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."

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Akin Defends Cashflow After Ad Dispute

It’s not quite “Mad Men Missouri,” but a little drama is playing out in a dispute between a beleaguered Senate candidate and a television ad department in the state.

The candidate is Representative Todd Akin, a Republican who is on the defensive for remarks he made in his campaign against Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat. The television station is KOMU-8, an NBC affiliate in Colombia, Mo., that reported that it had pulled Mr. Akin’s ads midway through its intended run because of an unpaid bill.

The report immediately prompted questions about whether Mr. Akin had the cash to go forward with his bid.

His campaign has been operating without help from national Republican groups after he said on Aug. 19 that women’s bodies could often prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape,” and G.O.P. leaders, including Mitt Romney, have urged him to step aside.

But speculation that the campaign is beset by both unpaid bills and empty war chests are “factually false,” said Rick Tyler, a senior adviser to Mr. Akin’s campaign.

“In the last 18 days, we have raised over $400,000 online alone,” Mr. Tyler said. While he would not say how much of that is in the bank, he insisted the campaign was not in debt.

As for the ads, according to Mr. Tyler, the Akin campaign booked – and paid for – half a week of ads, thinking they would probably re-up for the rest of the week. And they did, he said – “but a day later.”

Tom Dugan, the general sales manager at KOMU, said the campaign booked a full week of ads, but only paid for half.

Both sides agree that after KOMU’s news division ran an article saying the ads had been pulled because of lack of payment, the Akin campaign canceled its remaining buy.

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Medicaid After the Supreme Court Decision

Last week there were two disturbing reports about Medicaid, a program of health insurance for the poor that is mostly managed by the states and jointly paid for by the federal and state governments. The Congressional Budget Office predicted that states with a large number of poor people would not expand their Medicaid programs as required by the health care reform law now that the Supreme Court had made expansion optional. And a Harvard study unrelated to the court decision made it clear that a failure to expand Medicaid would likely doom thousands of low-income people to death or poor health.

Revising earlier estimates to take account of the decision, the budget office said that making expanded assistance optional could leave three million more people uninsured in 2022, saving the federal government $84 billion through 2022 because it would not have to subsidize their coverage.

The analysts made no effort to predict which states would or would not expand Medicaid. Instead, they looked at various factors that might influence the states’ decisions and predicted that some would not respond to even the extremely generous matching money that the reform law provided.

They forecast that some states that already had trouble paying for their existing Medicaid programs would put off expanding Medicaid until their economies improved, or would expand the program partially, not to the extent originally required. Other states may shun the program entirely, as some Republican governors have vowed to do. By 2022, the budget office projects, only two-thirds of those who would become newly eligible for Medicaid if all states expanded to the levels sought by the reform law will actually gain eligibility. One-third will not, either because their states refuse to expand Medicaid at all or expand it only partially.

Leaving low-income people uninsured will almost certainly damage their health. A study by three researchers affiliated with the Harvard School of Public Health, published by The New England Journal of Medicine, compared three states (New York, Arizona and Maine) that had already expanded coverage of childless or disabled adults with four neighboring states (Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and New Hampshire) that had not. Deaths among people ages 20 to 64 dropped in the three expansion states by about 1,500 a year, adjusted for population growth, whereas death rates in the comparison states went up. Expansion also brought a 21 percent reduction in cost-related delays in getting care.

Some critics, mostly conservative Republicans, contend that Medicaid does not improve the health of beneficiaries and may even harm them. The new study should lay that canard to rest. State officials who want to save money by not expanding Medicaid will be harming their most vulnerable residents, and will most likely shift the cost of any emergency care they need to safety net institutions, taxpayers and charities.

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Wisconsin voters keep Walker after recall election

PEWAUKEE, Wis. – The political themes in Wisconsin turned from divisive and contentious to healing and concensus after state voters decided to keep their embattled Republican governor, whose drive to end collective-bargaining rights for most state workers resulted in a caustic recall campaign.

By Darren Hauck, AP

In heavy voting, Gov. Scott Walker turned back the challenge from Democrat Tom Barrett. Walker had defeated Barrett in the 2010 election.

By Darren Hauck, AP

In heavy voting, Gov. Scott Walker turned back the challenge from Democrat Tom Barrett. Walker had defeated Barrett in the 2010 election.

In heavy voting, Gov. Scott Walker drew 53% of the vote to Democratic challenger Tom Barrett's 46% in Tuesday's recall election. The results were a virtual reprise of the 2010 election, when Walker defeated Barrett, Milwaukee's mayor, 52%-46%.

