The political machine is getting cranked up for Anne Barth, one of three Democrats vying to oppose incumbent Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito this fall.

The campaign sent out two releases Wednesday.  The first highlighted a Barth fundraiser in DC with legislative leaders and other bigwigs in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly called Barth "a star."

The second announced that Barth is now a member of the "Red-to-Blue" program with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  Bottom line -- Barth is going to get some cash in her bid for higher name recognition.  The DCCC says it spent an  average of more than $400,000 on each chosen campaign in 2006.  To get in the program, the DCCC release says Barth had to surpass "demanding fundraising goals."

According to Mark Ferrell with the Barth campaign, Barth raised more than $100,000 in state before the DC fundraiser this week.  Ferrell says they're still counting the money from the DC fundraiser, but he says the in state total helped "raise eyebrows" in DC.

One other note on today's Barth media...

One of the releases sent out by the Barth team Wednesday had an addendum at the bottom, pointing out that Congressman Nick Rahall and Congressman Alan Mollohan voted this week to create an independent Office of Ethics.  It highlighted the fact that Congresswoman Capito did not vote.  For the record -- her spokesperson says Capito kept a committment she made to attend a dinner to honor Congressional Medal of Honor winners in New York, including West Virginia's Woody Williams.  A Capito rep indicated she would have voted in favor of the legislation.