Senators push <nbsp/> plans for path <nbsp/> to citizenship <nbsp/><nbsp/>

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON Two senators on opposite sides of the aisle are proposing comprehensive changes to the immigration laws that would include a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11million illegal immigrants now in the United States.

Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, who promoted similar proposals on separate Sunday's news shows, said that no path to citizenship would be available until the country's borders were secure.

Only then could those in the U.S. without authorization "come out of the shadows, get biometrically identified, start paying taxes, pay a fine for the law they broke," Graham said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "They can't stay unless they learn our language, and they have to get in the back of line before they become citizens. They can't cut in front of the line regarding people who are doing it right and it can take over a decade to get their green card."

Schumer told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he and Graham have resumed talks on immigration policy that broke off two years ago and "have put together a comprehensive detailed blue print on immigration reform" that has "the real potential for bipartisan support based on the theory that most Americans are for legal immigration, but very much against illegal immigration."

Graham, however, made no mention of working with the chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, refugees and border security.

Immigration policy, largely ignored during President Barack Obama's first four years in office, has re-emerged as a major issue as Republicans seek ways to rebound from their election performance. More than 70percent of Hispanic voters supported Obama, who has been more open than Republicans to comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.

Three days after Tuesday's election, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said it was time to address immigration policy. He urged Obama to take the lead in coming up with a plan that would look at both improved enforcement of immigration law and the future of the estimated 11million people living in the country illegally. Boehner, however, did not commit to the citizenship issue.

Graham said that the "tone and rhetoric" Republicans used in the immigration debate of 2006 and 2007 "has built a wall between the Republican Party and Hispanic community," causing Hispanic support to dwindle from 44percent in 2004 to 27percent in 2012.

"This is an odd formula for party to adopt, the fastest growing demographic in the country, and we're losing votes every election. … I intend to tear this wall down and pass an immigration reform bill that's an American solution to an American problem," he said.

Both senators said the overhaul would include developing a secure document to assure employers they're hiring people authorized to work in the country, and allowing legal immigration for needed workers at all skill levels. The path to citizenship would require immigrants to learn English, go to the back of the citizenship line, have a job and not commit crimes.

Graham said the overhaul would have to be done in such a way that "we don't have a third wave of illegal immigration 20 years from now. That's what Americans want. They want more legal immigration and they want to fix illegal immigration once and for all."

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Boehner ready to compromise, but will GOP?

WASHINGTON

After Mitt Romney's defeat on Tuesday, John Boehner is the undisputed leader of the Republican Party.

Pity him.

President Obama's reelection and the Democrats' successful defense of their Senate majority have put the House speaker in a vise. Squeezing him on one side are the "tea party" conservatives and their ilk, dominant in the House Republican majority, who say Romney lost because he was too accommodating and moderate. Squeezing him on the other side is a Democratic president who campaigned for the rich to pay a higher share of taxes.

Boehner's first instinct on Tuesday night was to side with his House firebrands.

"While others chose inaction," he said at a Republican National Committee event, "we offered solutions." Americans, he said, "responded by renewing our House Republican majority. With this vote, the American people have also made clear that there's no mandate for raising tax rates."

After sleeping on it, Boehner appeared at the Capitol on Wednesday and offered a dramatically different message: He proposed, albeit in a noncommittal way, putting tax increases on the table.

"Mr. President, this is your moment," he said into the cameras, reading, sometimes with difficulty, from a teleprompter. "We're ready to be led, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. … We want you to succeed. Let's challenge ourselves to find the common ground that has eluded us."

Boehner left himself sufficient wiggle room, saying, "We're willing to accept new revenue under the right conditions" -- which keeps alive the possibility that the revenue would come only from economic growth (the old Republican position) and not from a higher tax burden.

Still, Boehner's new tone was starkly different from the one set two years ago by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who declared that "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." McConnell continued that approach after Tuesday's election, saying, "The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's first term."

But the voters denied McConnell his top priority.

And exit polls Tuesday showed that a majority of them favored higher taxes on income over $250,000, as Obama has proposed -- something Boehner's Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., made sure to point out in a news conference before the speaker's appearance.

The voters, Reid said, "want a balanced approach … and taxes are a part of that."

But Boehner's talk of common ground is likely to enrage the no-compromise wing of his House Republicans, who live in fear of the tea party, Grover Norquist, the Club for Growth and other enforcers of conservative orthodoxy. And tea-party leaders have convinced themselves that Romney lost because he wasn't conservative enough. The Tea Party Patriots, for example, attributed Romney's defeat to his being a "weak moderate candidate, handpicked by the Beltway elites and country-club establishment."

More likely, the tea party itself bears the blame for Romney's loss -- just as losses by far-right candidates kept Republicans from taking over the Senate.

To survive conservative primary challenges from Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and others, Romney had to take positions that ultimately doomed him in the general election.

His tough-on-immigration stance, in particular, helps explain his loss of more than 70percent of the Latino vote, which sealed his defeat.

Boehner knows this, of course, and that is why he was so careful when he made his remarks Wednesday afternoon, taking the rare precaution of using a teleprompter.

He left without answering questions, and when reporters shouted queries at him, he only smiled.

"The American people have spoken," Boehner said somberly, his eyes glistening. "If there's a mandate in yesterday's results, it's a mandate for us to find a way to work together."

Although he was vague about what he was offering, his bargaining position was very different from 18 months ago, when he went to the Economic Club of New York and pronounced tax increases "off the table."

This time, he outlined the general framework of a grand bargain: "In order to garner Republican support for new revenue, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up entitlement programs."

Boehner chose to make his post-election speech in the Capitol's Rayburn Room, named for Sam Rayburn, the late House speaker who is credited with saying: "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one."

Boehner sounds as though he's ready to pick up hammer and nail. But will his fellow Republicans stop kicking?

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Rejection of sales tax simply common sense

(PNI) Regarding "Penny-pinchers, pay up" (Letters, Sunday):

The writer has no business being upset with voters for voting against Proposition 204.

When the temporary, 1 percent sales-tax increase was put on the ballot nearly three years ago, we were told the extra revenue was needed to get us through the worst of the recession.

The worst of the recession is now over.

The writer, a teacher, chastises voters as being "penny-pinchers" because they did not vote to increase the sales tax permanently to "help the kids."

If not wanting to give my money to a bureaucracy that continues to hire administrators while laying off teachers makes me a "penny-pincher," then I am guilty as charged.

The schools have plenty of money. They just need to learn how to allocate it appropriately.

-- Cindi Ripple, Peoria

GOP needs big changes

Regarding syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer's column, "GOP just needs to tweak stance on migrants" (Opinions, Tuesday):

I don't believe tweaking its stance on immigration will change future outcomes. Just the word "tweaking" itself implies no real change, just merely how the position is presented.

After years of ridicule and self-deportation talk, I suspect the immigrant community is not going to suddenly change its opinions about the GOP.

Issues such as equal pay for women, repeal of Roe vs. Wade, affordable and available health care will continue to be a burden for the GOP along with gay-rights issues.

In particular, young voters do not respond well to the Republican message on these issues, and as the present older, White voters leave us, this problem will become worse.

If Paul Ryan represents the future of the party, why did he not help Mitt Romney hold his own state of Wisconsin?

Lastly, I don't believe the loss this year was due to a bad candidate but rather a bad message.

If Romney had not been forced by his primary opponents to run so far to the right, he might have won.

If an opposition candidate could not win this year with this message, when could he?

-- James Wick, Scottsdale

President's go-to answer

Do you think if a reporter asked President Barack Obama what he had for lunch yesterday and with whom he dined, his reply would be, "I can't comment because it's under investigation"?

That seems to be his go-to answer for everything these days.

-- Patrica Edwards, Peoria

End the Electoral College

Thank you, Robert Robb, for questioning the validity of the Electoral College in this day and age ("Governmental system built for gridlock" Opinions, Nov. 9).

The "battleground states" are the ones favored by the campaigns, which ignore the others.

Favored by the media, neglecting the concerns and problems of the others, this allows these chosen states to reap the financial benefits of campaigns, media and followers.

I understand the original concept of fairness of the Electoral College, but I believe its relevance has passed.

Let the people decide fully who their choice for president is by popular vote, not a select few areas.

--Steve Palmer,

Cottonwood

GOP must widen its tent

Professor Donald Critchlow identifies Gov. George McGovern's commission to revise Democratic rules for selecting delegates as the origin of today's "polarized politics" ("McGovern Commission changes led to gridlock," Opinions, Saturday).

In revising the way delegates to the Democratic National Convention were chosen, Democrats returned their party to President Abraham Lincoln's vision for America "that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth."

I think President Lincoln meant all the people, not just the well-to-do people. And President Lincoln was a Republican, a smart one.

