Senate’s last week

With the House adjourned for the summer, the Senate is the only game in town on Capitol Hill this week.

Leaders of the Senate Democrats had hoped to pass a series of bills by now, ranging on topics from food safety to energy to small-business assistance.

{mosads}But after disputes on amendments, none of those measures will have the votes to pass before the August recess. There is a chance that the small-business measure could pass by the end of this week, though that seems unlikely after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called it “TARP 2” on Fox News Sunday.

Instead, the focus this week will be on the nomination of Elena Kagan, which most Republicans will oppose. They are, however, unlikely to attempt a filibuster. Kagan’s nomination has gone very smoothly (see below). 

Not surprisingly, the main focus for Republicans and Democrats now is the midterm congressional elections, just three months away. Both parties are shaping their messages and urging their incumbents and candidates to ramp up fundraising efforts.

But some members first have to worry about surviving their primaries. Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) faces a tough intra-party challenge from state Sen. Hansen Clarke on Tuesday.

Kilpatrick, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, survived a tough primary in 2008 from several candidates. She attracted less than 40 percent of the vote that time around but benefited from the fact that the anti-Kilpatrick vote was split between two others.

This year, Clarke is the only primary challenger expected to attract more than 10 percent of the vote. He is ahead of Kilpatrick in recent polls, and campaign analysts cite Kilpatrick’s son, Kwame, as a major reason for the congresswoman’s vulnerability.

Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, is in jail for various crimes and is still facing more charges. The list of his convictions and pending charges includes obstruction of justice, perjury and tax evasion.

Referring to this November’s election, Rep. Kilpatrick told WXYZ-TV, “It’s definitely one of the fights of my political life.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson recently campaigned for her, and some of her Democratic colleagues in the House have contributed to her campaign, including Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.) and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), Donald Payne (N.J.) and Alcee Hastings (Fla.), among others.

In other campaign news, the bitter Senate GOP primary in Kansas between Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt will decided on Tuesday. The winner is expected to replace retiring Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), who is favored to win his Republican primary for governor.

The Senate, meanwhile, will hold hearings this week on the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, autism, international violence against women and the state of the U.S. manufacturing agenda.