Scott Brown

The Democratic and Republican State Committees reported spending significant sums of money on select State House candidates in the first half October, according to their bi-monthly reports with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

The reports, which cover where the committees spent money through Oct. 15, are the last reports the committees will likely file before Election Day.

The Democratic State Committee started the period with nearly three times the amount of money in its bank account than the Republican State Committee had, $281,000 to $100,000, respectively. The Democratic committee spent nearly $108,000 in those two weeks, compared to $27,800 for the Republicans, though not all of that went to candidates.

Check out which candidates received funds from their party's state committee after the jump.

UPDATED: Gov. Deval Patrick will campaign Wednesday with Democratic state Senate candidate Sara Orozco and Democratic state House candidate Bill Bowles in Attleboro, according to the Orozco campaign.

Patrick, a Milton Democrat, is joining the two candidates for coffee at Jaec's Café in Attleboro.

An internal campaign poll suggests that while she certainly has an uphill battle, Democratic challenger Sara Orozco could upset state Sen. Scott Brown if several things break her way.

Sara Orozco (D-Needham)Orozco's poll, made available to PolitickerMA.com Wednesday, shows that Orozco, of Needham, significantly trailing the Brown by 23 percent. However, when it looks deeper into the poll, the Orozco campaign sees a path to victory.

In the survey, Brown, of Wrentham, trounced Orozco in name recognition, 81.5 percent to 18.5 percent. Brown also had a strong favorability rating, 51.1 percent, compared to low unfavorability rating, 15.7 percent. More, nearly six in 10 respondents approved of Brown's job performance. Orozco's name recognition was only 18.5 percent with a favorability and unfavorability comparison of 6.7 to 4.7 percent. And, if the election were held at the time the poll was taken, Brown would have defeated Orozco 52.9 percent to 29.5 percent.

However, 45.3 percent of respondents said Brown deserves re-election while 22.5 percent opted for "someone else" and 32.3 percent were undecided, a statistic the Orozco camp believes leaves the door open to a challenger. Respondents also favored Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain by nearly 20 points, 50.6 percent to 30.2 percent. Given the high turnout expected this year, the Orozco campaign expects many of those voters to break for Orozco.

Republicans in the state Senate called on the legislature Thursday to force Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Milton) to abolish the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority because of what they State Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield)called a "constant stream of fiscal mismanagement."

They plan to offer an amendment before the end of the session that would require Patrick to eliminate the authority by July 1, 2009. 

"We can't just bail out the Turnpike Authority by handing over a blank check," said Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield) in a statement. "We need to correct the financial mismanagement problems at the Authority once and for all because we owe it to the taxpayers of the commonwealth to ensure that their money is being spent properly."

Democrat Sara Orozco, a Needham psychologist and small business owner, launched her campaign to unseat state Sara Orozco (D-Needham)Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) at two campaign events this weekend, promising to address important issues facing Massachusetts.

"Individuals alone can't fix a sagging economy, out-of-control health care costs, or the need for better access to higher education," Orozco said at events at the Needham Town Common and at the Seven Arrows Farm in Attleboro. "But our state government can - and must - create a strong foundation upon which our public systems are built."