"Bringing our state together will take some time, but I hope to start right away," Walker said in a victory speech. "It is time to put our differences aside and figure out ways that we can move Wisconsin forward."

Barrett conceded in a telephone call to Walker. "Now we must look to the future," he said. "We are a state that has been deeply divided. And it is up to all of us, their side and our side, to listen to each other and to try to do what's right for everyone in this state."

The race was closely watched nationally for clues about fallout for other elected officials who cut workers' benefits to ease crunched budgets. There also could be implications in the presidential race between President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney in a state with 10 electoral votes that both would like to win.

By Tom Lynn, Getty Images

Tom Barrett speaks with members of the media after voting in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Romney issued a statement saying Walker's victory "will echo beyond the borders of Wisconsin."

Walker "has shown that citizens and taxpayers can fight back — and prevail — against the runaway government costs imposed by labor bosses," Romney said. "Tonight voters said no to the tired, liberal ideas of yesterday, and yes to fiscal responsibility and a new direction."

Charles Lipson, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, said Walker's win is "a big deal" because "it squashes the Democrats in the most important by-election of the year."

The results also suggest "suggest that Republican and moderate Democratic governors can retain voter support even if they take on public-sector unions - and perhaps because they take on public-sector unions."

Lipson said Wisconsin's results spell "big trouble for unions," which have already lost power in private industry. He also believes some unions will blame Obama for the loss.

"The unions would rather keep Obama than deal with Romney, but the fizz has gone out of that champagne," he said.

Walker's win "suggests that Wisconsin's in play" in the presidential race, said Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist. "This is a state that's competitive."

Other analysts said Walker and the state's Republican Party will be strengthened after winning the rematch with Barrett.

"He's empowered and emboldened" after withstanding the Democrats' efforts to recall him, said Kathleen Dolan, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"He withstood as much heavy artillery as any governor could," said Brandon Scholz, a Republican lobbyist and strategist based in Madison. Other elected officials, he said, "will take that lesson and apply it in their state" with austerity proposals.

"People are going to realize the presidential race and U.S. Senate race and the Legislature are up for grabs," says Paul Maslin, a Madison-based Democratic pollster.

The recall election was the culmination of a bitter battle that began in February 2011, when Walker announced his plan to erase a $137 million budget shortfall in part by requiring state workers to give up collective-bargaining rights and pay more for health insurance and pension benefits.

Recalls of four Republican state senators also were on Tuesday's ballot. The results in those races could shift control of the Senate, which is now divided 16-16.

Walker's proposals triggered massive protests in the state Capitol in Madison and prompted 14 Democratic state senators to leave the state for three weeks in an ultimately failed attempt to prevent passage of Walker's legislation. He signed it into law in March 2011.

Before the vote, the state's sharp divide was evident in the Democratic stronghold of Madison. The house across from the governor's official residence displayed a "We Stand With Scott Walker" sign. The house two doors down: "Tom Barrett for Governor."

"Unfortunately, Wisconsin has become in some ways a microcosm of the partisan wars that have been raging nationally," said Dolan, the political scientist.

Regardless of the election outcome, she said, it will take time for the state to recover from the divisive debate and revive bipartisan spirit in the Legislature. "We really are at a place of sort of paralysis," Dolan said.

The amount of out-of-state money flowing to the campaigns here and the appearances of high-profile supporters of Walker and Barrett were evidence of the race's national overtones. More than $62 million was spent by the candidates and outside groups. Much of the $30 million raised by Walker came from outside the state. Barrett has spent about $4 million; most of his donors live in Wisconsin.

Former president Bill Clinton campaigned with Barrett, and fellow Republican governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana appeared with Walker.

No Republican presidential candidate has won Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Obama defeated Republican John McCain here in 2008, 56%-42%.

Scholz, the Republican strategist, saw Walker's victory as "a significant blow" weakening the clout of the labor unions that provide campaign cash and infrastructure for Democratic presidential candidates.

Dolan cautioned against reading too many presidential implications into Wisconsin's political fight. "Will Obama's chance of winning Wisconsin be made harder if Walker wins? Sure, maybe a little," she said. "But what's going on here is so episodic and so idiosyncratic."

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Republicans Apologetic After Raising Issue of Obama's Birthplace

Representative Mike Coffman of Colorado apologized at length on Wednesday for reviving unsubstantiated claims that President Obama was not born in the United States.

