Elections

A campaign mailer attacking Sacramento Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell exaggerates crime and unemployment figures in Pannell's south Sacramento district, a Bee analysis has found.

A campaign ad attacking Sacramento councilwoman Bonnie Pannell exaggerates crime and unemployment figures for Pannell's south Sacramento district, a Bee analysis has found.

This year's California elections will test the theory that having independently drawn districts and a top-two primary ballot will result in a less polarized, more collegial and more relevant political structure.

Both candidates boast of El Dorado County roots going back generations. Both support conservative political positions.

As federal super PACs continue to pour money into the presidential and congressional contests, state-level independent committees are spending big to influence the outcome in California's legislative races.

Money orders, bank statements and credit card bills are among the documents Twin Rivers Unified School District officials turned over to authorities as evidence trustee Cortez Quinn allegedly accepted $55,000 in illegal loans from a school district employee.

Even for a president who has lost some of his luster, donor-rich California remains a generous state.

Some presidential primary voters in Kentucky and Arkansas are taking a swipe at President Barack Obama, denying the incumbent nearly 4 out of every 10 votes cast on the Democratic side.

Of the 2,500 precinct clerks and polling inspectors who will staff the June primary at Sacramento County's 467 polling places, Virginia Nielsen is the oldest: a veteran of more presidential and gubernatorial primaries and elections than she can remember.

Davis voters will soon head to the polls in a city searching to balance economic development with its slow-growth ethos as it deals with tough budget issues.

Sacramento County elections officials say a first-class stamp is sufficient for vote-by-mail ballots in the June 5 primary election.

Two more top-tier supporters of Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clint Parish have abandoned his campaign for judge following this week's release of a deceptive mailer the prosecutor authorized against Superior Court Judge Dan Maguire.

Twin Rivers Unified School District trustee Cortez Quinn released a brief statement Thursday in response to allegations he illegally took substantial loans from a district employee, who also filed a paternity suit against him.

Just three months ago, Kevin Johnson wasn't sure he wanted to be mayor of Sacramento anymore.

A group that set out to hold an online nominating convention for the presidential contest has thrown in the towel on its goal of selecting an alternative, bipartisan ticket for the 2012 election.

A woman suspected of voter registration fraud in Sacramento County has been the subject of complaints in other campaigns as well.

The self-proclaimed "ayatollah" of the Assembly, Speaker Willie Brown, was a prime target in the successful campaign to pass legislative term limits 22 years ago.

Yolo Superior Court candidate Clint Parish said Wednesday he did not verify claims in an attack mailer that alleged campaign rival Judge Dan Maguire was involved in corporate fraud and bribery while working at a Colorado law firm in the mid-1990s.

Twin Rivers Unified School District officials have informed the Sacramento County district attorney of allegations that trustee Cortez Quinn illegally took a substantial loan from a district employee.

Yolo County prosecutor Clint Parish lost the endorsement of Sheriff Ed Prieto and received a stinging rebuke from Yolo County's presiding judge after a Parish campaign mailer sought to tie the judge he's running against June 5 to corporate bribes and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's controversial commutation of the prison sentence of a political ally's son.

Twin Rivers Unified School District school board candidate John Berchielli has a lengthy criminal record, including felony convictions for child endangerment, setting booby traps, marijuana cultivation and welfare fraud.

The high-noon showdown involving guns and El Dorado County judge candidates has been canceled, but not because anyone was chicken and ran for the hills.

Assemblywoman Beth Gaines has sparked a campaign controversy by spending state funds to send fliers almost exclusively to residents of her redrawn district who can vote for her in June.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that the state budget deficit had grown by a remarkable 70 percent since January, but fiscal experts said the economy had little to do with it.

The Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation petitioned the 3rd District Court of Appeal Monday to remove from the November ballot a proposal to abolish the death penalty in California, arguing it violates the state's "single-subject rule" for initiatives.

In the past decade, red and blue states alike, from Mississippi to New York, have approved more than 100 tobacco tax hikes in a desperate hunt for budget revenue.

The race for Sacramento mayor isn't all about Kevin Johnson.

Candidates for El Dorado Superior Court judge could be facing off with guns at high noon Saturday.

