The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that a recent poll “shows Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich leading incumbent Ted Stevens in the U.S. Senate race.” The poll, conducted May 6-10 by Anchorage firm Hellenthal and Associates, “found 51 percent of those responding would vote for Begich in November’s general election, compared to 44 percent who said they would back Stevens,” the newspaper reports. Stevens’ bid to win a seventh full term in the Senate has been overshadowed by an ongoing corruption investigation by the Justice Department. Stevens, who remains popular in the state, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. But the poll “indicates Begich is gaining name recognition across the state,” according to the Daily News-Miner.

According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, more of Rep. Laura Richardson ’s financial problems have been exposed. This time, they are car-related: A mechanic and a body shop told the newspaper that she stiffed them in 2005. And afterward, she “began using a city-owned vehicle — putting almost 31,000 miles on it in about a year — and continued driving the car five days after she had left the council to serve in the state Assembly,” the Press-Telegram reports, citing city records. “Last month, it was reported that Richardson’s Sacramento home, where she had lived during her brief Assembly stint before moving on to Congress, had fallen into foreclosure and been sold at auction,” according to the paper. “Further investigation revealed she had defaulted on that house and two others in Long Beach and San Pedro a total of eight times since 2004.” Richardson is unchallenged in her bid to retain her 37th District seat.

The Boston Globe reports that Sen. John Kerry , D-Mass., will face “his first Democratic primary challenge in 24 years.” At the state Democratic convention on Sunday, Gloucester lawyer Ed O’Reilly “got 22.5 percent of the 2,574 ballots cast, more than the 15 percent he needed to secure a spot on the primary ballot,” according to the Globe. Kerry’s has not had a Democratic primary challenge since 1984, when he and three others ran for a seat vacated by Democrat Paul Tsongas.