A federal judge has ruled that Rick Perry and three other Republican presidential candidates will not be added to Virginia's primary ballot.

District Court Judge John Gibney Jr. rejected their requests, arguing that they filed their challenges to Virginia's stringent ballot requirements too late.

"They played the game, they lost, and then they complained about the rules," he said.

Two new polls today show a close race in South Carolina, the location of the third Republican presidential battleground in the race to replace pro-abortion President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney holds a solid lead in Florida.

With Iowa and New Hampshire having given the former Massachusetts governor victories in the two traditional early primary election states, Romney now holds a slim two-point lead over Newt Gingrich in South Carolina, according to a new survey from the Insider Advantage polling firm. Conducted for the Augusta Chronicle and The Savannah Morning News newspaper, Romney has 23 percent support, and Gingrich has 21 percent.

After the former Speaker, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has 14 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul has 13 percent, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has 7 percent, and Texas Gov.

Trying to take the mantle as frontrunner in the Republican presidential race, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney targeted President Obama on Thursday in their race to win New Hampshire voters while Newt Gingrich targeted the frontrunners, by intentional insults or not.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is reaching for a decisive victory next Tuesday in New Hampshire to solidify his standing. At a morning stop in Salem before heading to South Carolina, Romney labeled Obama a "crony capitalist," invoking a theme that Rep. Michele Bachmann had used before dropping out of the race.

Santorum, under new scrutiny after a strong showing in Iowa's kickoff caucuses, offered himself as "the conservative alternative" to Romney and claimed he's got the momentum to propel his campaign beyond New Hampshire.

"Our office is buzzing," Santorum said after an appearance in Manchester.

It doesn’t look like Mitt Romney could lose New Hampshire, but then again, he can’t really win it either.

Even a 20-point landslide by Romney in New Hampshire would be instantly discounted as merely meeting expectations for the former governor of the neighboring state who keeps a summer home there.

The only way Romney could make news in New Hampshire would be if he ends up in a squeaker. Romney, having skated to a narrow victory in Iowa, would then be seen as hugely vulnerable. The stakes are high, but the risks of such an embarrassment look low.

For Iowa runner up, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, though, both the stakes and the risks are very high.

The pro-abortion political group Emily’s List has released a new ranking of the Republican presidential candidates and it labels former Speaker Newt Gingrich as the worst of the GOP hopefuls seeking to defeat pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Emily’s List is releasing a scorecard on all of the candidates and sees Gingrich as the worst if only because he has refined his pro-life position and recently moved to supporting a position that life begins at conception or fertilization as opposed to saying it begins at implantation.

Gingrich’s voting record on pro-life issues reflected the consensus pro-life views of the majority of Americans.

Gingrich voted in favor of a ban on partial-birth abortion.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Mitt Romney's wife gushes about his silly side and devotion to their five sons and 16 grandchildren. Rick Santorum's college-age daughter opines online about missing the campus coffee shop and chats with friends about their Friday night plans. Jon Huntsman's daughters generate much-needed buzz for him with a joint Twitter account and online videos, including at least one that went viral.

Days away from voting in the Republican presidential race, the path to the nomination is quickly becoming a crowded family affair with spouses and offspring pitching in and doing far more than just smiling from the sidelines.

Ann Romney, Anita Perry and Callista Gingrich are starring in new TV ads for the husbands they've loyally campaigned for. Romney extols her husband's character and says "to me that makes a huge difference" in a candidate.

Donald Trump’s stature within Republican ranks appears to be waning, after most of the party’s presidential hopefuls have shot down the billionaire developer’s invitation to take part in a “debate” moderated by “The Donald.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota, became the latest to announce they will take a pass on the Dec. 27 Newsmax-sponsored debate, following in the footsteps of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, meanwhile, have said they plan to attend the event.

The announcements from the Perry and Bachmann camps coincide with a Rasmussen Reports poll released this week that found voters aren’t overly enthralled with the idea of having Mr.

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are now essentially tied for the lead in the 2012 Republican presidential race, according to a new national poll Gallup released today looking at the candidates seeking to replace pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Among all Republicans nationwide, Romney is the choice of 20% and Gingrich 19%. Among Republican registered voters, Gingrich is at 22% and Romney at 21%, the new poll found.

Among the other candidates, all of whom are campaigning as pro-life advocates opposed to abortion and taxpayer financing of abortions, the poll of all Republicans finds Herman Cain at 16 percent, Ron Paul at 10 percent, Rick Perry at 8 percent, Michelle Bachmann at 5 percent, and Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum tied at 1 percent apiece. The survey of registered Republicans has Cain also in third at 16 percent, Paul with 9 percent, Perry with 8 percent, Bachmann at 4 percent and Santorum and Huntsman getting one percent...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is so far ahead of the other Republican presidential candidates in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire that the other candidates may have to rethink their strategies.

According to a Suffolk University/7NEWS poll of 400 likely Republican primary voters, Romney has a 27-point lead over his nearest rival, with Ron Paul in second place at 14 percent. Jon Huntsman marched up the poll coming in third with 10 percent and Rick Perry is idling in fourth place at 8 percent.

The rest of the field, including undeclared potential candidate Sarah Palin, earned 6 percent or less. Eleven percent of likely New Hampshire GOP primary voters were undecided.

"Mitt Romney is saying 'get out of my back yard' and making New Hampshire his strong firewall despite showing some weakness in the other states' early primaries," said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk University's Political Research Center.

For the 2012 Republican hopefuls, Wednesday night is the first Fall Classic.

Eight candidates are slated to take the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., for the POLITICO/NBC News debate — the first face-off as the campaign kicks into high gear.

It’s also the first debate that will include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the new front-runner who has shaken up the slow-forming presidential contest and shifted the landscape for Mitt Romney, who’d been sitting atop the field for months.

Five things to watch for as the candidates take the stage:

1) Does Perry stumble or survive?

Assuming the Texas wildfires don’t keep Perry at home, he will be the most-scrutinized candidate at the debate. The state’s longest-serving chief executive has had all the momentum heading into tonight’s event, his first televised national vetting.

“All eyes will be on Rick Perry, as he has become ‘Mr.