Presidential races

Romney's son described his father as reluctant to run in 2012 and hesitant to reveal his personal side during the campign.

The former Speaker said Democrats could emerge as a near-permanent majority if Republicans don't rethink their politics. 

TOP STORY: Jesse Jackson Jr.’s seat

The race to replace retiring Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) is throwing a spotlight on new electoral challenges facing the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).
 
The Illinois race is the first real test of whether open-seat elections in expanded, more diverse districts are still likely to elect African-Americans to Congress.
 
Because of dwindling urban populations, less segregated neighborhoods and a fast-growing Hispanic population, many districts where African-American politicians have been all but guaranteed a win are no longer as secure.
 
The CBC’s ranks will hold steady in 2012 at 42 members, and grow if Jackson’s replacement is African-American.
 
But after four decades in which the CBC’s ranks swelled, the caucus is in a more precarious position. Many of its seats are held by longtime members whose eventual retirements could open the door for a white or Hispanic politician.

Read the full story in tomorrow's paper and at TheHill.com.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the best-regarded 2016 Republican presidential candidate among both women and men, as well as members of both parties.

Fifty-five percent of registered voters nationwide who have heard of Christie view him favorably, and he's the only candidate in the poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University that is viewed favorably by a majority of both men and women who know of him. Forty-six percent of those who know of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio view him favorably, and 45 percent who know of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal see him positively as well.

A majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents who know of Christie also view him favorably.

President Obama's deputy campaign manager said Wednesday that Democrats did not have trouble wooing married women, but that the gap in support for Obama among that demographic group was simply reflective of the fact the Obama campaign turned out more single women.

Stephanie Cutter, speaking on a panel on "women's political power in 2010," hosted by progressive think tank Center for American Progress, initially cited the "pure demographics of who the married women are" when asked about the campaign's trouble with married female voters, but didn't elaborate on those demographics.

She went on to say that the campaign didn't fare any worse with married women this year than last cycle, but that they turned out more single women.

Joel Benenson predicted the GOP will struggle at the ballot box if its members don't have a major tonal change.

The Republican National Committee is in a period of reassessment after a disappointing election cycle in which the party lost the White House and failed to take control of the Senate.

It has formed a new committee launched expressly for the purpose of evaluating what worked and what didn't in past campaigns, and making suggestions for the future.

The effort, titled the Growth and Opportunity Project, is co-chaired by Mississippi RNC committeeman Henry Barbour, Puerto Rico RNC committeewoman Zori Fonalledas, South Carolina RNC committeeman Glenn McCall, Florida political operative Sally Bradshaw and Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary to former President George W. Bush.

Gingrich said running against Hillary Clinton would be a "Super Bowl"-level challenge for the Republican Party.

Sheldon Adelson, one of Mitt Romney's top backers who spent over $100 million over the course of the election, spent nearly a third of that sum in the final three weeks of the campaign.

Fifty-seven percent in a new poll say they'd support a presidential bid by Hillary Clinton in 2016.