SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Weeks after Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman was criticized over her poor voting record, U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina tried to fend off a similar line of questioning by owning up to her spotty past....

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington voters have approved the state's new "everything but marriage" law, expanding rights for domestic partners and marking the first time any state's voters have approved a gay equality measure at the ballot box....

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Democrat who came within 50,000 votes of unseating billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is open to running again and said he's not bitter that many in his party deserted his campaign when it seemed like a long shot....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Carly Fiorina's claim to fame - her five-and-a-half years as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard Co. - could also be her greatest vulnerability in next year's U.S. Senate race in California....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Voters' memo to politicians: We're angry and fearful, mostly about jobs and the economy. We want tangible solutions, not partisan bickering or intraparty spats. And we'll vote either party out of office if we don't think you're listening....

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) -- Former Silicon Valley executive Carly Fiorina announced Wednesday she is running for the chance to seize liberal stalwart Barbara Boxer's U.S. Senate seat, depicting the three-term Democrat as a Capitol Hill do-nothing who penned novels while jobs vanished and government spending soared....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An unstamped letter from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop turned into a security scare Wednesday as U.S. Capitol Police closed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office for about 45 minutes....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says that Republican wins in two governors' races were not referendums on the president....

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Last year, 23-year-old Rashida Hill watched the presidential debates, visited the college political party meetings and put a Barack Obama bumper sticker on her townhouse door. She voted for Obama because she felt like the election was about "being a part of something."...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff on Wednesday dropped out of a U.S. Senate race to spend more time with a 17-year-old daughter who is suffering from severe mental health problems and has attempted suicide in the past....