CQ Politics | Alan K. Ota

If you live in one of the fractious swing districts — the ones that went for John McCain for president but sent Democrats to Congress — Republicans on a road trip may be heading your way.

Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is getting ready to send four teams of GOP House members on cross-country forays.

Their mission: Go after the swing-district Democrats in their own back yards.

UnionLeader.com | John DiStaso

Thursday morning update: Potential U.S. Senate candidate Ovide Lamontagne announced that he has hired Jim Merrill, managing director of the Devine Strategies consulting firm in Concord, as his senior adviser.

The Granite Status first reported on July 16 that Lamontagne had signed Merrill,who was the state director for Mitt Romney’s 2008 Presidential campaign and ran the successful 2000 general election campaign of President George W. Bush.

In 2004 he served as the New Hampshire Grassroots Co-Chair for President Bush’s re-election campaign and was counsel to the 2004 Bush-Cheney and 2008 McCain-Palin presidential campaigns in New Hampshire, as well as the New Hampshire Republican State Committee.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | James O’Toole

A new Quinnipiac poll depicts an unsettled governor’s race taking shape before a fluid Pennsylvania electorate.

The survey found Tom Corbett, the Republican attorney general, in the strongest position of any of the likely 2010 contenders, but even he remained an unknown to a majority of the voters. On the Democratic side, none of the likely candidates had made much of an impression on the electorate.

One of the poll’s more intriguing findings was that, nine months after President Barack Obama’s landslide win in the state, a generic Republican candidate edged a hypothetical Democratic candidate for governor with independent voters tipping the balance in the GOP direction.

Next year’s elections for senator and governor will be watched for evidence of whether Pennsylvania, once a classic swing state, has continued a trend toward a more reliably Democratic stance. Amid dismal approval ratings for the state’s most prominent Democrat, Gov. Ed Rendell, the findings provide a snapshot of a state still up for grabs despite recent Democratic gains in party registration and a string of successes in presidential and statewide contests.

Fox News | Serafin Gomez

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a possible 2012 contender, says the route to the White House goes through the state houses.

Even though the GOP has suffered significant losses in the last two national elections, Barbour said the GOP must first win back gubernatorial seats in upcoming elections in order to re-take the bully pulpit.

“There is nothing that’s going to happen in 2009 and ‘10 that will affect the 2012 presidential election as much as how Republicans fare in the 2009-’10 elections,” Barbour told FOX News in an interview Saturday during the National Governors Association meeting. “I’m going to spend my political energy and time in electing Republican governors.”

Montgomery Advertiser| Sebastian Kitchen

Republicans have taken two formerly Democratic seats in the Alabama Legislature in special elections during the past five weeks. Both wins are significant going into the 2010 campaign season, when all of the legislative seats are on the ballot.

Republican Phil Williams won the House of Representatives seat in north Alabama, which was vacant because of the conviction of former Democratic Rep. Sue Schmitz. Williams easily defeated Democrat Jenny Askins for the House District 6 seat.

The win also brings Republicans within single digits of a majority in the House for the first time since Reconstruction. They are within nine seats of claiming the House.

Washington Post | Ben Pershing

Shut out of power across the capital and facing a 60-vote Democratic majority in the Senate, Republican candidates are working to balance the scales in at least one vital category — campaign cash.

Reports filed last week with the Federal Election Commission showed GOP hopefuls in some key Senate contests posting strong fundraising totals for the second quarter of 2009, putting them in position to try to halt their party’s recent losing streak.

McClatchy | Halimah Abdullah

Over the past three months, Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning raised $302,467 for his re-election campaign, about half the amount that political protégé and potential Republican challenger Trey Grayson raised in the same time period.

Of the four top contenders for Bunning’s seat, the incumbent raised the least during the second quarter of the year. Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway says he pulled in $1.32 million, compared to $602,699 for Grayson and $302,993 for Democratic Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo.

CQ Politics | No Author Listed

The race to fill retiring Sen. Judd Gregg ’s seat in 2010 is shaping up as a competitive one with Rep. Paul Hodes holding a slight lead if he runs against Charlie Bass and in a statistical tie if his opponent is Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, according to a Research 2000 poll conducted July 13-15.

Hodes leads Bass 42 percent to 37 percent with 19 percent undecided while Ayotte edges Hodes 39 percent to 38 percent with 21 percent undecided. the margin of error is 4 points. When the favorability ratings of the three are tested, the most important figure seems to be the number of people who have no opinion, which ranges from 45 percent for Hodes to 46 percent for bass and 51 percent for Ayotte.

Boston Herald | Associated Press

BOSTON — Mitt Romney’s works shows he’s thinking about another run for president.

The Massachusetts Republican raised $1.6 million for his Free and Strong America PAC during the first six months of the year.

A report released Thursday also showed him seeding more than $63,000 to state and federal candidates — many in key presidential electoral areas.

Also: Reuters | Romney rakes in the dough, gives generously

CNN | Political Ticker

(CNN) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has a warning for Sarah Palin: Don’t abandon the Republican Party.

The former presidential candidate and potential future White House rival of Palin’s said Tuesday he’s concerned about speculation the Alaska governor may leave the GOP to become an independent.

“I hope she remains — let me be real clear — a part of the Republican Party,” Huckabee told FOX News. “I’m a little concerned when I hear her say that she may sort of branch out and go third party or go independent. That would be a big mistake because we need to rebuild the Republican Party, not abandon it.”