The Republican Party needs to open its doors and allow democracy to work in our republic.

--Patricia A Klemme,

Phoenix

Obama was a better pick

Thank you for printing Michael Gerson's column, "Better way for GOP than 'woe is me'" (Opinions, Tuesday):

After reading numerous letters from conservatives lamenting the re-election of President Barack Obama, it was a relief to read a realistic assessment of why Mitt Romney lost the election.

I have many friends and family who voted for President Obama, and it is not because we have "the something-for-nothing mentality" touted Tuesday by a letter writer.

We made the choice between two less-than-perfect candidates because we felt more aligned with the Democratic candidate.

Perhaps if conservatives would actually give examples of how the Constitution has been shredded by all the goodies I expect from government and how government is intruding into my life, etc., I could understand why conservatives feel that the sky is falling.

At this point, though, it seems that Rush Limbaugh is correct and we are a "country of children," only it is his own party behaving in that fashion.

-- Jo Ann Ayres, Phoenix

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Some in Ariz. GOP rejoicing at end of Pierce's leadership

(PNI) Don't let the door hit you on your way out … Senate Republicans put Steve Pierce on his horse and sent him off to the pasture of rank-and-file senators when they opted for a new Senate president this week. And then some disgruntled GOPers fired arrows at his retreating back.

A few of those arrows took a bounce into Insider's in-box.

"Hahahahaha" read a message from Rep. John Fillmore, who lost his bid for a Senate seat in the GOP primary.

"How does it feel to be dismissed and made to feel like your (sic) nothing???" asked another, sent by Joe Ortiz, a Casa Grande Republican who lost a Senate race to Democrat Barbara McGuire.

Grass-roots Republicans in Pinal County started an "oust Pierce" movement last month, upset that the Republican Victory Fund did not send any money to help Ortiz. They also were upset that the fund was used against Fillmore in his GOP primary against Sen. Rich Crandall, saying it should not help fuel intraparty battles.

Pierce did a lot of fundraising for the independent-expenditure committee, but has said he didn't have anything to do with how the money was spent since the law forbids coordination with a candidate's campaign.

Investigation in futility… Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne in October 2011 ordered an investigation into who sent him an anonymous letter describing "interference" during a cellphone conversation.

The undated and unsigned letter states the caller was going to hang up, but remained on the phone to listen to the conversation, allegedly about Horne, in violation of the state wire-intercept statute, according to records.

The writer of the undated, unsigned letter describes him- or herself as a Horne supporter who heard a woman "really raking you over the coals" and complaining about how she has to work under Horne and an "old white country club."

"I support you but if you can't manage your own office, how can you be governor?" the anonymous letter stated.

Public records obtained by Insider show Horne wanted investigators to determine the identity of the letter writer and whether he or she illegally intercepted or listened to the phone conversation.

The inquiry was closed after authorities could not determine who sent the letter.

A fingerprint analysis of the letter and envelope found only the fingerprints of Horne and his staff.

Gone, but not forgotten … Apparently, Insider and its masters at The Arizona Republic aren't on the right e-mail list at the state GOP.

The state Republican Party did issue a statement on the death of former state Rep. Bill Konopnicki, but instead of going to the the media, it went to 100 GOP leaders.

So, for those of you who aren't a leader, here's what party Chairman Tom Morrissey had to say about the veteran lawmaker from Safford:

"Bill's life was full of his good works as a Christian, and we will remember him most for his willingness to reach out and help all people. His influence and especially his generosity stretched far beyond his home in Graham County, where he represented his community in the Arizona House of Representatives. We are sad to lose such a dedicated and knowledgeable public servant, but fortunate to have benefited so much from his leadership and service."

The cold shoulder … State Sen.Ron Gould is tending to his Lake Havasu City air-conditioning business since losing a campaign for Congress. But he couldn't help putting in an icy dig recently at his Republican primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar.

Gosar's old district appears to be swinging the Democrats' way as the race between former U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick and Republican former state legislator Jonathan Paton comes down to a few thousand votes left to be counted.

Gosar left District 1 in northeast Arizona this year to run in the more GOP-friendly District 4 against Gould.

"My prediction came true that since Paul Gosar abandoned his district, it appears we've now lost that district to Ann Kirkpatrick, when we could have picked up that seat," Gould said. "I think (Gosar) would have ended up defeating Kirkpatrick," as he did in 2010.

Is a Gosar-Gould rematch in the offing?

"I don't know," Gould said, with a chuckle. "I'm probably going to have a hard time convincing my wife and family I should spend more money on that."

Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Rebekah L. Sanders. Get the latest at politics.azcentral.com.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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GOP just needs to tweak stance on migrants

WASHINGTON

They lose, and immediately the chorus begins. Republicans must change or die. A rump party of White America, it must adapt to evolving demographics or forever be the minority.

The only part of this that is even partially true regards Hispanics. They should be a natural Republican constituency: striving immigrant community, religious, Catholic, family-oriented and socially conservative (on abortion, for example).

The principal reason they go Democratic is the issue of illegal immigrants. In securing the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney made the strategic error of (unnecessarily) going to the right of Rick Perry. Romney could never successfully tack back.

For the party in general, however, the problem is hardly structural. It requires but a single policy change: border fence plus amnesty. Yes, amnesty. Use the word. Shock and awe -- full legal normalization (just short of citizenship) in return for full border enforcement.

I've always been of the "enforcement first" school, with the subsequent promise of legalization. I still think it's the better policy. But many Hispanics fear that there will be nothing beyond enforcement.

So, promise amnesty right up front. Secure the border with guaranteed legalization to follow on the day the four border-state governors affirm that illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle.

Imagine Marco Rubio advancing such a policy on the road to 2016. It would transform the landscape. He'd win the Hispanic vote. Yes, win it. A problem fixable with a single policy initiative is not structural. It is solvable.

The other part of the current lament is that the Republican Party consistently trails among Blacks, young people and (unmarried) women. (Republicans are plus-7 among married women.) But this is not for reasons of culture, identity or even affinity. It is because these constituencies tend to be more politically liberal -- and Republicans are the conservative party.

The country doesn't need two liberal parties. Yes, Republicans need to weed out candidates who talk like morons about rape. But this doesn't mean the country needs two pro-choice parties, either. In fact, more women are pro-life than are pro-choice.

The problem here for Republicans is not policy but delicacy -- speaking about culturally sensitive and philosophically complex issues with reflection and prudence. Additionally, the doomsayers warn, Republicans must change not just ethnically but ideologically. Back to the center. Moderation above all!

More nonsense. Tuesday's exit polls showed that by an 8-point margin (51-43), Americans believe that government does too much. And Republicans are the party of smaller government.

So, why give it up? Republicans lost the election not because they advanced a bad argument but because they advanced a good argument not well enough. Romney ran a solid campaign, but he is by nature a Northeastern moderate. He sincerely adopted the new conservatism but still spoke it as a second language.

More Gerald Ford 1976 than Ronald Reagan 1980, Romney is a transitional figure, both generationally and ideologically. Behind him, the party has an extraordinarily strong bench. In Congress -- Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Kelly Ayotte, (the incoming) Ted Cruz and others. And the governors -- Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Nikki Haley, plus former Gov. Jeb Bush and the soon retiring Mitch Daniels. (Chris Christie is currently in rehab.)

They were all either a little too young or just not personally prepared to run in 2012. No longer. There may not be a Reagan among them, but this generation of rising leaders is philosophically rooted and politically fluent in the new constitutional conservatism.

Ignore the trimmers. There's no need for radical change. The other party thinks it owns the demographic future -- counter that in one stroke by fixing the Latino problem. Do not, however, abandon the party's philosophical anchor. In a world where European social democracy is imploding before our eyes, the party of smaller, more modernized government owns the ideological future.

The answer to Romney's failure is not retreat, not aping the Democrats' patchwork pandering. It is to make the case for restrained, rationalized and reformed government in stark contradistinction to President Barack Obama's increasingly unsustainable big-spending, big-government paternalism.

Republicans: No whimpering. No whining. No reinvention when none is needed. Do conservatism, but do it better.

There's a whole generation of leaders ready to do just that.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Theater fest serves up GOP fare

PHILADELPHIA — PHILADELPHIA A festival opening next week in Philadelphia is giving new meaning to the phrase "political theater."

Theater director and playwright Cara Blouin, frustrated with what she saw as a liberal bias in the performing arts, enters stage right:

"I went to a play … that was a satire of the right, and I was sitting there thinking, 'This isn't funny,' and I couldn't figure out why it was boring," she said. "Then I realized nothing was surprising me, I'd heard all these arguments and jokes so many times."

With that, the Republican Theater Festival, running Nov. 12-14 at Philadelphia's historic Plays and Players theater, was born.

