Mountains and West

Scorecard | Some races that are expected to be close | John Dawson

House races

Arizona-8

The national Republican Party canceled a large ad buy for GOP candidate Randy Graf in September, leaving the conservative Republican on his own against well-funded Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, a former state senator. Pundits say Graf's ties with the Minutemen turn off some voters in this southern Arizona district, a moderate Republican stronghold for more than two decades.

  • Graf (R)
  • Giffords (D)

California-4

Retired Air Force officer Charlie Brown has struggled to tie incumbent Republican Rep. John Doolittle to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. While Doolittle maintains he's not under investigation, he's been paying big fees to defense attorneys to deal with the Justice Department—an opening Brown has yet to exploit.