Republican Representative John Kline joined 262 fellow Congresspersons in the passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act last Friday. Originally, he spoke out against the package, believing the market should self-regulate itself and if a failure is imminent, then the failure should occur.

However, as with many other Republicans and Democrats, Kline essentially held his nose and voted in favor of the Act.

Many conservatives and constituents believe that the bailout package is a mistake and does nothing to fix the situation. Kline hopes his electorate will understand his reasons for his vote when they head to the polls in November.

Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District's Congressman John Kline focuses on his assistance in passing the National Defense Authorization Act. Working on the House Armed Services Committee gave the Republican candidate the ability to oversee what went into the Bill and how the budget would be used.

The NDAA is the framework for the Pentagon's annual budget and Kline helped push the addition of $68.6 billion in supplemental funding for Iraq and Afghanistan to the $531.4 billion Bill. The Act also calls for adding 7,000 Army personnel and 5,000 Marines to active duty status. He believes that the extra troops will help with the taxing rotations in Iraq that have left the National Guard and Reserves overworked.

The Bill also halted a rate hike for veterans health care benefits.

Congressman John Kline, Republican Representative from Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District, touts his history of military service and his family's commitment to the armed forces. Kline spent 25 years as a Marine before joining the Carter and Reagan Administrations as the person who held the “football,” the codes for nuclear deployment. His wife has been a career nurse for the Army and his son, Dan, is currently serving with the 101st Airborne in Afghanistan after a tour of duty in Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.

Military service is heavily important to the electorate and Kline's devotion to the veterans in the 2nd is widely known and may help him in November.

Republican Congressman John Kline has come under fire for a statement by one of his staffers, Legislative Director Yelena Vaynberg, gave a statement to the Red Wing Republican Eagle that was wrong. In response to an angry letter from a supporter of Kline's opponent, Steve Sarvi, Vaynberg stated that, “Congressman Kline has consistently supported the renewal and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Accordingly, Kline voted for legislation last fall that would provide an 18-month extension of the current SCHIP plan.”

The problem that the statement presented for Kline was the fact that it was factually incorrect. Kline was an outspoken opponent of the SCHIP plan and voted against its passage.

Addressing the recent FISA legislation and the Bush Administration's alleged abuses of power, Democratic challenger for Virginia's 5th Congressional District, Tom Perriello, released a video on his stances on the controversial Bill.

Citing the Administration's continued erosion of civil liberties and failures in the War on Terror, he uses his own history as a basis for exploring what he calls poor leadership.

He believes that the intelligence failures that led to the occupation of Iraq are signs that the FISA legislation would be mismanaged and misused. He also points to the Administration's decision to go it alone in Iraq that has caused greater problems in National Security than Saddam Hussein or Al Qaida ever represented on their own.

At a press conference at the Roanoke Civic Center, Democratic candidate for Virginia's 5th Congressional District, Tom Perriello, spoke about the SCHIP program that failed to pass Congress.

Speaking during National Cover the Uninsured Week, he believes that the importance behind the legislation had been lost on its opponents, including Congressman Virgil Goode.

He uses a backdrop of an empty arena to symbolize the number of children that would have received insurance coverage if the SCHIP Bill would not have been blocked.

SCHIP was initiated to lower the level of income needed for families to receive financial assistance from the state in obtaining medical insurance for children.

Republican Goode may stand to have a challenge in being reelected by a constituency that has seen heavy job losses and an increasing loss of insurance coverage amongst its children.

Democratic candidate for Virginia's 5th Congressional District, Tom Perriello, received an endorsement from the United Auto Workers after joining with workers at a Volvo plant and marched the picket line for Local 2069.

He addressed the concerns of workers about areas of the 5th that have been hard hit by the tough economic times that are causing everyone in the country to suffer.

The workers were on strike over the threat to cut benefits and lower wages.

Democratic candidate Tom Periello used the image of a Nascar to represent his opponent, Republican Virgil Goode's voting record. He presents a car loaded with stickers from companies that have donated to Goode's campaign.

Using the latest Wall Street crisis as an example of how deregulation has damaged the financial standing of the U.S., he rips off stickers of companies such as Wachovia that have recently filed for bankruptcy.

Goode faces challenges to his reelection in light of the financial bailout package due to his connections to these groups.

Video footage has recently been released showing a high level Ashwin Madia supporter stealing a lawn sign for his opponent. The video, on youtube, has brought fire to the Madia campaign and their supporters seemingly illegal activities.

A rash of sign thefts have been reported in recent weeks as the campaign heats up, however, this is the only known footage of the event taking place.

Investigators linked the car to a Madia supporter but as of yet no arrests have been made.

Madia is running on the Democratic ticket against Republican Erik Paulson for Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District.

Democratic candidate for Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District Ashwin Madia is combating attacks that he is a Democrat in Name Only (DINO). Madia is on the record as supporting Bob Dole in the 1996 Presidential Election and John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary.

Admitting that he was a Republican for many years, until he did a tour of duty in Iraq, Madia switched parties for a run for political office.

Madia is facing off against Republican candidate Erik Paulson.