Four-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is likely to top the field in the June 5 "top-two" primary election. But one of the 23 others will finish second and carry the campaign against Feinstein to the November general election. Eleven candidates joined The Bee's Torey Van Oot for an online chat this week. Following is an excerpt.

Mitt Romney, needing badly to stir momentum among skeptical evangelical Christians vital to his presidential hopes, told a polite audience Saturday at Liberty University, an influential Christian school, that he shares and deeply respects their values.

Misty Yaj has walked in the footsteps of nearly every Hmong refugee in the United States.

Four years after Barack Obama won Nevada convincingly in his election to the White House, the president returned Friday to defend his economic policies in a swing state still reeling from the recession.

A proposal aimed at curbing sex slavery and other forms of human trafficking has qualified for the November ballot – the sixth to be certified.

President Barack Obama's affirmation of same-sex marriage sets up four state battles over gay unions as important tests of whether his stand – and changing public perceptions – will combine to reverse a long string of defeats at the ballot box.

The hardball campaign mailers attacking Davis City Councilwoman Sue Greenwald landed in Davis mailboxes this week just as county vote-by-mail ballots began arriving at voters' homes.

Under pressure from health advocates, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday removed a controversial physician from a state health board after she appeared in an industry-funded ad against a tobacco tax hike on the June ballot.

The case of a fugitive jailed in Sacramento on federal fraud charges this week may have ramifications in the June 5 race for El Dorado Superior Court judge.

In one choreographed appearance at the office of the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters, Gov. Jerry Brown's campaign to raise taxes appeared on Friday to take shape.

The political world absorbed a chilling message Wednesday from the fall of Washington icon Sen. Richard Lugar: Rabid partisanship is popular, especially in Republican primaries, and cutting deals with political opponents is not.

The old boxing saw "Styles make fights" tells a lot about the contest for Yolo Superior Court judge between incumbent Judge Dan Maguire and challenger Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clint Parish.

It was supposed to be introducing the team whose savvy grass-roots work will sway Latino voters to the Republican Party in six very different battleground states. Instead, the Republican National Committee demonstrated Tuesday how far behind it is in persuading Latino voters to pick former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama.

In Placer County's reshaped 5th District, conventional wisdom says Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery will eventually go up against either Mark Wright or a guy named Johnson in a November runoff.

The high-pressure game of signature gathering outside stores has turned into a mad dash to election offices across California as tax proponents submit their petitions for the November ballot.

TODAY'S KEY VOTES

Here, "where the suburb meets the city," as banners downtown proclaim, there is a Williams-Sonoma but also New Jersey's first licensed medical marijuana dispensary. President Barack Obama captured 83 percent of the vote. Residents support two libraries and two independent bookstores, and driving the six-mile stretch of town, you are never more than 10 minutes from your pick of two Whole Foods stores.

Former Gov. Angus King of Maine has a warning for the national political parties that may flood his state with negative ads to derail his independent candidacy for the Senate: "I will take note of how I am treated in this campaign."

Rep. Bobby Schilling's face was twisted with tension. Another official event, another group of Democrats who craved to see him wiped from the congressional map. Plus, he would have to smile.

The stage was set Friday for three revenue-raising measures to qualify for the November ballot after a group led by hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer submitted more than 900,000 signatures for a tax increase on out-of-state businesses.

Sacramento County's top elections official says she has turned over suspicious voter registration cards to the California Secretary of State's Office.

Republican Assemblywoman Beth Gaines is accused of shortchanging constituents by moonlighting in a 60-second radio ad released Tuesday by Andy Pugno, her GOP election opponent. Pugno said about $25,000 was spent to air the ad on radio stations in the 6th Assembly District of Placer, El Dorado and Sacramento counties. Below is the ad and analysis by Jim Sanders of The Bee Capitol Bureau:

This is the land of die-hard Democrats – mill workers, coal miners and union members. They have voted party line for generations, forming a reliable constituency for just about any Democrat who decides to run for office.

For the first time since he was elected to office eight years ago, Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty has an opponent.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul brought his small-government, libertarian campaign to the UC Davis campus Thursday evening, telling the crowd that the "message of liberty brings people together."

California holds its presidential primary election on June 5. Here are frequently asked questions and answers for voters.

