Democratic Party

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said early Thursday that he will run for governor in 2014 if Jerry Brown does not seek reelection. “If Jerry Brown doesn't run, I have every intention of running. If he does run, I have every intention of supporting him enthusiastically,” Newsom said, adding that there was no indication that Brown does not plan to seek reelection. He brushed aside questions about whether he would also be interested in a U.S. Senate bid if one of the state's two Democratic incumbents were to retire.

WOODSTOCK, Vt. - Republican vice president nominee Paul Ryan sharply criticized Democrats for removing a passage from their 2012 platform stating that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel - language that was part of the party document in 2008. “This is tragic,” Ryan said during a Wednesday morning appearance on "Fox & Friends. " "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Mitt Romney and I are very clear on this…. What is so tragic about this is that this is one of the few issues where the Republican Party and the Democratic Party agreed.”  “Our two party platforms were emphatic about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, the issues surrounding the right of return, and Hamas," he said.  The status of Jerusalem, which is the legal capital of Israel, is a central point of dispute in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.  - Democrats opened their national convention Tuesday with a series of broadsides against Republican nominee Mitt Romney and a checklist of promises delivered, they say, by President Obama in spite of the worst economy in more than half a century. While saying more work must be done, one speaker after another touted the progress under the Democratic incumbent and contrasted it with the tried-and-failed policies they forecast under a Romney administration. “Republicans tell us that if the most prosperous among us do even better, that somehow the rest of us will, too,” Julian Castro, the night's keynote speaker, said in remarks prepared for delivery to thousands of delegates inside the Charlotte arena.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In their 2012 platform, Democrats left out a passage from their 2008 party document affirming that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel - a charged issue that gave Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney an opening to push his argument that he would be a stronger supporter of the Jewish state than President Obama. The topic of Jerusalem is a flashpoint in Israeli-Palestinian relations: while the city is the country's legal capital, it is also where Palestinians want to locate the capital of an independent state.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Teachers unions have been the Democratic Party's foot soldiers for more than half a century, providing not only generous financial backing but an army of volunteers in return for support of their entrenched power in the nation's public schools. But this relationship is fraying, and the deterioration was evident Monday as Democrats gathered here for their national convention. A handful of teachers and parents, carrying large inflated pencils, picketed a screening of "Won't Back Down," a movie to be released this month starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis as mothers, one a teacher, who try to take over a failing inner-city school.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - As the Democratic National Convention prepares to open, Antonio Villaraigosa, chairman of the gathering, is in a frenzy. He is surveying preparations at the Time Warner Cable Arena, doing a string of media interviews with reporters from around the nation, and hosting gatherings like Saturday's private dinner at the hip Osso restaurant, where young Democratic activists clamored for photographs with the Los Angeles mayor and top...

TAMPA, Fla. - One of the president's early supporters, former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, emerged on the prime-time stage at the Republican convention - giving voice to those disillusioned by the promise of the Obama White House.  Almost every convention has one, a party-switcher who becomes a star in their new political home. Davis left the Democratic Party after a failed run for Alabama governor in 2010. Next week, the Democrats will put former Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida on stage, as a Republican now supporting Obama.

He called himself the Moses of his people. He pleaded guilty to three felonies for accepting a bribe, evading taxes and using campaign contributions for personal expenses. He served more than four years in federal prison and in a halfway house. And now he's back. Democrat Ernie Newton, one of the most colorful characters and quickest quipsters at the state Capitol, is seeking redemption in a run for his old state Senate seat in Connecticut's largest and poorest city. He shocked some Bridgeport residents in May when he won the Democratic Party's convention endorsement in the race — part of the long road back for the convicted felon who resigned his seat in disgrace and pleaded guilty in 2005.

WASHINGTON - When the Democratic Party imposed strict curbs on its 2012 convention fundraising - barring money from typical givers like corporations and lobbyists in hopes of diminishing the influence of special interests - it carved out a key exception: labor unions. Unions have been one of the most reliable givers to Democratic convention fundraising. But with less than a month to go before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., many unions that have been steadfast donors are now declining to fork over their cash.

Democrats might have selected the keynote speaker at their convention to rally Latino voters, but the pick also illuminated the fact that as far as young Latino politicians go, the party doesn't have a very deep bench. The Democratic National Convention Committee selected San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, 37 -- whose twin brother, Joaquin, will almost certainly be elected to Congress from Texas in November -- as its keynote speaker in Charlotte, N.C. Though San Antonio has a population of 1.3 million, Castro is still a local officeholder.