--The progressive Blue Mass Group blog/community, which opened a state PAC recently, commissioned a poll of the US Senate race. Taken Wednesday and Thursday, just after the first televised debate, the poll finds the race looks much like the Western Mass. poll showed before the debate: Coakley way ahead (but with soft support); Capuano and Pagliuca even; Khazei still on the starting blocks.

Gov. Patrick just announced his proposals for budget cuts in light of the $600m shortfall:

--No cuts to Ch. 70A (schools), higher ed, or local aid;

--Cutting $350m+ from executive branch agencies (specifics to come) -- which will affect services, he says;

--9 more unpaid furlough days for all non-union employees;

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I have an "items" column, with three items about the Massachusetts US Senate race.

First, I look at the endorsements being made by local and state political officeholders -- really, a divide between Martha Coakley and Michael Capuano. In the article, I note that Congresswoman Niki Tsongas had not yet endorsed; after we went to press, Tsongas announced her endorsement of Coakley.

After looking at the chances for Republicans to add elected women governors and Senators in the 2010 election cycle, let's turn to the US House of Representatives.

There are now just 17 Republican women in the House, out of 177 -- down from 25 three years ago.

One of those 17 is not running for re-election: Mary Fallin, who is running for Governor of Oklahoma.

Continuing from my last post, where I looked at the GOP's chances of adding women Governors in the 2010 election cycle. Now, let's turn our attention to the US Senate.

This has been a particular embarrassment for the party, as they currently have just four women among their 40 Senators, down from five a couple of years ago -- and soon to be three, when Kay Bailey Hutchison resigns, as expected, to focus on her gubernatorial campaign.

Two problems for the national GOP that I've been writing about for several years are in evidence in a special election going on in upstate New York, for an open Congressional seat long held by a moderate Republican. The state GOP powers there maneuvered to nominate Dierdre "Dede" Scozzafava -- or, as Michelle Malkin calls her, "radical leftist Dede Scozzafava."

As it happens, I am Facebook friends with, and a Twitter follower of, Michael Ross staffer Amy Derjue, dubbed today by the Boston Herald as the "poster girl for the on-the-clock cyber-slacking" that apparently infests our local governmental hackorama.

Derjue, as I have told her before, doesn't do enough posting during the day; if she's the worst offender, government employees are a lot more self-disciplined than I thought.

You may have heard about the special election going on in upstate New York, for an open Congressional seat long held by a moderate Republican. The state GOP powers maneuvered to nominate Dierdre "Dede" Scozzafava -- or, as Michelle Malkin calls her, "radical leftist Dede Scozzafava." The Conservative Party, which most often puts the GOP nominee on its own line on New York ballots, rejected Scozzafava and chose the rejected conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman.

First off, and most importantly, I give best tie to Capuano. (Unfair to Coakley? Perhaps. She can participate; if she chooses a blouse and pearl necklace that's her decision.) Other thoughts:

--Clear winner in the debate: Scott Brown. The four Dems are tripping over each other to get as far left as possible, giving the presumptive Republican nominee (sorry, Jack E.

I was fascinated to see that Tom Menino just had a banner fortnight of fundraising, reporting $160,000 in campaign contributions between October 1 and 15 -- the bulk of it coming, by my count, from 269 people ponying up the legal maximum of $500. Fascinated, because I'm thinking: if you're going to pay fealty to the mayor, why wait this long to do it? Doesn't it kind of make you look like you were waiting, maybe hoping for a Flaherty win, until the September preliminary convinced you that you'd better play ball with now and future mayor Menino?

I'm a fan of single-issue candidate forums -- but that's probably because I see enough of the candidates to know their one- or two-minute responses to all the big issues. Anyway, there are a couple of forums for the at-large city council candidates coming up that you might want to check out.

The first is tonight, focussing on parks and open spaces.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I size up the mayoral race as we head to the home stretch. I find that even though all the insiders and pundits think Michael Flaherty is far behind Tom Menino and needs to throw some desperation haymakers, that's not how the Flaherty campaign sees it.

When you're the hands-down frontrunner in the biggest political campaign going, you're going to get a lot of tough scrutiny from the press. Tom Reilly couldn't handle it; stories about the call to a DA on behalf of a friend, or about his lieutenant governor selection, unravelled him and led to his diminution in the eyes of voters.

It's been rough for these Boston City Council candidates trying to raise money -- which leaves them all straggling into the final stretch run with little to play with. Here's their cash on hand as of Oct. 15, according to the new campaign-finance reports:

John Connolly: appr. $75,000 - $80,000 (he's got some in a CD, so I don't know exactly.

As you may know, I am the self-proclaimed expert on contemporary conservative politics in America, so I want to take a brief break from the local campaign politics to comment on the Democracy Corps study on conservative Republicans. The bottom line is that what they found in their focus groups rings absolutely true to everything I've been finding: that a good chunk of America -- and an increasingly dominant portion of the Republican base -- views contemporary America much the way end-times believers view the world at large.