California voters two years ago abolished traditional political party nominating primaries for all state and federal races except presidential and party central committee contests. Local contests also aren't governed by the new rules.

A 60-second radio ad opposing Assembly candidate Andy Pugno is airing in the Sacramento area this week through the California Tribal Business Alliance, which spent $25,000 for it. The ad is a fictional interview with Pugno, running against fellow Republican Beth Gaines for the 6th District seat in Placer, El Dorado and Sacramento counties. Below is the ad and analysis by The Bee's Jim Sanders:

Supporters and foes of a measure to make Auburn a charter city say residents have been well-served by their city government.

Bee Capitol Bureau reporter Torey Van Oot hosted a live chat on the June 5 'Top Two' primary: How will the "top two" primary work? What will it mean for voters? Replay it here.

A look at where Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney stand on a selection of 12 issues. Compare the two in our photo gallery here.

Use Sacbee.com's Voter Guide 2012 to learn about Sacramento-area candidates and issues on the June 5 primary ballot. See what races you'll vote in. Compare the candidates. Read about the issues.

Not everyone is enamored with Fortune School. The nondescript little charter in a shopping center on Stockton Boulevard has become the hot-button issue in a crowded race for four seats on the Sacramento County Board of Education.

The direction the Twin Rivers Unified School District is headed will be decided June 5 when six of seven seats are up for grabs by candidates with differing views on how to best serve north area students.

Local water board member Pam Tobin has launched her campaign to unseat Placer County Supervisor Kirk Uhler with a series of searing attacks, calling him, among other things, "an embarrassment" to the county.

The direction Twin Rivers Unified School District is headed will be decided June 5 when six of seven seats are up for grabs by candidates with differing views on how to best serve north area students.

Six candidates are competing for Woodland's three council seats June 5 in a race that pits experienced officeholders and political first-timers.

Six candidates are vying to replace Sacramento City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy in the district representing northern Sacramento neighborhoods. Sheedy is stepping down after serving three terms.

Congressional candidate Linda Parks isn't one for conventional choices.

A powerful business interest group has poured $30,000 into the campaign for Betty Williams, the former NAACP branch president trying to unseat Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell in south Sacramento.

Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty is running for re-election, but he's not promising voters he'd serve his entire four-year term if he wins.

Former Republican Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, is on the air with a new radio spot criticizing one of his top rivals for the newly drawn 1st Congressional District seat. The one-minute spot aired on radio stations in the Northern California district this week. Here is the text and an analysis of the ad by The Bee Capitol Bureau's Torey Van Oot.

Area 4

Seats on the Sacramento County Board of Education aren't usually hotly contested. But a controversial network of charter schools has changed that.

Paid political attack dogs always have found safe haven in the free-wheeling anonymity of the Internet, but California is set to challenge that.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg pledged Thursday to put forward for the 2014 election a package of major changes to California's initiative process, including a provision to make it easier for legislators to place tax measures on the ballot.

Ian Calderon is the latest family hopeful in California's longest-running legislative dynasty – and fundraising fliers hammer that point home.

The battle for Ohio is on, but for many voters, choosing between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is like trying to decide between liver and Brussels sprouts – a selection they would rather not have to make.

On one key topic, there's substantial agreement – though not unanimity – among the six candidates for El Dorado County supervisor in District 3.

Senior advisers to Mitt Romney said Monday that Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, was merely tossing around ideas, not making policy announcements, when his chat with donors about some significant changes to the tax code was overheard by reporters at a fundraiser this weekend.

The campaign for the White House spilled into the politics of motherhood Thursday as a combative back-and-forth involving a Democratic strategist and Mitt Romney's wife revived a deeper, decades-old cultural debate about the roles of women in and out of the workplace.

Mitt Romney moved Wednesday to confront one of his most vexing general election problems – how to narrow the gender gap he faces against President Barack Obama – but his campaign immediately found itself squeezed between its intensifying efforts to appeal to women and its need to avoid alienating conservatives.

Rick Santorum's decision to leave the Republican presidential race boosted two candidacies: Mitt Romney was spared two more weeks of struggle before he could be crowned the presumptive nominee even as Santorum set the stage for a future run for office.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday that she's not distressed by losing millions in campaign cash at the hands of treasurer Kinde Durkee, an act she termed "a big betrayal."

