A new UMass Lowell-Boston Herald poll in Massachusetts finds Rep. Edward Markey (D) leading Gabriel Gomez (R) in the special U.S. Senate election, 56% to 36%.

Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who declined to run in the special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, told Fox 25 that he would be able to win the seat if he had run.

Said Brown: “Yeah, I do. I could beat Ed Markey, absolutely.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “is ready to hire more state workers and rent extra voting machines to avoid any last-minute chaos between New Jersey’s two major elections this year,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.

“Christie called a special Senate election for Oct. 16 at an estimated cost of $12 million — a price tag that would rise if the Republican governor goes through with any of the backup plans his staff described to the court.”

“The date for the Senate election — 20 days before the Nov. 5 vote for governor and for all the seats in the Legislature — has rankled Democrats who said Christie could have combined the two elections but chose to spend millions to split them and boost his re-election chances.”

Requests for absentee ballots in next Tuesday’s special U.S. Senate election have slipped 22% from the January 2010 special election, the Boston Globe reports.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office said he was “extremely concerned” about the level of voter participation in the race between Ed Markey (D) and Gabriel Gomez (R).

Virginia Lt. Gov candidate E.W. Jackson (R) said that Americans “should remember” the country’s history of slavery, but “not wallow in it,” the Hampton Roads Daily Press reports.

He stressed that it was “not slavery that eroded the black family but government policies in the 1960s.”

Said Jackson: “In 1960 most black children were raised in two parent monogamous families. By now, by this time, we only have 20 percent of black children being raised in two parent monogamous families with a married man and woman raising those children. It wasn’t slavery that did that. It was government that did that trying to solve problems that only God can solve, and that only we as human beings can solve.”

“The last answer is one of the things that gets all of my political advisors nervous. So get ready for a nervous moment… for them, they’re going to get nervous now. Because my favorite football team is not the New York Giants, it’s not the New York Jets and it’s not the Philadelphia Eagles. Get ready now. My favorite football team is the Dallas Cowboys.”

— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by CBS New York, also noting that he’s a New York Mets fan but “they stink.”

A new Rasmussen survey in New Jersey finds Cory Booker (D) running way ahead of Steve Lonegan (R) in a potential special U.S. Senate election match up, 50% to 33%.

Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R) formally announced that he will challenge Sen. Mark Begich (D) next year, Roll Call reports.

“His candidacy, which has been expected for some time, gives Republicans a top-tier opponent in one of the party’s best pickup opportunities in the country.”

Christine Quinn, “whose lead in the New York mayoral race appears to have narrowed after weeks of attacks from her rivals, plans to push back on Monday, arguing in what her campaign is billing as a major speech that she is more qualified and more gutsy than the other Democratic contenders,” the New York Times reports.

“The speech appears to signify a shift in Ms. Quinn’s approach after a period in which the race has been altered by the entrance of former Representative Anthony D. Weiner, who rivals Ms. Quinn for name recognition, although some of his notoriety comes from his sending sexually explicit messages and images to women he did not know.”

A new Boston Globe poll finds Rep. Edward Markey (D) holds a solid lead over rival Gabriel Gomez (R), 54% to 41%, as the two enter the final week of the special U.S. Senate campaign.

When you include voters who said they haven’t yet made up their minds but are leaning toward a candidate, the race tightens slightly, with 54% favoring Markey and 43% favoring Gomez.

A new Stockton College poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie (R) crushing challenger Barbara Buono (D) in his race for re-election, 64% to 24%.

“It is the principle of sin, rebellion against God and His truth which has brought about birth defects and other destructive natural occurrences.”

— Virginia Lt. Gov. candidate E.W. Jackson (R), quoted by BuzzFeed in his 2008 book, Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life.

“I do not believe that yoga leads to Satanism.”

— Virginia Lt. Gov. candidate E.W. Jackson (R), in a must-read Richmond Times-Dispatch article.

A new Monmouth poll in New Jersey finds that among potential voters in the August Democratic primary, Cory Booker (D) holds a commanding lead over his challengers, garnering 63% support, compared to 10% for Rush Holt (D), 8% for Frank Pallone, and 6% for Sheila Oliver (D).

“I think that he’s a moron and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation. I have no idea what goes into the mind of a moron like that… These kinds of comments only come from a moron and they shouldn’t be tolerated one bit.”

— Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez (R), quoted by ABC News, on Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) claiming that few women who are raped end up pregnant.

A new Harper Polling survey in Massachusetts finds Rep. Ed Markey (D) with a 12-point lead over Gabriel Gomez (R), 49% to 37%.

Said pollster Brock McLeary: “Simply put, Gomez trails because there are more Democrats than Republicans in the state. In the next two weeks, the challenge for Gomez is to open up a sizable lead among independents. There are indications that this is possible, but this survey indicates that the race is currently tied among independents.”

New York Times: “It can sometimes seem that Mr. Booker was born on third base in politics, too. For more than a decade, he has occupied a level of celebrity outsized for a councilman and then mayor of the historically troubled city of Newark.”

“Now, as he embarks on a whirlwind run for the United States Senate, he finally seems poised to step into a position that matches his much-discussed promise.”

“If he wins, Mr. Booker will instantly become one of the most prominent figures in Washington. If he loses, it will be a spectacular and surprising flameout.”

Virginia Lt. Gov. nominee E.W. Jackson (R) misspelled the title of his 2008 book, Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life: Making Your Dreams Come True.

The book has a typo on its front cover, with one “m” missing in “commandments,” the Huffington Post reports.