Free Republic

Jim Bennett, the son of Sen. Bob Bennett who ran his father’s campaign for a fourth term this year, has begun working as a volunteer on the Senate campaign of Democrat Sam Granato, who hopes to replace the senior Bennett in Washington, D.C. Bennett was ousted at the Republican State Convention earlier this year when he came in third in the delegate vote. Mike Lee then defeated Tim Bridgewater in the GOP primary to become the Republican nominee against Granato in the November election. The defeat of Bennett at the convention has triggered concerns among a number of traditional Republicans...

Just a few months ago, Cedra Crenshaw was a stay at home mom. A former accountant and auditor, she was spending her free time fighting for transparency and accountability from local governing bodies. She became a regular at school board meetings. Quality education for all, is one of her passions. Living in Illinois, she knew firsthand, what many in America are now witnessing. The liberal policies that the current administration espouse, don't work. The same Chicago Machine that put Obama in the White House is the same machine responsible for the Illinois' debt crisis. For nearly a decade, Illinois Democrats...

Concerned Women for America condemns, the passage of the DISCLOSE Act in the House of Representatives today. Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, stated: "The DISCLOSE Act is designed to stifle Americans' legitimate right to political speech and carves out exceptions for powerful special interest groups and unions. It places onerous regulations on small business owners and grassroots groups if they attempt to educate the public on candidates and issues....

Under a "jungle" or "Louisiana primary" regime, there are no partisan ballots in the August primary election. Instead, multiple Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, Larouchies and whoever else are all thrown into the pot with each other, and the top two vote-getters appear on the November ballot, regardless of party. Given gerrymandered districts, and even just political/cultural/geographic realities, it's very likely that many if not most November legislative elections could feature just two Democrats running against each other, or two Republicans. The system has been in place for many years in Louisiana, among other things producing the infamous 1991 general election...

The Tea Party movement had another chance to show its influence in elections in last week's primary elections in 11 states across the country. In Nevada, a Tea Party candidate knocked off a GOP competitor. Some public policy experts and a political activist give their thoughts on what it means to the Tea Party movement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are preparing to roll out a series of changes at several privately owned immigration detention centers, including relaxing some security measures for low-risk detainees and offering art classes, bingo and continental breakfast on the weekends. The changes were welcomed by immigrant advocates who have been waiting for the Obama administration to deliver on a promise made in August to overhaul the nation's immigration detention system. The 28 changes identified in the e-mail range from the superficial to the substantive. In addition to “softening the look of the facility” with hanging plants and offering fresh carrot...

As oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico with no real end in sight, the spill is becoming an issue in the 2010 campaign. On Wednesday, the League of Conservation Voters launched a TV ad using footage of the April 20 explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon to attack Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln's ties to BP and the overall oil industry. "Big Oil has another gusher," the ad says, as a cartoon image of the U.S. Capitol dome explodes in a spout of dollar bills. "But this time it's tens of millions in campaign cash." The ad slams Lincoln,...

A letter from a union leader shows that endorsements from organized labor don't come without strings attached. Saundra Williams, president of the metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO signed a letter dated April 30, 2010, that stated "... failure to commit to this pledge stating that you will refrain from supporting the "privatization" of public sector jobs, Charter Schools and "Right-To-Work" legislation ... will jeopardize the status of any current or future support of your candidacy for any office." Williams didn't return an e-mail or phone call seeking comment. The letter also included a questionnaire sent out by the union asking political candidates...

Here are my 99 races, grouped into five levels of difficulty. I’ve used three different measurements – the Department of Homeland Security’s old color-code alert system, a comparable degree of difficulty to beating NFL teams, and a quick assessment.

PHOENIX – Facing the toughest re-election battle of his career, John McCain is bringing in the Republican Party's newest rising star in a bid to shore up support among conservative primary voters. Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown is making his first campaign trip as senator. His visit to Arizona Friday will be a first test of his popularity among Republican activists after he broke with the GOP leadership to side with Democrats in supporting a jobs bill. Brown won his seat in January with the help national Republicans, "tea party" groups and an array of conservative special interests. Some of those...

