Your Guide to U.S. Elections
Welcome to The Election Guide. This site will be updated regularly with the latest news and information about U.S. elections especially the 2008 Presidential Election and the 2008 Presidential Candidates.
November 4th, 2008 is Election Day. The next set of national elections that will shape our country's future will occur on this day. Election Day 2008 features the Presidential Election, 33 U.S. Senate Elections, 435 U.S. Congressional Elections and 11 state gubernatorial elections.
Saturday June 30 Site Update
The General Election Power Rankings have been updated.
Friday June 29
The Senate Immigration bill is now dead. The Senate failed to limit debate on the bill which effectively killed it. It is very unlikely that any immigration bill will be passed before the 2008 Presidential Election.
Many of the Presidential Candidates are in last minute fundraising mode. Saturday is the end of the second quarter and is the second quarter of fundraising for the 2008 Presidential Election. It appears likely that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be the leaders in fundraising once again.
Thursday June 28
The U.S. House of Representatives has given itself a $4,400 raise. The raise is based on cost of living increases and is automatic unless the House members vote against it. Last year they actually did vote against the raise. The raise increases their annual salaries to almost $170,000.
The Senate Immigration bill was on the schedule again Wednesday. Senators voted against several amendments that would change the bill. The closest amendment was one written by Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison which would have required all adult illegal immigrants to return to their home country within 2 years before they could apply for a visa that would allow them to stay in the U.S. permanently. The amendment failed by a 53-45 vote. Hutchison considers the bill to be amnesty without her amendment. The whole bill could come up for a vote Friday.
Former Vice President Al Gore who so far isn't even running for President is leading a new New Hampshire poll. Without Gore included, Hillary Clinton leads with 37 percent to Barack Obama's 19 percent, but with Gore in the poll he leads with 32 percent and Clinton loses more than a quarter of her support. Mitt Romney leads Rudy Giuliani by 4 percent on the Republican side.
Wednesday June 27th
The Senate Immigration bill passed a key test Tuesday when Senators voted to bring it back to the Senate floor. The bill isn't out of the woods yet as it will face as many as 26 possible amendments this week.
Two important Republican Senators, Richard Lugar and George Voinovich have made calls to start bringing U.S. Troops home from Iraq. Voinovich said, "We must not abandon our mission, but we must begin a transition where the Iraqi government and its neighbors play a larger role in stabilizing Iraq," in a letter to President Bush. More Senate Republicans are likely to follow suit and could possibly mean that the Senate will have the 60 votes it needs to pass legislation calling for Bush to bring the troops home.
Saturday June 16th
It appears that the Senate Immigration Bill may be revived. An amendment to add about 4 billion dollars in required funding to secure the border looks like it will get some previously opposed Republicans to vote for the bill. The bill should make it back into the Senate schedule sometime late next week.
Hillary Clinton hit the campaign trail Friday vowing to left federal restrictions on stem cell funding. President Bush has threatened to attempts by Congress to ease restrictions of federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
John Edwards said Friday that winning the Iowa Caucuses is the key to the Presidential nomination. This would be convenient for Edwards who has been leading the polls in Iowa. At this point Edwards has to win the Iowa Caucus and hope that gives him some serious momentum for the other primaries or he is won't have a chance.
Wednesday June 13th
President Bush was went to Capital Hill Tuesday to try to revive the Immigration Bill. He met with Senate Republicans to try to get more support for his bill from his own party. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the head Democrat in the Senate said he believes the bill has enough votes to pass if it can get to that point. The bill which only needs a majority to pass needs 60 votes to end the debate on the bill. Opponents who only need 40 votes blocked the bill from coming to a vote last week.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and some fellow Republicans are working on an amendment to the Immigration Bill that would focus more on securing the border. The move is to try to persuade many Republicans who don't like the bill in its current form saying it is too easy on illegal immigrants.
Possible Republican Presidential Candidate Fred Thompson appeared on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" Tuesday night but made no announcement that he was running. Meanwhile Thompson has passed John McCain in several polls that put him in second place behind Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination.
