Maine GOP failed to count communities that voted DURING caucus period.

However, a review of the town-by-town results released Saturday by the Maine GOP suggests that some communities that had caucused prior to Feb. 11 were not counted. Nearly all Waldo County towns held caucuses on Feb. 4 but those towns were blank in the results released by the state party. Additionally, Waterville held its caucuses ahead of time but were not included in the results.

Waldo County GOP Chairman Raymond St. Onge said the results were sent to the state party on Tuesday, Feb. 7. He said those results probably would not have changed the outcome but was disheartened the votes were not included.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, St. Onge said he had not received an answer from the Maine GOP on why Waldo County’s results were omitted.

Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said Monday that including all caucus votes likely would not change the outcome of the state’s preference poll. Asked whether the party would consider updating the result to include all communities, he said that is up to the state party committee, which meets next month.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/14/politics/pressure-mounting-for-gop-caucus-reconsideration/

Wife of SF Sheriff agrees to testify in domestic violence case, will seek immunity.

After repeatedly denouncing the misdemeanor domestic violence charges against her husband in public and refusing to talk to investigators, San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's wife now intends to testify at his upcoming trial, her attorney says.

"Of course my client is going to cooperate," said Paula Canny, the attorney for Eliana Lopez.

How much Lopez says on the stand, however, will depend on whether the district attorney will grant her immunity, Canny said.......

Canny's fear is that if Lopez testifies without immunity - and says, for example, that the couple did indeed have a loud, physical fight - she could be hit with a child endangerment charge because the boy was there at the time.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/12/BAHO1N686K.DTL#ixzz1mLLbyDTG

Right wing school district decides anti-gay bullying not good after all.

COON RAPIDS, Minn. — The school board in Minnesota's largest school district on Monday night approved a replacement for a policy that required teachers to stay neutral when sexual orientation comes up in class, a stance that some critics blamed for fostering bullying.

The Anoka-Hennepin School Board adopted the "Respectful Learning Environment" policy on a voice vote. Only board member Kathy Tingelstad voted no.

After hearing more than an hour of testimony from more than 20 people, board member Scott Wenzel said he believed the change will help the district and the community move forward.

Tingelstad told reporters afterward she didn't appreciate all the outside pressure that has come down on the board over the issue in recent months.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/minn-school-board-could-c_n_1274779.html?ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay%20Voices

Romney backer may keep Santorum off Indiana ballot

Dan Dumezich is guiding Romney's effort to win Indiana. He also chairs the Indiana Election Commission, which considers challenges to candidates' ballot access. Santorum is eight signatures shy of the 500 needed from Indiana's 7th District.

Five voters filed challenges to Santorum's candidacy Monday. The four-member, bipartisan Election Commission then would have to make a decision by March 1.

Dumezich says he has no plans to recuse himself from a vote if Santorum's access is challenged.

"In my mind I can always maintain my objectivity," he said, adding that the election commission tends to err on the side of ballot access when it hears challenges.



http://www.indystar.com/article/20120211/NEWS0502/302110006?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom

Marriage equality might go on Washington ballot.

Opponents of same-sex marriage intended to quickly file a referendum aimed at repealing the law, and if they are able to collect enough valid signatures — 120,577 — between now and June 6, the law will be put on hold until the November election.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017497028_gaymarriage14m.html

Maine GOP continues caucus theft in broad daylight.

AUGUSTA — Leaders of the Maine Republican Party say Mitt Romney's win in the caucuses will stand, at least until the GOP state committee revisits the matter next month.

Party leaders said after the former Massachusetts governor's win was announced Saturday that no more votes would be counted. That upset a number of party activists, especially Ron Paul supporters who felt it unfairly ignores Washington County where caucuses were called off Saturday because of a snowstorm. Washington County has rescheduled its caucuses for this Saturday.

State Party Chairman Charlie Webster said today that the results will stand until the state committee takes up the matter at its March 10 meeting.

But Webster says that even if Washington County's votes had been counted, it's "inconceivable" that Paul could have pulled off a victory.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine-GOP-sticks-with-Romney-win-for-now.html

HI-SEN: Hirono Has Big Lead In Hawaii Senate Race

A new survey from Hawaii-based pollster Ward Research gives Democratic Rep. Mazie Hirono a pair of big leads in both the primary and general elections for this state's open-seat race.

In the Democratic primary, Hirono leads former Rep. Ed Case by 56%-36%. In the general election, she leads Republican former Gov. Linda Lingle by 57%-37%.

It should be noted that back in 2002, Lingle was first elected governor by a 52%-47% margin, defeating then-Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, to become the state's first Republican governor since the early 1960's. She was easily re-elected by a landslide in 2006. But in this heavily Democratic state, it could prove to be more difficult for even a well-known Republican to win federal office.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/poll-democrat-hirono-has-big-lead-in-hawaii

New Jersey State Senate Passes Bill Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey lawmakers gave their blessing to legalizing gay marriage for the first time Monday as the state Senate passed a bill that would allow nuptials for same-sex couples, despite Gov. Chris Christie's insistence that he will veto such legislation.

The Senate's 24-16 vote sends the bill to the Assembly, which is expected to pass it on Thursday.

Monday's vote contrasts with the only other gay-marriage vote taken in the Legislature. In January 2010, gay marriage supporters thought they had built a narrow majority in the Senate, but senators began to defect, and the measure was defeated 20-14. Since then, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat from West Deptford, has changed his position. He says he regrets abstaining two years ago and has made gay marriage recognition a top priority.

"It means the world isn't changing, it means the world has already changed," said Steven Goldstein, chariman of Garden State Equality, the state's largest gay rights organization. "So wake up and smell the equality."

Two Democrats and two Republicans went against their party lines in the vote. Sen. Jennifer Beck, a Republican from Red Bank, voted for allowing gay marriage. "It is my opinion that our republic was established to guarantee liberty to all people," she said. "It is our role to protect all of the people who live in our state."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/new-jersey-gay-marriage-state-senate_n_1273628.html

Mitt Romney says Romneycare should go national (8/5/07) (VIDEO)

Obama will fight for AZ.

Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's campaign manager, rallied local volunteers Sunday by assuring them that Obama intends to fight for Arizona, a state he lost four years ago to Sen. John McCain.

Messina, a former deputy White House chief of staff, spoke for about three minutes to several dozen supporters at an Obama phone-banking session at the Organizing For America office in central Phoenix. He said that together they would build "the single best grass-roots campaign in modern American political history."

"You all in here are making calls, talking to voters and doing what you do, because you understand the simple truth, which is we can win Arizona," Messina told the troops. "People said last time, 'Oh, you can't win Virginia,' until we did. 'You can't win Florida,' until we did. 'You can never win North Carolina,' until we did. And so a whole bunch of people are saying, 'Can he win Arizona? Can he not win Arizona?' The fact is you all are the secret weapon we have."

Signs that Messina and the Obama campaign are serious about competing in Arizona, a traditional Republican state that has gone Democratic in presidential elections only twice since 1948, include the three Organizing For America offices that already have opened in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff. A fourth office will open soon in Glendale. Obama and his strategists believe that Arizona would have turned blue in 2008 had home-state senator McCain not been on the ballot as Obama's GOP foe. Obama last month made a stop at an Intel Corp. site in Chandler.


http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/azdc/154982