Matt Sledge

A 35-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School is challenging ten-term Dallas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) in a Tuesday primary that could be her most competitive in years.

To defeat Johnson, 76, political newcomer Taj Clayton will be fighting an uphill battle against all the advantages of incumbency. In February,...

Someone trying to draw up a list of election 2012 battleground states would not put Arizona at the top. It's best known in political circles for notorious anti-immigration law SB 1070. It hasn't cast its electoral votes for a Democrat since 1996, when Bill Clinton swept the Electoral College. Its...

The Copper Kings once lorded over Montana, picking the state's governors and senators. The grip of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company was so tight that it took a statewide initiative, the 1912 Corrupt Practices Act, to stop big corporations from buying a candidate's way into office.

But exactly a...

NEW YORK -- The nation's attorneys general flexed their legal muscles earlier this year when they signed off on a $25 billion national mortgage settlement. Often overlooked in the commotion of the presidential contest, attorney general races in 10 states this year will decide who continues the work, at least...

With a new TV ad, an independent anti-incumbent super PAC is lobbing allegations of corruption into the congressional primary race heating up in El Paso, Texas.

The spot from the Campaign for Primary Accountability portrays Rep. Silvestre Reyes, an eight-term Democrat in the House of Representatives, as an out-of-touch politician...

Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said Tuesday that the current drop in gas prices could significantly dampen one of the GOP's major economic talking points against President Barack Obama -- but only if prices remain low through November.

Rendell, who has emerged as a key Democratic Party spokesman on infrastructure...

Under an agreement approved by the City Council last year, Chicago is set to hand over $6 million in tax increment financing to Accretive Health, the hospital debt collector at the center of a growing row between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson.

An Emanuel...

NEW YORK -- For more than a year after January 2011 when the bank foreclosed on Monique White's North Minneapolis home, she has been fighting to stay.

Last week, she received word of a reprieve: On Wednesday, a representative of US Bank called to let her know the bank...

NEW YORK -- On Wednesday, Sotheby's set a record: a pastel version of Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" sold for a record $119.9 million, the most ever for a work of art at auction.

But on the street outside, Occupy Wall Street protesters and Teamsters Local 814 members were...

The post-Citizens United world of campaign finance is producing ever more strange bedfellows. One of the two Blue Dog Democrats who lost primary races Tuesday night in Pennsylvania faced an unusual alliance: the League of Conservation Voters and an unconventional anti-incumbent super PAC whose donors include oil and gas executives...

Before a proposal to create a Chicago Infrastructure Trust passed Tuesday, debate hinged on one question that critics say is still unanswered: whether private investors will benefit at the expense of the public good.

Just before the Chicago City Council approved the trust with a 41-7 vote, Mayor...

Proposed legislation would regulate the cheap, intercity buses that lawmakers said have caused curbside bedlam in some areas of the city -- especially Chinatown -- over recent years, New York City lawmakers and officials announced Monday.

"This legislation is an important first step on the chaos that has reigned...

As the House of Representatives votes on an extension to its transportation bill Wednesday, environmental advocates are crying foul on an amendment that would strip the EPA of the ability to regulate toxic coal ash and hand it over to the states. The amendment passed in a voice vote with...

As Rep. Silvestre Reyes finishes up his eighth term representing El Paso, he is facing an unusual challenge: an experienced, credible primary opponent with a respectable campaign war chest.

In his most recent campaign filing, former city council representative Beto O'Rourke raised $130,331 compared with incumbent Reyes' $204,710. A September...

A month after Moody's Investors Service downgraded more than $2.5 billion of Detroit's debt to below investment grade, the city is still under review for further hits to its credit score. But an analysis released by the rating agency on Monday did say that the signing of a...

One Sunday last May, Cherine Akbari moved into her new townhouse in sunny Oakland Park, Fla. The next day, the 27-year-old went to work doing what she loved, teaching high school history in Broward County Public Schools. On Friday morning, the faculty council presented her with a windbreaker as a...

Facing a fierce primary challenge this year from the right, Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar found himself accused Wednesday night of driving up gas prices during an otherwise uneventful primary debate.

Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who would like to topple the long-time senator, leveled the provocative charge that Lugar's...

John Cook only has 13 months left as mayor of El Paso. But as of last Wednesday, when papers were filed for a recall petition, Cook will be fending off no fewer than two attempts to remove him from office over his support for unmarried domestic partners' health benefits.

Deep...

Rep. Eric Cantor probably didn't see this coming. The House GOP majority leader's attempt to intervene in a Republican primary in Illinois has become fodder for an intramural Democratic Party tangle 1,500 miles away in Texas.

Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, has been doing damage control this week...

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has been personally reaching out to GOP lawmakers to reassure them that he has their backs, despite the fact that he recently gave $25,000 to a group focused on defeating several House Republicans in their primary races, sources close to Cantor said...