Sherrod Brown

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday confirmed Mary Jo White to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, placing a tough former prosecutor in the role as Wall Street's top watchdog. White was confirmed by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate, an indication of broad bipartisan support. The Senate Banking Committee voted 22-1 to approve her nomination last month, with the only no vote coming from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Brown has been critical of federal officials in general for not being tougher on Wall Street.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday confirmed Mary Jo White to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, placing a tough former prosecutor in the role as Wall Street's top watchdog. White was confirmed by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate, an indication of broad bipartisan support. The Senate Banking Committee voted 22-1 to approve her nomination last month, with the only no vote coming from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Brown has been critical of federal officials in general for not being tougher on Wall Street.

A few weeks ago, Democrats feared they might not attract even a single first-tier candidate to challenge Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), one of their top targets for 2006. Now, to the surprise of Democratic leaders in Ohio and Washington, two serious candidates are pursuing the nomination -- Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and attorney Paul Hackett, the Iraq war veteran whose strong bid for a U.S. House seat in a special election this summer rocketed him to celebrity status in the party.

WASHINGTON - Democrats retained a narrow majority in the Senate on Tuesday, but Republicans kept their grip on the House, delivering another divided, and highly polarized, Congress. The balance of power was likely to shift by no more than a seat or two, if at all. Neither record-low job approval ratings nor an avalanche of campaign spending appeared able to shake the dynamic that made the last Congress the most partisan since the Civil War. "That's the sort of sad state of affairs: You're not going to have much change in Congress," said Keith Poole, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, who has researched decades of congressional voting patterns.

WASHINGTON - Democrats retained a narrow majority in the Senate on Tuesday, but Republicans kept their grip on the House, delivering another divided, and highly polarized, Congress. The balance of power was likely to shift by no more than a seat or two, if at all. Neither record-low job approval ratings nor an avalanche of campaign spending appeared able to shake the dynamic that made the last Congress the most partisan since the Civil War. "That's the sort of sad state of affairs: You're not going to have much change in Congress," said Keith Poole, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, who has researched decades of congressional voting patterns.

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown was reelected despite a late narrowing in the polls in Ohio, among the foremost battlegrounds in the presidential election. Brown, one of the more liberal members of the Senate, fended off a challenge from Josh Mandel, the state treasurer, in one of the nation's pricier Senate races. The race was called Tuesday for Brown by NBC News and the Associated Press. Mandel's efforts to cut the state's budget as treasurer appealed to some voters, but Democrats targeted him as inexperienced despite his swift climb in state politics.

Paul Hackett, a Democratic veteran of the Iraq war who narrowly lost a special election in a heavily Republican congressional district in August, made his official entry into a U.S. Senate race. He faces a tough Democratic primary with Rep. Sherrod Brown in the race for the nomination to challenge second-term Republican incumbent Mike DeWine next year. Hackett, a Marine reservist, was defeated in the congressional race by Jean Schmidt, a former GOP state legislator.

Five U.S. senators asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate what they claimed were R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s attempts to appeal to teenage girls with ads for its sleekly packaged Camel No. 9 cigarettes. R.J. Reynolds says the cigarettes are aimed at adults. Democratic Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois said the cigarettes "appeal to teenage girls' desire to be 'chic.'

It was like father, like son, for a Udall, a Taft and a Mondale. But a Chafee, a Chiles and a Mosbacher found that a famous last name is no guarantee of election. A bumper crop of political offspring ran Tuesday. In Minnesota. Ted Mondale, son of Walter F. Mondale, ousted Republican state Sen. Phyllis McQuaid in his first bid for office. Hubert H. Humphrey III won a third term as that state's attorney general.

WASHINGTON - Should U.S. flags that fly from federal buildings be made entirely in the U.S.A.?  So ask sponsors of the All-American Flag Act, introduced in response to the $3.6 million in imports of U.S. flags, mostly from China. The bill's sponsors picked the eve of Independence Day to call on the House to pass a Senate-approved bill that would require the federal government to purchase only flags made entirely from domestic content. "We should do all we can to support American manufacturing and job creation, especially when it comes to our most treasured of patriotic symbols - the American flag," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat whose state of Ohio is home to U.S. flag makers.

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown was reelected despite a late narrowing in the polls in Ohio, among the foremost battlegrounds in the presidential election. Brown, one of the more liberal members of the Senate, fended off a challenge from Josh Mandel, the state treasurer, in one of the nation's pricier Senate races. The race was called Tuesday for Brown by NBC News and the Associated Press. Mandel's efforts to cut the state's budget as treasurer appealed to some voters, but Democrats targeted him as inexperienced despite his swift climb in state politics.

A few weeks ago, Democrats feared they might not attract even a single first-tier candidate to challenge Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), one of their top targets for 2006. Now, to the surprise of Democratic leaders in Ohio and Washington, two serious candidates are pursuing the nomination -- Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and attorney Paul Hackett, the Iraq war veteran whose strong bid for a U.S. House seat in a special election this summer rocketed him to celebrity status in the party.

With a shove from party leaders, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett abruptly quit a key Senate race in Ohio and further exposed a disconnect between the Democratic establishment and Internet-fueled challengers. The political novice withdrew under intense pressure from party leaders in Washington, clearing the field for Rep. Sherrod Brown -- a 30-year veteran of Democratic politics with more than $2.5 million in the bank.

The 2012 political ad war between business and labor officially began today, months earlier than it has ever started in the past. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is airing three hard-hitting ads in battleground Senate races, all embracing the conservative, Republican-oriented themes of small government, lower taxes and, in some cases, bashing President Obama's health initiative. The ads, as we reported Wednesday , are also airing in three House districts and are starting nine months earlier than the first Chamber ads began in 2008.