Oct 27, 2010 – Mississippi's Republican Gov. Haley Barbour has spread $440,000 among dozens of candidates and groups at the national and state level, his PAC announced Tuesday. In total, Barbour's Haley's PAC has donated money to 25 gubernatorial candidates, 31 Senate candidates, 23 House candidates, 15 state Republican parties, two national GOP committees...

Oct 27, 2010 – Tea Party Republicans have talked a big game when it comes to deficit reduction, but one candidate just upped the ante. Utah's Mike Lee, who currently holds a 20-point lead in his U.S. Senate race, told a crowd of supporters last week that congressional Republicans are planning to cut...

Oct 27, 2010 – Three-quarters (76%) of American adults know someone who is out of work and looking for a job, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. But that's a slight improvement from August when 81% knew someone in that situation. African-Americans are slightly less likely than whites and adults...

Oct 27, 2010 – Colorado Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck said Tuesday night he wouldn't commit to supporting Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as Senate GOP leader. Buck joined several other Republican Senate candidates aligned with the Tea Party movement who haven't yet signed on to supporting McConnell as the party's top official in the Senate....

Oct 27, 2010 – Just three months after the enactment of a sweeping financial regulatory overhaul bearing his name, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he is having mixed success raising money from the financial services industry for his re-election campaign. Campaign finance records show that Frank has received nearly $60,000 in campaign contributions since...

Oct 26, 2010 – California gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown were placed on the hot seat during a joint appearance at a women's conference Tuesday when they were asked to pull attack advertising a week before Election Day. The campaign has grown increasing caustic over the past month, with negative ads constantly...

Oct 26, 2010 – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is leapfrogging Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) for the title of top DCCC contributor this cycle. A senior aide to Hoyer said this week that the Maryland Democrat will shell out another $200,000 to the DCCC before Election Day, which would...

Oct 26, 2010 – House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana is considering stepping down from his post in the GOP leadership in preparation for a possible bid for president or governor in 2012. Pence, a darling of the conservative movement, would leave the leadership job with a blunt explanation to colleagues...

Oct 26, 2010 – NEW polling that shows independents fleeing President Obama and the Democrats strongly indicates predictions of a Republican tsunami in next week's congressional elections are about to be realized. The final Politico/George Washington University Battleground Poll before voting Nov. 2 shows the GOP with a 14-point edge among independents...

Oct 26, 2010 – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was a fierce critic of the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler last year, saying he could not "ask the American taxpayer to subsidize failure." But GM doesn't seem to hold a grudge. The political action committee formed by the company,...

Oct 26, 2010 – Big Labor’s big threat to punish misbehaving Democrats has largely evaporated in the heat of the midterms, as unions now scramble to rescue incumbents they once pilloried for opposing health care reform. It’s a bitter, but necessary, political pill, considering that would-be Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in...

Oct 26, 2010 – House and Senate candidates have already shattered fundraising records for a midterm election and are on their way to surpassing $2 billion in spending for the first time, according to new campaign finance data. To put it another way: That's the equivalent of about $4 million for every congressional...

Oct 26, 2010 – Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan acknowledged Monday he has received cash from Iran and said the United States knows about it and does the same thing in doling out cash. In response, the U.S. State Department spokesman said the United States does not question Iran's...

Oct 26, 2010 – (CNN) -- Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to charges against him Monday, the Pentagon said, in the first military commission trial there since Barack Obama became president. Khadr, 24, was accused of throwing a grenade during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of...

Oct 26, 2010 – With the midterm elections just a week away, many Democrats are scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong. After Barack Obama's election in 2008, many in the party thought that they were on the cusp of a new era in American politics. Republicans, and the conservative philosophy...

Oct 26, 2010 – (CNN) -- Authorities have charged a 21-year-old Hawaii man with "making false statements in a matter involving international terrorism," the U.S. Justice Department said. The charge centers around a one-way ticket that authorities allege Abdel Hameed Shehadeh purchased from New York City to Islamabad, Pakistan. Shehadeh originally told...

Oct 26, 2010 – Senator Evan Bayh, heading into the final week before the midterm elections, has $10.3 million in his campaign treasury. That's an impressive war chest, but Bayh isn't running this year. In fact, he announced his retirement from the Senate in February. Nor is Bayh the only politician sitting on a...

Oct 26, 2010 – Sifting through the avalanche of misinformation and p.r. spin in high-profile congressional contests may turn out to be the easy part. On Nov. 2, voters in 37 states will confront 160 ballot initiatives, from complex budget issues in Arizona and Virginia to perpetual wedge issues like taxes and health care...

Oct 26, 2010 – Actually, double-checking is a good idea no matter where you are, but in Nevada there seems to be some reason to be extra attentive: Yep, the screens were already filled in — something like this: [X] Man who single-handedly saved the world from another great depression [...

Oct 26, 2010 – Preparing to host a dinner for the President of the United States is a huge undertaking, as one wealthy Rhode Island woman discovered when she decided to host a $7,500 a seat DCCC fundraising dinner featuring Barack Obama. In the days leading up to last night’s fundraising dinner,...

Oct 26, 2010 – Here in my home state of Colorado, the Tom Tancredo Surge continues. Polls consistently show Tancredo’s independent gubernatorial candidacy within 1-5 points of vulnerable Democrat opponent John Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver. The latest poll from Democratic pollster PPP shows Tancredo within 3 points. Hickenlooper is still drawing under 50...

Oct 26, 2010 – No question. We're surrendering to religious intolerance. Just not the imaginary religious intolerance many would have us believe. Today, even broaching the topic of religious affiliation can send (almost all) the dolts on "The View" scattering for cover. To some folks, any whiff of critical discussion on the religious...

Oct 26, 2010 – In a White House Pool Report late Monday from The Hill‘s White House Correspondent Sam Youngman didn’t miss a thing inside the Rhode Island Convention Center. "POTUS stuck to stump speech, once confusing New Hampshire for Rhode Island and an unfortunate tongue tied moment when he said..."

Oct 26, 2010 – ObamaCare's once and future harms have been well chronicled, but the major effects so far are less obvious and arguably more important: A wave of consolidation is washing over the health markets, and the result is going to be higher costs. The turn toward consolidation among insurance companies is...

Oct 26, 2010 – Voters overwhelmingly prefer a free market economy to an economy managed by the government and think government economic control helps big businesses at the expense of small ones. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Likely U.S. Voters think a free market economy is better than...