New Jersey U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Menendez is a key Hispanic figure for Democrats and should help Clinton with the Hispanic vote.
Close to six months after Democrats took control of both the U.S. House and Senate, the Congressional approval rate is at its lowest level in a decade. Just 27% of Americans polled in a new LA Times/Bloomberg poll approve of the way Congress is doing its job.
Saturday June 9th
A set of new Presidential polls in New Hampshire show Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney leading their respective primaries with sizeable leads.
A few days after the Senate Immigration Bill looked like it might be on its way to passage it is now dead in the water. The bill failed to pass a key test Friday when the majority of Senators voted not to end debate on the bill. With a busy Senate schedule it is unclear what will happen to the bill now. It may be dead as several Republicans have hoped it would be.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace will retire from his position as the U.S. Military's highest ranking officer later this year. President Bush will likely nominate Admiral Michael G. Mullen to the post. The Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Edmund Giambastiani will also retire and will likely be replaced by Marine General James Cartwright. The moves come because the terms of both the Chairman and Vice-Chairman come to an end later this year and both would have needed to be reconfirmed by the U.S. Senate. This would have been a contentious process largely focused on the past. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are important and highly prestigious positions that serve largely as advisors to the President.
Thursday June 7th
Senator Barack Obama has moved ahead of Senator Hillary Clinton in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. Obama leads by 1 percentage point 30 to 29.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that odds were 4-1 against him running for president. This a step back from last week where he said it was likely he would run.
The Senate Immigration Bill passed a few hurdles on Wednesday. So far the bipartisan coalition behind the bill has held together.
Wednesday June 6th
The third Republican Presidential Debate took place last night in New Hampshire. Giuliani and McCain both had strong showings and Mitt Romney wasn't bad either. Nothing happened that will change the makeup of the race. None of the other candidates did anything special to pull themselves out of the second tier. It is clearly a three man race that should become a four man race in the next few weeks when Fred Thompson announces he is running.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney has been sentenced to 30 months in prison after being convicted in March on counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI investigators. Libby has appealed the sentence. It is possible that Libby could be pardoned by President Bush but that won't happen until after the appeals and probably won't happen. The Libby sentence became one of the issues discussed in the Republican debate Tuesday night. Many of the candidates said they would likely pardon Libby.
The U.S. House voted 373-26 in favor of the ethics committee launching an investigation into whether Congressman William Jefferson violated the House code of conduct. Many Republicans and some Democrats have called for Jefferson to resign as a result of the 16 charges that were filed against him Monday.
Tuesday June 5th
Wyoming Republican Senator Craig Thomas has passed away at age 74 after a long battle with leukemia. Thomas was a popular senator in conservative Wyoming. He won reelection in 2006 with 70% of the vote. The Governor of Wyoming Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will choose a replacement from a list of 3 names provided to him by the Wyoming Republican Party. The replacement will serve until the 2008 General Election where the voters will choose who will complete the rest of Thomas' term that will end in 2012. The appointed replacement will likely also be the one elected in 2008.
Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat from Louisiana has been charged with racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and conspiracy almost two years after the FBI found $90,000 in cash in his freezer. The charges could result in a prison sentence of upto 235 years. It is likely that the House Ethics committee will look into kicking Congressman Jefferson out of Congress.
Friday June 1st
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin may be considering running for Governor of Louisiana. So far there is a definite hole for the Democrats in the race after Governor Blanco and former U.S. Senator John Breaux have decided not to run. Nagin would be facing a huge uphill battle as his approval rating in New Orleans is a dismal 19%.
New Hampshire has passed a bill to allow civil unions. Democratic Governor John Lynch signed the bill Thursday joining Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Maine, California and Washington as states allowing civil unions of some sort. Oregon will join the list in January. The 2006 Election in which Democrats took over the state Legislature allowed this to happen. The bill passed largely along party lines.
View our Archives for older news