Tom Cole

WASHINGTON – National Republican Congressional Committee chair Tom Cole is set to launch a three-week national tour of competitive house races, beginning with stops in two hotly contested districts in California.

While the schedule is still tentative, according to an NRCC source familiar with the plans, the trip will bring Cole to California’s 11th and 4th Congressional Districts on Oct. 2 and Oct. 3, respectively. The 11th district matchup features Republican Dean Andal challenging U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton), while Republican Tom McClintock is battling Democrat Charlie Brown in the 4th district.

Cole, a third term congressman from Oklahoma who is in his first stint as the GOP House campaign chief, is a top fundraising draw for House candidates across the country.

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy: File PhotoWASHINGTON -- Kevin McCarthy, the first term U.S. Congressman from Bakersfield who is widely seen as a rising star within the Republican Party, tells PolitickerCA.com that he would not take the reins at the beleaguered National Republican Congressional Committee should sitting chair Tom Cole step aside.

"I don't think that you change midstream. You create a strategy and you play out the plan. Does the plan have to adapt? Yeah the plan has to adapt. I think the strength Cole - he's been in the foxhole before," said McCarthy this morning while sitting in his office in the Longworth building, a block from the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerneyWASHINGTON - In the face of what is expected to be a fierce Republican push, Democrat Jerry McNerney is pursuing a grassroots-driven strategy in his bid to keep the District 11 U.S. House seat.

“That’s the big thing,” says McNerney spokesman Andy Stone. “Getting out and talking to voters.”

McNerney, a first term Congressman who unseated U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo in 2006, has been attending public events in an effort to solidify his support, while volunteers have been going door-to-door in cities across the Stockton-area district.