Florida is likely to move its 2012 Presidential primary date to January 31, in a move that could scramble the nominating calendar. Under a deal reached last year, four states – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada – would hold the only sanctioned early primary races in February, with no state allowed to hold [...]

Yesterday, I wrote about organized labor falling in line with the Democratic Party in the 2012 election, particularly the President. I said that the proof would come with the dollar amounts they would give to federal candidates as opposed to state and local candidates. Well, there are actually early indications that labor HAS lowered their [...]

I remember a lot of fanfare over this Joan Walsh column, where labor leaders claimed they were “declaring independence” and moving to state and local politics for the purposes of self-preservation. Indeed, some of that has happened. The International Association of Fire Fighters closed their federal PAC. Labor poured a lot of money into the [...]

Tim Pawlenty, the former two-term governor of Minnesota, has ended his campaign for President after a disappointing third-place finish at the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. Pawlenty wound up a distant third behind the winner, Michele Bachmann, and Ron Paul. Pawlenty’s candidacy was very much predicated on winning Iowa, a neighboring state to Minnesota. He [...]

The Presidential debate yesterday was missing fully half of the competitors who will actually challenge for President, according to Thomas Beaumont’s analysis. The entry of Rick Perry into the race on Saturday will probably lead to a showdown between Perry and Romney. Perhaps Michele Bachmann can keep pace with those two, but it’s hard to [...]

The dirty tricksters are out in Wisconsin. Next Tuesday, Wisconsinites will go to the polls in the beginning stages of the recall elections for the state Senate. These will be primary elections in six districts. The incumbent Republicans are running unopposed. But the Democratic challengers received a primary challenge of their own from fake candidates, [...]

We know that Republicans are, to this point, looking a gift horse in the mouth by not yet taking an extremely favorable deal on the debt limit that would transform government and usher in radical austerity in exchange for a few measly closures of tax loopholes. It could be that they’re simply being tough negotiators [...]

The Lacrosse Tribune found some unreleased audio from county Republicans showing that they discussed running “spoiler candidates” in the upcoming recall elections. La Crosse County Republicans discussed running a spoiler candidate against Democrat Jennifer Shilling in an effort to delay the recall election of Sen. Dan Kapanke, according to a secret recording of the party’s [...]

Last year, despite a lot of fanfare about Democrats who dissented from the health care vote facing a primary challenge, very few actually received such a challenge, and nobody was defeated. Many Blue Dogs who voted against the health care law ended up losing in November to Republicans, which showed how useless it was to [...]

Dale Schultz, the Republican State Senator who has been on the fence on the budget repair bill that will strip away public employee collective bargaining rights, will vote against the bill, according to protest organizer leadership. According to the Capitol City Leadership Committee, Schultz told State Sen. Lena Taylor (D) that he’s a no on [...]

One of the great losses in the US Senate, to me the greatest loss, is of Sen. Russ Feingold. He was a lonely voice on civil liberties, on a foreign policy not based solely on adventuresome wars, on the Constitution, on a whole host of important issues. Basically, that voice no longer exists in the [...]