Brown to campaign for Burns

Republican Tim Burns announced today that Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., will travel to Washington, Pa., to campaign for him May 14 -- in the final sprint before the 12th district special election. Brown, of course, was the upstart who won Sen. Ted Kennedy's old seat in Massachusetts and ended the Democrats' 60-vote supermajority in the Senate.

Though Burns is far from the underdog Brown was in Massachusetts, Republicans still see the opportunity to win the seat of Rep. John Murtha -- who died Feb. 8 -- as a major symbolic opportunity in the vein of the Kennedy seat.

Polling shows the race as neck-and-neck entering the final two weeks.

UPDATE: Democrat Mark Critz will bring an out-of-state endorsement of his own to Washington, Pa., Tuesday: West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. The two will appear at the Washington-Greene Central Labor Council to talk about the coal industry and investments in clean coal technology.