MANCHESTER – Rolling through northeast Iowa, Michele Bachman is taking aim at her rivals as she works to win the support of “values voters.” “The people of Iowa are looking for the one, true, core conservative in this race,” she said outside the falcon Civic Center ...

No doubt the most-watched political of the day will be The Family Leader’s announcement its endorsement of a candidate in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses. It comes on the heels of Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen’s announcement that he will endorse Newt Gingrich. A formal announcement is ...

  Texas political observers say their Gov. Rick Perry has a reputation as a dangerous campaigner, even more so when he’s behind. If that’s the case, Perry will be a dangerous man when he visits northeast Iowa today in search of support in the Jan. 3 first-in-the-nation ...

You think you’re busy: The presidential hopefuls like to tell us the Iowa precinct caucus campaign is not a sprint, but a marathon, Call it what you will, the 2012ers, or at least some of them, have traded their walking shows for running spikes. With 18 ...

  Swing state blues: Looks like Iowa will maintain its battleground state status in the 2012 general election. A University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll, which found Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney 30 percent to 20 percent, also included questions about the 2012 general election. Answers from about ...

CEDAR RAPIDS — When you’re sixth in a six-way race, it’s the sort of thing that looks like progress. After following an Elvis impersonator at the Linn County GOP Christmas party Monday night, Rick Santorum started the day Tuesday in front of The Gazette Editorial Board ...

  A University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll being released this morning in Washington has both good news and bad for Iowa frontrunner Newt Gingrich. The former U.S. House speaker is leading the field with a 10 percentage point lead over his nearest rival, Mitt Romney, but poll ...

  Not since Avis has No. 2 tried harder. Most candidates and campaigns avoid acknowledging polls unless they are on top. No campaign more than Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s goes out of the way to publicize its second-place — or sometimes lower — standing in polls. “Ron Paul ...

CEDAR RAPIDS — Ho-hum. Another Mitt Romney flip-flop. That seems to be the reaction to a recent revelation that the 2012 Republican presidential hopeful supported taxpayer-funded abortions when he ran for governor in Massachusetts. Given Romney’s track record of positions shifts — or flip-flops, depending on your ...

Hit the reset button: The series of “surge and fade” candidates that has marked the race for the top prize in the Iowa first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses has been succeeded by Herman Cain’s surge and suspend strategy. A month ago, Cain was leading the race according to ...