USA Today

WASHINGTON – Outside political groups, already big players in this year's GOP presidential battle, have started to train their firepower on Senate and House races.

A Washington super PAC aligned with the Tea Party movement, is working to oust six-term GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

A Washington super PAC aligned with the Tea Party movement, is working to oust six-term GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.read more >>

WASHINGTON – As the election season intensifies, the Supreme Court will hear a dispute Monday involving the fairness of new voting districts drawn by the Texas Legislature.

The case arises as several challenges from other states and localities have been made against the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Advocates on both sides are watching the Texas case for signals from the court on whether a decades-old provision intended to ensure equality at the polls should stand.read more >>

Candidates have always found creative and questionable ways to raise the money they need to get elected, but some of the schemes being used to support the current crop of presidential candidates sound as if they were invented by organized crime.read more >>

Remember the protests in Wisconsin earlier this year over Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal to end collective bargaining for public employees?

Voters on Tuesday will go to the polls to keep or boot out six Republican state senators, in a recall election that could have serious implications for the 2012 campaign. Next week, two Democratic senators face voters.

Democrats need to win three seats to win control of Wisconsin's state Senate.read more >>

WASHINGTON — State legislatures across the country have passed a record number of laws this year requiring photo identification to vote, a controversial move pushed by Republicans and opposed by Democrats.

David Axelrod, a top strategist in President Obama's re-election campaign, called the wave of new legislation a "calculated strategy" by Republicans to "hold down voter turnout."read more >>

Buoyed by the viral power of the Internet and rising anti-government sentiment, disgruntled voters have set off a rash of recall drives against mayors in cities across the USA.

Last month, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, who listed no party preference, was ousted by 88% of voters in a special election.

The urge to oust city leaders has intensified in the struggling economy as more mayors raise taxes and cut services to close budget shortfalls.read more >>

Political corruption in Arizona in the 1990s was so bad that a sting operation swept up almost 10% of the Legislature in a scheme to open a casino in the state. In one notorious episode, the chairman of the judiciary committee brought a gym bag to a meeting to carry away his $55,000 bribe.read more >>

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Political science professor Chad Murphy often sees senior Mike Kappert wandering around the University of Mary Washington campus with his laptop open and a map of Virginia state Senate districts up in his Web browser.

Kappert, working around the clock to meet a tight deadline, is using new software to draw
an updated Senate district map — one he hopes will win his team a $2,000 top prize in
a statewide competition when the winning maps are announced Tuesday. More read more >>

The U.S. House passed a bill today to end public financing of presidential campaigns, but the bid to kill a system considered outdated by some Republicans could end there.

The vote was 239-160. Ten Democrats supported the measure and one Republican voted no.

The Obama administration is "strongly opposed" to the bill and wants to see public financing for presidential campaigns "fixed rather than dismantled."read more >>

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives will decide Wednesday whether to end a 35-year-old program that uses taxpayer money to help pay for presidential campaigns and political conventions.

The push to eliminate the public-financing system, instituted in the 1970s after the Watergate scandal, is part of a Republican effort to cut federal spending. The legislation, however, has drawn sharp criticism from campaign-finance watchdogs, such as Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, who argue the program should be expanded to reduce special-interest money in elections.read more >>