Rep. Charlie Melancon (right) is seizing the oil disaster in his race against Sen. David Vitter. | AP photo composite by POLITICO Dems drill campaign foes over BP

Democratic candidates in a handful of pivotal Senate races have seized on the Gulf oil disaster to go on offense against their Republican opponents, painting them as tools of BP and other firms responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In other words: move over, Goldman Sachs. The 2010 campaign has a new toxic corporation for candidates to bludgeon.


While the oil leak poses a political threat to the Obama administration, undermining President Barack Obama's image of competence and command, other members of the president's party have seen the Gulf leak turn to their advantage, allowing them to set up a people-versus-the-powerful narrative against Republican opponents tied in some way to big oil.

Among the loudest Democratic voices responding to the oil disaster has been Louisiana Rep. Charlie Melancon, a third-term representative from the New Orleans area who is challenging Republican Sen. David Vitter this year.

Melancon drew wide media attention last month after he teared up during a congressional hearing on the oil spill. This week, he appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" to denounce BP CEO Tony Hayward and call for his removal.

"I was watching this week as the CEO of BP was talking about, he wants his life back. I'm to the point where I wish the board would call him back and give us somebody that really wants to make sure that the people of this state, the people of this Gulf Coast region, have what they need," Melancon said. "If I performed the way this company's performed — and of course, look at the stock and what's happened to it because of this incident — usually, the buck stops there."

Melancon's campaign is now circulating a petition, asking the oil company to "send BP CEO Tony Hayward a pink slip."

While the congressman has trailed Vitter in polls all year — a Rasmussen Reports survey in April gave the incumbent a 16-point lead — the oil leak has given Melancon's previously sleepy campaign an issue to rally around. And Democrats blasted out a Time magazine article this week spotlighting Vitter's support for a liability cap for oil companies like BP.

In Florida, too, where oil may next make landfall, Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek has pointed to offshore drilling as a point of contrast between his record and those of his two opponents in the Senate race: Republican former state House Speaker Marco Rubio and Independent Gov. Charlie Crist.

While Rubio has moderated his rhetoric on drilling and Crist has effectively reversed his past support for offshore exploration, Meek's campaign is quick to note that he's the only major candidate in the race who's always opposed near-shore drilling projects.

In an online petition calling for a moratorium on new wells, his camp writes: "Kendrick Meek is the only candidate who has consistently been against expanded drilling. ... Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio need to know that the people of Florida want to stop expansion of oil drilling off our coasts."

It's not just on the Gulf Coast where Democrats have jumped on the oil leak to go on political offense. In Indiana, Democrats targeted former Republican Sen. Dan Coats — the GOP's nominee for retiring Sen. Evan Bayh's open seat — for his lobbying firm's connections to BP and Halliburton, and Democratic strategist James Carville penned a fundraising appeal, slamming Coats as a tool of big oil.

"Dan Coats, the Republican nominee for Senate is a lobbyist for big corporate special interests like chemical companies, oil companies, and insurance companies," wrote Carville, who has been one of the loudest voices criticizing the response to the oil leak. "Two companies share the responsibility for the Gulf catastrophe. They are: BP and Halliburton — they are both clients of Dan Coats’ law and lobbying firm, King and Spalding."

The state party planned to release a Web video Friday highlighting Coats's vote for the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which limited corporate liability in cases like the Gulf disaster, and warning: "These companies have helped pay Dan Coats' salary for years. In the Senate, he'd answer to them."

A fourth Senate race appears to have tightened noticeably since the oil disaster began unfolding, as Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan has hammered Republican Rep. Roy Blunt over his track record of taking political contributions from oil interests.

Starting last month, Carnahan's campaign lashed Blunt for being one of the top recipients of BP contributions in the House, and Carnahan spokesman Linden Zakula told POLITICO: "Time and time again, Congressman ‘Bailout’ Blunt puts corporate special interests ahead of Missouri families."

A Rasmussen poll released Wednesday showed Blunt and Carnahan in a virtual tie for the open seat of retiring Republican Kit Bond. Blunt took 45 percent of the vote to Carnahan's 44 percent —- his worst showing in a Rasmussen survey since last September, and a seven-point slip since the pollster's last test of the race.

There are Republicans, too, who have seen their political fortunes rise along with the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Republican governors on the Gulf Coast —- Louisiana's Bobby Jindal chief among them —- have cut commanding figures at a moment of national crisis. The independent Crist may have benefited from repeated opportunities to appear with President Obama and other administration officials responding to the disaster.

Polls have shown broad public frustration with BP over its handling of the Gulf crisis, and 70 percent of respondents in a CBS News survey released Friday said the company should be doing more to clean up the oil leak.

The White House has also drawn negative reviews from the public, and 44 percent in the CBS poll said they disapproved of the Obama administration's response. Just 38 percent said they approved of the government's handling of the situation.