Although Mr. Coffman had issued a statement on May 16 expressing regret for remarks he said were misstatements, he faced continued pressure to explain why he told donors at a May 12 campaign fund-raiser that he didn’t know whether Mr. Obama was born in the United States and that the president was “not an American.”

In a video posted Tuesday by the NBC affiliate in Denver, Mr. Coffman declined to clarify his comments several times when pressed to do so by a reporter, saying repeatedly, “I stand by my statement. I misspoke, and I apologize.”

He relented in an opinion piece published Wednesday on The Denver Post Web site, where he wrote that his remarks were “boneheaded and inappropriate.”

“I have always viewed this matter as not only baseless, but as a distraction from the real issues facing our country. I believe that today,” he wrote.

Mr. Coffman also backed away from the part of his initial statement in which he maintained doubts about Mr. Obama’s view of America, saying the president did not believe in American exceptionalism.

“The president and I disagree on many issues — his approach to health care, jobs and energy independence, to name a few,” Mr. Coffman wrote. “But disagreeing on these issues was not license for me to question his devotion to our country.”

“I believe President Obama loves this country and wakes up every morning trying to do what is best for our nation, even if I disagree with his approach. To question the president’s devotion to our country based on the fact that we disagree over policy issues was wrong of me and I am sorry.”

The opinion piece was published on the same day Ken Bennett, Arizona’s secretary of state, apologized for any embarrassment he might have caused the state by requesting verification in March that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii. Mr. Bennett is the Arizona co-chairman of Mitt Romney‘s presidential campaign and is exploring a run for governor in 2014.

Doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace have persisted among some conservatives despite the release in April 2011 of his long-form birth certificate. The White House has also made the document available online.

Mr. Coffman isn’t the first embattled Republican from a swing state to raise the so-called birther issue in the 2012 election cycle. Representatives Cliff Stearns of Florida and Vicky Hartzler of Missouri have publicly questioned Mr. Obama’s citizenship in recent months, only to apologize later. And The Charlotte Observer recently retracted an endorsement for Jim Pendergraph, who is running to replace Representative Sue Myrick in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, after he raised doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace.

When asked about the repeated episodes, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said, “The Speaker has told his members repeatedly that this year is going to be a referendum on the president’s economic policies and that’s where our focus should remain.”

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After Paul Falters, Backers Push Agenda in Party and Other Races

More than $560,000 later, Mr. Ramsey’s chosen standard-bearer, Thomas H. Massie, a Republican, cruised to victory Tuesday in the race to select a successor to Representative Geoff Davis, a Republican who is retiring.

The saturation advertising campaign waged by Mr. Ramsey’s “super PAC,” Liberty for All, may be the most visible manifestation of a phenomenon catching the attention of Republicans from Maine to Nevada.

With their favorite having lost the nomination for president, Mr. Paul’s dedicated band of youthful supporters is looking down-ballot and swarming lightly guarded Republican redoubts like state party conventions in an attempt to infiltrate the top echelons of the party.

“Karl Rove’s fear-and-smear-style Republicans are going to wake up at the end of the year and realize we are now in control of the Republican Party,” said Preston Bates, a Democrat-turned-Paulite who is running Liberty for All for Mr. Ramsey.

In Minnesota, Paulites stormed the Republican gathering in St. Cloud last weekend, bumping aside two conventional Republican candidates to choose one of their own, Kurt P. Bills, a high school economics teacher, to challenge Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, this fall.

Backers of Mr. Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas, crashed Republican conventions in Iowa, Maine, Minnesota and Nevada in recent weeks, snatching up the lion’s share of delegate slots for the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August, a potential headache for the national party and its presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney.

And Paulite candidates for Congress are sprouting up from Florida to Virginia to Colorado, challenging sitting Republicans and preaching the gospel of radically smaller government, an end to the Federal Reserve, restraints on Bush-era antiterrorism laws and a pullback from foreign military adventures.

“I’d call it a strict constitutional approach,” said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and Ron Paul’s son. “And I think it’s spreading.”

Republican Party officials say they are in daily contact with Representative Paul, in a delicate effort to harness the energy around him without inciting his supporters. “We have had open dialogue with Dr. Paul and his campaign to ensure we are all focused on winning in November,” said Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s communications director.

Mr. Ramsey said that other Paul supporters had brought the Kentucky race to his attention and that he would spend whatever it takes “to get this country moving in a freer direction.” “How much money would you spend for freedom?” he asked Tuesday, after buying airtime from Lexington to Louisville with money he inherited from his grandfather in 2010 as he was being pulled into the libertarian orbit of Mr. Paul.