Blouin sent out a call to the theater community in July for submissions of plays "that represent ideas related to social or fiscal conservatism, issues considered part of the Republican Party, Libertarian or 'tea party' platforms or concerns of people of faith."

More than a hundred plays were submitted, with 10 chosen for the three-day festival. They take aim at many of the right's biggest bugaboos: Occupy Wall Street, labor unions, abortion and the "war on religion."

"Most have to do with feeling like an outsider," said Blouin, 33, an independent from west Philadelphia. "Many are personal meditations on what it feels like when nobody appreciates your values."

Blouin, who raised funds for the festival online, said that starting fresh conversations in a realm that's philosophically homogeneous can only benefit artists and their audiences.

"Anything that encourages something new, something we haven't seen before, it's revitalizing," she said. "New blood means new audiences and better stuff."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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GOP taking stock after defeats

As President Barack Obama picked up swing state after swing state Tuesday in his re-electon victory, down-ticket candidates also picked up key seats, enabling Democrats to expand their control over the U.S. Senate. Three states passed ballot measures supporting gay-marriage -- a key plank of the Democratic platform -- and a fourth rejected a measure that would have banned it.

Nationally, Republicans and conservatives have started soul-searching and rebuilding in the wake of the electoral shellacking.

But in Arizona on Tuesday, voters statewide saw red for the most part, backing Republican nominee Mitt Romney for president, narrowly supporting GOP Rep. Jeff Flake for the state's open U.S. Senate seat and electing a slate of Republicans to the Arizona Corporation Commission. Voters also defeated ballot measures that would have extended an education tax and scrapped the state's partisan primary system. And in Maricopa County, voters returned controversial Republican Sheriff Joe Arpaio to office for a sixth term.

Arizona Republicans did see some setbacks: The party still controls both chambers of the state Legislature, but with smaller numbers and no more supermajority in the state Senate. And it's possible that Democrats could hold five of the state's nine congressional seats, depending on how three too-close-to-call races turn out.

Election results, however, suggest this may have as much to do with redistricting as any shift in voters' mood.

In all, Arizona maintained its reputation as a red state in a presidential year, despite considerable chatter and speculation that Obama and Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona would put it in play.

"It's been my opinion that Arizona has always been kind of against the grain when it comes to national politics," said Van Ornelas, a Phoenix-based Democratic political consultant and strategist.

While some Arizona Republicans say the results confirm that Arizona is a right-of-center state, other political observers say seismic demographic shifts -- most notably the rising influence of Latino voters, who were crucial to Obama's win -- are under way in Arizona and it's just a matter of time before the state turns purple or blue unless the GOP finds a way to make better inroads with Hispanics. It didn't happen in 2012, but it could happen in 2016 or 2020, said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races for the nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based "Cook Political Report."

"I think Arizona behaved the way it usually does," Duffy said. "It's not quite there yet. It's a state that you're going to hear Democrats talk about, but it's going to be a while before it actually flips."

Shift toward Democrats

Unofficial election results suggest a glacial shift toward Democrats in Arizona in 2012.

As of Friday, unofficial results showed Republican candidates won 52.8 percent of the statewide votes in congressional races. Two years ago, Republicans won 53.0 percent of the votes.

Libertarians siphoned enough votes, typically at the expense of GOP candidates, that they may have allowed Democrats to eke out victories in two of the three competitive races this year.

In state legislative races, Democrats won more seats than two years ago. But, again, their share of votes statewide showed only modest gains.

All Democrats in state Senate races went from 40.1 percent of the votes in 2010 to 41.5 percent as of Friday. In the House, Democrats climbed from 35.7 percent of the votes to 39.9 percent.

In the short term, Arizona has some built-in advantages that aid the GOP. Republicans have a voter-registration edge, and independents outnumber Democrats. Labor unions, which traditionally support Democrats, don't have nearly the influence in Arizona that they do in other states, including nearby Nevada, which Obama carried on Tuesday. Arizona also traditionally has had a libertarian streak as exemplified by the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz.

Nationally, exit polling showed that Romney won with voters over the age of 30, doing especially well with voters who were 65 and older. Romney won the senior demographic on Tuesday 56 percent to 44 percent. However, Obama won 60 percent of voters who are 30 or younger. The racial divide also was striking: 93 percent of Black voters and 71 percent of Latino voters backed Obama, while 56 percent of White voters backed Romney.

"The Republican Party really was revealed to be an old, White, male, elite group of people, and that's absolutely the opposite direction of where this country is going," said Bruce Merrill, a veteran Arizona political scientist and pollster and a senior research fellow at Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. "So why did Arizona maybe go against some of the trends in some of the other states? Well, guess what, Arizona even has more of the older White males because of the migration into the retirement communities."

Nationally, Republicans immediately conceded that the wholesale rejection of Romney by Latino voters is a big problem and that the long-stalled issue of comprehensive immigration reform is likely back on the table for the next Congress.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Romney's loss means Republicans need to attract younger candidates for office and reassess their relationship with Hispanic voters. McCain, a one-time champion of reforms such as a guest-worker program and a path to legal status for illegal immigrants already in the country, said immigration reform likely will be revisited. The GOP also needs to emphasize to Latinos shared values, such as support for small business, lower taxes and the military, he said.

"Whenever you suffer a defeat, you have to regroup and go back into the fight," McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, told The Arizona Republic.

McCain saw some positive things for the Democrats in Tuesday's Arizona results.

"When you dig into some of the numbers, Democrats made some gains here, in the Legislature," McCain said. "We'll see how these close congressional races come out. But I don't think there's any doubt that there's a viable Democrat Party in our state."

Voters changing

Fred Solop, a professor of politics and international affairs at Northern Arizona University, said some of the talk about Obama possibly competing this year in Arizona and putting the state in play was hype, or perhaps wishful thinking on the part of some Democrats. Bill Clinton is the only Democrat to carry Arizona in a presidential election since President Harry Truman won the state in 1948. Still, Solop agreed that the rise of the Latino voting bloc eventually will help change the state's complexion.

"The country is changing: The demographics of the country are changing and the attitudes in the country are changing, and those same dynamics are at play here in Arizona," Solop said.

About 18 percent of Arizona voters on Tuesday were Latino, according to exit polling.

However, Ornelas, the Democratic strategist, said he was disappointed that Latinos didn't make a greater impact in Arizona on Tuesday. Many were energized by the candidacy of Carmona, who would have been Arizona's first Hispanic U.S. senator; the race to oust anti-illegal-immigration hawk Arpaio; and issues such as the Dream Act.

He also said he believes the Obama campaign was sincere when it initially signaled that it would fight for Arizona this year. "I think they had high hopes to really change the state," Ornelas said.

Arizona was not alone in maintaining its relatively stable conservative leanings.

The GOP gained a 30th gubernatorial position nationwide after North Carolina elected a Republican on Tuesday. That state, along with Indiana, dropped from Obama's electoral column this year.

Texas hasn't elected a Democrat in a statewide race since 1994, and the GOP largely continued its dominance on Tuesday.

Republican Ted Cruz easily won the Senate race there, and the Legislature nearly maintained its GOP supermajority.

Of 36 Texas congressional seats, 24 went to Republicans. Democrats, however, won three of the state's four additional seats this year.

With the partisan stalemate continuing, the familiar battles over nearly everything in Washington are unlikely to change, political observers say.

Republicans "would simply discount the election. It proves nothing as far as they're concerned," said Morris Fiorini, a political-science professor at Stanford University. "If you liked gridlock last time, and a lot of people did, you should be real happy the next two years."

Keith Poole, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, has studied decades of voting history to chart the historical polarization of Washington. After Tuesday, he noted that "the ideological center continues to hollow out" of the Senate.

"The polarization shows no sign of letup," he said.

Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democrat who appears to be narrowly winning back the congressional seat she lost in 2010, said after Tuesday that she isn't changing her legislative priorities.

"No, because I have been in this district my entire life," she said. "I know the issues. It really is economic development and jobs. That's what I ran on, and that's our plan to continue to work on that."

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Nationally, Brewer's star shines as a conservative icon

She travels coast to coast to rally the conservative faithful, packing in Republicans by the thousands and winning standing ovations -- sometimes simply by entering the room.

With her no-nonsense and feisty style, Gov. Jan Brewer has stormed America, taking her messages of states' rights and border security to the national stage.

Along the way, the 69-year-old Glendale politico has become a national figure who travels like a rock star, complete with an advance team that carries a black marker for her to use to sign autographs.

She wields political power and can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that she is using to try to make or break candidates and influence elections.

Ultimately, it's unclear what Brewer plans to do with her star power: No one seems to know her endgame.

