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Posted: 1/26/2013 3:53:21 AM EST
FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2012, file photo, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. A political generation ago, the West signaled the nation's rightward swing -- from the emergence of Ronald Reagan to the success of tax limitation ballot measures in California and Colorado. But now the fabled expanse of jagged peaks, arid deserts and emerald coastlines is trending in a different direction. From Washington state -- where voters in November legalized marijuana and upheld the legality of gay marriage -- to New Mexico, once a hotly-contested swing state that Republicans ceded to Democrats in the presidential campaign, the west has become solidly Democratic terrain. The coastal base states of Washington, Oregon and California continue to move further to left, while the hotly-contested swing states east of the Sierra Nevada are trending more and more toward the Democrats. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Posted: 1/26/2013 3:53:21 AM EST
FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama waves to supporters during a campaign event at Cheyenne Sports Complex in Las Vegas. A political generation ago, the West signaled the nation's rightward swing -- from the emergence of Ronald Reagan to the success of tax limitation ballot measures in California and Colorado. But now the fabled expanse of jagged peaks, arid deserts and emerald coastlines is trending in a different direction. From Washington state -- where voters in November legalized marijuana and upheld the legality of gay marriage -- to New Mexico, once a hotly-contested swing state that Republicans ceded to Democrats in the presidential campaign, the west has become solidly Democratic terrain. The coastal base states of Washington, Oregon and California continue to move further to left, while the hotly-contested swing states east of the Sierra Nevada are trending more and more toward the Democrats.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, file)
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Posted: 1/26/2013 3:48:25 AM EST
FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2012, file photo, a person holds a freshly rolled marijuana joint just after midnight at the Space Needle in Seattle. A political generation ago, the West signaled the nation's rightward swing -- from the emergence of Ronald Reagan to the success of tax limitation ballot measures in California and Colorado. But now the fabled expanse of jagged peaks, arid deserts and emerald coastlines is trending in a different direction. From Washington state -- where voters in November legalized marijuana and upheld the legality of gay marriage -- to New Mexico, once a hotly-contested swing state that Republicans ceded to Democrats in the presidential campaign, the west has become solidly Democratic terrain. The coastal base states of Washington, Oregon and California continue to move further to left, while the hotly-contested swing states east of the Sierra Nevada are trending more and more toward the Democrats.(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
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Posted: 1/25/2013 2:23:35 PM EST
FILE - This Aug. 28, 2012 file photo shows Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus speaking at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Priebus has been elected to lead the Republican National Committee for another two years. The 40-year-old RNC chairman ran unopposed in his bid for a second term, which begins less than three months after what most Republicans consider a disastrous election cycle. The GOP in November lost a competitive presidential election and gave up seats in the House and Senate. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
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Posted: 1/24/2013 3:38:54 AM EST
FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2013, file photo, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., center right, stands with his family for a ceremonial photo with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, center left, in the Rayburn Room of the Capitol after the new 113th Congress convened in Washington. The nation’s sharp disagreements over taxes and spending are on a re-routed collision course, as Senate Democrats launch a plan that includes new taxes, and House Republicans vow to speed up their plan to balance the federal budget with spending cuts alone. "The American people will have a chance to compare the two approaches," said Franks, who wants deep spending cuts and no new taxes. The only way to shrink the government, he said, "is to choke the monster." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Posted: 1/23/2013 2:53:33 PM EST
Teddy Turner, son of media magnate Ted Turner, poses for a photo inside his home in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2012. Turner is now one of at least 10 Republicans and two Democrats seeking former U.S. Rep. Tim Scott’s old seat in a district reaching from the sea islands northeast of Charleston southwest to the gated communities on the resort of Hilton Head Island. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)
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Posted: 1/23/2013 2:53:33 PM EST
Teddy Turner, son of media magnate Ted Turner, looks over a map of South Carolina's 1st Congressional District in his home in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2012. Turner is now one of at least 10 Republicans and two Democrats seeking former U.S. Rep. Tim Scott’s old seat in a district reaching from the sea islands northeast of Charleston southwest to the gated communities on the resort of Hilton Head Island. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)
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Posted: 1/23/2013 2:53:33 PM EST
Teddy Turner, son of media magnate Ted Turner, poses outside his home in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2012. Turner is now one of at least 10 Republicans and two Democrats seeking former U.S. Rep. Tim Scott’s old seat in a district reaching from the sea islands northeast of Charleston southwest to the gated communities on the resort of Hilton Head Island. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)
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Posted: 1/23/2013 3:13:45 AM EST
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, talks to reporters after a long closed-door meeting on a strategy to deal with a potential debt crisis, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. House Republicans have said that they will not agree to a long-term debt ceiling increase unless the Senate works with them to pass a budget deal. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Posted: 1/23/2013 3:13:45 AM EST
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the House GOP leadership speak to reporters after a closed-door meeting on avoiding a potential debt crisis, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. Joining Boehner, from left, are Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the Republican Conference, Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. House Republicans have said that they will not agree to a long-term debt ceiling increase unless the Senate works with them to pass a budget deal and have also threatened to withhold Congress’s paychecks if either chamber fails to adopt a budget by April 15. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Posted: 1/22/2013 3:23:36 PM EST
