LOS ANGELES -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides kicked off the fall campaign season by lambasting the governor as a "first-class fraud" for his "election-year conversion" to increase the minimum wage and support other issues backed by labor.

Were the California Legislature's 120 districts fairly drawn, the end of the legislative session would ignite a two-month frenzy of campaigning for an election that would determine the Capitol's ideological direction.

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger travels the state this fall, he is more likely to stop at Spanish-language media outlets than the conservative radio talk shows he frequented his first two years in office.

After trailing all summer in the governor's contest, Democratic contender Phil Angelides described himself this week as a championship boxer eyeing a comeback in the closing rounds.

Short-staffed and struggling with a Sacramento crime spike, the city's police union publicly announced its opposition Wednesday to the Nov. 7 ballot measures for a downtown railyard NBA arena, saying city officials have made no promises to boost staffing to cover the new facility and surrounding development.

The campaign to persuade Sacramento County voters to approve a 15-year, quarter-cent sales tax to fund a downtown arena and other amenities came to Carmichael last week.

When Elease Walton walks into a room, the Elk Grove City Council candidate reveals a relaxed, military bearing.

City and county officials are the first to admit that putting together the myriad details surrounding the financing and construction of a downtown arena isn't easy.

Whether one votes absentee or at a polling place for the Nov. 7 general election, the idea of setting aside extra time to consider all that the ballot presents could be wise.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign is going quite well, and more than likely he'll gain another term as California's Republican governor -- but it's not a sure thing and he still wants to pad his résumé with more legislative wins.

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are both proposing dramatic changes to Social Security, taking on the financially fragile "third rail of American politics" that Congress and recent presidents have been unable to repair.

CHARLOTTE, July 7 -- In a strikingly literal detour from his message of the day, Sen. Barack Obama found himself stuck in St. Louis on Monday, phoning in remarks to an audience here after his campaign plane was forced to land following a mechanical glitch midair.

Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would balance the federal budget by 2013, the end of what would be his first term in office, returning to a promise he had strayed from as he sought to emphasize his concern about the plight of the U.S. economy.

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party's official declaration...

In summer 2003, an Illinois state senator used a new law to collect campaign contributions six times the normal limit for his insurgent U.S. Senate race against a multimillionaire securities trader.

BUTTE, Mont., July 4 -- With Sen. John McCain taking the holiday off, Sen. Barack Obama wrapped up a week-long swing through Republican America swathed in the pageantry of a Fourth of July parade and family picnic, trying to mesh his theme of activist change with an emphasis on family and patriot...

FARGO, N.D., July 3 -- Sen. Barack Obama raised the possibility of slowing a promised gradual, 16-month withdrawal from Iraq if he is elected president, saying that Thursday he will consult with military commanders on an upcoming trip to the region and "continue to refine" his proposals.

MEXICO CITY, July 3 -- Sen. John McCain's trip to Colombia and Mexico this week made one thing clear: The shape of the United States' relationship with Latin America will hinge on the outcome of the 2008 election.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama responded yesterday to supporters dismayed by his support for a compromise version of the Foreign Intelligence Suveillance Act (FISA).

CARTAGENA, Colombia, July 2 -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke repeatedly Tuesday and early Wednesday about how he would work as president to free three American hostages held by leftist guerrillas in Colombia, but he declined to reveal one key fact: Colombian President �lvaro Uribe and his aides...

COLORADO SPRINGS, July 2 -- Continuing to press the themes of values, faith and patriotism, Sen. Barack Obama exhorted Americans on Wednesday "to step into the strong currents of history" and volunteer for service to their country, pledging to dramatically expand opportunities for those accepting...

Facing growing dissatisfaction both inside and outside his campaign, Sen. John McCain ordered a shake-up of his team yesterday, reducing the role of campaign manager Rick Davis and vesting political adviser Steve Schmidt with "full operational control" of his bid for the presidency.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo., June 30 -- Dogged by persistent rumors questioning his belief in country, Sen. Barack Obama journeyed to Middle America on Monday to lay out his vision of patriotism, conceding that he has learned in this presidential campaign that "the question of who is -- or is not -- a patriot...

CLEVELAND -- Sen. John McCain's allies have seized on a new and aggressive line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama, casting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as an opportunistic and self-obsessed politician who will do and say anything to get elected.

FINDLAY, Ohio -- On his corner of College Street, Jim Peterman stares at the four American flags planted in his front lawn and rubs his forehead. Peterman, 74, is a retired worker at Cooper Tire, a father of two, an Air Force veteran and a self-described patriot. He took one trip to Washington in...

