Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein — who had some of his thunder stolen by a Florida Democratic Party attack mailer that revealed Republican challenger Allen West’s Social Security number — released a new ad Monday calling West “too extreme.”

West unveiled an ad this morning linking Klein to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and “union bosses.”

Read more after the jump….

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly reported that the anti-West mailer was sent by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s campaign. The mailer was sent by the Florida Democratic Party.

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The Florida Democratic Party sent out a mailer last week detailing Republican congressional challenger Allen West’s 2005 tax lien and court orders to pay delinquent credit card bills. West is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein.

The mailer includes a reproduction of the $11,081 tax lien filed against West in Marion County, Indiana, and paid off four months later. The document, pulled from public records, includes a column titled “Identifying Number” that shows West’s nine-digit Social Security number. Although the number isn’t specifically identified as a Social Security number, West campaign manager Josh Grodin said there is no mistaking what the number is.

West called the mailer “an unprecedented new low in American politics.”

Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff responded by accusing West of “paranoia” and adding: “After making every effort to remove all of Allen West’s private information, unlike West who refuses to apologize to Florida’s taxpayers for not paying his taxes and his bills, we apologize for the oversight of not redacting this information from the public record included in the mailer. To end, while this mail piece does not explicitly identify any Social Security number, in order to stop the crazy West accusations, we will pay for identify theft monitoring for the next two years.”

In addition to the 31 House Democrats who signed a letter calling for the “short-term” extension of all the Bush tax cuts, Politico.com reports there are at least seven other Dems holding that position.

Two Florida Democrats facing tough reelection fights — U.S. Reps. Ron Klein and Allen Boyd — signed the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week. Another endangered Dem, Central Florida Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, is also on board, says Politico.

Republicans are largely united in favor of extending all the tax cuts, including those for upper-income earners. President Obama has called for letting the tax cuts expire for families earning more than $250,000.

U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, was one of many Democrats who favored letting the Bush tax cuts expire for upper-income earners.

But Klein and 30 other Democrats have signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking that all the Bush tax cuts be extended. Many of the signers, including Klein, face tough reelection fights this fall.

Klein recently came out for a one-year extension of all the Bush tax cuts; the letter he signed advocates a “short-term” extension.

Read the latest here.

Confirming the high national stakes attached to the congressional race between U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Republican challenger Allen West, President Obama will come to the Coral Gables home of former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning next month to raise money for Klein.

The Oct. 11 event is a joint fund-raiser for Klein’s campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which means an individual can give up to $32,800 rather than the $2,400 limit to an individual candidate.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s third TV ad is also his third slam on Republican challenger Allen West, calling him “too extreme for South Florida.”

The ad features a clip of West at a tea party rally saying “I’m just honored to be here today with all of my fellow right-wing extremists.”

Asked if West’s remarks might be considered tongue-in-cheek, a Klein spokeswoman said “as always, Allen West’s own words speak for themselves.”

Klein’s ad also claims West favors “destroying” Social Security and believes Medicare “can be cut” — although the Klein campaign doesn’t cite direct quotes of West saying either.

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Republican congressional challenger Allen West, who says his references to butt-whoopings and trips behind the woodshed are “how men talk,” steers clear of the harsh rhetoric in his new ad against U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. Instead, West sticks to a cookie-cutter 2010 Republican challenger theme of pointing out that the economy remains troubled despite last year’s Democratic stimulus bill, which Klein supported.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein won his Palm Beach-Broward congressional seat in 2006 by nationalizing his campaign against former Rep. Clay Shaw, relentlessly tying the Republican incumbent to former President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

Four years later, Klein is the incumbent confronting a different national tide.

In a swing district that will help determine which party controls the U.S. House, Republican challenger Allen West wants to make the District 22 race a referendum on President Obama and the Democratic Congress.

Klein wants to make the race about West.

Read the entire story here.

“Are you fed up with Congress?” says Republican congressional challenger Allen West in the type of ad GOP non-incumbents will be airing across the nation this fall. West’s new ad hits U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, for voting for last year’s $787 billion stimulus “while our economy fails.”

Klein’s first two ads have blasted West over his personal finances, including an $11,081 tax lien from 2005 that was paid off in 2006. West says “it’s time for a real discussion of the issues” while the screen shows a picture of Klein and the words “Afraid To Run On His Record.”

With the Bush tax cuts set to expire Dec. 31 unless Congress acts, President Obama is sticking to his position that the tax breaks should end for the wealthiest filers, pushing them into a 39.6 percent top bracket instead of the current 35 percent top rate.

Obama’s position is shared by Democratic Senate nominee Kendrick Meek. Democratic governor candidate Alex Sink, however, said in Delray Beach Tuesday that all the tax cuts should be extended.

And U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, facing a tough reelection challenge from Republican Allen West, came out Tuesday for a one-year extension.

Says Klein: “Every day, I hear from families that are still struggling with bills and people who can’t find a job no matter how hard they try, so I believe right now, our top economic priority has to be job creation. In order to achieve that, we need tax credits for small businesses that will help create new American jobs, while also promoting investment and growth. As we work to rebuild the economy, I support a one-year extension of the so-called Bush tax cuts.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, has released his second TV spot — another attack on Republican challenger Allen West’s handling of his personal finances.

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U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, ripped Republican challenger Allen West tonight and told a roomful of Democratic activists that the party needs to retain control of Congress to further President Obama’s agenda.

“I’m running against a person who is a right-wing nut,” Klein told the crowd of more than 100 at the Palm Beach County Democratic Executive Committee meeting west of Delray Beach. He read to the partisans from a recent West blog post in which West identified his mission as “destroying the liberal progressive socialist machine and its legislative agenda……Klein is just a stepping stone to that end.”

