HARTFORD, Conn. - A black leader who had accused Sen. Joe Lieberman of lying about his civil rights record said Thursday he accepted Lieberman's word that he marched with 1960s-era activists against segregation.

ELDRIDGE, Iowa - Pillaging, plundering and grog, sweet grog — James Hill is happy to discuss the finer points of pirate life. Just not before you hear him out on lobbying reform.

Despite disappointments in the past two baseball seasons, Boston Red Sox fans still are living off the warm glow of a 2004 World Series victory that ended 86 years of frustration. This year, Massachusetts Democrats are looking to make like the Sox and break their own unusually long losing streak, at a landmark not far across town from Fenway Park: the governor’s office.

RICHMOND, Va. - Democrat Mark R. Warner, the former governor of Virginia, has decided not to run for president in 2008, saying he wanted "a real life" and feared the impact of a drawn-out campaign on his family.

Here are today's Battleground Dispatches — a roundup of what is going on right now in the year's hottest races, based on reports from local and national media, with 26 days remaining until Election Day.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - A Pennsylvania congressional candidate and former reality TV star used an elephant and a six-piece mariachi band for an elaborate political stunt designed to make a point about border security.

TRENTON, N.J. - The race between Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez and Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. remains virtually deadlocked with less than four weeks remaining before Election Day, a new poll shows.

DES MOINES, Iowa - A microcosm of a nation divided, Iowa is settling in for four weeks of stormy political weather. From Waterloo's aging brick factories to the riverfront gambling palaces in Davenport, two political newcomers seeking an open House seat are fighting over the minimum wage, Social Security and the war in Iraq.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Democrats seeking encouragement about the party's post-Katrina future in Louisiana found nothing to celebrate in the latest round of elections.

CLAYTON, Mo. - Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill cast herself as the next Harry Truman on Wednesday night as she sought to wrest Truman's former Senate seat away from Republican Sen. Jim Talent. Talent claimed McCaskill was weak, not tough like Truman.

LOS ANGELES - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger traded quips with the host one moment and criticized U.S. foreign policy the next during an appearance Wednesday on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" that had the governor's opponents crying foul because his Democratic rival wasn't included.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Republican Jim Barnett argued about higher education costs, stem cell research and property rights in a gubernatorial debate Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The Democrat candidate in California's election called on US network NBC to bar an episode of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" featuring Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a guest.

TRENTON, N.J. - Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez told The Associated Press Wednesday that he has not been subpoenaed in any federal investigation, a claim Republican opponent Tom Kean Jr. continued to maintain.

Clarification: The Democratic-allied political organization Majority Action told CQPolitics.com that it voluntarily removed an ad attacking GOP Rep. Chris Chocola on stem cell research because it felt its resources were better spent elsewhere, not because the organization was forced to remove the ad.

Unlike the other states in the Great Lakes region, Indiana has developed a reputation for leaning solidly toward Republican candidates. When was the last election that saw Democrats win all of the state's House seats? 1974 1966 1980 1932

WASHINGTON - House Republicans are scaling back television advertising reserved for four Democratic-held seats in Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia, officials said Wednesday, fresh evidence of the party's struggles as it tries to retain its majority.

ST. LOUIS - Election officials say hundreds of potentially bogus registration cards, including ones for dead and underage people, were submitted by a branch of a national group that has been criticized in the past for similar offenses.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Democratic challenger to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is angry that TV host Jay Leno has invited the Republican incumbent on his show weeks before the gubernatorial election but so far has snubbed him.

WASHINGTON - Democratic Rep. John Murtha, the decorated Marine veteran who favors withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, will campaign against the congresswoman who labeled him a coward.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - National Republicans haven't given up on former Rep. Mark Foley's district, recently spending $244,300 for television ads attacking Democratic hopeful Tim Mahoney.

BURLINGTON, Vt. - For three decades, Rep. Bernie Sanders has been a party of one, an avowed socialist who rails against corporate America, Republicans, Democrats and all those he believes fail the poor and working families. Now 65, the Brooklyn-born independent and his crusade could end up in the Senate.

Almost all of the races on which CQPolitics.com has changed its ratings this year have reflected stronger prospects for Democratic victories. One of these, in fact, was the contest in Oregon’s 5th District, which CQ in August shifted to Safe Democratic from Democrat Favored.

One measure of the Republican Party’s mostly defensive crouch in this tough election year is that, according to CQPolitics.com, the races for only 20 seats currently held by Democrats are rated as at all competitive — well less than third as many as those held by Republicans. And of those 20, just nine are in CQ’s highly competitive Leans Democratic category.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A Nevada law that bars exit polling near voting places violates the constitutional rights of the press, The Associated Press and five television networks allege in a lawsuit.

Almost 4 million Americans who have completed their prison terms remain unable to vote because of laws in most states that prevent them from doing so, according to a new report. But moves to restore those voting rights are spreading — even making the Nov. 7 ballot in Rhode Island.

WASHINGTON - The most common form of voter fraud involves absentee ballots, including forgery and coercion in getting older or ailing voters to fill them out, according to a preliminary report to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Democrat Darcy Burner’s challenge to freshman Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in Washington’s 8th District has become one of the year’s key battleground races — as evidenced by the fact that the national parties poured nearly $1 million dollars into this contest in the last two weeks.

On Taegan Goddard's Political Wire today: