Elections, Republican | featured news

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has survived a recall election, defeating the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee to keep the state's top political job. Walker becomes the first governor in American history to stay in office after a recall challenge.

Republican Rep. Bob Turner, facing elimination of his New York City congressional district, says he'll seek the Senate seat held by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. Turner's announcement Tuesday came just three days before New York Republicans will choose among Senate candidates. There are already three other Republicans seeking the nomination.

A win in Alabama or Mississippi for Mitt Romney on Tuesday could all but wrap up the nomination and give him a victory in one of the most conservative parts of the country.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) announced Wednesday morning that she will run for her fourth term in 2012. “I’m looking forward to coming back and bringing a strong, powerful voice to Washington, D.C.,” Bachmann told the Associated Press. The former presidential candidate’s future plans had been in some doubt. Redistricting could make her 6th district seat more competitive, and she spent much of the year in Iowa proclaiming herself “an Iowa girl” — not so helpful for winning an election in Minnesota.

As South Carolina Republicans begin voting in the first primary of the south today, GOP insiders say that all the candidates have had their problems in Palmetto State, one reason why today's outcome has been so hard to predict.

In the closest finish in the history of the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were locked in a virtual dead heat in the first battle for the Republican presidential nomination... Ron Paul, nearly doubling his Iowa vote from 2008, was a close third.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who led Iowa and national polls in November, said Monday he did not expect to win Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, but will declare victory because he has survived an onslaught of negative advertising.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday easily coasted to a second term, winning in a landslide election after failing to attract any well-known or deep-pocketed opposition.

Republican Bob Turner on Tuesday won the special election in New York's heavily Democratic ninth congressional district -- pulling a huge upset that few would have predicted just months ago.

It's decision day in Wisconsin, where the results of a half-dozen recall elections are being closely watched by national observers looking for a measure of voter angst.