Two of the three candidates running for the Sacramento region's newly drawn 6th Assembly District responded to reader questions in a sacbee.com live chat Wednesday. Here are excerpts focusing on positions taken by Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, R-Rocklin, and Democratic challenger Regy Bronner of Lincoln on issues raised by readers and Bee moderator Torey Van Oot. The third candidate for the seat, Folsom Republican Andy Pugno, declined to participate.

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors needs a regular guy elected to its ranks, says Ron Mikulaco.

Gov. Jerry Brown is turning to robotic telephone calls and mailers in his race to collect enough signatures to place his tax initiative on the November ballot.

In public, Rick Santorum brushes off the messages from party leaders and rising numbers of conservative voters that the Republican race is all but over, that his campaign has entered its end game.

Mitt Romney tightened his grip on the Republican nomination on Tuesday with a sweep of the primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and found himself in his first direct engagement with President Barack Obama, an unmistakable signal that the general election would not wait for internal Republican politics.

As a rule, Superior Court judge elections are, well, sober as a judge.

California's public universities do, in fact, teach American history.

For California politicians, the three-word description of them that is printed on ballots is a high-stakes campaign decision.

Two candidates for the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors - facing well-funded incumbents in separate races - are hoping to capitalize on interest in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum sought to sell his conservative credentials to California Republicans Thursday, using a stop at the Jelly Belly Candy Co. to compare himself to one of the sweet's most famous fans – the late President Ronald Reagan.

A Sacramento judge ruled Thursday that Jose Hernandez, who flew in the space shuttle Discovery three years ago, can use the ballot designation of "astronaut" in his current congressional bid.

Running for re-election this year, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein hasn't yet broken a sweat against unknown and underfunded Republican opponents.

Months into a bruising primary campaign, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is still neck and neck with President Barack Obama in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

The June 5 primary this year in Sacramento County won't be just any election.

Rick Santorum was running late, and about 250 people were growing restless at a rally sponsored by the tea party. So the Harris sisters, a country singing duo, took the stage.

The Bee is preparing its online and print Voter Guides to help residents track local candidates and make informed choices.

Mitt Romney stepped up his efforts to rally Republicans around his candidacy on Thursday with several hours of private appeals to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and renewed pressure on his rivals to bow to political reality.

The Sacramento Bee's elections team again is preparing to publish our Voter Guide to help voters track local candidates and make informed choices. At Sacbee.com, users will be able to enter their home address and see a customized "ballot" of candidates and initiatives.

Republicans in the House of Representatives unveiled their latest federal budget proposal Tuesday, an election-year manifesto that GOP presidential and congressional candidates embraced and President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats dismissed.

Mitt Romney's methodical march to the Republican presidential nomination got a huge, possibly decisive, boost Tuesday as he scored an overwhelming victory in the Illinois presidential primary.

For the first time in a generation, Republicans are preparing for the possibility that their presidential nomination could be decided at their national convention rather than on the campaign trail, a prospect that would upend one of the rituals of modern politics.

The decision by two Sacramento City Council members to give up their seats has touched off a free-for-all in city politics.

Newt Gingrich is still out there fighting for the Republican presidential nomination, invoking the Bible and Abraham Lincoln as he pushes the idea that America badly needs "a visionary conservative."

Over the next eight months, presidential campaigns will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to penetrate the suburban living rooms of people like 33-year-old Sarah Hays.

After a months-long feud with his most liberal allies, Gov. Jerry Brown compromised Wednesday to eliminate a rival tax initiative for the November ballot.

Armed with 2010 census data, a network of attorneys is increasingly targeting local governments, from cities and school boards to hospital and community college districts, for not reflecting the demographics of their constituents.

Supporters of Newcastle's Measure B maintained their narrow margin of victory – with 69 percent of voters in favor – as the Placer County elections office on Thursday announced the final results.

Looking east on Super Tuesday, California's presidential primary election found hope.

Mitt Romney won Washington's fiercely contested Republican caucuses Saturday, according to network projections, giving him an important boost on the eve of Super Tuesday, when 10 states vote across the nation.

The first phase of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, ending with the 10 states that vote this week on Super Tuesday, has been about money and message. The next several months will be about maps and math.

