Republicans

In a primary day upset, political newcomer Rick Scott narrowly defeated state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the Republican nomination in the Florida gubernatorial race.

Recent polls had suggested McCollum was pulling ahead in the contest. The attorney general was making a name for himself on the national stage and had the backing of heavyweight Republicans like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who are looking to keep the governor's office in GOP hands as incumbent Charlie Crist heads out on an independent bid for U.S. Senate.

But low turnout on Tuesday, among other factors, gave outsized importance to Scott's efforts to pull in support through early voting and absentee ballots. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Scott led McCollum 46 percent to 43 percent...

The GOP blueprint for winning control of the House is rapidly coming into focus, with the National Republican Congressional Committee readying a $22 million TV ad blitz aimed at a handful of powerful, long-serving incumbents and several dozen of the most junior members of the Democratic majority.

POLITICO has learned that the Republican campaign arm will invest in 40 districts around the nation in its first wave of television commercial reservations — a target list that ranges from powerful veterans such as Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) and Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas), an Appropriations Committee cardinal, to endangered freshmen legislators including Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), and Rep.  read more »

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has announced a new web video that highlights what it calls President Obama's "failed economic policies."

The ad attacks the Obama administration's record on economic policies. Entitled "Deficit of Hope," the video seeks to highlight what the Republican National Committee believes to be a void between the nation's financial realities verses the media's spin that comes from the Oval Office.

Damon Dunn, GOP candidate for California secretary of state and former NFL player, thinks the party needed to produce a video which more accurately portrays the impact Obama's policies are having on average Americans...

The Senate will take a brief break from its summer recess Thursday and go back into session to pass a $600 million border security bill, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

Democrats and Republicans agreed to convene the unusual special session to approve the border bill that passed the House on Tuesday, as well as approve a resolution on the death of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), spokesman Jim Manley said.

“This will be an extremely short session as we will just be doing these two items,” Manley said...

The head of the Republican Party on Friday urged members to step up their efforts for the fall elections amid cautious confidence about the GOP winning several governorships and perhaps seizing control of Congress from President Barack Obama's party.

"We can't rest now," GOP chairman Michael Steele told the Republican National Committee. "Everything we've been doing, and all that we must do, needs to be ramped up and maxed out in the next three months."

"Sleep? What's that? We can't sleep until November 3rd," he added...

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, making her the fourth female to serve on the nation's highest court. The 50-year-old Harvard Law School graduate is scheduled to be sworn in Saturday (August 7). While Kagan's confirmation isn't a surprise for most, the possible backlash some lawmakers may face as a result of their vote could be.

On a Senate vote of 63-37 Kagan was expectedly awarded the top jurist job to the Supreme Court. Bob Knight, senior writer for Coral Ridge Ministries and senior fellow for American Civil Rights Union, says those who voted to confirm Kagan could pay a heavy price in the mid-term elections.

"Sixty-three senators are going to have to answer to their constituents why they put on the U.S. Supreme Court a woman who altered a report by physicians that said -- and I'll sum it up -- that there really aren't any circumstances to justify a partial-birth abortion," Knight explains.  read more »

Republicans looking to take back the House say they hope a pool of fresh faces will be just what the voters ordered to cure their incumbent fatigue.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has been nurturing a program since the last election cycle to recruit and build a base for a crop of new congressional challengers. The recruits are not quite entry-level. Many are lawmakers at the state level, business leaders, veterans and lawyers.

But to mount a run for Congress, the "Young Guns" program gives those would be federal candidates a platform. And Republican leaders are counting on those candidates to help win them a majority....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Democrats failed on Tuesday to get enough votes to stop a republican filibuster against the DISCLOSE Act. That's the campaign finance reform bill pro-life groups oppose because they say it would place stringent limits on their ability to communicate to the public about legislation and elections.

Senate Republicans are filibustering the legislation and Democrats held a cloture vote this afternoon where they need 60 votes to be able to stop the filibuster and move towards a vote on the bill itself.

However, they were unable to peel off any Republicans to support the cloture vote and lost by a 57-41 margin....

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Business advocates are hoping Congress scraps a tax provision in the health care overhaul law that they say is overly burdensome to smaller companies.

So far, Senate and House Republicans have pushed for repeal of this specific provision of the health care bill. Even Democrats asked that the Internal Revenue Service move cautiously in enforcement of the provision.

Currently, businesses and other entities are required to report on Form 1099 any service-related transactions over $600 involving an unincorporated business, such as a solo proprietor, partnership and LLC...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is the chairman of the Senate GOP conference, announced his opposition today to the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. His announcement makes it so every top Republican lawmaker now opposes Kagan.

“I voted against the president’s nomination of Elena Kagan to be Solicitor General and I will vote against her confirmation to the Supreme Court for the same reason," Alexander said today in a statement.

“President Obama won the election, and I am not surprised that he would nominate someone to the Supreme Court whose political and judicial philosophy is different from mine,” he continued...