In a stunning reversal of the nation's federal campaign finance laws, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday that as an exercise of free speech, corporations, labor unions and other groups can directly spend on political campaigns. Siding with filmmakers of "Hillary: The Movie," who were challenged by the Federal Election Commission on their sources of cash to pay for the film, the court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that banned corporate and labor money. The decision threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states. The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign

If you watched the Obama rally (which was easily accessible on national television), you saw people who showed up at a political rally excited about the president of the United States and yawning at the candidate they're being offered by the Democrats on Tuesday. If you watched the Brown rally (available via livestream on his site), you saw people revved up about an actual candidate on the ballot Tuesday. If you watched Obama, you got dismissive attacks on Scott Brown. If you watched Scott Brown, you got positive reasons to vote for him. And Brown is a guy who could...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Like the song goes, "something going on over there". What's happening in the New York 23rd Congressional District may have national significance. It's looking like a political earthquake in progress, and it has a San Francisco flavor to it....In San Francisco style, a Republican abandoned her own party's candidate and chose a liberal Democrat, saying it was the best choice for her district. (Recall the hundreds of San Francisco republicans who were strong early financial supporters of Democrat Mayor Gavin Newsom and his defunct run for California governor over the Republican candidate.) Didn't make much difference....

PITTSBURGH — For President Barack Obama, it's almost as if the election campaign never ended. Just look at his travel schedule. The same states that Obama targeted to win the White House are seeing an awful lot of the president, Vice President Joe Biden and top Cabinet officials. Only this year, the taxpayers are footing the multimillion-dollar tab for the trips, and Obama officials are delivering wheelbarrows of economic stimulus money — also compliments of taxpayers. An Associated Press review of administration travel records shows that three of every four official trips Obama and his key lieutenants made in his...

If you ask Americans about campaign finance reform, most likely they’ll answer something about the need for it because “there’s too much money in politics,” not realizing that to many the freedom to donate to the political candidate of their choice is a right equated with everything else granted by the First Amendment. It’s quite possible those free speech advocates will soon be pleased as a key part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform package may be overturned by the Supreme Court. In what began as a quite innocent case brought out as a clarification request by the producers of...

WASHINGTON - Organized labor gave more money to congressional campaigns than any other interest group at a time when overhauling health care and easing the ability of unions to organize sit atop Congress’ agenda. Union political action committees shelled out $11 million to lawmakers during the first six months of this year. Ranking second were health care interests, which gave $9.5 million from Jan. 1 through June 30, according to a CQ MoneyLine analysis of the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). While labor PACs were the top contributors in the previous election cycle, the health care industry...

OK sorry for the vanity, but I'm darn frustrated at what I just saw on my favorite channel - FNC. I've been a daily, loyal viewer since they came online and first begin their uphill struggle against then-dominant CNN. No fair weather viewer here. When I'm not watching FNC, usually I've got Fox Business Channel in the background. So it takes a lot for Fox to tee me off like this. But I'm plenty teed off: (Embarrasingly obvious) Republican 2012 candidate wannabe Mike Huckabee, is filling in for BOR today. So far so good. Huckabee works for Fox, fair and...

National Popular Vote (NPV), a California-based group formed in 2006 to persuade states to join a compact to award their electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote tally for president, unveiled a new and potent argument on behalf of the proposed reform. “An overlooked benefit for many so-called ‘battleground states’ will be the reduction of candidate visits to their states,” said John Koza, chairman of NPV. “If the popular vote were the decisive factor, candidates would spend more time in the denser parts of the nation. Other communities wouldn’t be worth a visit. They’d be spared the...

WOODLAND HILLS - As he launched a radio ad campaign Tuesday for his budget measures on the May 19 ballot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said failure to approve the package would worsen the state's already-dire fiscal crisis. "If they don't pass, we will be facing a $50 billion problem," Schwarzenegger said at a meeting with Daily News editors and reporters. "It will mean massive cuts in education, hospitals, prisons. These are things people don't want to see cut." Schwarzenegger's campaign committee, Budget Reform Now, began its advertising campaign Tuesday for the six ballot measures - Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E...

Shock Treatment by: Heather Latham, March 20, 2009 At 27, Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., is currently the youngest member of Congress. Being a Republican in a predominantly Democratic state, he found that communication to all groups is the key to success. While campaigning for office as a state representative, he was told to ignore certain demographics since they never vote Republican. When he would visit these groups, he would be met with people who had never before been approached by a Republican. He says, “When you write off a demographic, you’re most…certainly set for defeat—and I don’t care what demographic...