Teenagers swam for their lives in Norway carnage (Reuters)

NESLANDET, Norway (Reuters) – Norwegian teenagers at a lakeside summer camp fled screaming in panic, many leaping into the water to save themselves, when an attacker dressed as a policeman began spraying them with gunfire.

Police said at least 10 of the youngsters, attending a camp run by the governing Labour Party, were killed in Friday's attack, shortly after a blast in the capital Oslo killed seven people in Western Europe's worst bombing since 2005.

"I just saw people jumping into the water, about 50 people swimming toward the shore. People were crying, shaking, they were terrified," said Anita Lien, 42, who lives by Tyrifjord lake, a few hundred meters (yards) from Utoeya island, northwest of Oslo.

"They were so young, between 14 and 19 years old," she said.

Utoeya is an island about 500 meters long, clad with pine trees. Lien said the shooting sounded like automatic gunfire.

A camp guard, Simen Braenden Mortensen, said that the gunman had tricked his way onto the island by posing as a policeman driving a silver grey car.

"He gets out of the car and shows ID, says he's sent there to check security, that that is purely routine in connection with the terror attack (in Oslo)," Mortensen told the daily Verdens Gang.

"It all looks fine, and a boat is called and it carries him over to Utoeya. A few minutes passed, then we heard shots," he said.

A teenaged boy who witnessed the attack from the mainland told Britain's Sky Television: "We heard people screaming, it was horrible...Some were waving at us from the island."

Police said they had found undetonated explosives on the island. They said the gunman, whom they described as ethnic Norwegian, may also have been involved in planting the bomb in Oslo.

Early on Saturday, an ambulance left the lake area, with a body lying on a stretcher inside. Cars with distraught relatives were heading to a nearby hotel hoping to meet loved ones evacuated from the island.

Police and dogs were still searching the island and lake overnight from boats and helicopters, with ambulances on standby. Searchlights slowly swept the water in the dark.

People living by the lake got into boats to try to evacuate people from the water. "I used my boat to ferry a lot of people from the island, I saw many wounded people," said a local man who said he lived in a white house by the lake.

(Writing by Alister Doyle and Anna Ringstrom, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Blue Dogs shutter their campaign committees

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) was seen as a rising Democratic star, the party's own "mama grizzly." (Eric Landwehr - AP) Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel said last month that he had contacted former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) about running for her old seat in 2012.

And for good reason: Herseth Sandlin, much like many Democrats in tough districts, was popular in her home area before falling victim to a tough 2010 election year. Israel, recognizing the rough terrain for Democrats in South Dakota, would obviously love having someone like Herseth Sandlin trying to reclaim her seat in 2012.

Unfortunately for Israel, she may have other plans. After joining a Washington law firm earlier this month, Herseth Sandlin on Thursday dissolved her campaign committee – a move that generally means a candidate has no plans to make a quick return to politics.

In fact, Herseth Sandlin is just the latest 2010 loser to close down his or her committee; she joins a host of former Democratic members from conservative-leaning districts who have done the same.

Former Blue Dog Reps. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Bobby Bright (D-Ala.), Baron Hill (D-Ind.), Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) and Travis Childers (D-Miss.) have also shuttered their campaign committees in the aftermath of the 2010 election.

Those five candidates, along with Herseth Sandlin, represent six of the most conservative districts that Democrats lost in 2010. And that’s not good news for their party, which may find it hard to replace those candidates’ prowess on the ballot.

While closing one’s campaign committee does not disqualify a candidate from opening up a new committee and running at some point down the line, it would be an unusual move for a candidate who is considering a run in the near future. In fact, members who lost years ago – even decades ago – will often keep their campaign committees open in perpetuity.

“The far more common practice is for an individual to keep a committee if they have any inclination whatsoever of running again,” said Paul Ryan, a campaign finance expert at the Campaign Legal Center. “Even some individuals who don’t plan to run again in the future and who might plan to (lobby on) K Street – they’ll keep their committee open.”

Ryan noted that maintaining a campaign committee is not an onerous process.

“The cost is quite low, and the reporting requirements are pretty modest when there’s not much money,” Ryan said. “There’s very little disincentive to keeping the committee open.”

Herseth Sandlin said in December that the odds of her seeking her old seat in 2012 were less than 50-50. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other former Democratic incumbents who have closed down their committees include former Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.), who lost his seat by six points in 2010, and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), whose seat went to Republicans in November while Sestak lost Pennsylvania’s open Senate race.

Three-time former congressional candidate Dan Seals (D) has also closed his campaign committee after losing an open seat to Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.), as has former Nebraska state Sen. Tom White (D), a top recruit against Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) who ran in the wrong year.

On the GOP side, former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) has closed his committee after losing a primary in 2010. And former Oregon state Rep. Scott Bruun closed his committee after a loss to Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) – one of the more disappointing losses for the GOP in 2010.

Former Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who left his seat to run for governor last year, is now considering a run against Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). But he closed his House campaign committee – which he could easily have turned into a Senate campaign committee – in late January.

Again, closing a campaign committee doesn’t foreclose a future run. But it does offer hints about where a candidate’s head is at regarding the next campaign.

As Democrats recruit a number of candidates who lost in 2010, don’t expect many of these names to pop up.

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