Around the Mid Atlantic

New Jersey's elite is even fed up with the corruption. Even the Cook Report can't pretend this race has not changed. All of the major political prognosticators are leaning toward Christie. Corzine is reduced to ads which say Christie is a conservative. He should have checked his polling then he would have found conservative is a positive word in New Jersey. The governor is also trying to trash Mr. Christie for a plea bargain that had nothing to do with him. The backlash from the latest round of toll hikes won't help the Governor.

Maryland--Baltimore had more indictments including additional charges against the Democrat Mayor Shelia Dixon and a new indictment against a councilwoman Helen Holton (D-Dist. 8).

New York--Still broken. The good news is that they have time on their hands in the city to persecute people for facebook notes that are not PC. Free speech is dead in Manhattan along with independent thought.

Meanwhile, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, a Democrat, accepted the resignation of Lee Landor, his deputy press secretary, after she called Gates a racist and referred to President Barack Obama as "O-dumb-a."

Pennsylvania-- No wonder Governor Rendell is losing points with the people. He is losing it. He told the legislature to pass the GOP budget then he said that he would line item out 3/4 of it. He then said the next day that the budget shouldn't be political theater. He then called upon the legislature to produce a bridge budget. State workers were missing a paycheck. The governor vowed to find a way to fully fund them even if services couldn't be funded. Governor Rendell then blasted the committee trying to solve the crisis and simultaneously called for rising above political differences. Interestingly enough it is not just the Republicans running the senate who oppose his tax hikes. A blue dog caucus from western Pennsylvania also does. It has about 20 members. In spite of bipartisan opposition, he just can't accept the 27 billion dollar budget with no tax increase, yet everyone else needs to stop being partisan.

Virginia-- The 2007 Virginia Tech murders are still weighing down the political culture. The families are divided over whether or not to reopen the investigation because of the mental health file of the murderer being found recently by an ex-employee who accidentally took it home in his papers.

Former Rep. Virgil Goode won't contest the seat he lost by 727 votes of 300,000 in the 5th district.

The first debate occurred between Deeds and McDonnell. Transportation dominated it. Deeds would not take taxes off the table. His plan was to call a special session. McDonnell planned to dedicate a portion of the revenue increase from NoVA growth to transportation infrastructure in the area. Deeds said it would pit school children against roads.

Deeds changed his mind on the "gun show loophole". He said that he would not emphasize his views on social issues like his support of abortion and gay rights. With his change on taxes and guns, it almost makes you wonder where the moderate who won the primary went.