These two great Progessive Dem Senate candidates need your help!  We need a bigger Senate majority in order to override GOP filibusters and pass progressive legislation in case we lose the support of a few conservative Blue Dog Dems.  Please donate what you can to help put them in office!

http://www.actblue.com/page/92kforkay

http://www.jeffmerkley.com/contribute?code=www

Kay Hagan of North Carolina is locked in a close battle with Liddy Dole (polls).

Born in Shelby, Kay met her husband Chip in law school at Wake Forest. After her third child was born, Kay left her banking job at NCNB, where she had worked in the estate and trust division and helped people plan for their loved ones’ long term security and care, to focus on being a full-time mom. Like many mothers across North Carolina, she stayed active in the community, raising money for local causes, helping out at the Bell House and the Moses Cone Hospital, volunteering with the Junior League, teaching Sunday school classes and leading a Girl Scout troop.

While in the state Senate, she has proven to be an effective leader who is not afraid to do the hard work to bridge partisan divides and always put people before politics. Named one of North Carolina’s “Ten Most Effective Senators,” three terms in a row by the non-partisan North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, Governor Mike Easley calls Kay “one of the smartest, hardest working, most effective senators we have in Raleigh.”

"Ten years ago, I was a working mom who went to Raleigh because I thought the state needed a voice like mine. I’m still that same person, but my children are grown and I’m no longer car-pooling them to soccer practice while talking to the Governor on my cell phone."

Jeff Merkley is trying to knock off Gordon Smith in Oregon (polls).

Jeff Merkley was born in the small town of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, the son of a sawmill worker. He's fought hard for working families in Oregon and he's ready to help lead America.

As Oregon's Speaker of the House, Jeff Merkley led one of the most effective, efficient and progressive legislative sessions in Oregon's history - with big achievements for schools, ethics, health care, jobs, alternative energy, and protections for working families.

Merkley raced [quarter-midget cars] as a child, and once owned -- and crashed -- a Harley. He roomed with an impoverished family in Ghana as a teen, hitchhiked across Israel as a young man and went on, as he puts it, to help shut down one of Portland's worst crack alleys.

"I've lived," he says, "a pretty unconventional life."