| Hill regulars | 13 |
| Experts in vote-getting | 23 |
| DC figures | 10 |
| D.C. regulars | 13 |
| Candidates for office, slangily | 31 |
| Campaign veterans | 17 |
| Washington insiders | 19 |
| Wardheelers | 11 |
| Voted-in ones | 13 |
| Vote seekers | 12 |
| They're seen on C-Span | 26 |
| They run for seats | 18 |
| Successful runners, for short | 29 |
| Some making Capitol gains? | 26 |
| Some campaigners | 16 |
| Smoke-filled room folk | 22 |
| Senators and such | 17 |
| Running pros | 12 |
| Running experts | 15 |
| Rep. and Dem. workers | 21 |
| Pros on the hustings | 20 |
| Pro campaigners | 15 |
| Power seekers, briefly | 22 |
| Ones in office | 14 |
| Noted logrollers | 16 |
| It's hardly haute cuisine | 29 |
| Hustings figures | 16 |
| Hill people | 11 |
| Folks in smoke-filled rooms | 27 |
| Dems. or Reps. | 14 |
| DC bigwigs | 10 |
| D.C. wheeler-dealers | 20 |
| D.C. types, for short | 21 |
| D.C. players | 12 |
| D.C. in-crowd | 13 |
| D.C. dealers | 12 |
| Congressional figs. | 19 |
| Caucus members, informally | 26 |
| Campaigners, for short | 22 |
| Campaign vets | 13 |
| Campaign experts | 16 |
| Baby kissers | 12 |
| Noisy spirit | 12 |
| Spirit you can hear | 19 |
| Noisy spook | 11 |
| 1982 film with the tagline "They're here" | 55 |
| Big baby | 8 |
| Cowardly type | 13 |
| Arrant coward | 13 |
| Compound used in plastics | 25 |
| Shellac or silk | 15 |
| Plastic, for one | 16 |
| Nylon, for one | 14 |
| Vinyl, for one | 14 |
| Teflon or nylon | 15 |
| Synthetic rubber, for one | 25 |
| Substance consisting of giant molecules | 39 |
| Plastic compound | 16 |
| Lucite, e.g. | 12 |
| Large molecule | 14 |
| Complex chemical compound | 25 |
| Cellulose or nylon | 18 |
| In math, the sum of a number of terms | 37 |
| Coral producer | 14 |
| Sea anemone | 11 |
| Tentacled creature | 18 |
| Sea anemone, e.g. | 17 |
| Growth | 6 |
| Coral component | 15 |
| Tentacled animal | 16 |
| Coral reef creature | 19 |
| Hydra, for one | 14 |
| Coral creator | 13 |
| Sea anemone, for example | 24 |
| Sea anemone or hydra | 20 |
| Coral element | 13 |
| Coral colony member | 19 |
| Tentacled resident of a coral reef | 34 |
| Target of minor surgery | 23 |
| Surgery target | 14 |
| Surgeon's problem | 21 |
| Small sea creature | 18 |
| Medusa relative | 15 |
| Medusa alternative | 18 |
| Hydra or sea anemone | 20 |
| Coral creature | 14 |
| Coral colony component | 22 |
| Colonoscopy find | 16 |
| Colonoscopy discovery (great) | 29 |
| Colonoscopy detection | 21 |
| Benchley wrote of its sex life | 30 |
| Benchley sex-life subject | 25 |
| When doubled, a fuzzy ball | 26 |
| Half a cheerleader's prop? | 30 |
| Fruit juice brand | 17 |
| Relative of a peke | 18 |
| Petite pooch, for short | 23 |
| Peke cousin? | 12 |
| Partner of pom | 14 |
| Little Spitz, briefly | 21 |