...Max Sandlin, of Texas. But presidential politics aid Democrats elsewhere. In Connecticut, for example, GOP Reps. Chris Shays and Rob Simmons are struggling for new terms in a state that is safe for Mr. Kerry. In a late-campaign bid for gains...

...the GOP House leadership rallied around him. It must have been particularly gratifying for the speaker when Reps. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Peter King, R-N.Y., stood up for him. They were his harshest GOP critics leading up to the...