Said Klein: “What we want on election day is for America to continue to move forward with a progressive agenda…It’s all in our hands to give Barack Obama two more years of a Congress that will work with him to continue to build our country. It’s two more years of an opportunity to build on the good things that we’ve done.”

Gallup finds the GOP taking an “unprecedented” 10-point advantage over Democrats in the generic congressional ballot question — 51 percent to 41 percent.

And the latest monthly Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds support for the new health care law — the signature accomplishment of the Democrat-controlled 111th Congress — dropping seven points in August to 43 percent approval, with 45 percent disapproving. Among independent voters, Kaiser finds the health care law is viewed favorably by 41 percent, unfavorably by 48 percent.

Generic ballots and national surveys are one thing, but congressional races are of course decided by voters in 435 separate districts.

In Florida, the national trends put a greater spotlight on four Democratic U.S. House incumbents who face stiff Republican challenges — U.S. Reps. Ron Klein of Boca Raton, Alan Grayson of Orlando, Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach and Allen Boyd of Monticello.

The abstract “constitutional principles” and “core values” of Republican congressional challenger Allen West’s first ad have given way to an economic message in his second spot, released today.

Many Republicans believe continued economic anxieties and the absence of a promised “recovery summer” will be the key to GOP hopes of picking up congressional seats in 2010 from incumbents who have backed the Democratic economic plan like U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. While West has been using his blog to rip Klein, the incumbent isn’t mentioned in this ad.

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Republican congressional challenger Allen West’s latest blog post on his campaign website blasts U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, for starting the general election campaign with an attack ad against West last week.

“Message to all liberals, name calling and petulant simpleton gimmicks dare not distract me from my mission; destroying the liberal progressive socialist machine and its legislative agenda……Klein is just a stepping stone to that end,” West writes.

West refers to Klein as “inept” and “little Lord Ron” and “this cretin” and “the pathetic liberal Congressman against whom I run.” He also calls Klein “little Ronnie” and a “Mama’s boy” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s campaign is slamming Republican challenger Allen West again over an $11,081 tax lien that was placed on West in 2005 and satisfied four months later.

When Klein highlighted the lien in a TV ad ripping West on Tuesday night, West campaign manager Josh Grodin said Klein “flat out lied.” Grodin said he would produce documents Wednesday to prove the lien had been a mistake. But Grodin said Thursday that rounding up the documents was proving more difficult than he had thought.

“I spoke a little too soon as far as having all the documents,” Grodin said. “I jumped the gun. I’m still confident that was a mistake by the IRS.”

West himself said Thursday he doesn’t remember being hit with the lien in November 2005 or released from it in March 2006. West was working as a military adviser in Afghanistan at the time, his campaign said.

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The morning after winning his Republican primary — and drawing an attack ad from incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton — Allen West releases his first 30-second TV spot, an upbeat message featuring kids saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

West campaign manager Josh Grodin says he’s still rounding up documents that will show a 2005 IRS lien against West in Indiana, the centerpiece of Klein’s ad, was a mistake that the IRS corrected.

None of that feel-good introductory stuff for U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, as he begins his general election race against Republican challenger Allen West.

With the polls barely closed from today’s primaries, the Klein campaign tonight is launching the first ad of the fall campaign — a 30-second spot slamming West for some financial issues originally reported here plus a claim that West had an $11,000 IRS lien filed against him in Marion County, Ind.

West campaign manager Josh Grodin says he’ll provide proof Wednesday that the document cited in the Klein ad is not valid.

Says Grodin: “It’s sad that Klein has chosen to play politics as usual at a time when our country needs principled leadership – especially considering the fact that he flat out lied about Allen ever having an IRS lien in Marion County. Let me say this again. Allen West, and his wife Dr. Angela M. Graham-West have never resided, nor owned property in Marion County, IN, and there was never a valid IRS lien placed upon them. Since Ron Klein approved this message, then Ron Klein owes the West family a formal public apology for this outrageous lie in his first campaign ad in 2010.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s campaign has launched a new YouTube channel featuring videos of Republican challenger Allen West. The Klein camp contends the videos will show the conservative West is too “radical” and “extreme” for the swing-voter sensibilities of Palm Beach-Broward congressional District 22.

West says he has nothing to hide. In fact, in the above video, taped March 8 and posted by Klein’s campaign last week, here’s what West says around the 6:15 mark:

“Now I don’t know if we got some Ron Klein supporters here that are trying to tape me or if we have some people that are going to try and bring something against me later on. If so, please come up to the front. Because I want you to clearly hear what I have to say. I am not afraid of saying it…”

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

Here, by the way, is the double-platinum YouTube video of West that has helped him raise nearly $3.5 million since last October while Klein has raised just under $1.5 million during the same period.

The Federal Election Commission reports are in for the July 1-Aug. 4 money dash and Republican challenger Allen West’s $530,806 in receipts topped incumbent Democratic Rep. Ron Klein’s $142,704.

Klein spokeswoman Sarah Rothschild noted that Klein holds a “significant” advantage in cash on hand: $2.84 million to $2.25 million. But Klein’s overall money edge is getting less significant with each reporting period. Last October, Klein had nearly $2.2 million in the bank to West’s $247,416.

West continues to spend heavily. He disbursed $462,717 during the last five-week period, much of it on a direct-mail campaign.

Another interesting West number: more than half of his latest receipts — $298,969 — came from contributors giving less than $200. Those are prime prospects for West to hit up again over the next two months. Klein got $6,519 from the under-$200 crowd.