For now, she tours to promote her book, "Scorpions for Breakfast." Through speaking engagements, she has raised nearly $600,000 for a federal political-action committee that she's using to pump money into Republican races in this cycle. She has become a fixture on the cable-TV news shows -- despite cringe-worthy bloopers that keep satirical versions of Jan Brewer in business on Twitter. And her Facebook page now rivals those of national political figures in terms of popularity.

Many of Brewer's critics and observers are bewildered by her celebrity. They point out she is the "accidental governor" -- she became the state's top official when Gov. Janet Napolitano left in 2009 for a spot in President Barack Obama's Cabinet -- and shake their heads at her ascent.

But to her supporters, Brewer has become a patriotic symbol of resistance against a federal government that they believe has exceeded its authority.

Political experts say it is unusual for a governor to gain such star power in a short amount of time. They compare Brewer's national name recognition to that of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. People outside those states are largely unaware of those governors' duties, experts say, but they tend to have affection for the way they champion their philosophies and take their fight to the other side.

Brewer would not discuss her national celebrity, but observers and those close to her say she's thrilled to be so widely recognized.

"Once upon of time, she was plain old Jan Brewer in the phone book, and now, she is … a national figure," political consultant Stan Barnes said. "She's a symbol of a willingness to speak truth about difficult issues. Love her or hate her, everybody believes Jan Brewer knows who she is and you can count on her to come at key issues with a belief system that is unwavered."

'True to her philosophies'

Brewer, the mother of three sons, was only moderately recognizable prior to 2009, when as secretary of state she became the state's No. 1 Republican when Napolitano stepped down to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

By then, Brewer had been involved in elective state politics for 25 years, first as a lawmaker, then as a Maricopa County supervisor and then as secretary of state, the state's second-in-command. She has been involved in the state party even longer, attending breakfasts, conferences and rallies for 20 years prior.

She's always lit up the room, friends say, with her "down-to-earth Republican Party girl attitude."

But she was never in the limelight. As secretary of state, she made headlines only for her election duties. But as governor, her pro-Second Amendment and anti-abortion stances as well as her efforts to cut government spending have thrust her center stage.

Carol Springer, Brewer's longtime friend and former colleague at the state Capitol, says Brewer has rarely strayed from her conservative principles, an attribute that resonates with the party faithful. "If anything, she's just been extremely predictable," Springer said. "A lot of times, you see how people change when they get into office ? and she's never done that. She's always been true to her philosophies, and she's never strayed from them."

When Brewer became governor, she became the face of Arizona's Republican Party. Her supporters immediately lauded her as a conservative but pragmatic leader who would reel in spending and crack down on illegal immigration.

During her first 14 months on the job, Brewer flew largely under the national radar and was focused on budget battles with the Legislature.

A year later, Arizona's immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, rocked Brewer's political world and made her a household name.

Into the spotlight with SB 1070

Brewer's signing of SB 1070, carried live by cable media, introduced America to Arizona's 22nd governor.

She instantly shot to superstardom. She became a regular on conservative news shows -- favoring the conservative Fox News -- talking about the federal government's failure to secure the U.S.-Mexican border.

"Where she has people's admiration is that she is trying to solve a very difficult problem -- and using the rule of law to do it -- and she's not going to let anyone intimidate her or stop her," Fox's Sean Hannity told The Republic.

Brewer hit the road, speaking at conferences and before county Republican groups from Idaho to Arkansas about what she said was Obama's inaction to secure the border and her efforts to enforce Arizona's laws. She met with the president in the Oval Office, where she asked the federal government to complete a border fence and send more resources to help combat illegal-drug trafficking.

Brewer's political philosophies and personal story resonates with RonaleeLinsenmann of Nampa, Idaho. The 59-year-old director of the Canyon County Republican Women heard Brewer speak this year to a political group and is impressed with her resilience as much as her politics.

A homemaker and mother, Linsenmann said the governor is "strong and courageous and sticks to her principals" and stands for everything that is right with politics.

"She talked about states' rights," Linsenmann said. "Of course, she did refer to the immigration issue, as she's been our stalwart -- our heroine. You don't get any sense of a facade, or that she's trying to create some kind of aura about herself that is not real."

Following Brewer's remarks, Linsenmann and other women took a photo with the governor. Each held up an index finger in honor of Brewer's manicured pointer finger, which wagged in Obama's face during his January visit to the Valley.

That finger wag made Brewer an international sensation after a photo of the incident went viral. That she would stand up to the most powerful man in the world -- and make no apologies for it -- fired up a large segment of the GOP base, which believes the Obama administration has failed to protect border states from violent Mexican drug runners and human smugglers.

"One important part of her story is that iconic picture in which she appears to be taking on President Obama," said John J. "Jack" Pitney Jr., a government professor at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. "The core partisans on each side really have an affection for champions who take the fight to the other side, and they see Jan Brewer as having done that."

Images of the encounter are now emblazoned on everything -- onesies, ornaments, buttons, T-shirts, coffee mugs, aprons -- and are available for sale. Photos signed by Brewer are selling online for $100.

An unscripted politician

Brewer enjoys her celebrity, her advisers say.

Her longtime friends and newfound fans say her warmth and down-to-earth personality appeal to the public. In an era of professional politicians, focus groups and talking points, they say it is refreshing to find an unscripted politician.

"She doesn't speak in riddles or ambiguity. ? And in an era where there's so much deception, Jan Brewer is a breath of fresh air," said Scott Baugh, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, which invited Brewer to speak at a dinner earlier this year.

As many as 1,000 people attended, Baugh said.

"They loved her!" he said. "When Governor Brewer spoke, you could have heard a pin drop."

The crowd at the Republican National Convention roared for Brewer during the Aug. 28 state-by-state roll call in Tampa, when she introduced herself as "Jan Brewer, governor of the great state of Arizona."

The applause went on long enough that Brewer had to acknowledge the reception. "Fellow delegates -- thank you!" she said.

Throughout the three-day GOP gathering, Brewer frequently was approached by delegates and conventiongoers from other states, who either offered her their compliments or requested an autograph or photo.

"She was just mobbed," recalled Larry Sabato, a national political expert who ran into Brewer on the floor of the convention. "It's unusual for a governor to be recognized as much as she was."

But as Brewer has become so popular, she also has become part of America's pop culture.

Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen played Brewer in a two-minute satirical video mocking the governor's stance on illegal immigration while introducing a "self-deportation station." ("Right now, Arizona is just an OK place to live, and it's getting more not OK because of illegals," the fake governor says.)

HBO's "The Newsroom" dedicated an episode to Brewer's signing of SB 1070. And a parody version of "Bonefinger," sung to the tune of "Goldfinger" from the James Bond movie of the same name, hit the Internet with the lyrics, "Her finger's cold ? she's really that looney and old."

Matthew Benson, Brewer's spokesman, said she laughs off the parodies and is energized by the support.

"When we're just walking through the (airport) terminals, or waiting to board planes, there are people and flight stewardesses who recognize the governor. They light up, they want to say hello," Benson said. "She draws energy from their enthusiasm."

Gaining emeritus status

It's unclear how Brewer will use her celebrity in the long term.

She has two years left to her second term and has toyed with researching whether a third term would be legally possible.

Insiders have suggested Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney could name her to a Cabinet position if he wins. Others suggest she will quietly leave office but continue on the speaking circuit -- similar to the path taken by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Some say Brewer misses her private life, where she can garden and go for neighborhood strolls without security details. Others say she so enjoys the national limelight that she won't give it up any time soon.

"She will have an emeritus status when she leaves the governorship of Arizona," Barnes said. "When she walks into a room for the rest of her life, people will stand up and applaud and give her the due of someone who has fought the big battle and won."

Grant Woods, who advises Brewer on legal and political issues, offers insight into which option she may be planning once her second term ends in January 2015. The two were dining at Durant's one recent afternoon when two young women interrupted to thank the governor for her service.

One of the women asked Brewer, "How many years do you have left as governor?"

Woods responded, "Two-and-a-half years."

Brewer added, "This term."

Republic reporter Dan Nowicki contributed to this article.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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GOP mum on Konopnicki's passing

(PNI) A strange silence … Former state Rep. Bill Konopnicki was laid to rest last weekend in Safford, his home of many decades.

A passel of current and former state lawmakers attended, including former senators Carolyn Allen and Tom O'Halleran, former House members PeteHershberger and Jennifer Burns, Secretary of State Ken Bennett and Attorney General Tom Horne (who found a place to sit with some of the Democrats who attended).

A carpool of former House Speaker Kirk Adams and three of Konopnicki's House colleagues -- Rich Crandall, Adam Driggs and John McComish -- made an honorary stop en route at a McDonald's in Globe (Konopnicki's firm runs a string of the fast-food restaurants in rural Arizona).

