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The Missouri Republican Party attacked Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) for appearing to keep his campaign manager on the official House payroll. According to the Jefferson City News-Tribune, the state GOP e-mailed a release linking to LegiStorm's data showing that Jason Rauch, now managing Skelton's campaign, earned more than $28,000 as a Legislative Assistant through the first six months of 2010.

However, Skelton's office said Rauch was placed on unpaid leave June 28 to work on the campaign.

It is not unusual for congressional staffers to go on leave without pay status to work on their boss's campaign and to avoid running afoul of ethics restrictions on campaign work and outside income. But even if Rauch had remained on Skelton's official payroll while working on the campaign, it would not violate House ethics rules as long as he did not do any campaign work using official resources or time, and continued to fulfill his official House duties.

Privately funded congressional travel may become an issue in the hotly contested New York Senate race.

The New York Daily News used LegiStorm's data to take a look at former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford's travel when in office. Ford took more than 70 privately funded trips, ranking him among the most-traveled members of Congress.

Ford is widely expected to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in this year's Democratic primary, and Daily News indicated his past travel could become a campaign issue. Gillibrand took office after Congress passed reforms restricting travel, and she has not taken or approved a single trip for her staff during her tenure.

One congressional aide has already been named to the new presidential administration. Phil Schiliro, a long-time Hill hand who was chief of staff for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has been selected the head of President-elect Barack Obama's legislative affairs office during the transition, and is expected to be Obama's legislative affairs director when the new administration takes office in January. Obama will likely take a large cohort of his Senate staff with him, as well. His own chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is co-chairing the transition team and is expected to serve as a deputy chief of staff in the White House.

Jim Messina, a former chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), joined the Obama campaign earlier this year and is the personnel director for the transition team. Robert Gibbs served as Obama's Senate communications director before moving to the same role in the campaign and will likely be the next White House press secretary.

As the adminstration takes shape over the coming weeks, expect many other top congressional aides to move up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

Hill alleges Sodrel's office did not co-operate after Hill's 2006 victory, making Hill's transition back into Congress difficult. Sodrel's campaign has countered by pointing out Hill raised his staff salaries about 84 percent after his defeat in 2004.

Hill paid his staff a total of $181,943 in the third quarter of 2004. The number jumped to $334,005 in the fourth quarter despite adding only one person to the staff.

You can see all of the salaries paid by Hill here. Sodrel's staff salaries are here.