When Sen. Barack Obama chose the Nissan Pavilion in the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia to kick off his general-election campaign, one of the 10,000 supporters there was David Bruzas, who recently moved to the fastest-growing part of a state that is moving rapidly away from its Republican past.

For much of its term, the Supreme Court muted last year's noisy dissents, warmed to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s vision of narrow, incremental decisions and continued a slow but hardly steady move to the right.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) yesterday accused Republican Sen. John McCain of retreating from a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws that the senator from Arizona had championed in Congress, contending that his rival for the White House "walked away" from his own legislation to win the GOP...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced plans yesterday for a midsummer trip that will take him to the Middle East and Europe for firsthand observation and consultations with foreign leaders while providing him an opportunity to bolster his national security credentials for the fall...

Last February, in the heat of the Democratic primary campaign, Sen. Barack Obama proclaimed himself "proud to stand" with Sens. Christopher J. Dodd, Russell Feingold and "a grass-roots movement of Americans" in opposition to President Bush's demand to offer telecommunications companies legal amnesty...

UNITY, N.H., June 27 -- Sen. Barack Obama wanted a symbolic beginning for his alliance with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he achieved it Friday when the former rivals traveled here together for an afternoon rally designed to unite Democrats for the fall campaign.

Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton showered each other with praise yesterday in their first joint appearance since the end of the Democratic presidential primary season at an event in which the senator from New York urged hundreds of her top donors to get behind the party's presumptive...

Just a month ago, Republican strategists were trying to closely link Democratic House candidates to Sen. Barack Obama, convinced that in certain parts of the country Obama would drag candidates from his own party down to defeat.

As Sen. John McCain's top presidential campaign adviser, Richard H. "Rick" Davis has worked for almost a year without compensation, telling reporters that the sacrifice shows his dedication to the cash-strapped Arizona Republican. He also took a protracted leave from his Washington lobbying firm to...

A campaign between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain once offered enormous possibilities for something new. Instead, the two presumptive nominees have opened their campaigns for the White House with what looks and sounds like a repeat of the kind of politics both have promised to leave behind.

Was Charlie Black right? Did he simply commit the political sin of saying something that is unspeakably true?

Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would make the federal government more environmentally friendly, while Sen. Barack Obama mocked his rival as crafting energy policies that merely pander to voters, in the latest skirmish over which presidential candidate is better prepared to tackle the...

Sen. Barack Obama and his surrogates continued to criticize Charles R. Black Jr., a top adviser to Sen. John McCain, on Tuesday for saying a terrorist attack before the November election would help the presumptive Republican nominee. But behind their protests lay a question that has dogged Democrats...

ALBUQUERQUE, June 23 -- As Hillary Rodham Clinton prepared to return to life in the Senate and announced that she will campaign with Sen. Barack Obama in New Hampshire on Friday, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee began reaching out to female voters who had formed the backbone of...

A top adviser to Sen. John McCain said that a terrorist attack in the United States would be a political benefit to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, a comment that was immediately disputed by the candidate and denounced by his Democratic rival.

Sen. John McCain yesterday proposed a $300 million prize, paid by the government, for the inventor of a better battery to power electric or hybrid vehicles, with the goal of spurring innovation to get Americans off their gasoline habit.

In the opening weeks of the general-election campaign, Sen. Barack Obama has moved aggressively to shape his campaign and offered a clear road map for the kind of candidate he is likely to become in the months ahead: an ambitious gamer of the electoral map, a ruthless fundraiser and a scrupulous...

Sen. Barack Obama rolled out a proposal yesterday to curb speculation in energy markets, which his advisers said would help stabilize soaring gasoline prices.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to return to Senate politics next week, now that her run for the Democratic presidential nomination is over, but a campaign finance filing made plain last night that the effects of that losing effort will continue to weigh on her political future.

On the presidential campaign trail, Democrat Barack Obama promises to "completely eliminate" income taxes for millions of Americans, from low-income working families to senior citizens who earn less than $50,000 a year.

OTTAWA -- Sen. John McCain traveled to Canada on Friday to offer a vigorous defense of the North American Free Trade Agreement, as his campaign sought to portray rival Sen. Barack Obama as inconsistent on free trade.

WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics.

Liberals have been championing campaign finance reform since Richard Nixon's bagmen were walking around with suitcases of cash.

THE AD "America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life's been blessed by both. I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of...

Sen. Barack Obama reversed his pledge to seek public financing in the general election yesterday, a move that drew criticism from adversaries and allies alike but could provide him with a significant spending advantage over Republican rival John McCain.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) met here last night with dozens of union leaders in an effort to mobilize their support for the general election as lingering rifts from a hard-fought primary campaign as well as broader tensions among major unions threaten to undermine organized labor's efforts on his...