Mitt Romney decisively won Washington's fiercely contested Republican caucuses Saturday, according to network projections, giving him an important boost on the eve of Super Tuesday, when 10 states vote across the nation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney has won the Washington state Republican caucuses. The former Massachusetts governor easily defeated former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Congressman Ron Paul, who were battling for second place. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trailed further behind. Forty delegates are at stake in the state.

After locking up much of the Republican establishment's heavyweight fundraisers, Mitt Romney is going after the little guy.

Douglas Scott Mickey crept into the rural Placer County home of Eric Lee Hanson and Catherine Blount after midnight on Sept. 29, 1980.

Chad Condit, the son and chief public defender of former U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, who was tarnished in a media frenzy, has entered a congressional race of his own.

A race for Yolo County supervisor pits the charismatic mayor of Woodland against a successful farmer and champion of rural values.

A Sacramento pastor is running for City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy's seat – and has received Sheedy's endorsement.

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum on Saturday took their down-to-the-wire Michigan Republican primary duel to an influential group of conservative activists, a bloc each has to have to eke out a win in the too-close-to-call contest.

Whether Mitt Romney wins or loses the Michigan and Arizona primaries Tuesday, his advisers are warning donors and other supporters to prepare for a longer, more bruising and more expensive fight for the Republican presidential nomination, which may not be settled until at least May.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich assailed President Barack Obama on gas prices and energy policies Saturday as he sought to fuel support among California Republicans.

The United Auto Workers union, a primary beneficiary of President Barack Obama's decision to rescue domestic carmakers, is now trying to return the favor.

California state senators elected on the November ballot could see their districts killed that very day under a Republican-backed referendum that qualified for the ballot Friday.

Mitt Romney offered a sweeping plan Friday to boost the American economy, a program loaded with previously outlined tax and spending cuts as well as new emphasis on how he'd change future Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Even amid increased scrutiny, former Sen. Rick Santorum unapologetically wears his faith-fueled social conservatism on the heart of his trademark sweater vest.

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum clashed over which of them is the true conservative steward of taxpayers' money as they grappled for advantage Wednesday night in a two-man grudge match heading toward critical votes in Arizona and Michigan on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama is enjoying a mini-renaissance in California.

While challengers rise and recede in the Republican presidential primaries, Mitt Romney's sail remains full in California.

As education groups battle over which California tax initiative would give the biggest boost to schools, advocates for low-income residents fear safety-net programs remain vulnerable no matter what happens on the ballot in November.

Mitt Romney has a new high-risk target in his campaign for president: labor unions.

Except for a booth and a few T-shirts, President Barack Obama was hardly represented when the California Democratic Party met for its annual convention this past weekend.

At least one Sacramento judicial position will be subject to an election in this year's primary.

Hopscotching throughout the state this week, Newt Gingrich insisted first that he is staying in the Republican presidential race and second that he may soon take the lead.

They won't go to the ballot box for months, but local residents are already voting with their wallets.

With a crumbling brick building as "Exhibit A," supporters of a rural Placer County fire district are asking their neighbors to approve a tax increase to fund a replacement firehouse and better wages for firefighters.

Gov. Jerry Brown acknowledged Saturday that his tax proposal for the November ballot has a "few issues," but he sidestepped the controversy in a high-profile speech at the California Democratic Party's annual convention.

Conservatives are fired up, convinced that this will be a big year, but they worry that Mitt Romney will make their task harder.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson endorsed GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney on Monday and will serve as the candidate's honorary chairman in California, the Romney campaign announced.

RENO – Of the remaining candidates in the Republican presidential field, perhaps none has followers more loyal than Ron Paul's.

Some challengers are out-raising incumbents, while one is flipping loans to his own campaign like hot cakes, as millions of dollars pour into California congressional races.

Since just before the last California presidential primary, the proportion of voters registered as Republicans has fallen from 33.5 percent to 30.4 percent, according to new figures from the California Secretary of State.

California Democrats are starting 2012 with an $8.7 million fundraising advantage and 13-point voter registration edge over their rivals in the Republican Party.

Gov. Jerry Brown is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for his tax campaign from California Indian tribes at the same time many tribes are seeking to renegotiate lucrative gambling compacts with him.

