Elections

For much of Woodland's history, there have been two constants: Its City Council members have always been elected citywide, and they have nearly always been white.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. on Friday called for the White House to conduct a "transparent, government-wide review" after the IRS admitted that they scrutinized conservative groups during the 2012 election.

Sen. Rand Paul brought his national ambitions to Iowa on Friday, ripping potential Democratic rival Hillary Clinton while urging his own Republican Party to broaden its appeal as he campaigned like it was already 2016.

Since announcing several weeks ago that he is considering running for governor, Abel Maldonado has raised a tiny sum of money, established a Facebook page and started mocking incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown online.

Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty will run again for the Assembly in 2014, four years after losing a close race for a legislative seat.

Whether or not Republicans ever agree to a budget deal with President Barack Obama, one thing seems certain: Now that he has officially put Social Security and Medicare benefits on the negotiating table, opponents on his party's left will make that an issue for Democrats in the midterm elections next year – and perhaps in the 2016 presidential contest.

Former Lt. Gov Abel Maldonado has secured a contribution – but not an endorsement – from one of California's most influential GOP donors as he moves closer to a possible 2014 run for governor.

Hillary Rodham Clinton left the State Department nearly two months ago, but she still needs a staff to keep up with the considerable business of being Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Freshman Rep. Ami Bera's packed schedule Tuesday included hearings on Afghanistan and asteroids, floor votes and an evening meet-and-greet with a group of California business leaders.

They might talk about it in downtown Washington. But moderation and compromise weren't up for discussion as conservatives gathered to plot strategy Friday in the suburb of Oxon Hill, Md., down the Potomac River.

Thirteen years after California instituted campaign finance limits, lawmakers at the state Capitol are making broad use of a maneuver to avoid them.

Former Republican Rep. Doug Ose is considering a return to Congress by challenging freshman Democratic Rep. Ami Bera in 2014.

MIAMI – A few days after Gov. Rick Scott of Florida endorsed Medicaid expansion, a U-turn so sharply executed that it flabbergasted his supporters, the head of a local tea party group typed up a "breakup note."

In a closely watched West Sacramento school board race, a union-backed teacher held a nearly 2-to-1 lead over a candidate endorsed by the city's mayor and bankrolled by groups challenging labor power.

If the Supreme Court strikes down or otherwise guts a centerpiece of the Voting Rights Act, there will be far less scrutiny of thousands of decisions each year about redrawing district lines, moving or closing polling places, changing voting hours or imposing voter identification requirements in areas that have a history of disenfranchising minority voters, experts say.

WASHINGTON – The politically charged issue of race was before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in a case that could determine how the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act applies to the South.

Stung by an image that it's too rigidly conservative and too "stupid" about its words and tactics, a somber Republican Party vowed Friday to change its ways.

Neel Kashkari, a Republican executive who worked for the U.S. Treasury Department at the height of the financial crisis, is reportedly weighing a run for public office in California.

Election officials in Sacramento and dozens more counties got a glimpse this month at how California's diverse population will affect how they plan for the next gubernatorial election in June 2014.

Voters in West Sacramento's Washington Unified School District will soon decide who to elect to the school board in a special election.

Anne Marie Schubert moved quickly to head off potential opposition Thursday when she announced that the two top law enforcement officers in the county have endorsed her campaign to become Sacramento's next district attorney.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced Monday she will not seek re-election when her fifth term expires at the end of 2014.

Ann Ravel recalled recently what many people thought of her last year, when Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her chairwoman of the commission overseeing campaign finance and ethics rules in California.

Following the controversy in California's initiative campaigns over an $11 million donation from a secretive, out-of-state group, Democratic lawmakers have begun introducing legislation to increase disclosure requirements and the power of the Fair Political Practices Commission to enforce them.

California saw a record share of general election voters opt to cast their ballots by mail this year, with 51 percent of the state's 13.2 million participants using mail-in ballots.

The Brian M. Danzl campaign bet $25,000 that a recount would give the longtime community volunteer a seat on the Rancho Cordova City Council.

Representatives for candidate Brian M. Danzl delivered a cashier's check for $12,567 to Sacramento County elections officials on Tuesday to launch a recount that backers hope can overcome a three-vote margin of loss in last month's Rancho Cordova City Council election.

You're one of the most famous women on earth and you're jobless for the first time in decades. You'd like to make money, but you don't want to rule out running for president. So what do you do all day? Right now, aides and friends say, Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan looks like this: Exit the State Department shortly after Inauguration Day, and then seclude herself to rest and reflect on what she wants to do for the next few years.

For more than 25,000 Sacramento County voters, the process of casting a ballot in the Nov. 6 election started with a few clicks of the mouse.

When newcomer Bonnie Gore is sworn in Monday, there will be just one man on the five-member Roseville City Council.

As Elk Grove prepares to swear in Gary Davis as its first directly elected mayor, the City Council is gearing up to appoint a replacement for Davis' vacated District 4 seat.

A three-vote margin is proving too narrow to ignore in the November contest for the Rancho Cordova City Council.

The final vote update from Los Angeles County on Sunday gave Democrat Steve Fox a slight lead over the presumed Republican victor in the 36th Assembly District, putting the seat in the Democrats' column by a margin of just 145 votes.

In a season of close local elections, the race for a seat on the Rancho Cordova City Council outdid them all.

The balance of power appears to have shifted at Sacramento City Hall.

Placer County's three incumbent supervisors appeared headed toward re-election Tuesday night based on the results of mail-in ballots.

One week after clinching the Republican nomination for president, Mitt Romney won the California primary Tuesday in the most anticlimactic of contests.

Mayor Kevin Johnson, who won 58 percent of the vote, declared victory Tuesday. Johnson needed at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off in the November election.

Michele Bachmann was an "accidental politician," and it all began on April Fool's Day. On April 1, 2000, the 2012 Republican White House hopeful — then a "middle American mom," as she wrote in her recent memoir — made a fateful, spur-of-the moment decision that changed her life.

2012 Election Calendar

Mitt Romney: flexible pragmatist, or a politically soulless flip-flopper too eager to please? Add this shifting nuance on health to position changes or tweaks on abortion, the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, and a host of other issues, and Romney has a reputation as someone without a strong political core, an opportunistic flip-flopper who adjusts his stands as majority opinion shifts.

At 19, Jon Huntsman arrived in Taiwan for a two-year gig as a missionary for the Mormon church. He didn't receive a warm reception. The Taiwanese government was furious at the United States for re-establishing diplomatic ties with China, and the people whom Huntsman was there to recruit to his faith weren't much happier.

For former Sen. Rick Santorum, it's always been about faith. Deep religious faith fuels Santorum's conservative politics. It's what propelled him into becoming one of Congress' leading opponents of abortion, same-sex marriage and wrongdoing by fellow lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation.