Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The Senate last week unanimously passed an amendment to the 2013 Defense Authorization Bill that commits the United States to defend Japan should the Senkaku Islands come under attack by a third country -- a reference to China.
Democratic Party of Virginia Chairman Brian Moran announced Wednesday that he will resign his post next month after an election cycle that saw President Obama carry the state and U.S. Senator-elect Tim Kaine keep retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Webb's seat in Democratic hands.
Republican George Allen has run his last political campaign.
Republicans fell short Tuesday night of their goal of winning control of the Senate, after a campaign beset with weak candidate recruitment and self-inflicted gaffes in some of the GOP's most promising races.
Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine won one of the most expensive and consequential U.S. Senate races in the country Tuesday, delivering Republican George Allen a second consecutive razor-thin loss and ensuring that the purple state again will have two Democrat-blue senators come January.
U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and George Allen enjoyed the 11th-hour benefits of Virginia's swing-state status Monday, getting high-profile nods of support from Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Mitt Romney, respectively, at events across the commonwealth and in voter-rich Northern Virginia.
Polls show the race is neck-and-neck to fill Jim Webb's vacant U.S. Senate seat in Virginia.
At last year's 63rd Shad Planking, Virginia's annual spring confab for politicos and potential candidates to see and be seen, Gov. Bob McDonnell joked that Tim Kaine and George Allen were "two guys running for a job that neither one of them really wants. What a battle that's going to be."
Republican George Allen on Monday escalated his portrayal of Democratic Senate rival Tim Kaine as a would-be serial tax hiker and accused him of letting his attention drift away from Virginians during his final year as governor.
President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney each trolled for military votes Thursday in the critical swing state of Virginia, and although polls show Mr. Obama with a slight edge overall in the state, he is having trouble convincing veterans that he should remain their commander in chief.
President Obama played to an enthusiastic crowd in the military stronghold of Virginia Beach Thursday, promising to bring about a "new economic patriotism" and hailing veterans and military families as valued members of the middle class.
Who would have picked the buttoned-down Tim Kaine to make a stretch-run slip-up in Virginia's Senate race before gaffe-prone Republican George Allen?
In the all-important swing state of Virginia, no state politician cracked 50 percent in their approval ratings in a poll released Tuesday, though a strong plurality of voters approve of the job performances of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell and Democratic Sen. Mark R. Warner.
George Allen on Monday was among the first Republican U.S. Senate candidates to publicly condemn Missouri Rep. and Senate candidate W. Todd Akin's remarks on pregnancy and rape as he tries to join a sizable list of political comebacks that first began with an ill-timed bout of foot-in-mouth disease.
When groups like Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform endorse a Republican candidate or organizations like the AFL-CIO endorse a Democrat, it generally doesn’t rate much more than a raised eyebrow. But U.S. Senate candidates George Allen and Tim Kaine touted endorsements Friday from two groups that don't have quite the ironclad history of toeing the party line in Virginia in recent years.
"Jim Webb isn't entirely offensive," the Arlington resident said, but he noted he was skeptical that a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee could be bipartisan.
ELECTION 2012: Kaine edges Allen to win pricey Va. Senate seat →
Mr. Webb said this week that when he made the decision to leave after one term, one of the first people he called was Mr. Kaine — whom he lobbied to run as his replacement.
ELECTION 2012: Kaine edges Allen to win pricey Va. Senate seat →