The Sacramento city councilman thought to have the easiest path to re-election in June may end up facing a well-heeled opponent.

Each of the three incumbent Placer supervisors up for re-election in June is likely to face opposition.

Democrats see the chance that President Barack Obama's heated exchange with Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona on the airport tarmac in Phoenix could help him with the Latino voters he came West to court this week.

Mitt Romney took on Newt Gingrich in a fierce war of words Thursday, striving to capitalize on a turn in the polls in the final debate before Florida's presidential primary on Tuesday.

While blue California is almost certain to go for President Barack Obama come November, California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro sees opportunity for the GOP to be a major force from the presidential race down.

Mitt Romney's tax returns reveal that the Republican presidential candidate does something fewer Americans do these days: He tithes.

Two candidates announced Wednesday that they will run on "pro-Occupy" platforms as they seek to unseat Sacramento County Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Susan Peters.

President Barack Obama used an election-year State of the Union address Tuesday night to frame the national debate not as a referendum on his performance but as a pivotal decision on how to save the American dream.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Newt Gingrich surged to a landslide victory in the South Carolina Republican primary Saturday, a stunning come-from-behind upset that shook the contest for the party's presidential nomination.

South Carolina Republican voters are poised to define the 2012 GOP presidential race today, but the outcome of the South's first primary is hard to predict.

Newt Gingrich lashed out angrily at the news media Thursday night for fresh reporting on his failed second marriage, in an extraordinary opening to a high-stakes debate two days before a pivotal GOP presidential primary in South Carolina.

Gov. Jerry Brown, campaigning for higher taxes and infrastructure spending in the state's more conservative reaches Thursday, claimed widespread business support for his tax plan and suggested dire consequences should it fail.

A moment that Newt Gingrich had long been hoping for and one that he had long been dreading collided Thursday when a new opening for him to rally conservatives around his candidacy was suddenly complicated when the second of his three wives stepped forward to say he had asked for an "open marriage."

Auto insurance companies will get a second shot at asking California voters to allow them to use a motorist's coverage history when setting rates.

With a fortune estimated to be as large as a quarter of a billion dollars, Mitt Romney is among the wealthiest men ever to run for president.

Gov. Jerry Brown can begin collecting signatures on his tax initiative thanks to a timely release by state Attorney General Kamala Harris on Wednesday.

Democratic strategists on Wednesday put more serious muscle behind two Central Valley congressional challengers.

It's that time of year again, California. Clipboard-carrying paid solicitors and volunteers are setting up shop outside grocery stores and on busy street corners in search of petition signatures for proposed initiatives for the November ballot.

With this state's Republican presidential primary a week away, former Sen. Rick Santorum on Saturday received the endorsement of 150 influential Christian conservative leaders who are hoping to prevent former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney from becoming the GOP nominee.

Under the old political rules, Mitt Romney arrived in South Carolina this week the prohibitive Republican front-runner: flush with cash, awash in endorsements from a party establishment starting to coalesce behind him, and buoyed by victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Republican presidential sweepstakes shifted Wednesday to South Carolina, where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hopes to keep running the table of contests while his rivals try to halt his momentum toward the GOP nomination.

For months David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's longtime senior strategist, has argued with evident anticipation that Mitt Romney offers a glass jaw when he boasts that his business record sets him apart as a presidential candidate.

Mitt Romney won a decisive victory Tuesday in New Hampshire's Republican primary, scoring a solid triumph that firmly establishes him as the favorite to win the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

While the Republican presidential campaigns fast-forward to New Hampshire on Tuesday and South Carolina on Jan. 21, hardly anyone in California is off the couch. Republicans here know the race may be over before they vote on June 5.

Mitt Romney coolly defended his solid New Hampshire lead Saturday night in a high-stakes debate, while his rivals took aim at each other as they each struggled to emerge as Romney's main challenger.

The outcome of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary probably depends on this state's historically unpredictable independent voters.

On the campaign trail, Mitt Romney casts himself as the guardian of American opportunity, who would stop President Barack Obama's attempt "to replace our merit-based society with an entitlement society."

