On September 18, Hawaii held the final official primary election of the 2010 election year. (Louisiana will hold its primary run-off on October 2). Rep. Charles Djou (R) will once again face Democratic opponent Colleen Hanabusa for Hawaii's 1st district in November. Djou was coined a Republican darling in May when he won Hawaii's special election after Rep. Neil Abercrombie vacated the seat in February to run for Governor.

Hanabusa was Djou's most threatening opponent in the special election, coming in a close second to the Representative. She currently serves as a state senator. The race is considered a "toss up" and will be an interesting one to watch come Election Day.

John Willoughby, a retired Navy officer, will challenge current Rep. Mazie Hirono (D) for Hawaii's 2nd district. Willoughby has a tough battle ahead as the district is considered to be safe for Hirono and rated a "Solid D" district.

With just three to four legislative weeks left in Congress before the November 2 election, a number of outstanding issues remain. It is unlikely that both chambers will pass a bill that has created one of the biggest and most partisan debates leading up to this election: a package addressing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which expire in December. The debate has centered on extending the tax cuts for all but the wealthiest 2 percent of households, or for everybody.

Congress will likely fail to pass the FY11 appropriations bills before October 1, resulting in a must-pass continuing resolution extending federal spending at current levels. Other major legislative items on the Democratic leadership’s list include a defense authorization bill (on which the Senate will vote on Tuesday); a reauthorization of the FAA programs that expire at the end of September; and a food safety bill.  If the Senate invokes cloture on the defense authorization on Tuesday, it will open the bill up to two items Democrats want to deliver before the elections: the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and the DREAM Act, which would allow a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants brought into this country as minors by their parents if these illegal immigrants are paying taxes, attending college or serving in the U.S. military. Items with little chance of passage or debate include card check, climate change, comprehensive immigration reform and telecommunications.

AGC has been urging Congress and the White House to finish work on long-term transportation and water infrastructure spending bills, and keep income tax rates (especially the death tax) from soaring to help construction industry employment recover from millions of lost jobs. AGC believes the stopgap funding for transportation isn’t providing the certainty companies need for hiring and growing. In addition, the prospect of a leap in taxes is deterring private investment.

Tuesday's primaries delivered more surprises, particularly in Delaware, where so-called "Tea Party" candidate Christine O'Donnell defeated Rep. Mike Castle in the Republican Senatorial primary.  Castle was expected to be the winner of the nomination and, ultimately, the seat; however the polls quickly turned to a toss-up between O'Donnell and Democrat Chris Coons after O'Donnell won the nomination. Her unexpected Tea Party victory is shared with Rand Paul in Kentucky, Joe Miller in Alaska, and Sharon Angle in Nevada (among others).

In New Hampshire, former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R) barely beat out Tea Party candidate Ovide Lamontagne.  Ayotte declared victory by only 1,600 votes. Reid Ribble, a roofer by trade, was pronounced the winner of Wisconsin's 8^th district Republican Primary.  Ribble won his four way primary and will face Rep. Steve Kagen (D) in November.

Construction business owner Richard Hanna (R) in New York won his primary and will challenge Rep. Michael Arcuri (D).  Hanna lost to Arcuri in 2006 by a very narrow margin and could possibly win the seat this time. Tom Reed and Chris Gibson, both Republicans and financially backed by AGC PAC, won their primaries.  Andy Harris (R) in Maryland will once again run for Representative in the 1^st district. 

Thank you to everyone who helped AGC PAC deliver all primary checks before Tuesday. Hawaii's primary - the last official primary of the season - takes place Saturday, and Louisiana will hold its run off race on October 2.

The second "Super Tuesday" this primary season is quickly approaching.  AGC PAC has been active in many of the nine states that will hold primaries next Tuesday: Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.  The final primary, held in Hawaii, will take place on Saturday, September 18. 

AGC PAC checks designated to a candidate's "PRIMARY" race must be delivered before the primary election. These checks will not be accepted after the date of the primary race and will be considered void. 

AGC is carefully watching the Delaware Senate "likely Republican" seat left open by Vice President Joe Biden (Sen. Ted Kaufman holds the seat for the interim).  Vying for the GOP nomination are current U.S. Representative Mike Castle and Christine O'Donnell.  Current polls show Castle, who is likely to be the GOP candidate, winning over presumptive Democratic candidate Chris Coons, who serves as New Castle's City Executive. But this could be another Tea Party upset of a GOP favorite.

AGC has identified several seats at play on Tuesday where contractors are on the ballot:

Delaware Open AL Seat (Two Republicans running for the GOP nomination)
Michelle Rollins, Republican, Real Estate Development
Glen Urquhart, Republican, Real Estate Development

NY-24 (Will face current Representative Michael Arcuri (D))
Richard Hanna, Republican, Residential Construction

WI-8 (Winner will face current Representative Steve Kagen (D))
Reid Ribble, Republican, Roofing Contractor will face off in the GOP primary against another Republican contractor, Roger Roth, who is a homebuilder.

NY-29 Open Seat
Tom Reed, Republican, Real Estate Development

Stay tuned for all the primary results in next week's Construction Legislative Week in Review.

Upcoming Pre-Election PAC/Grassroots Conference Call
On Thursday, September 16, AGC PAC and Grassroots will host a conference call for the entire Legislative Network and interested parties to discuss the pre-election environment.  Please contact Blair Hood at hoodb@agc.org if you would like to participate.

On Friday, August, 27, Congressman Charles Djou (R-Hawaii) toured a construction job in Honolulu, Hawaii. AGC member company Watts Constructors, LLC, hosted the Congressman at the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center Replacement project. 

AGC encourages members to host Members of Congress at job sites around the country to help educate them about the construction industry and to demonstrate how decisions made in Washington, D.C., affect our industry.