Although there were many individual tributes to Konopnicki when he died last month, the state Republican Party never issued a statement.

Many of those running the party considered Konopnicki a Republican in name only because of his push for immigration reform and his willingness to work with Democrats.

Likewise, the state House, where he served four terms, was strangely quiet.

There was no media release, although the House found time to express remorse for former staffer John Mills after he was indicted by a federal grand jury.

An elephant stampede … If you believe the votes coming out of Republican county committees, there's a virtual posse lining up to run Senate President Steve Pierce and House Speaker Andy Tobin out of their leadership posts.

It started in Pinal County, where the Republican committee approved a resolution calling for an end to the "failed leadership" of Pierce and Tobin.

The Maricopa County Republican Party followed suit and late Friday, the Navajo County GOP said "me too."

The R's, or at least the farther-right wing of the party, are unhappy with Pierce and Tobin for not advancing some "tea party"-ish legislation and for failing to support Republican candidates such as Sen.Frank Antenori of Tucson in tough races.

They're also peeved that the Republican Victory Fund, an independent expenditure committee for which Pierce raises money, poured big bucks into Crandall's primary race against Rep. John Fillmore (violating the 11th commandment of GOP politics, which says you shouldn't speak ill of your fellow party members).

The legislative caucuses are expected to elect their leaders on Wednesday.

The anti-Pierce forces are coalescing behind Sen. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert; the toss-Tobin crowd is looking to Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, who is hoping to cross over from the Senate to the House in Tuesday's election.

Quote of the week: "Do you know who I am?" ? Rep. David Burnell Smith, R-Cave Creek, after Scottsdale police stopped his erratically weaving car. Smith was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez. Get the latest at politics.azcentral.com.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Spending low for school-board candidates

For the 2012 election, the presidential candidates have raised nearly $1 billion each. Congressional candidates average into the low millions.

But some Peoria Unified school-board candidates competing for three seats in the Nov.6 election raised less than $500.

The top fundraiser, board incumbent Eddie Smith, totaled $3,019 with money rolled over from his 2010 election campaign. Incumbent Joe McCord raised more than $2,000.

All figures are based on the Sept. 27 campaign-finance filing. The latest figures won't be available until later this week.

Most of the cash has gone to the usual campaign expenditures, such as signs, fliers and robocalls.

Despite low donations and spending, some have raised concerns about outside influence from unions and political parties in local elections.

Peoria school-board candidate Peter Pingerelli questioned accepting money from unions, businesses and organizations, noting that it might affect future board decisions.

Campaign-finance records show that Pingerelli raised nearly $350 from individual donors, but Pingerelli noted that he has received almost $1,000 to date for signs and fliers.

Of the $2,000 McCord received, $400 came from the Peoria Education Association, a teachers union that frequently donates to board candidates. So far, he has bought a website, signs and fliers.

McCord rebutted the perception of favoritism: "The people who give me money think I'm doing a good job. I'm not swayed one way or the other by contributions."

Although Smith has not raised funds this go-around, he received $9,110 in the previous election. More than $7,100 came from firefighter unions. Smith is a Glendale firefighter.

This year, Smith expects to spend most of his roughly $3,000 in rollover funds on robocalls to registered voters.

To save money, Pingerelli, Tracy Livingston and Matt Bullock split the cost of a flier advertising them as a Republican slate. In a recent teachers candidate forum, they drew criticism for running along party lines in a nonpartisan race.

"I'm very disappointed that they're making it into a political race," said Carol Lokare, a Democrat running for District 21 in the state House of Representatives. "There's no Republican way to teach a kid how to write. There's no Democrat way to teach a kid how to write."

Aside from the flier, records show the candidates have not shared any other costs. None has received any financial support from the Republican Party.

The candidates said that if elected, they will not vote in lockstep, citing their varied positions on issues such as Proposition 204 and the district bond issue.

"We probably talked and e-mailed maybe five times total," said Bullock, who has raised less than $1,000 from small donors and personal funds. That money mostly has gone to paying for websites, fliers and signs, he said.

Livingston is funding her campaign, spending less than $500 on a website, robocall, fliers and business cards.

Although historically candidates have not run along party lines on the school-board level, Kim Fridkin, a political-science professor at Arizona State University, said it makes sense for candidates to play up party affiliation.

"They need to be pretty confident that that party will help them and not hurt them," Fridkin said.

Newcomer Bill Bercu has bought about 100 small signs but said he is trying to avoid spending any more money.

"I want to keep it under $500," Bercu said. "To me, (money is) not the way to go. It's service."

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Release of donor records ordered

The California Supreme Court on Sunday ordered the Arizona non-profit that has spent $1.5 million to oppose two ballot initiatives to turn over donor records to California's campaign-finance watchdog.

Americans for Responsible Leadership, which has also poured $11 million into two California campaigns, immediately asked for a temporary stay until 9 a.m. today to produce the records for the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

The group in a letter to the court said it requested the stay to seek emergency relief from the U.S. Supreme Court. It intends to file an emergency-stay application with Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Among other arguments, Americans for Responsible Leadership has said in court filings the commission is attempting to infringe on its constitutional rights to engage in political speech.

The Fair Political Practices Commission has been trying to force Americans for Responsible Leadership to turn over records to determine if the group is adhering to state law. Commission chairwoman Ann Ravel says state law requires donors to be identified if they intended the money to be spent on a campaign, even though federal law allows non-profits to keep secret donor identities.

According to records filed with the Arizona Secretary of State, Americans for Responsible Leadership as of Nov. 1 gave $925,000 to defeat Proposition 204, a tax measure that would ensure a permanent source of funding for education by extending the temporary 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax, and $575,000 to oppose Proposition 121, which would establish a new primary-election system.

The group is led by former state House Speaker Kirk Adams, who did not return a call seeking comment on Sunday's developments.

Robert Graham, a businessman running for state Republican Party chairman and listed on public records as a group director, has told The Arizona Republic, "We have received contributions from all types of individuals and entities," in Arizona and out of state.

Matt Ross, a publicist for Americans for Responsible Leadership's legal team, said he was disappointed by the ruling.

"While we are working to deliver the records, we still believe that the FPPC does not have the authority to take such action and have filed a request for immediate stay with the United States Supreme Court," he said.

Ravel told The Republic late Sunday it is unclear how soon the public could learn who is behind Americans for Responsible Leadership. She said commission staff had planned on reviewing the group's documents overnight, until the request for a stay was filed.

"What that does for disclosure, I don't know," she said. "It's further evidence of their using every possible delay tactic that they can dream up to avoid having to produce any information and following the law in California."

Ann-Eve Pedersen, chairwoman for the campaign for Prop. 204, questioned whether any disclosure that could result from the audit would make a difference this close to Election Day, but said she still believed disclosure is crucial.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Shadowy anti-prop donors revealed

An Arizona-based non-profit corporation that figures significantly in ballot-measure campaigns here and in California drew at least some of its money from two other non-profits.

One of the groups is controlled by Sean Noble, an Arizona political consultant who has had ties to the Koch brothers, billionaires with a history of campaign spending targeted to push their conservative agenda.

The revelation of donors behind Americans for Responsible Leadership brought renewed criticism of the "dark money" allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which allows corporate donors to direct money for political purposes without disclosing contributors' identities. And it drew cries of foul from the two Arizona campaigns that have been targeted by the group, who say out-of-state interests are unfairly intervening in Arizona's election.

On Monday, Americans for Responsible Leadership released its donor list after a fast-paced legal battle with a California campaign-finance watchdog agency. The list consisted of a single donor, Americans for Job Security, which got its money through a second intermediary, the Center to Protect Patients Rights, according to a letter Americans for Responsible Leadership sent to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Americans for Responsible Leadership said that at least the $11million it sank into two California ballot measures came through these groups. It did not disclose the names of individuals who donated to the two groups.

Common Cause of California had asked the commission to investigate the group, accusing it of attempting to "manipulate" the state's election. Americans for Responsible Leadership is working in California to defeat a temporary tax increase and to promote an effort to drastically change the state's campaign-finance system, including banning the practice of political contributions by payroll deduction, which labor unions rely on to raise political money.

Common Cause spokesman Phillip Ung said the release of donor names was "a victory for Californians and our disclosure laws."

"I don't think we're going to get individuals' names," he said. "The best we can get right now is this disclosure until we strengthen our laws ? which is better than we were getting before."

The California campaign watchdog agency had alleged that Americans for Responsible Leadership's failure to disclose its donor groups amounts to money laundering under that state's Political Reform Act. The state's attorney general has vowed an investigation. The group could be subject to criminal penalties and civil fines up to the amount of the contribution.

