 2007 prostitution scandal.

In West Virginia, voters are choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for a November special election to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd, a Democrat.

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Washington (CNN) — Weighed down by a president with a sub-500 approval rating, Democratic Congressional Campaign Chairman Chris Van Hollen will lay out the party’s plan of attack for November elections at a Friday news conference.

The Maryland congressman, facing a resurgent Republican Party, “will discuss why he believes Democrats deserve to win the off-year elections and how they plan to do it, the legislative agenda as passed so far including health care, financial rescue, Wall Street reform, student loans, Afghanistan action, and Iraq withdrawal,” according to a statement released by the campaign.

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WASHINGTON — An epic fight is brewing over what Congress and President Obama should do about the expiring Bush tax cuts, with such substantial economic and political consequences that it could shape the fall elections and fiscal policy for years to come.

Democratic leaders, including Mr. Obama, say they are intent on letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire as scheduled at the end of this year. But they have pledged to continue the lower tax rates for individuals earning less than $200,000 and families earning less than $250,000 — what Democrats call the middle class.

Most Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for everyone, and some Democrats agree, saying it would be unwise to raise taxes on anyone while the economy remains weak. If no action is taken, taxes on income, dividends, capital gains and estates would all rise.

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WASHINGTON — BP’s oil spill notoriety is reviving unwelcome attention from Congress on another issue: whether the oil company sought the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi to help get a $900 million exploration agreement with Libya off the ground.

Soon after al-Megrahi’s release last year, BP acknowledged that it urged the British government to sign a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, but stressed it didn’t

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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Former Ohio U.S. Rep. James Traficant has been disqualified in his bid to return to Congress after seven years in prison because he did not turn in enough valid petition signatures to make the fall ballot, a county elections official said Tuesday.

The colorful Traficant, who represented the Youngstown area of northeast Ohio as a Democrat in Congress for nearly two decades before being convicted in a corruption case, plans to appeal, an adviser said.

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – More than 1.3 million laid-off workers won’t get their unemployment benefits reinstated before Congress goes on a weeklong vacation for Independence Day.

An additional 200,000 people who have been without a job for at least six months stand to lose their benefits each week, unless Congress acts.

For the third time in as many weeks, Republicans in the Senate successfully filibustered a bill Wednesday night to continue providing unemployment checks to people who been laid off for long stretches.

Full Story at CNN.com

Washington (CNN) — Sen. Robert Byrd, the 92-year-old Democrat from West Virginia who is the longest-serving Congress member in history, has been hospitalized in serious condition, his office said Sunday.

Byrd was admitted to a Washington area hospital last week and his condition is “seriously ill,” according to the statement by his office.

Initially thought to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, Byrd was expected to remain in hospital for “not more than a few days,” the statement said.