Following the weeklong process of counting the absentee ballots for Alaska's primary, Fairbanks Attorney General, Joe Miller (R), was pronounced the official winner of the Alaska Republican senatorial primary by a mere 1,469 votes.  The Alaska Secretary of State announced on August 31, just seven days following the primary election, that Miller, the "Tea Party" candidate who was endorsed by former vice presidential candidate and former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, had defeated sitting senior Senator Lisa Murkowski (R).  Murkowski was first appointed to the Senate seat in 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, who vacated the Senate seat after he was elected Governor.

Louisiana held its primary on August 28 and announced current Senator David Vitter (R) would remain the party's nominee on the ticket.  Vitter beat out two opponents - Nick Accardo and Chet Traylor - with an overwhelming 88 percent of the vote.

West Virginia held a special Senate primary election on Saturday, August 28, to decide on two party nominees to fill the seat of late Sen. Robert Byrd (D).  Republicans chose businessman John Raese, who will face current West Virginia Democrat Governor Joe Manchin in November.

September 14, the second "Super Tuesday" primary date is right around the corner.  Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin will all vote.  Please deliver AGC PAC checks for any candidates in these states before the primary date.  For any other state, please deliver AGC PAC checks before September 30, the FEC filing deadline for campaigns.

The final state primary prior to November's general election will be held September 18, in Hawaii.

The November elections are quickly approaching, with 34 primary elections completed and 16 to go. Colorado and Connecticut were front and center this week as they hosted primaries on Tuesday. Neither state brought many surprises, but Republican nominee Cory Gardner ran unopposed in the primary for Colorado's 4th District and is one of the first candidates inducted into the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Young Guns" program. He will face Democrat Rep. Betsy Markey.

Colorado's one term Sen. Michael Bennett (D) will face Weld City, Colorado's District Attorney Ken Buck in a "toss-up" race. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, Republican Linda McMahon will face Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) for Senator Chris Dodd's (D) seat. Connecticut State Senator Sam Caligiuri (R) will challenge incumbent Chris Murphy (D) in November for what could be called Connecticut's most vulnerable seat.

The last three weeks in July could be the busiest of the 111th Congress. Many issues are left outstanding, particularly in the Senate, and several others are crowding the legislative calendar.

Dominating the news cycles has been the Senate's failure to extend federal unemployment insurance. It is likely that the Senate will again take up this vote when members return from the week-long July 4th recess on July 12. The outcome, however, is very unclear. The extension failed to pass late last month because of the $33.3 billion price tag. Budget concerns also stopped the annual tax extenders package, which contained provisions supported by AGC, from moving forward.

Also waiting on Senators' desks will be the confirmation vote for President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan. While her confirmation is expected, the debate and vote will use precious floor time. In addition, the Senate must also take up the final post-conference version of the Financial Regulatory reform legislation that passed the House late last month, and may resume consideration of a small business jobs bill.

Also passed by the House last month and waiting for potential Senate pickup is the AGC-opposed DISCLOSE Act, which stifles the right of trade associations and corporations to speak out on behalf of the political candidates they support. Read more about that bill here. Democrats particularly are looking to get this bill passed to help their prospects in the midterm elections this November, where they are forecasted to receive substantial losses in both chambers.

Other outstanding issues include authorizations for the Surface Transportation Program and the water and wastewater state revolving loan fund (SRF) programs. The SRF program has been stalled in the Senate over disagreement about the bill's application of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements. While the transportation program has been granted a short-term extension until the end of the year, the Senate has yet to unveil its version of a longer-term bill, which would then have to go through markup and approval by multiple committees before seeing floor time. The future of the majority of federal-aid work that AGC members perform is locked up in these two bills.

Also left outstanding in the House and Senate is the next Department of Defense Authorization bill, which has several important possible changes to federal contracting as well as billions in military construction work. A permanent fix to the estate tax seemed to have momentum behind it earlier in the year, particularly because the rate fell from 45 percent in 2009 to zero percent for this year and is scheduled to jump up to 55 percent next year, but the outlook is murky at best. Other big issues include administration priorities like climate change and immigration reform, and, potentially, contracting reform. Also looming is possible legislation dealing with the BP oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon site, as well as Congressional repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

In the upcoming weeks, Government Affairs will send PAC regional coordinators, state chairmen, Chapter executives and government affairs representatives a PAC and grassroots toolkit. 

The kit will contain all the tools to encourage AGC members to get involved in the PAC and grassroots movements, including letters, talking points for members attending AGC meetings, contribution histories, and Congressional vote scores, among other things.

The toolkit is designed to help AGC's legislative network grow. For more information, contact Blair Hood at (202) 547-5013 or hoodb@agc.org.

Congressional Democrats in the U.S. House continue to work on legislation that restricts the ability of trade associations and corporations to engage in political advocacy. The legislation H.R. 5175, the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act (DISCLOSE Act), places significant and complicated restrictions on speech in the form of political advocacy while ensuring that these restrictions will not be clarified by regulation before the law impacts the 2010 elections. Unlike past changes in campaign finance law (such as McCain Feingold), the Disclose Act is written to take effect immediately upon passage instead of waiting for the next election cycle and for regulations to be written to clarify compliance requirements.

The bill would treat corporations and trade associations differently than labor unions, even though both sides are active in political advocacy. Also, the bill makes significant changes to foreign ownership rules. It gags companies that receive even small government contracts but does not similarly gag unions who represent government employees.

AGC opposes H.R. 5175 because of its restriction on free speech and increased confusion of campaign finance laws. The vote has been designated a Key Vote and will be an indicator of support for issues significant to the construction industry. To read the letter AGC sent to Congress this week click here.