Mitt Romney's quest to swiftly lock down the Republican presidential nomination with a commanding finish in the Iowa caucuses was spoiled Tuesday night by the surging candidacy of Rick Santorum, who fought him to a draw on a shoestring budget by winning over conservatives who remain skeptical of Romney.

Tweets from the Republican candidates, media and pundits.

The filing period has begun in Sacramento County for people interested in running for elective office in the June 5 primary.

The attacks began three weeks ago and have not let up since: Television ad after ad slamming Newt Gingrich for having "more baggage than the airlines," for being fined by Congress for ethics violations, for his position on illegal immigration, even for admitting that he has made mistakes on the campaign trail.

With Iowa Republicans starting to make up their minds – and shuffling the deck of candidates – the 2012 presidential contest turned emotional Friday, just days before the state's caucuses kick off the voting for a GOP nominee.

Jonathan Gabhart, a 21-year-old college student from Spencer, Iowa, is leaning toward voting for Ron Paul because of the Texas lawmaker's unpolished speaking style – a "high-pitched, squirrelly voice," as he put it. "He seems like a real person because of his eccentricities."

He could easily win the Iowa precinct caucuses Tuesday, which kick off the voting for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Mitt Romney and his allies are making an assertive final push this week to increase his chances of a strong finish in the Iowa caucuses, the outcome of which could help determine the length of the Republican presidential nominating battle.

One month from today, South Carolina voters will pick their Republican presidential choice out of a crowded field. And, if history holds, they will also pick the Republican presidential candidate. Since 1980, the state's GOP voters have successfully chosen the eventual nominee.Here are five factors that will determine who wins in the Palmetto State Jan. 21.

Newt Gingrich found his record challenged repeatedly in a high-stakes debate Thursday, the last chance for him and his rivals to appear together in a televised debate before voting for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination starts in less than three weeks.

With just six months until the June primary election, campaign cash is starting to flow to candidate and ballot measure committees.

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.

People in Iowa are getting to see a side of the Republican presidential campaign not nearly as visible to the rest of the country. Candidates and their allies are starting to air TV ads in Iowa as the state enters the final weeks before precinct caucuses on Jan. 3, which will kick off the voting for a 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Some ads match what the rest of the country sees in nationally televised debates; some are more blunt and critical.

Newt Gingrich offered a robust defense of his views on the Middle East, his lucrative work after leaving Congress and his conservative credentials during a spirited debate here Saturday as his Republican presidential rivals urged voters to take a hard look at his candidacy.

Soon after Mitt Romney handed out eye-popping bonuses to top performers at his private equity firm in the early 1990s, a young employee invited him to ride in his brand-new toy – a $90,000 Porsche 911 Carrera.

With Newt Gingrich virtually wearing a big target on his back, he and his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination square off tonight in the first of two debates in Iowa that could prove pivotal to the contest.

Even as he widens his lead in the 2012 presidential polls, Newt Gingrich spends substantial time on an activity that earlier, as a back-of-the-pack candidate, raised questions about his ultimate motive – selling and signing $25 copies of his books.

This is another in a series of profiles on the Republican presidential candidates.

The fight over unions using members' dues to fund political spending is headed back to the ballot next year.

His popularity sinking and his credibility under attack, Herman Cain suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday in a defiant, unapologetic blaze of glory.

Californians remain poisonously skeptical about Congress, and many blame both parties for the latest budget-cutting failure on Capitol Hill, a statewide poll shows.

Mitt Romney ramped up his campaign Thursday in Iowa – the first state to vote, on Jan. 3, in the 2012 Republican presidential campaign – a strategy that may be necessary now that Newt Gingrich poses a serious threat to Romney's White House bid.

Voters in deep blue California aren't so sure they want to send President Barack Obama back to the White House in 2012, but they still prefer the Democratic incumbent over the GOP alternatives by double-digit margins.

California Republicans still favor former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the GOP's presidential primary sweepstakes, but they have a new No. 2: Newt Gingrich.

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.

Rep. Ron Paul remembers the day he was transformed from a mild-mannered physician into the feisty political Nostradamus of the Republican Party. It was the evening of Aug.15, 1971. Then-President Richard Nixon announced that he was taking the United States off the gold standard, which had anchored the dollar based on a fixed amount of the precious metal.

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.