Unlike California, Arizona law does not require non-profit corporations to disclose donors. And so it remains unclear whether the $1.5million the group has spent to fight two Arizona propositions also came from the two other non-profit groups.

Americans for Responsible Leadership has spent $925,000 opposing Proposition 204, which is promoting a dedicated sales tax for education. It has spent $600,000 opposing Proposition 121, which would replace Arizona's partisan primary-election system with a "top-two" primary.

Watchdog organizations said the emerging details highlight the even greater influence money has played in campaigns in the wake of the Citizens United ruling.

"Now we have donations that can be both unlimited and anonymous, and neither of those things were true prior to Citizens United," said Daniel G. Newman, president and co-founder of MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization in California that tracks financial influence on politics. "We have unlimited secret money that is flooding our democracy."

Viveca Novak, editorial and communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics, agreed. Citizens United, she said, made it "crystal clear" that it's OK for groups such as Americans for Responsible Leadership to spend on politics and go beyond their earlier mission of issue advocacy.

They can now create layers of non-profit corporations to put money directly into efforts to support or defeat a candidate or an issue, and to do it anonymously, she said.

Federal tax records show Noble is the executive director of the Center to Protect Patient Rights, based in Phoenix. It raised $61.8million in 2010, according to public filings. During the 2010 campaign cycle, the center sent money to another non-profit corporation, Americans for Job Security, to help elect Republicans to Congress. Tax records from 2011 were not readily available.

Noble also is founder of DC-London, the political-consulting firm that is running the Arizona campaign against Prop. 204.

Americans for Job Security is a registered "business league" under IRS regulations and is an independent committee registered in Alexandria, Va. It spent $9million in this election cycle, according to online Federal Election Committee records. Most of the money went to a Virginia media company, Crossroads Media LLC, in an effort to oppose President Barack Obama's re-election.

According to tax filings, Noble's Center to Protect Patient Rights in 2010 gave $4.1million to Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers' non-profit group, which contributes to political campaigns.

Critics also point to other cases that link Noble to the Koch brothers, although without disclosure of the center's individual donors, it's impossible to establish a firm link. Noble did not return a phone call seeking comment.

One of the center's founding board members, Heather Higgins, is a key presenter at Koch fundraisers and her Independent Women's Forum has received money from a Koch-controlled foundation, according to public filings.

Former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams is president of Americans for Responsible Leadership. He did not return a call seeking comment, but last week told The Republic he made decisions on where the group spends its money.

Robert Graham, a businessman running for state Republican Party chairman and listed on public records as an Americans for Responsible Leadership director, has told The Republic, "We have received contributions from all types of individuals and entities," in Arizona and out of state.

He did not respond to The Republic's questions about whether money to fight Arizona's two propositions came from the same non-profit groups.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Polling-place issues are reported in Pa., Fla.

Sporadic problems were reported Tuesday at polling places around the country, many in Pennsylvania including a confrontation involving Republican inspectors over access to some polls and a voting machine that lit up for Republican Mitt Romney even when a voter pressed the button for President Barack Obama. One Florida elections office mistakenly told voters in robocalls the election was today.

Although the majority of complaints were about extremely long lines, the Election Protection coalition of civil-rights and voting-access groups said they had gotten some more serious calls among more than 69,000 received on a toll-free voter-protection hotline.

"The calls have been hot and heavy all day long," said Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

In Philadelphia, the Republican Party said 75 legally credentialed voting inspectors were blocked from polling places in the heavily Democratic city, prompting the GOP to obtain a court order providing them access.

Local prosecutors were also looking into the reports. Democratic Party officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Also in central Pennsylvania, officials said the voting machine that switched a person's vote from Obama to Romney had been recalibrated and was back in service.

Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Ron Ruman said the Perry County voter notified elections officials of the problem after trying to cast his ballot on Tuesday. Video of what Ruman called a "momentary glitch" was widely viewed on YouTube.

Pennsylvania was also the scene of what a state Common Cause official called "widespread" confusion over voter-ID requirements.

The state this year enacted a new photo-ID requirement, but it was put on hold for Tuesday's election by a judge amid concerns that many voters would not be able to comply on time.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause in Pennsylvania, said election workers in many places were demanding IDs even though they are not required. It was unclear, however, just how many voters may have been turned away or discouraged.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Secret money targets 2 props

A group led by former state House Speaker Kirk Adams has directed $1.1million into campaigns opposing two citizen initiatives, fueling a late surge by the opposition and drawing complaints of secrecy from backers of the propositions.

Americans for Responsible Leadership, which is operating as an independent-expenditure committee, has contributed nearly 40 percent of the money to date opposing Proposition 204, a tax measure that would ensure a permanent source of funding for education by extending the temporary 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax.

It also accounts for about 40 percent of the money spent to campaign against Proposition 121, which would establish a new primary system and scrap the partisan system.

State laws do not require the Arizona non-profit group to disclose where it gets its money. But a California court this week may force Americans for Responsible Leadership to name its contributors.

The group has spent $750,000 to oppose Prop. 204 and $415,000 against Prop. 121. In addition to weighing in on the Arizona races, Americans for Responsible Leadership has poured $11million into two California ballot initiatives, triggering the legal complaint that is scheduled to be heard at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday by the California Fair Political Practices Commission. A decision is likely before Election Day.

The group is registered in Arizona as a non-profit that can advocate on issues. California law requires non-profits to disclose their donors if those contributions come from people who acknowledge their dollars will support a political cause.

The battle over disclosure stems from the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United campaign-finance ruling in 2010. The decision allows corporate donors to direct money for political purposes through independent committees without disclosing contributors' identities.

Last week, Common Cause of California accused Americans for Responsible Leadership of attempting to "manipulate" the state's election with "laundered money." Common Cause asked the commission to investigate the group and force it to reveal its donors.

Arizonans are closely watching the case.

Former Mayor Paul Johnson, who is spearheading Prop. 121, questioned the motives of the donors: "You could start by thinking the worst: Is this someone that wants a big state contract? Is this someone that wants a private-prison contract or to adjust the way that our health-care system works? Who is this group? What do they want?"

Ann-Eve Pedersen, chairwoman of the Quality Education and Jobs committee, which brought Prop. 204 to the ballot, is also watching the California court case.

She called the secrecy surrounding the group and its Arizona contributions "troubling" and said it's hard to fight a group that hides the source of its funding.

Pedersen called on state Treasurer Doug Ducey, who is serving as chairman of the No on Prop. 204 Committee, to reveal the donors even though state law does not require that he do so. She said Ducey indicated at a debate last week that he knew who the donors were.

Ducey didn't return a call seeking comment. But Ryan Anderson, who works for DC London, the consultant advising the opposition campaign, said they have no idea who gave the $750,000 to Americans for Responsible Leadership.

"They don't know me, and I don't know them," he said.

By law, a campaign cannot coordinate with an independent-expenditure committee.

Ann Ravel, California Fair Political Practices Commission chairwoman, said laws in that state require organizations such as Americans for Responsible Leadership to disclose donors.

California has stricter disclosure laws than Arizona, and she said the commission will seek more information about the circumstances surrounding the contributions.

Americans for Responsible Leadership spent $11million in California to defeat a proposed tax increase and to support an effort to drastically change the state's campaign-finance system, including banning the practice of political contributions by payroll deduction -- which labor unions rely on to raise political money.

"Our view is that they are required to identify donors unless people gave $11million not knowing at all that it was going to be spent in California for a campaign," Ravel said. "All we are asking for is information -- an audit to see if they fall within our law. Why they would be so unwilling to just let us look at the documents if they think they're acting legally is interesting."

Matt Ross, a publicist for Americans for Responsible Leadership, said the group is acting legally. In an e-mail, he stated, "California's Fair Political Practices Commission does not have the power to conduct audits in advance of the election."

On its website, the group says it promotes government accountability, transparency, ethics and related policy issues.

"For too long, America has been led by politicians who are beholden to special interests and make decisions based on political expediency and self-promotion rather than fiscal discipline and the national interest," the website says. "We need principled leaders who will make tough choices, provide straightforward answers to difficult questions and put our country back on the path to prosperity."

According to filings with the Arizona Corporation Commission, the group was incorporated last year by Robert Graham, a businessman who is running for state Republican Party chairman, and Eric Wnuck, a Republican businessman who ran for Congress in 2010.

Adams, also a Republican, became president this fall, a few weeks after losing his primary race against Matt Salmon for a congressional seat.

Adams did not return phone calls or an e-mail seeking information about the group.

But Graham told The Arizona Republic that the group is trying "to influence the right policies for Arizona" and is on the right side of the law. The group is set up as a non-profit, he said, because that status "allows your contributors to be confidential."

He said that the group is not solely focused on politics, adding that it also works to educate the public about policy. Graham said the group has educated the public generally about policies or proposals it supports or opposes. He did not detail what that "education" entailed.

