Republican

With the Aug 5 Republican primary on the horizon, Kansas Sen Pat Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, "is still the favorite to win renomination," says Sabato's Crystal Ball. " Roberts has been gaffe-happy and vulnerable to the same kind of residency attacks that hampered former Sen. Richard Lugar," it says, but opponent Milton Wolf, a physician, "is decidedly second tier" as a challenger.

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 biggest oil companies in North Dakota are putting money into the race for state agriculture commissioner, says Reuters. It's not an oddball choice - the agriculture commissioner, along with the governor and the attorney general, sits on the Industrial Commission, which oversees permits "and other issues critical to the oil industry, which hopes to drill 35,000 new wells within 15 years," says the story.

With the August recess on the horizon, lawmakers seem certain to defer action on the annual spending bills for federal departments until this fall, says Roll Call. It sees "a dim prospect for any substantive appropriations work - aside from the child migrant supplemental - until after the November elections, or perhaps later. Many senior appropriators say they now see a 12-bill continuing resolution as a near inevitability."

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."

Six-term incumbent Thad Cochran, the Republican leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, won the GOP run-off in Mississippi by 2 percentage points over state Sen Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party favorite.

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."

1. North Carolina Rep Renee Ellmers won the Republican nomination for a third term on Tuesday in "the one House race where immigration matters," as Politico phrased it. Ellmers, with Tea Party roots, is one of a few Republicans to support legalization of undocumented workers. She beat her opponent, economic commentator Frank Roche, by a 3-to-2 margin, says the State Board of Elections Web site.

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and two California agriculture leaders called on the Republican-controlled House to vote soon on immigration reform. Vilsack, who said he was confident a reform bill would pass, said Republican leaders should "do what leaders are supposed to do.

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

Florida Republican Mario Diaz-Balart tells Roll Call that the campaign for immigration reform is picking up momentum in the House.

House Republicans, who have accused states of cheating by averting cuts in food stamps, have raised a new argument -- that state governments discriminate against some poor people by holding on to food stamps for other poor people.

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.