elections

Imagining a Republican-led Senate is bad enough, but Mitch McConnell's ramblings suggest it would be beyond our worst nightmares.

As the Wisconsin gubernatorial race heats up, outsourcing is becoming an increasingly hot topic. Now, revelations about companies receiving tax incentives only to outsource jobs at a later date are turning up the heat further: "In the last decade, at least 25 companies with Wisconsin operations have both been awarded state funding and outsourced jobs, according to a State Journal review."

St. Louis County Council member Steve Stenger is asking labor to help him in his bid to become County Executive, claiming incumbent Charlie Dooley’s anti-union record should be enough to encourage union members to get out the vote. With low turnout likely (65,000 of the county’s 700,000+ voters are expected to make it to the polls for the August 5th Democratic primary), every vote will count.

Senator Elizabeth Warren recently laid out 11 core progressive values in a powerful speech at Netroots Nations. Watch the video on the flip, in which the senator explains how these principles are fundamentally American — and something we should be fighting to support.

Tea Party darling Chris McDaniel lost his bid for a Mississippi senate seat in the Republican primaries. He plans to challenge the ruling, believing the only reason he lost was Democrats (and minorities, who especially despise his incendiary politics) voting in the GOP elections.

With the Wisconsin gubernatorial race inching ever closer, Democratic challenger Mary Burke ramped up her rhetoric regarding Act 10 last weekend, incumbent Governor Walker’s signature legislation which stripped collective bargaining rights from a majority of the state’s public sector union workforce. With the issue still very much a part of Wisconsin’s political conversation, Burke has revealed what she would change — and what she would keep — about Act 10.

A new study by researchers at the University of Southern California argues that bias among state legislators against Latino voters is an important factor in the passage of tough voter ID laws across the country. The laws ostensibly are designed to prevent voter fraud, but the researchers said there’s almost no evidence that such fraud is a problem in U.S. elections

Promising to bring back "happiness," the head of the military junta that took control of Thailand in a coup last week said Friday that elections may not occur for more than a year because peace and reforms must be achieved first. Martial law generally makes it hard for people to smile, though.

There was some small hope that the IRS would effect some common sense rules changes prior to this year's elections, but those hopes have been dashed. Dark money groups will continue their unfettered spending after the IRS announced a delay in a reporting change for 'social welfare' nonprofits.

The Nation's Ari Berman explains why a Wisconsin judge's ruling against voter ID laws is so important and sweeping — and not just because the state is an important battleground state. Similar voter ID laws are quite the fad among conservative Americans, but what really motivates their proposal? New cases are popping up in North Carolina and Texas, but the history goes back to the Bush administration.