He met Mr. Bates on the Paul campaign, and in March they incorporated Liberty for All with nearly $1 million of Mr. Ramsey’s money. More than half of it went into Kentucky’s Fourth District in a whoosh of advertising. The impact has been significant.

Mr. Massie, the Lewis County judge executive and an engineer trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he opened the seven-way Republican primary with a lead. But he lost it after Mr. Davis and former Senator Jim Bunning backed one of his rivals, Alecia Webb-Edgington. Then small advertising buys from two other candidates pummeled him with negative accusations.

The sprawling Fourth District of Kentucky presents competitors with a challenge. To reach all its voters, a candidate must advertise in four media markets in Kentucky and Ohio. Mr. Massie acknowledged that he could not do that, but that Liberty for All could. Soon, the advertising for his rivals was drowned out by attacks on his behalf.

“They owned the airwaves, everything from the Food Channel to Court TV,” he said of the PAC.

The Ramsey money does not have a clear path from Kentucky, but Liberty for All appears to have a taste for the obscure. Its next candidate is Michael D. Cargill, a gay, black gun store owner running for constable in Travis County, Tex.

But the political action committee will have money to spend. Mr. Ramsey said that between his wallet and a fund-raising push, the PAC expected to have $10 million this summer.

As they were nominating Mr. Bills at the Minnesota Republican Convention, the Paul forces also seized 12 of the state’s 13 Republican National Convention delegate slots. In Maine, they took 21 of the 24 slots. In Nevada, they grabbed 22 of the 28.

The strategy of crashing state conventions has secured Mr. Paul large slates of delegates in Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana and Missouri, as well.

Such delegates are not considered a threat to the Romney nomination. But they could be vocal advocates for Mr. Paul’s libertarian views on issues like the war in Afghanistan, the Patriot Act and terrorist detainee policies, which overlap some with Tea Party views but do not mirror them.

And lightly regarded Paulites running for Congress could become forces with the right amount of money. Tisha Casida, an independent in Colorado, is running against Representative Scott Tipton. Calen Fretts is chipping away at Representative Jeff Miller in Florida’s Panhandle, and Karen Kwiatkowski is challenging Representative Robert W. Goodlatte in Virginia.

“I think there’s a great movement going on in this country,” said Ms. Casida, who said she was pulled into politics by Mr. Paul’s message and the red tape she faced trying to open a local farmer’s market.

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Gingrich confident of staying in race after NH (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he hopes to finish in the "top three or four" in the New Hampshire primary and go on to confront front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina.

With voting under way, Gingrich tells Fox News Channels "Fox & Friends" he believes "the biggest story today" is that Romney will fall short of "any reasonable expectation" in New Hampshire, particularly since the former Massachusetts governor has been heavily favored there all along.

Gingrich says people expected the state to be Romney's for the asking, but adds, "I don't think it's going to be much of a fortress."

Gingrich also says he believes a controversial statement Romney made about firing people was likely "taken out of context" and he isn't going to press the issue. The former speaker did say he didn't think the remark was "well-worded."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Newt Gingrich said he expects Mitt Romney to win Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. But with Romney's support slipping, the former House speaker argued that the race could end up being "wide-open."

Gingrich is preparing a blitz of television appearances and 11th-hour campaign stops Tuesday as he tries to whip up enthusiasm for his White House bid, following a disappointing fourth-place finish in Iowa. The former House speaker will visit polling places in Manchester, Bedford, Merrimack and Hollis.

Gingrich has used New Hampshire as a staging ground to launch more aggressive attacks on Romney, labeling the GOP front-runner timid and assailing his time at the helm of Bain Capital. The most successful elections, Gingrich argues, are those in which the contrast between the candidates is wide.

"I really do believe a Reagan conservative has a better chance of defeating (Democratic President Barack) Obama than a Massachussetts moderate," Gingrich said late Monday at a town hall at a high school in Hudson that drew some 500 people.

"I think you need a very clear, sharp distinction," he continued.

He's been stressing an economic message to cut taxes, slash regulations and promote an American-based energy policy. And he's even weighed in on some local issues, calling for better health care options for the state's veterans and speaking out against plans to place some 180 miles of electric transmission lines above ground in scenic areas in northern New Hampshire.

But even before New Hampshire voters cast a single ballot, Gingrich already was eyeing South Carolina, considered a critical state for the former Georgia congressman.