FILE - This Aug. 15, 2012 file photo shows applicants waiting in Casa de Maryland in Langley Park, Md., before they can apply for the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals, as the U.S. started accepting applications to allow them to avoid deportation and get a work permit _ but not a path to citizenship. More than 6 in 10 Americans now favor allowing illegal immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens, a major increase in support driven by a turnaround in Republicans' opinion after the 2012 elections. The finding, in a new Associated Press-GfK poll, comes as Republicans seek to increase their meager support among Latino voters, who turned out in large numbers to help-re-elect President Barack Obama in November. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
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Posted: 1/18/2013 1:53:32 PM EST
FILE - This Jan. 1, 2013 file photo shows House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walkig past reporters after a closed-door meeting meeting of House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington. The GOP-controlled House will vote next week to permit the government to borrow more money to meet its obligations, a move aimed at heading off a market-rattling confrontation with President Barack Obama over the so-called debt limit. Full details aren’t settled yet, but the measure would give the government about three more months of borrowing authority beyond a deadline expected to hit as early as mid-February, a Republican official said Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Posted: 1/18/2013 12:58:47 PM EST
House Majority Leader Representive Eric Cantor (R-VA) is pictured after a meeting with House Republicans about a "fiscal cliff" deal on Capitol Hill in Washington January 1, 2013. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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Posted: 1/18/2013 4:18:37 AM EST
FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2012, file photo, Chairman of the Republican National Convention Reince Priebus addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. After back-to-back presidential losses, Republicans in key states want to change the rules to make it easier for them to win. From Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, GOP officials who control legislatures in states that supported President Barack Obama are considering changing state laws that give the winner of a state’s popular vote all of its Electoral College votes, too. Instead, these officials want Electoral College votes to be divided proportionally, a move that could transform the way the country elects its president. Priebus endorsed the idea and other Republican leaders support it, too, suggesting that the effort may be gaining momentum. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Posted: 1/17/2013 3:23:32 PM EST
FILE - This Nov. 28, 2012 file photo shows House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. walking on Capitol Hill in Washington. House Republicans say they may seek a short-term extension of the government's debt limit in the next few weeks, a move that would avoid an immediate default by the Treasury. Ryan provided no details on the duration of any extension or conditions that might be attached as he appeared at a news conference during a break at a three-day retreat of the rank and file in historic Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Posted: 1/16/2013 5:48:28 PM EST
FILE - This Jan. 14, 2013 file photo shows President Barack Obama speakig in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama is tightening the political screws on congressional Republicans on issues where he feels he has more leverage, chiefly the debt ceiling and immigration. By taking a more hardline stance, the usually accommodating Obama is gambling that public opinion is on his side, and Republicans will have to yield. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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Posted: 1/16/2013 3:33:26 AM EST
FILE - This July 3, 2012 file photo shows International Monetary Fund Managing (IMF) Director Christine Lagarde speaking in Washington. Lagarde travels the world trying to keep the global economy on track. But some of the greatest threats are brewing just blocks from her Washington office. And there’s little she can do about them. The IMF has been left largely on the sidelines as Democratic and Republicans fights over the budget raise the specter of a U.S. default or possibly drive the country into recession. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
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Posted: 1/16/2013 3:28:38 AM EST
In this Nov. 27, 2012 photo, water flowing from Steve Lipsky's well ignites when he puts a flame to the well spigot outside his family's home in rural Parker County near Weatherford, Texas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had evidence a gas company's drilling operation contaminated Lipsky's drinking water with explosive methane, and possibly cancer-causing chemicals, but withdrew its enforcement action, leaving the family with no useable water supply, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. The EPA's decision to roll back its initial claim that hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” operations had contaminated the water is the latest case in which the federal agency initially linked drilling to water contamination and then softened its position, drawing criticism from Republicans and industry officials who insisted they proved the agency was inefficient and too quick to draw conclusions. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
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Posted: 1/16/2013 3:28:38 AM EST
In a Nov. 26, 2012 photo, a road leads to a natural gas well near Weatherford, Texas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had evidence the gas company's drilling operation contaminated nearby families' drinking water with explosive methane, and possibly cancer-causing chemicals, but withdrew its enforcement action, leaving the families with no useable water supply, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. The EPA's decision to roll back its initial claim that hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” operations had contaminated the water is the latest case in which the federal agency initially linked drilling to water contamination and then softened its position, drawing criticism from Republicans and industry officials who insisted they proved the agency was inefficient and too quick to draw conclusions. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
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Posted: 1/16/2013 3:28:38 AM EST
This Dec. 6, 2012 aerial photo shows a natural gas well, top, in rural Parker County near Granbury, Texas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had evidence the gas company's drilling operation contaminated nearby drinking water with explosive methane, and possibly cancer-causing chemicals, but withdrew its enforcement action, leaving households with no useable water supply, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. The EPA's decision to roll back its initial claim that hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” operations had contaminated the water is the latest case in which the federal agency initially linked drilling to water contamination and then softened its position, drawing criticism from Republicans and industry officials who insisted they proved the agency was inefficient and too quick to draw conclusions. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
