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Politics
1:55 pm
Fri December 28, 2012

LISTEN LIVE: Fiscal Cliff Special Coverage

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Listen to live special coverage from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. of talks between President Obama and congressional leaders regarding impending automatic spending cuts and tax increases.

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Election 2012
11:28 am
Fri December 28, 2012

Election Study: Black Turnout May Have Surpassed That Of Whites

Credit Getty Images
People wait in line to vote at the Columbia Heights Educational Campus on Nov. 6 in Washington, D.C.
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Originally published on Thu December 27, 2012 6:36 pm

African-Americans voted this year at a higher rate than other minorities and may have topped the rate for whites for the first time, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

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This Is NPR
2:52 pm
Mon December 24, 2012

Campaign Collections: NPR Election Team Finds From The Races

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Credit Katie Burk / NPR
Seasoned and new election journalists from NPR talk about their favorite campaign memorabilia collected along the election trail through the years. Read the story behind each of these items, and what makes them so special, below.
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
Illinois Democrats were ready to reelect President John F. Kennedy and Gov. Otto Kerner in 1964. Tragically, Kennedy never lived to see that 1964 campaign, having been assassinated in November 1963.
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
In another 1960's-era race, Ernest Gruening, the former Alaska Governor and Senator, ran for his final reelection in 1968. His supporters turned his name into a rebus on a button.
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
Before Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president, or governor of New York, or before he was a VP candidate, FDR sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate (NY) in 1914. And he lost, badly.
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
When you look closely at the "R.F.K." button, it reads "RatFinK" — a dig at Robert Kennedy by supporters of Eugene McCarthy, who resented Kennedy's late entrance into the 1968 presidential contest.
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson famously lifted up his shirt and showed the press his scar from a gallbladder surgery. In '66 David Levine drew a caricature of the incident turning the scar into the shape of Vietnam, which was turned into a button the next year.
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
This brown and pink button refers to Pat Brown, once Governor of California. In 1962, he was up for reelection and this button alleges Brown of being a "pinko," a term for someone with very liberal and almost radical views. Therefore, the button reads, "brown IS pink."
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
A look at some of Nation Political Correspondent Don Gonyea'™s favorite political buttons. Gonyea has been covering campaigns for NPR since 1988 and says he's been collecting campaign items for much longer.
Credit Katie Burk / NPR
Ken Rudin holds up a pin from the 1964 campaign season in Illinois. Rudin has a collection of over 60,000 political buttons, and everyone at NPR knows that if you see a good button, grab it for Ken.
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By Elizabeth Brown

Originally published on Mon December 24, 2012 8:08 am

Whether it's their first election cycle with NPR or their tenth, the Washington Desk reporters, producers and staffers have many opportunities to collect memorabilia and unique items from various campaign events while they are traveling across the country reporting on elections. But with all of the buttons, knick-knacks, and posters, how do they decide what to take?

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Politics
3:03 am
Tue December 18, 2012

South Carolina's New Senator A Tea Party Favorite, Staunch Obama Critic

Credit Rainier Ehrhardt / AP
U.S. Rep. Tim Scott smiles during a news conference announcing him as Jim DeMint's replacement in the U.S. Senate at the South Carolina Statehouse on Monday in Columbia.
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By BRAKKTON BOOKER

Originally published on Tue December 18, 2012 8:18 am

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley named a fellow Republican, Rep. Tim Scott, as the state's next senator on Monday. He replaces retiring Republican Sen. Jim DeMint and will make history as the first black senator from the South since 1881.

Haley, however, wanted everyone to know her selection was based on Scott's merit, not his race.

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Politics
1:10 pm
Mon December 17, 2012

What Shut The Back Door To Congressional Compromise

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Credit Harvey Georges / AP
President Kennedy speaks with Senate GOP leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois in March 1961. Dirksen's support was critical to passing civil rights legislation through Congress.
Credit Scott Stewart / AP
President Reagan and House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill were able to forge a bond — something that has eluded President Obama and John Boehner.
Credit Barry Thumma / AP
President George H.W. Bush, seen with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, in 1991, was punished at the ballot box for compromises that produced a budget-reduction act in 1990.
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By Alan GreenblattAlan Greenblatt

Originally published on Mon December 17, 2012 1:50 pm

Remember the important contributions Republicans made to civil rights legislation back in the 1960s?

They've almost been lost to memory. When Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the GOP presidential nominee that year, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, opposed it, and Republicans have never recovered their former share of support among African-Americans.

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