Kyle Bell

Governor Rick Perry of Texas has defeated Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in the race for the GOP nomination for governor. Perry, the longest serving governor in Texas history, became governor when George W. Bush resigned to become president in 2001. His bid for a third full term was thought to be in real jeopardy when [...]

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Former Senator Dan Coats of Indiana has made it official on a South Bend radio station. He will be challenging incumbent Democrat Evan Bayh for Indiana’s junior seat in the Senate. Coats retired in 1998 when Evan Bayh, a popular two term governor, announced that he would be running for the seat. Since leaving the [...]

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Republican Representative Mark Kirk easily won his primary match today against Teabag candidate Pat Hughes 56% to 19%. This sets up a fall race against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, who won his primary with 39% of the vote against David Hoffman (34%) and Cheryle Jackson (19%). The Democrats picked the candidate most likely to hold Barack [...]

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There are interesting new poll numbers out of the states of California and Illinois. Over the weekend, the Public Policy Institute of California released polling numbers for the upcoming June 8 primary both in the race for Governor and Senate. The Democrats are favored to win both races as Republicans beat each other up in [...]

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Democratic Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois is in a fight for his political life as he faces Comptroller Dan Hynes for the party’s nomination. Quinn, who became governor after Rod Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office, is running a state that has serious fiscal problems. In this economy, that is not something that is [...]

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Yesterday, Houston voters elected city controller Annise Parker as their new mayor. Current mayor Bill White is running for governor of Texas. Usually an election of this nature would not make headlines, but Annise Parker is not your usual female politician. She is an openly gay woman in a state known for its conservative politics. [...]

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Prognosticators out there, particularly conservative ones, will have you believe that last night’s dual election victories by Republican candidates in the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races signal massive losses for Democrats in the 2010 midterms. Certainly it is hard to make the case that an 18 point loss in Virginia and a 3 point [...]

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CNN is reporting that later today Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida will resign his seat. No word on why, but the senator has previously stated his intention to retire from the Senate after serving just one term. Previously Senator Martinez served in the Bush administration as the HUD Secretary.
This resignation creates a bit of [...]

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Last week the state of Indiana was facing a budget deadline that threatened to shut down the state government. In a last hour attempt to pass a “bi-partisan” (i.e. Republican-friendly) two year budget, changes were made that would allow for minimal increases in education funding. Minimal being the key word: 1.1 percent for the first [...]

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“Let me first apologize to my wife.” A phrase that is heard all too often these days. We saw it with Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and David Vitter (R-LA). We’ve seen it more recently with Senator John Ensign (R-NV). None of these men have resigned from office (Craig chose not to run for re-election in [...]

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