Graham said the group is funded through in-state and out-of-state individuals and business groups. He would not identify donors. He said the group's non-profit status allows people "to feel like they had the freedom to impact election cycles or initiatives or policies without having a target on their back."

Steve Nickolas, a Valley beverage-industry businessman, and financial adviser Taylor Searle are also listed as group directors. Nickolas referred calls to the publicist; Searle did not return a call for comment.

In addition to Arizona's two ballot measures, the group gave about $11,500 to support House Speaker Andy Tobin's re-election bid. So far, the group has also donated $57,000 to independent committees working to elect Republicans to the Arizona Legislature.

Pedersen questioned why out-of-state donors would care about Prop. 204.

"It just is discouraging to have a citizens' effort, that again is being led by a bunch of volunteer parents, up against this kind of political machinery," Pedersen said. "And not even just from in-state folks, but from people out of state, and we have no idea who they are, what their motives are and why they're trying to buy an election."

In contrast, she said, the "yes" campaign discloses all its donors. Only one, the National Education Association, is from out of state. In that instance, she said, the public knows what the NEA is: a national teachers union.

She said she believes voters are interested in where the campaign money is coming from.

"I think the special-interest argument makes a difference to (voters,)" she said. But without disclosure, it's impossible to know which interests are playing a role in the closely watched education-sales-tax ballot measure, Pedersen said.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Mitt Romney Loses: What it Means for the Republican Party - Forbes

Mitt Romney. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

If Nate Silver can put his reputation on calling the race 90% for Obama, why can’t I? In any case, on the small chance Romney has won tomorrow and this is my Dewey Defeats Truman moment, let’s just pretend this headline was a joke and I what I really meant was what Romney’s loss would mean for the Republican party, were it to occur, which it will.

My point here really is to point to an excellent piece of disillusionment from James Poulos. Here he is on the Republican party of today:

Most importantly, I believe Mitt Romney’s willingness to say anything this campaign season is far more illustrative of a problem with today’s Republican Party than it is of a problem with Mitt Romney. Consider that Romney has simply done whatever it takes to get his party’s nomination and maintain its voters’ full support, and that the path he must tread to do so is paradoxically very narrow. His scattershot remarks, his willingness to commit alternately to a policy, to its opposite, and to nothing at all — rather than terrifying indications of a man with no rudder, I see them as frightening proof that Romney would be simply rejected by his party if he delivered a Huntsman-style campaign where what you see is what you get.

I think the admitted etch-a-sketch campaign that Romney has had to run has to do both with what he had to do to win his party’s nomination and support, and the relationship that a campaign that could achieve that has to the median voter in this country. America has a conservative streak, but not a severely conservative streak.

In Pictures: Election Day 2012, Voting Across America

One important factor I think we will observe over the next four years is that the economy is going to gain a lot of jobs no matter who wins. With an Obama win, what many republicans will learn from this is that most of the problem with our jobs market has not been Obama holding it back. This will provide the GOP with an important lesson that Democrats, with their head full of idealism and hope and change, have learned over the past four years: the limited ability of the President to control the economy.

Eight years of the Bush administration gave Democrats a long time to fantasize about what a liberal president could do to this country. A similar, if opposite, fantasy about what a liberal president can do has developed in the minds of republicans in the last four years. It’s time for them to be disillusioned.

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3 Florida justices win retention bids - San Francisco Chronicle

MIAMI (AP) — Three Florida Supreme Court justices easily won a retention bid Tuesday despite an unprecedented push by the Republican Party of Florida to oust them after several rulings the party disliked.

Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince each led about 67 percent to 33 percent with about 66 percent of the precincts reporting.

The Republican Party's executive committee had unanimously voted to oppose the three, warning they are "liberal" and "too extreme." It marks the first time a Florida political party has taken a position in a retention race.

"The very foundation of Florida's independent judicial system was threatened in this election. I am grateful that Florida voters once again demonstrated their faith in our fair and impartial judicial system," Lewis said in a statement Tuesday.

The justices' supporters, including some prominent Republicans, say the GOP is endangering judicial independence and that the three have done nothing that deserves removal.

"Floridians care deeply about ensuring that we have a fair and impartial judiciary untainted by partisan politics," Quince said in a statement.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has been critical of the high court, would have appointed replacements from candidates recommended by a nominating panel, also appointed by the governor.

Emails and phone calls sent to the Republican Party of Florida and Americans for Prosperity, an organization that opposed the justices, were not immediately returned Tuesday night.

Several high-profile court decisions by the justices have angered Republicans, including one blocking a constitutional amendment from the 2010 ballot that was aimed at blunting the impact of the federal health care overhaul. Lawmakers reworded the amendment and put it on this year's ballot.

The GOP also accused the justices of "activism" after they overturned Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's private school voucher program in 2006 and ordered a new trial for a convicted killer. That ruling was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices' backers said Republicans were trying to "highjack" the independence of the court by politicizing the retention elections. They fear a repeat of what happened in Iowa two years ago when a late infusion of out-of-state money helped defeat three justices over a 2009 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.

The Florida chapter of the Washington, D.C.-based group Americans for Prosperity, a group formed by the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, ran ads criticizing a pair of Supreme Court rulings dealing with the state's opposition to the national health care overhaul and property rights. It is also urged voters to sign a petition asking the justices to "stop legislating from the bench."

The justices also drew opposition from Restore Justice 2012, which grew out of a similar tea party-related organization that unsuccessfully campaigned against two justices in 2010.

Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed Pariente and Lewis in 1997 and 1998, respectively. He jointly named Quince with Republican Jeb Bush, then governor-elect, in 1998.

Florida adopted the nonpartisan merit-retention system for justices and appellate judges in the 1970s as a way of distancing the judicial system from politics.

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WHAT NOW FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY? - Sky Valley Chronicle

(NATIONAL) -- Four years ago when Senator John McCain, a war hero and veteran Beltway player was running for President against the first black contender from the Democratic Party, GOP leaders thought they had the most electable candidate in the land backed by mounds of money and jet fuel and the one candidate they thought had the best ideas and ideology for the America of 2008.

Fast-forward four years. In Mitt Romney, the GOP also felt it had the most electable candidate in the land backed by even bigger mounds of money than backed McCain and the one candidate they thought had the best ideas and ideology for the America of 2012.

Both McCain and Romney were defeated by a man they accused of being a socialist, an apologist for America, a man who may not even have been born in the country, a Muslim, a man who they claim wants bigger government and more people depending on government, a leader who wants more taxes on the rich, bigger government spending, a man who is driving the country to hell in a hand basket and on top of all that is a leader that is soft on terrorism even though Osama Bin Laden was hunted down and killed on his watch.

So what does all of that mean for the Republican Party?

Does it mean, since Barack Obama has now been elected twice, that Americans are telling the Republican Party they just love having as the leader of the free world a Muslim socialist who was not even born in America and who has presided over four years of a rough economy and high unemployment because he is inept, an apologist for America, a man who wants bigger government and more people dependent upon government, a leader who’ll tax the hell out of us and on top of all that a leader that is soft on terrorism?

Is that what they are saying by electing Barack Obama twice?

Or is the message really that the Republican Party, at least as a national party, has become woefully out of touch with mainstream Americans?

OF MUSLIMS, FRIGHT NIGHT LINES AND BOOGEYMEN

Meaning Americans who are no longer buying the tired old fright-night lines about socialists and Muslims and big government lovers any more than they buy lines about the boogeyman coming into their bedrooms at night when the lights are out.

What would happen today if the GOP brought back to use with a Senate or House candidate the old line about “death panels” in health care reform? And exactly where are the death panels today since the Affordable Care Act passed?

Has anyone lost a Grandpa Lou or Grandma Emma to a death panel recently? Does anyone know where the office of the government death panel is located?

Is the GOP of 2012 simply talking to itself, engaging in latherous foamy layers of feel good self-stroking psycho babble targeted to the hard right conservative choir and disconnecting more and more with what the vast majority of Americans are thinking?

Has the party gone overboard to appease the Tea Party crowd and well off older white males?

“Mitt Romney’s loss to a Democratic president wounded by a weak economy is certain to spur an internecine struggle over the future of the Republican Party, but the strength of the party’s conservatives in Congress and the rightward tilt of the next generation of party leaders could limit any course correction,” says a new Op-Ed piece in the New York Times which notes that having now lost the popular presidential vote for the fifth time in six elections, “Republicans across the political spectrum anticipate a prolonged and probably divisive period of self-examination.”