He's been fine-tuning his message, keying in on gun rights, veterans issues and abortion, which could prove pivotal in the nation's first Southern primary.

___

Follow Shannon McCaffrey: http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

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TheDC on TV: David Martosko on the GOP field after the Orlando debate (Daily Caller)

On Canada’s Sun News Network Saturday morning, Daily Caller executive editor David Martosko handicapped the GOP primary field with presenter Brian Dunstan in the wake of Thursday night’s Republican candidate debate in Orlando, Florida.

“It’s important to note that there have been some successful candidates who never entered the race until even October or November, a year before the election,” Martosko said. “So it’s definitely not too late for someone else to come in and claim the mantle of being the ‘not Romney’ candidate.”

The large number of primary debates, he said, have “given Ron Paul an unprecedented opportunity to strut his stuff and be taken seriously. In past election cycles Ron Paul has been a bit of a parlor joke … this extreme, out-there candidate that nobody wants to admit they like. But suddenly he’s become a bit more fashionable, and I think [other than Mitt Romney] he’s been the big winner in this.”

Watch:

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US prosecutor in NC quitting after Edwards charges (AP)

By EMERY P. DALESIO, Associated Press Emery P. Dalesio, Associated Press – Fri Jun 10, 3:50 pm ET

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Republican federal prosecutor who stayed in his post three years into the Obama Administration to avoid disrupting investigations into former presidential candidate John Edwards and former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley announced his resignation Friday.

George E.B. Holding will step down as U.S. attorney for eastern North Carolina on July 8 after five years in the office. He had previously been the first assistant U.S. attorney in the office for four years.

Holding, 43, said he had no plans other than to take his four children between 11 years old and 8 months old to Disney World before the summer is out. In the past, he has thought about going into private practice while incorporating some pro bono work or university-level teaching.

"I can assure you that whatever I do next will entail public service, and public service doesn't mean public office. It can be volunteer work, pro bono work. I'm committed to public service in some form or another," Holding said in an interview. "I'm committed to public service for the long term."

Holding is a member of the prominent Smithfield banking family that controls much of First Citizens BancShares Inc., the parent company of First Citizens Bank. Plans of his resignation were first reported by The News & Observer of Raleigh on Friday.

Waiting to succeed Holding is Charlotte attorney Thomas Walker, who has the backing of both North Carolina senators. Walker was an assistant U.S. attorney in the western district of North Carolina from 1994 to 2001.

U.S. Sens. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., said they backed Holding's replacement but wanted the appointee of former President George W. Bush to stay in office until the investigations into Edwards and Easley were complete. Hagan said she wanted Holding to have time to complete the investigations so as not to make the replacement process political. Burr said Walker's political contributions to Edwards and Easley "represent a conflict of interest."

Edwards was indicted last week on charges of receiving illegal campaign contributions. He has pleaded innocent. Prosecutors and defense attorneys filed a joint motion Friday asking for an extension on the June 15 motion deadline in the case, and for the July 15 trial date to be continued. A federal probe of Easley ended when he was convicted in state court in November of a felony.

Hagan said last week that with Edwards' indictment it was time for Walker to take over. Burr said Friday he will act when the Senate reconvenes next week to let Walker's nomination go forward.

Holding may be most remembered for bringing public corruption cases that resulted in convictions against former state House Speaker Jim Black, former state Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, and former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance, D-N.C.

"Our prosecutions have disrupted the culture of self-dealing and corruption that has existed in some circles among those who wield political power in Raleigh," Holding said in a statement.

Holding said he was phoned after going to bed Thursday night by assistant prosecutors alerting him that a sheriff's investigator working with a U.S. Marshal's Service fugitive task force was shot to death while serving an arrest warrant. Federal and state prosecutors will coordinate to decide which court system would be better suited to try the accused gunmen, Holding said.

Waiting for Walker, if he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, are about 50 prosecutors and another 50 staffers who prosecute thousands of defendants every year, including about 300 violent felons, Holding said.

"This is a fast-moving train and he's going to have be running along to jump on. I think he's up to the task," Holding said.

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Democrats decline to defend Weiner after scandal (AP)

WASHINGTON – Fellow Democrats pointedly refused to defend Rep. Anthony Weiner on Tuesday, telegraphing an unmistakable eagerness for him to resign after he admitted sending a lewd photo of himself to a woman via Twitter and lying about it.

Republicans swiftly sought political profit from the New York Democrat's predicament, which threatened to deepen when conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart said he had a sexually explicit photo of the 46-year-old congressman.

