Campaign Manager

Paul E. Schurick, the 2010 campaign manager for former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., was convicted Tuesday by a Baltimore jury of four counts stemming from a robocall that prosecutors said was intended to suppress the black vote. The call, which Schurick acknowledged authorizing, was placed on Election Day to 112,000 voters in Baltimore and Prince George's County, the state's two largest majority-African American jurisdictions. Recipients were told by an unidentified woman that they could "relax"...

If Virginians weren't foggy-headed enough from last year's barrage of political ads and robo-calls, now comes a race that's producing double vision — the two men running for governor this year are each running two campaigns featuring different issues, calendars and strategies. One campaign, taking place on national TV and in fine hotel ballrooms across the country, is about raising money, positioning political parties for power, and helping consultants angle for jobs in the next election cycle.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- The campaign manager for longtime U.S. Rep. Chris Shays pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he embezzled about $250,000 in campaign funds. Michael Sohn of Fairfield was arrested earlier Friday on a 12-count indictment charging him with stealing campaign funds from 2005 to 2008 by writing himself checks and using the campaign's debit card for unauthorized purchases. He pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport. A judge released him on $100,000 bail and agreed that he should...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The government on Friday urged Pakistan's 80 million registered voters to defy extremist threats of suicide-bomb attacks on polling stations and trust that stepped-up security forces — 670,000 police, paramilitary troops and army soldiers — would safeguard the public in Saturday's historic cliffhanger election. "Our message is that the Pakistani people's resolve for democracy is much greater than the Taliban's threat to stop it," said Arif Nizami, the information and broadcasting minister.

State prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on one key revelation Tuesday in the opening statements of a trial to determine whether robo-calls made during Maryland's gubernatorial election last year were intended to suppress black voter turnout. Paul E. Schurick, former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s (R) campaign manager, approved the calls, which were placed to homes of tens of thousands of African American Democrats in Prince George's County and Baltimore while the polls were still open on...

The campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Jon M. Huntsman Jr. left that job Thursday, the clearest sign that the campaign, which began with considerable hype a month ago, is having trouble gaining traction. In a significant staffing shake-up, Susie Wiles stepped down from the top post, saying that she had always intended to get the former Utah governor's campaign off the ground and then move on. She will be replaced by Matt David, a communications aide who worked on the presidential campaign of Sen....

Political consultant Julius Henson returned to the witness stand Monday and placed blame for a controversial Election Day 2010 robo-call on a top campaign aide to former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Henson told jurors in Baltimore Circuit Court that he was eating with his granddaughter at a McDonald's at 4:42 p.m. on Election Day when Ehrlich campaign manager Paul Schurick called him and suggested Henson arrange the call, which prosecutors...

What's it like to be managing a presidential campaign with just a few weeks to go? As a manager and adviser to campaigns that ranged from landslides to very close contests, I've learned this: A dead heat can be one of the hardest races to help lead. After the president's disastrous first debate , the 2012 presidential campaign is now a race that probably goes right down to the wire. The best laid plans may no longer be operative: Barack Obama 's...

Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford will return to his old seat in the House of Representatives after a winning a special election in the state's first congressional district Tuesday. The Republican won 54 percent of the vote, while his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, took 45 percent. Sanford ran a more aggressive campaign, Karen Tumulty reports: Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, had run a campaign in the cautious...

RICHMOND — GOP lieutenant governor hopeful Pete Snyder is sidestepping his competitors and taking aim at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in his latest ad launching statewide Tuesday. The 60-second spot is aimed at snagging delegates at next weekend's Republican convention and will air on conservative radio in markets including Richmond, Lynchburg/Roanoke, and the Tidewater region, according to the campaign. Snyder is attempting to separate himself from the crowded...

Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford will return to his old seat in the House of Representatives after a winning a special election in the state's first congressional district Tuesday. The Republican won 54 percent of the vote, while his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, took 45 percent. Sanford ran a more aggressive campaign, Karen Tumulty reports: Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, had run a campaign in the cautious style of an...

RICHMOND — GOP lieutenant governor hopeful Pete Snyder is sidestepping his competitors and taking aim at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in his latest ad launching statewide Tuesday. The 60-second spot is aimed at snagging delegates at next weekend's Republican convention and will air on conservative radio in markets including Richmond, Lynchburg/Roanoke, and the Tidewater region, according to the campaign. Snyder is attempting to separate himself from the crowded...

District Republicans expressed grave concerns Wednesday about the future of their party in local elections, one day after GOP candidate Patrick Mara finished third in a low-turnout special election for an at-large D.C. Council seat. The results, including the election of incumbent Anita Bonds (D), immediately sparked a fierce intraparty debate as GOP leaders confronted their inability to win races even as the city grows more diverse. About a half-hour before...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused opponents Tuesday of bugging his headquarters and asked for an FBI investigation after a recording from an internal campaign meeting surfaced in a magazine report . The 12-minute audiotape released by Mother Jones magazine reveals McConnell and his campaign staff at a Feb. 2 meeting lampooning actress Ashley Judd — then a potential Senate candidate — and comparing her to "a haystack of...

The reelection campaign for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) claims that its headquarters was bugged after Mother Jones put a recording of a private staff meeting online today: The 12-minute tape reveals McConnell and his campaign staff lampooning then-potential candidate Ashley Judd, whom they call "a haystack of needles" when it comes to political liabilities, at a Feb. 2 meeting. Judd has since decided not to run. "We've always said the Left will stop at nothing...

Four years after his failed campaign for Virginia governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe brings to a second bid the lessons of a disappointing loss and a statewide network of contacts. But he's not bringing his staff. For the tight race against Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, the Republican nominee, McAuliffe has hired a new cadre of aides and consultants, forgoing nearly all of the team that piloted him to a distant second-place finish in the 2009 Democratic primary. By...

Four years after his failed campaign for Virginia governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe brings to a second bid the lessons of a disappointing loss and a statewide network of contacts. But he's not bringing his staff. For the tight race against Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, the Republican nominee, McAuliffe has hired a new cadre of aides and consultants, forgoing nearly all of the team that piloted him to a distant second-place finish in the 2009 Democratic primary. By contrast, Cuccinelli is...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The government on Friday urged Pakistan's 80 million registered voters to defy extremist threats of suicide-bomb attacks on polling stations and trust that stepped-up security forces — 670,000 police, paramilitary troops and army soldiers — would safeguard the public in Saturday's historic cliffhanger election. "Our message is that the Pakistani people's resolve for democracy is much greater than the Taliban's threat to stop it," said Arif Nizami, the information and broadcasting minister.

The president raised a billion dollars for his reelection campaign, but the staffers who engineered his victory may be worth even more to corporations and other groups that are eager to unlock the trade secrets that made the Obama brand so successful. "Everyone wants to know what the special sauce is," says Holly Goulet, senior vice president of the American Program Bureau, a speakers bureau that has encountered rising interest from business groups in hearing from Obama alumni. "There's been a blurring of the...

President Obama on Wednesday night pleaded with some of his most enthusiastic campaign backers to mobilize support for his domestic policy agenda, telling them, "I actually want to govern. " The entreaty came in Obama's first address to Organizing for Action, the nonprofit group formed from his reelection campaign, as it kicked off a two-day summit to chart its future. The president said the group will work not to elect political candidates but instead to help pass his policy priorities.