OF HIGH PRIESTS AND ANTI GOVERNMENT WARRIORS

The piece predicts the coming internal GOP debate will be centered on whether the party should keep pursuing the “antigovernment focus” that grew out of resistance to the health care law and won them the House in 2010, or whether it should focus on a strategy that recognizes the demographic tide is running strong against the party.

The piece here quotes Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican Party consultant, as suggesting the internal duke fest would pit “mathematicians” like him, who argue that the party cannot keep surrendering the votes of Hispanics, blacks, younger voters and college-educated women, against the party purists, or “priests,” as he puts it, who believe that basic conservative principles can ultimately triumph without much deviation.

So far, it appears the high priests are on the losing end of that equation because the GOP continues to depend heavily on “older working-class white voters in rural and suburban America — a shrinking percentage of the overall electorate — while Democrats rack up huge majorities among urban voters including blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.”

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GOP Grabs 30 Governor Seats, Highest for Either Party in Over a Decade - ABC News

North Carolina elected its first Republican governor in more than two decades, securing 30 gubernatorial seats for the GOP.

Republican Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor who had been leading in the polls in the final days leading up to the election, defeated Democratic candidate Walter Dalton, the state's lieutenant governor, with 55 percent to 43 percent of the vote, according to ABC News projections.

It was a major milestone for the Republican party. Not only was it the first time North Carolina had elected a Republican governor since 1988, it also gave the GOP 30 statehouse seats, the highest number for either party in 12 years. The Democrats now have 19 governor seats. One state, Rhode Island, has an independent governor.

Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst for Cook Political Report, a non-partisan election analyst group, said the significance of Republicans winning the majority of statehouse seats is that it gives them "bragging rights," especially after President Obama clinched his re-election.

"If Romney loses [today], one of their talking points will be governors," Duffy said. "If you have two-thirds of the nation's governors on the same policy and that share similarities, then you have something that has a combined larger effect... [Republicans] would argue they have all these governors implementing the same kinds of policy, that's only good for Republicans."

North Carolina's governor's race was a big target for the Republican party. Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, who narrowly beat McCrory in 2008, served one term but was not seeking re-election.

The Republican Governors Association spent nearly $6 million in advertising buys to support McCrory and link Dalton to Perdue after a grand jury indicted one of Perdue's top aides for allegedly scheming to pay a staff member off the books in violation of state election laws.

Duffy said state Democrats made a mistake putting up Dalton against McCrory.

"Beverly Perdue was so unpopular she couldn't run for a second term," Duffy said. "It's easy to tag [Dalton] with everything she did, so Democrats kind of gave up on that one two or three weeks ago."

ABC News projected that the GOP also celebrated a gubernatorial win in Indiana when Republican Mike Pence defeated Democrat John Gregg. The Indiana governor's race was expected to be a lock for Pence, a six-term congressman, in a state that is traditionally deep red. But Gregg, a former Indiana House speaker, held him off for a few hours after the polls closed. Gregg had gained some last minute traction after painting Pence as an extremist, similar to Indiana's Tea Party-backed Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who created a controversy last month by saying pregnancy resulting from rape is something "God intended to happen."

Current Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is term-limited and not eligible for re-election.

The Democrats scored a big gubernatorial win tonight in New Hampshire, one of three statehouse races that were considered toss-ups in the final days leading up to the election.

Democratic candidate Maggie Hassan, a former state Senate majority leader who had kept a slight lead in a tight race over the past few days, beat Republican challenger Ovide Lamontagne, despite the Republican Governors Association dumping a reportedly $6 million advertising buy into Lamontagne's campaign over the weekend.

Current New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat who has been in office for eight years, is retiring after his term.

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Chuck Todd: Republican Party &apos;Has Some Serious Soul-Searching To Do&apos; (VIDEO) - Huffington Post

Chuck Todd advised the Republican party to take a good look at itself on Tuesday night.

The NBC News correspondent was reporting the election results on MSNBC. Some pundits have said that Hurricane Sandy will be the decisive factor in an Obama victory. Todd, however, dismissed that idea, arguing that it was the growth of the Latino population in swing states that would prevent a GOP win.

"The story of this election ... is demographics," Todd said. "The Republican Party has not kept up with the changing face of America. That explains what's going on in Florida. That explains what's going on in Colorado. That explains, frankly, what's going on in Virginia and North Carolina. ... The Obama campaign was right. They built a campaign for 21st century America. The Republican Party has some serious soul-searching to do when you look at these numbers ... they are getting clobbered among non-white voters."

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Henderson County GOP cheers state victories - BlueRidgeNow.com

Lois Stodghill talks with N.C. House District 113 candidate Chris Whitmire at the Henderson County Republican Party office Tuesday evening.

Patrick Sullivan/Times-News

Jennifer Lunsford left Henderson County Republican Party headquarters Tuesday evening and stepped out into the crisp, cold air. The emotional toll was apparent in every word she spoke.

The night wasn't over, but she left headquarters, where volunteers had gathered to watch the results, at 10 p.m. discouraged with the presidential numbers that had been pouring in.

“We just wanted to try and do everything we could to help our state,” she said. “We were concerned about where this country was heading.”

Lunsford was discouraged by losses in Wisconsin and New Hampshire and the tough losses Republicans took in Senate races across the country.

“I really expected our country to step up,” she said.

The news was good for North Carolina Republicans Tuesday night, however. A hush fell over the room early in the evening at the county headquarters as volunteers and staffers, who gathered around a projector to watch the results pour in on Fox News, learned that Republican candidate Pat McCrory had been elected governor. That announcement was greeted with cheers from the 50 or so in attendance.

It was also revealed early that Mark Meadows had won the U.S. House of Representatives District 11 seat and Chris Whitmire had been chosen for the N.C. House of Representatives District 113 seat.

“We've been working very hard,” GOP Chairman Mike Scruggs said. “You'd like to get all the fruit you can get. We got some, but not all that we want.”

He was thrilled with the results of the governor's race.

“That was a fairly decisive victory,” he said.

The mystery of the night, however, still remained at 10.

“There's still so much unknown,” Scruggs said about the presidential race. “I at least want to know how North Carolina went before I go to sleep.”

For the last two months, Lunsford worked more than 10 hours a day at her job and then volunteered to get out the Republican vote, knocking on doors, making phone calls or whatever she needed to do. She was still making calls into the night across the country in support of Romney.

As she began to talk about her 16-year-old son, Tyler, she began to tear up. The future and the impact of the election on her son had inspired her to volunteer, even though she'd never been involved in politics before.

“I had an urgency in my heart,” she added as she started to walk to her car. “We fought the good fight and we fought hard. You can't regret that when you've fought so hard.”

Reach Millwood at 828-694-7881 or joey.millwood@blueridgenow.com.

Henderson County GOP cheers state victoriesBy Joey Millwood BlueRidgeNow.comNovember 6, 2012 11:28 PM

Jennifer Lunsford left Henderson County Republican Party headquarters Tuesday evening and stepped out into the crisp, cold air. The emotional toll was apparent in every word she spoke.

The night wasn't over, but she left headquarters, where volunteers had gathered to watch the results, at 10 p.m. discouraged with the presidential numbers that had been pouring in.

“We just wanted to try and do everything we could to help our state,” she said. “We were concerned about where this country was heading.”

Lunsford was discouraged by losses in Wisconsin and New Hampshire and the tough losses Republicans took in Senate races across the country.

“I really expected our country to step up,” she said.

The news was good for North Carolina Republicans Tuesday night, however. A hush fell over the room early in the evening at the county headquarters as volunteers and staffers, who gathered around a projector to watch the results pour in on Fox News, learned that Republican candidate Pat McCrory had been elected governor. That announcement was greeted with cheers from the 50 or so in attendance.

It was also revealed early that Mark Meadows had won the U.S. House of Representatives District 11 seat and Chris Whitmire had been chosen for the N.C. House of Representatives District 113 seat.

“We've been working very hard,” GOP Chairman Mike Scruggs said. “You'd like to get all the fruit you can get. We got some, but not all that we want.”

He was thrilled with the results of the governor's race.

“That was a fairly decisive victory,” he said.

The mystery of the night, however, still remained at 10.

“There's still so much unknown,” Scruggs said about the presidential race. “I at least want to know how North Carolina went before I go to sleep.”

For the last two months, Lunsford worked more than 10 hours a day at her job and then volunteered to get out the Republican vote, knocking on doors, making phone calls or whatever she needed to do. She was still making calls into the night across the country in support of Romney.

As she began to talk about her 16-year-old son, Tyler, she began to tear up. The future and the impact of the election on her son had inspired her to volunteer, even though she'd never been involved in politics before.

“I had an urgency in my heart,” she added as she started to walk to her car. “We fought the good fight and we fought hard. You can't regret that when you've fought so hard.”

Reach Millwood at 828-694-7881 or joey.millwood@blueridgenow.com.

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