Democrat

The most partisan members of the Republican and Democratic parties — the people who vote in primary elections — cluster in different parts of the country. Democrats live in cities and Republicans in rural areas, says the Daily Yonder.

Founded four years ago as the first lobbying group for the food movement, Food Policy Action said it will work to defeat second-term Rep. David Valadao, a California republican and member of the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing USDA and FDA funding.

The Republican nominee for Senate in Arkansas, Rep Tom Cotton, says in a campaign advertisement that he voted against the farm bill because it had "turned into a food stamp bill with billions (of dollars) more in spending," says the Associated Press. Cotton was the only Arkansas lawmaker to vote against the $500 billion, five-year farm bill. Democratic Sen Mark Pryor, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, has criticized Cotton for the vote.

Some 231 U.S. representatives, including 18 committee chairmen, signed a letter asking the Obama administration to withdraw a proposed rule on federal jurisdiction over waterways, says Drovers CattleNetwork.

The House and Senate are scheduled to return to today with one major goal - passage of a short-term government funding bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct 1 or face a repeat of the shutdown of last October. Lawmakers are expected to pass legislation to fund the government until early December before leaving, possibly as early as next Friday, to campaign for re-election.

Democrat Bruce Braley and Republican Joni Ernst are tied at 40 percent each with 15 percent undecided in a Suffolk/USA Today poll of one of the races that could determine control of the U.S. Senate.

House Agriculture Committee member Scott DesJarlais is the undisputed winner of the Republican primary in Tennessee's fourth congressional district.

Republicans asked about local flexibility and Democrats focused on funding when the Senate Agriculture Committee sat down to hear about they sat down to talk about renewal of school lunch and child nutrition programs. Together the programs cost around $19 billion a year with school meals getting $14 billion. The programs are due for reauthorization in 2015.

The campaign in Iowa to succeed Democrat Tom Harkin, a Senate Agriculture Committee member, gained a lot of attention in the past week. Handicapping of the race ranged from "leans Democratic" to a toss-up. Over the weekend, the Washington Post's "Election Lab" said its model shows "78 percent chance of GOP win" - a much stronger reading than other forecasts.

Six-term incumbent Thad Cochran, the Republican leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, has a 16-point lead, 40-24, over Democrat Travis Childers for re-election to the Senate from Mississippi, says Public Policy Polling. PPP says "voters are still deeply divided over the general election" with 31 percent undecided. Childers leads 37-36 against state Sen Chris McDaniel, who lost a runoff to Cochran. PPP said 39 percent of Republicans "think that McDaniel should not concede the race to Cochran."

A Republican proposal to give hard-pressed schools a one-year waiver from school lunch reforms is headed for a floor vote in the House with predictions of more turmoil to come. "This is poison," warned Sam Farr, a senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. "It will tie up the whole ag appropriations bill." Farr lost on a party-line vote, 29-22, when he tried to delete the waiver during a four-hour committee markup.

The Republican Senate primary election in Mississippi "has become the nastiest, and most personal, in the nation," says the New York Times with one week left until election day. The race between six-term incumbent Thad Cochran, the Republican leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, and state Sen Chris McDaniel "represents the last chance for Tea Party activists to topple an incumbent."

A series of favorable polls for Democrat Mark Pryor, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, prompted Sabato's Crystal Ball to rate the race as a toss-up. Until now, it viewed the race as "leans Republican."

Democrat Mark Pryor, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, leads Republican challenger Tom Cotton, 51-40, in an NBC/Marist telephone poll of 1,174 registered voters in Arkansas, with 7 percent undecided and 2 percent backing someone else. Margin of error +/-2.9 percent, says Pollster.

House Speaker Boehner told fellow Republicans there was no "conspiracy" to move an immigration reform bill this summer, says Roll Call.

House Democrats say they will distribute memos in 30 congressional districts to encourage Republican lawmakers to sign the discharge petition petition and force a floor vote on comprehensive immigration reform, says Roll Call.