His political career in extreme jeopardy, Weiner had no public appearances. His spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

On Monday, after days of denials, the New York lawmaker admitted he had engaged in "several inappropriate conversations conducted over Twitter, Facebook, email and occasionally on the phone with women I had met online."

Alternately apologetic and defiant, he said he neither met nor had physical relationships with any of them, and added, "I am not resigning."

In fact, there is little that party leaders can do to force an errant lawmaker to quit, although House Republicans have moved decisively in the past year to purge their ranks of two men who wound up in embarrassing situations.

Most Democrats maintained an uncomfortable silence about Weiner's future, part of what several senior congressional officials described as a hope that over a few days, Weiner would reconsider his refusal to resign. If not, several noted pointedly, his district might be eliminated when lines are adjusted before the 2012 elections to account for a population shift that will cost New York two House seats.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke the silence.

"I wish there were some way that I can defend him, but I can't," the Nevada Democrat told reporters. Asked what he would do if Weiner called for advice, he replied he would tell him "call somebody else."

Republicans sought political gain.

"Congressman Weiner's actions and deception are unacceptable and he should resign," GOP chairman Reince Priebus said in a written statement.

"We do not need an investigation to know he lied and acted inappropriately, we need a resignation," he said, referring to a request from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi for the House ethics committee to investigate the case.

Speaking of Pelosi and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the Democratic party chairwoman, Priebus said they either "believe members of Congress are held to a different set of standards or they believe these actions demand his resignation."

Brad Woodhouse, a Democratic National Committee spokesman, referred a request for a comment to Wasserman Schultz's House office. He said the issue was a congressional one, but her spokesman declined comment on whether Weiner should resign.

Separately, the Republican House and Senate campaign organizations called on Democrats to return donations Weiner had made to them.

"Does ... Democrat Senate candidate Joe Donnelly, (D-IN) plan to return the $5,000 he took from his friend Weiner in order to fund his political campaigns?" asked the National Republican Senatorial Committee. There was no immediate reply from Donnelly, a second-term House member who recently announced he would run for the Senate in 2012.

In the House, Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio said through an aide she would donate to charity a $1,000 contribution she received from Weiner last year.

Demanding the return of cash from troubled donors has become a standard political tactic in recent years, practiced by both parties.

But the other facts in Weiner's case were anything but routine.

Instead, they reflected the growing impact of social media and little-known websites on the political fortunes of the nation's most powerful elected officials, in this case, a man with ambitions of becoming mayor of New York City.

Despite fielding numerous questions on Monday, some of them intensely personal about his marriage, Weiner left gaps at his news conference.

He said he could not guarantee that none of the women with whom he exchanged salacious pictures or messages was underage.

Asked whether he had phone sex, he sidestepped. "I was never in the same room as them, I never — had any physical relationship whatever," he said.

Asked whether he could guarantee that there was no X-rated photo in existence of himself, he replied, "No, I cannot."

That issue was first broached by Breitbart, who showed up at Weiner's news conference on Monday before the congressman did.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Breitbart said he had not yet released a sexually explicit photo taken of the congressman unclothed.

He said he would consider releasing the picture if he concludes that Weiner's staff tries to disparage any of the women with whom the congressman flirted online.

"Under the circumstances that those women that he's had these consensual relationships, that their personal information would start to be leaked from his team, I would strongly consider releasing the photo if he wants to make this an attack on these innocent women," he said.

At his news conference, Weiner apologized to the women and to all he misled with his earlier denials, but most often to his wife, Huma Abedin, who was not present.

Abedin, deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is well-known in her own right in Democratic circles. Some party officials said that was a factor in the general unwillingness to call for Weiner's resignation.

She has had no comment on her husband's controversy.

Under House rules, party leaders cannot force a lawmaker to quit, although they can press for a resignation and sometimes do.

Republicans successfully urged Indiana Rep. Mark Souder take that course last year after he admitted to an extra-marital affair with a member of his staff. They did so again in February, with Rep. Chris Lee of New York, who quit quickly after shirtless photos he sent to a woman he had met on Craigslist were published online.

By contrast, Pelosi issued a call shortly after Weiner's news conference for the House ethics committee to investigate his case to make sure no House rules were broken.

The committee had no comment, and with the House not scheduled to meet for nearly a week, it was unclear when it might begin work on the case.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Miga in Washington, Le Phuong in Seattle, Travis Loller in Nashville, Tenn., Chris Hawley in New York, Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston, Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas and researcher Barbara Sambriski contributed to this report.

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