Taking Back Congress

Mitchell is a larger-than-life figure in Tempe. "There are not many people running who've got a thirty-foot statue erected in their honor," notes Van Hollen of the DCCC. "That's a nice place to start from." As mayor for sixteen years, Mitchell oversaw a renaissance of Tempe's decaying downtown, and he can not only claim his statue -- thirty-five feet, to be exact -- but City Hall itself, now known as the Harry E. Mitchell Government Center.

His opponent, Hayworth, is a Republican revolutionary from the class of 1994 who doesn't shy from the spotlight. A regular commentator for Fox News, he advocates arresting and deporting all 12 million of the nation's undocumented immigrants. Such demagoguery, while impractical, does offer a noisy distraction from Hayworth's ethical lapses. The congressman's wife has pocketed more than $100,000 as the sole employee of his fund-raising committee, and Hayworth is reportedly under investigation for his ties to Abramoff, having been the beneficiary of five fund-raisers in the disgraced lobbyist's luxury skyboxes.

Despite Hayworth's vulnerabilities, the district has been gerrymandered in a way that makes it an uphill fight. Republicans outnumber Democrats eight to five, and Mitchell is relatively unknown to voters in Mesa, Scottsdale and the Phoenix suburbs who outnumber his base in Tempe. "This district leans Republican," concedes Van Hollen. "It's not a slam dunk by any means."

#9: Read about the New York district whose local murder rate has fallen by nearly two-thirds under the incumbent.