RICHMOND, June 18 -- Senate candidate Mark R. Warner said Wednesday that the U.S. government needs to get tougher with OPEC and better regulate investors speculating in the oil market to drive down gas prices.

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, offered a scathing critique of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today and predicted he would garner substantial conservative Republican support in a handful of battleground states critical to McCain in his campaign against Democratic Sen. Barack Oba...

Sen. John McCain called yesterday for an end to the federal ban on offshore oil drilling, offering an aggressive response to high gasoline prices and immediately drawing the ire of environmental groups that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has courted for months.

DETROIT, June 16 -- Former vice president Al Gore finally stepped forward to endorse Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign on Monday night, telling a crowd of thousands at a hockey arena, "Take it from me -- elections matter."

BEIJING, June 16 -- America may be discussing whether Barack Obama is tough enough to field a 3 a.m. phone call, but for the Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, the real issue is his race.

RICHMOND -- Civic and social organizations are teaming with Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to try to add thousands of nonviolent offenders to the voting rolls in time for the November election, a move that has angered Republicans who say the effort is designed to help Democratic Sen. Barack Obama...

PEMBERTON, N.J., June 13 -- Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Friday forcefully sided with President Bush in condemning the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to grant access to federal courts for the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, potentially muddying his reputation as a critic of the a...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled yesterday that the Federal Election Commission has failed to adequately enforce key aspects of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance restructuring that Congress passed six years ago, and urged the FEC to write new rules that help...

No Republican has captured more than 25 percent of the vote in Maryland's 4th Congressional District since its boundaries, twisting through Montgomery and Prince George's counties, were redrawn not long before the congressional election in 1992.

Last month, Sen. Barack Obama turned to James A. Johnson, a former Fannie Mae chief executive and Washington insider since the Carter administration, to lead the vetting of potential running mates for the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee.

ST. LOUIS, June 10 -- Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain outlined on Tuesday sharply different approaches on how to revive the nation's economy and provide aid to struggling workers, giving voters a clear choice on the issue that Americans say they are most concerned about.

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are turning their undivided attention to the general election this week, loading their schedules with fundraising events that will fuel their campaign through the summer. But advisers to the White House hopefuls are also working feverishly to square their carefu...

DUNCANSVILLE, Pa. -- Five family members gathered last Thursday afternoon in their living room, shades drawn, to remember. They sat in big, cushioned chairs and shared stories to fight their sadness. There was the time Hillary asked them for money, and they cobbled together about $50 even though ...

Sen. Barack Obama did all he could to win over white working-class voters during the Democratic primaries -- shaking hands at factories, downing beers, bowling a few frames -- but it was largely in vain, as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton trounced Obama with the group in most states.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the most successful female presidential candidate in U.S. history, officially left the race on Saturday with a forceful promise to help elect Sen. Barack Obama -- and a powerful declaration that, even in defeat, a gender barrier had been crossed.

Sen. Barack Obama will head into the general election with the ability to raise significantly more money than his Republican opponent, an extremely rare position for a Democrat and one that could give him a huge advantage in mobilizing supporters, reaching voters and competing across the country.

After a tumultuous 17-month journey, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) will formally withdraw as a presidential candidate today, publicly declaring her support for Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) for the first time since he secured the Democratic nomination.

A historic leap in oil prices, tumbling stocks and the biggest jump in unemployment in over two decades pushed economic issues back to the forefront of the political debate yesterday. The cascade of grim economic news brought prompt responses from the presumptive presidential nominees, Sens. Barack...

First it was Republicans, and now Democrats, scrambling in recent presidential elections to snuggle up closely to men of the cloth, seeking the endorsement of well-known clergymen and campaigning with preachers, all in an effort to demonstrate how godly they are.

BATON ROUGE, June 4 -- Republican Sen. John McCain challenged his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, on Wednesday to a series of 10 joint town hall meetings, starting next week in New York, saying voters deserve "a new tenor" in presidential campaigns.

ST. PAUL, Minn., June 3 -- The music was the usual Obama rally fare -- Springsteen, "Shout," that ubiquitous "Only in America" tune by Brooks & Dunn. Supporters waved "Got Hope" signs. Campaign volunteers roamed with clipboards, signing up more volunteers.

The first time Hillary Clinton called, Heather Mizeur didn't pick up. Listening to the message, she heard Clinton's voice and assumed it was a campaign robo-call. But then the New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate asked Mizeur to call back -- and left her personal cellphone number.