000905.txt              Congressional
                           outlook  for
                   September  is   messy 


                   By Melanie Fonder
                   News-Chronicle
                   WASHINGTON - With Congress back at work today,
                   the remaining days of the 106th session are critical in
                   the last months leading up to November for either party
                   to claim victory. 

                   The House is on schedule to complete appropriations
                   bills, but Republicans still need to dodge a budget
                   showdown with Democratic President Clinton and avoid
                   shutting down the government, so they can ensure
                   plenty of campaign time in their home districts. 

                   Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, said he is "optimistic"
                   Clinton and leaders in both parties can complete the
                   necessary work. 

                   "Every day now is with an eye on the calendar.
                   Discussions will probably be cantankerous to an extent
                   because it's an election year, but I'm optimistic," Green
                   said. "Hopefully, The president will sit down with
                   leaders from both sides of the aisle and meet our (the
                   GOP's) requirements." 

                   Those requirements, Green said, are continuing to pay
                   down the debt, insuring Social Security money and
                   investing in appropriate programs like health care. 

                   For Wisconsin, Green hopes September's work will
                   include the approval of an additional federal judgeship in
                   the Eastern District as well as advancing two of his
                   own housing initiatives. 

                   Before the August recess, the House had passed 11 of
                   13 spending bills and the Senate had passed seven of
                   13, while Clinton has approved funding for the
                   Department of Defense and military construction. 

                   DEBATING DEBATES
                   Former television anchorman Sean Cronin, the
                   Republican candidate trying to unseat longtime Rep.
                   David Obey, D-Wausau, fired off a press release last
                   week with the accusation: "Obey has never previously
                   agreed to prime-time, local network, live TV debates." 

                   Obey campaign spokeswoman Renee Daniels
                   countered that the congressman had not been asked in
                   previous elections and that he was sifting through the
                   offers and was likely to make a decision on which ones
                   to participate in the "next few days." 

                   "To my knowledge, there's never been an offer for a live,
                   televised debate. There have been cases where there
                   was a live debate that was taped and later aired on
                   TV," Daniels said. 

                   Cronin has asked for 19 live debates, one in each of the
                   7th District's counties. 

                   "The voters should have the best option available,"
                   Cronin said, adding that Obey asked for three debates
                   within 10 days of the election. "Now we're just trying to
                   get as many live debates as possible." 

                   Cronin also plans to make Obey's fund-raising tactics
                   an issue, he said. According to the nonpartisan Center
                   for Responsive Politics, Obey has raised 54 percent of
                   his campaign cash from political action committees
                   (PAC), while Cronin has raised only 0.6 percent from
                   PACs and 96 percent from individuals. 

                   LATE PRIMARY AIDS GOP
                   In the closely watched Senate contest in Minnesota, a
                   four-way race in the Democratic primary next Tuesday
                   will determine who will face Republican Sen. Rod
                   Grams in November. 

                   Once thought to be the Senate GOP's most vulnerable
                   incumbent, Grams' campaign has made a steady plod
                   toward the election while the Democrats have faced a
                   particularly nasty, divisive and long primary season. 

                   Democrats vying for the nomination next week are
                   attorney Mike Cerisi, former state auditor Mark Dayton,
                   ex-Minneapolis Development Agency President
                   Rebeccah Yanisch and state Sen. Jerry Janezich. 

                   WHY VOTE? GORE WON ALREADY
                   Seven political scientists, including Thomas Holbrook
                   from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, have
                   predicted Vice President Al Gore will become the 43rd
                   President of the United States. 

                   At the annual meeting of the American Political
                   Science Association in Washington, D.C., the seven
                   professors agreed Gore would trump GOP nominee
                   George W. Bush anywhere from a low of 52.8 percent
                   to Holbrook's high prediction with 60.3 percent of the
                   vote. 

                   This column by Fonder, a staff write for The Hill, a
                   Washington-based weekly that covers Congress,
                   appears every Monday in the News-Chronicle. You can
                   e-mail her with comments at melfonder@yahoo.com