Karen Elizabeth Price, daughter of U.S. Rep. David Price, has finished a documentary about the 2006 midterm elections.

The film, HouseQuake, focused on seven races including now-Rep. Heath Shuler, a Waynesville Democrat, The Washington Post's Reliable Source blog reports. 

Price, 39, is one of a handful of Congressional daughters who have become documentary filmmakers.

"It's an interesting trend," Price told the blog. "It seems to be the daughters. They tend to be political documentaries, too. I guess it gets in the blood.... There's maybe a need to make sense of it all and use our access to show everyone the reality of politics you don't see on cable news."

In the run-up to the 2006 midterm elections, she got the idea for a documentary about the Democrats' attempt to win back the House — after her dad told her about this  Rahm Emanuel guy with a plan so crazy it just might work.

"It was not a fun time to be a Democrat," she said. "They had to take on the belief they could win. I wanted to explore the question of, how do you create success?"

Nine North Carolina mayors made their case to Barack Obama's top staffers today.

As part of a group of several hundred mayors at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, the mayors heard from the president-elect's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and adviser Valerie Jarrett and transition team adviser David Axelrod.

The group is arguing for more of the federal stimulus package to be spent on local infrastructure, such as schools, water and sewer lines and even municipal Internet access.

Gastonia Mayor Jennie Stultz said that towns and cities would be more accountable for the spending, an argument she said seemed to play well with Obama's team.

"I don't think they're going to hand out a blank check," she said. "I think you've got to show them how you're going to spend it."

The North Carolina mayors will meet with U.S. Sens. Kay Hagan and Richard Burr Monday.

A retirement in New York and an Obama appointment boosted Rep. Bob Etheridge.

The Lillington Democrat was one of at least 20 members of Congress who hoped to snag one of two open seats on the 40-member House Ways and Means Committee next session.

One was vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York; the other, by Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who is leaving Congress to become President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff.

The positions are highly coveted because of the important role the committee plays in setting policies on taxes, health care and other major areas of policy.

Etheridge argued he should get the seat because North Carolina has not had a Democratic representative on the committee since 1953. He also benefited from a restructuring of the geographic regions the committee typically uses.

Previously, Rep. John Tanner of Tennessee had represented the region including his home state, the Carolinas, Alabama and Louisiana. The new region opened up a possible seat for North Carolina.

"We thought (North Carolina) was underrepresented," he said. "We made that argument to leadership ... and they were willing to listen." 

Joe Sinsheimer says Rahm Emanuel won't settle the presidential primary.

In a Newsweek article this week, the Democratic political consultant and friend of Emanuel's says that Emanuel is too close to Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod.

He also says that the Clinton's don't trust Emanuel, especially after Hillary Clinton tried to get him fired as a White House aide in 1993.

Sinsheimer says that Emanuel may have selfish reasons for wanting to stay uninvolved and avoid playing the role of party elder. "Rahm has his own ambitions," says Sinsheimer. If he runs for Speaker in four or six years, "why does he want to have 5, 10, 15 people on one side of this chasm or another mad at him over something?" 

Hat Tip: Mitch Kokai 

The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner could be a big hit this year.

The N.C. Democratic Party's annual fundraiser in Raleigh usually features a national political figure to draw party activists from across the state.

Last year, it was Rahm Emanuel. This year?

Let's put it this way: The dinner will be held at the Raleigh Sheraton on April 26. The state primary will be on May 6. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton say they will be campaigning heavily here.

And in other states, Jefferson-Jackson dinners have been huge magnets for the Democratic presidential candidates to court primary voters.

Party spokeswoman Kerra Bolton confirmed that both campaigns have been asked, but neither has confirmed yet.

Former White House advisor Karl Rove sees North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr as a rising star in national politics.

During a speech at Duke University Monday night, Rove was asked to name rising national stars who had presidential possibilties. He named Burr and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, reports Rob Christensen.

"There are number of people serving today who have great promise in the future,” Rove said. “One of them is from North Carolina. I am very impressed with him. He has a lot of knowledge about health care problems. He is a very impressive legislator.”

Rove had a role in advancing Burr’s political career. When he was still President Bush’s chief political advisor, Rove recruited Burr, then a Winston-Salem congressman, to run for the Senate in 2004.

Larry Kissell had a hard time getting Washington Democrats to return his calls last year.

But after watching Kissell, a Montgomery County school teacher, lose to Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes by only 329 votes, the D.C. Democrats have changed their tune, Rob Christensen reports.

Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, held a conference call last week trying to line up Democratic donors for Kissell’s rematch next year. He also sent out an email asking for help for Kissell.

"North Carolina’s 8th district is a priority for us at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee," Van Hollen writes. "We are committed to doing everything we can to get Larry elected, and we need you to make that same commitment."

More after the jump.

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Democratic consultant Gary Pearce doesn't buy the state Democratic Party's stated reason for closing their annual dinner to the press.

In a post on the Talking About Politics blog yesterday, Pearce said that the fundraiser should have been open because "nothing is more suspicious to Americans than secrecy in government."

He said state party chairman Jerry Meek's explanation that a staffer misunderstood Emanuel's question about a television camera "makes no sense at all."

Who told him no press? And does Rahmbo think that a big shot like himself, crowned by the media as the man who heroically won back the House in 2006, could come to little old North Carolina and not be surrounded by reporters eager to broadcast his every word?

For his part, Meek said that he had no problem with allowing the press at the event.

State Democratic Chairman Jerry Meek said reporters were barred from the party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner over the weekend as a result of a miscommunication.

Meek said Rahm Emanuel, the House Democratic caucus leader, the dinner's main speaker, had been told there was not going to be any press coverage of the Democrats' annual fundraiser at the North Raleigh Hilton, reports Rob Christensen.

"When he saw the TV camera, he said 'I was told no press,'" said Meek. "We were under the assumption his desire was for no press. In reality, he didn't have any preference one way or another."

"From what I understand," Meek said, "it seemed like a miscommunications of significant proportions between us and Rep. Emanuel."

Meek said Emanuel delivered "a pretty standard Jefferson-Jackson speech" — Democrats good, Republicans bad.

"I'd have no problem with reporters being there," Meek said.

Emanuel, a Chicago Democrat, attended a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler at Caffe Luna in downtown Raleigh and a fundraiser for Larry Kissell, a Democrat challenging Republican Rep. Robin Hayes of Concord, at state Democratic headquarters.

Emanuel had earned the ire of some Tar Heel Democrats last year when he declined to provide much financial help to Kissell, who came very close to upsetting Hayes.

The decision to bar reporters from U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's speech on Saturday brought up an interesting parallel from 2006.

When the state Republican Party decided to kick the news media out of parts of its convention, North Carolina's Democrats went on the attack.

"This past weekend in New Bern, the North Carolina Republican Party held their state convention under a cloud of secrecy," noted a press release from June 5, 2006.

It went on to quote state Democratic Party chairman Jerry Meek:

"The North Carolina Republican Party is worried and it showed with their closed convention. ... Their Party is in disarray from the Bush administration on down. For fear of their activists and delegates admitting that they are frustrated and dispirited, the NCGOP banned access and transparency. When the North Carolina Democratic Party meets on June 24th in High Point for our State Convention, all convention business will be open to the press. Not only is that more democratic, it's the right thing to do."