Todd Zwillich

Whatever happens with today's elections, it's certain there will be new leadership in the House and the Senate as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are both expected to step down. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich looks at just how things will be different.

Over the weekend, Takeaway host Celeste Headlee and Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich talked to people at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear to find out why they came and what they hoped would be the new Congress's legislative agenda.

(Check out a slideshow of some of our favorite signs after the jump.)

With so many tight political races around the country, it can be hard to determine which are the bellwethers, which ones to watch. But there are a few Senate races whose dramatic stories have resonated across the country. Their outcome will not only change the actors on the political stage, but also the narratives taking place in Washington for years to come.

It's Tuesday, and just seven days remain until mid-term elections. Republicans are looking to take control of the House, Democrats are desperately fighting to hold the Senate, and The Tea Party is looking to increase its political clout — and everyone is out on the ground trying to get out every last vote.

Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich went to his hometown, Hershey, in Dauphin County, Penn. — home of America's most famous chocolate factory. He asked union members of Chocolate Workers Local 464 — Hershey Chocolate Plant, which has faced job losses over the last several years, about which candidate, Republican Pat Toomey or Democrat Joe Sestak, they'll be supporting this November.

In the Washington state Senate race, Democratic incumbent Patty Murray is scraping by, just barely ahead of her Republican challenger Dino Rossi. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country in Pennsylvania, Democrat Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey are running neck-and-neck for that state's open Senate seat.

Voters in Washington, in contrast to their counterparts in much of the rest of the country, have seen a race focused heavily on policy, rather than partisan bickering. Murray has proudly trumpeted her embrace of the Obama agenda, touting her involvement with writing the health care reform bill. President Obama will be campaigning for her later today.

If Democrats are able to hold a majority in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi will have to decide if she will run for House Speaker again. However, many Democrats are already saying that they would not support her if she does run.

The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, has the details of this developing story.

We’re nearing the end of the campaign trail for candidates seeking to win over voters in this November’s upcoming mid-term elections.  Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich and Mike Shear, chief political reporter for the Caucus Blog at our partner The New York Times, are joining us every Tuesday to give us updates on what the candidates are up to on the trail.

With November's mid-term elections only weeks away, Democrats and Republicans across the country are setting up their strategic political endgames.  

A new report out by the Senate Armed Services Committee reveals more problems with our heavy use of private security contractors in the war in Afghanistan. The committee’s chair, Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich), described "wasted resources" and “wide gaps in government oversight."

Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, may have lost the bid for nomination in the Republican primary, but that fact hasn't seemed to dampen her plans to continue her campaign for November's general election. 

The small business bill championed by President Obama and Democratic legislators is — after months of languishing in the Senate — moving through Congress. Expected to be easily passed by the House, the aid package includes $12 billion in tax breaks as well as $30 billion in government-backed loans for small businesses. Proponents estimate it may create as many as 500,000 jobs.

Republican primary voters in Delaware faced a much-hyped choice at the polls yesterday, and ultimately voted for Tea Party-endorsed Christine O'Donnell over moderate long-term Delaware Rep. Mike Castle. The state Republican party campaigned hard against O’Donnell, saying she is likely to lose against a Democrat in the general election. The outcome could have big consequences for which party will occupy Vice President Biden’s place in the Senate.

Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich breaks down the politics behind the Bush-era tax cuts, made during a time of budget surplus, and the proposals to allow the cuts to expire on individuals making more than $250,000 a year. Are there political agendas here? Also, chief economist for the Concord Coalition, Diane Lim Rogers, discusses the economics of this debate. Will this benefit middle class America and, in turn, stimulate the economy or will it negatively affect small business owners that are in the $250,000 income bracket that will lose their tax break?

We asked our listeners: What does it mean to be rich these days anyway? The tax code says it's $250,000 a year. How much do YOU think you have to earn to be considered rich?

Michael Murray is a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant living in Magnolia, Delaware. He's a self-described conservative, former National Security Agency worker, and former fire department volunteer. 

Murray is also a Republican, and he says he's voted for moderate Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del) at least three or four times during Castle's decades-long tenure as governor, lieutenant governor, and congressman. "He's done a lot, I give you that," Murray says of Castle. "He's helped out the fire companies. He's helped out the police, the first responders," he adds. In any other political year that might have been enough for Murray. 

Not this time. 

Reverend Terry Jones, leader of the Dove World Outreach Center, a tiny Pentecostal church in Gainesville, has backed down from his plan to burn the Quran. Reverend Jones’ plan to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of September 11^th lit an international firestorm. Now Reverend Jones says he will not burn any Qurans – and he doesn’t think anyone else should, either.

(Crossposted from Transportation Nation)

Did President Obama do his party a political favor by proposing $50 billion in new transportation infrastructure spending to a budget-weary nation right before the November midterms? Was his labor day infrastructure plan an effort to allow struggling Democrats to distance themselves?

At least one vulnerable Democrat under fire for supporting the president’s first $787 billion stimulus plan now says he’s not on board for any more. And just like that, Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) has put a little distance between himself and a White House sagging in the polls.

(Crossposted from Transportation Nation)

Presidents Barack Obama’s proposal for $50 billion in new spending on highway and railroad infrastructure, delivered in Milwaukee on Monday, has players on Capitol Hill scratching their heads while at the same time predicting the money likely won't pass Congress this year.

Aides to key lawmakers in both the House and Senate said they knew little of Obama’s proposal prior to his announcement Monday in front of a labor union audience. Much of what Capitol Hill knows of the White House’s actual intentions it has learned from the press, several said.

Five years later, as we remember the days running up to Hurricane Katrina, the remaining troubles of the disaster are far from gone. That, and this morning's top headlines.

The House is expected to return from its summer recess for an emergency vote which, if passed, could potentially save tens of thousands of teachers' jobs. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for the emergency vote, some Republicans accused the Congresswoman of pandering to teachers' unions and special interest groups ahead of November’s mid-term elections.