WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he is optimistic that Democrats and Republicans will come to agreements on several issues in the coming weeks. Obama says the most important issue lawmakers must resolve is making sure taxes don’t increase for ...

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WASHINGTON — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is taking over as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. He succeeds Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who was the chairman of the political arm of the nation’s Democratic governors during 2010. O’Malley was the ...

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WASHINGTON — Reaching no quick fixes, President Barack Obama and Republican leaders in Congress vowed on Tuesday to seek a compromise on their sharply different views about tax cuts before year’s end. “The American people did not vote for gridlock,” ...

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Is President Barack Obama willing to risk Slurpee brainfreeze as he grapples with political gridlock? A strange but real possibility. The president’s campaign-trail attack on Republicans as Slurpee-sipping do-nothings boomeranged on him the day after the GOP won the House ...

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WASHINGTON — The House Democrats’ second-in-command, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, officially announced Monday that he wants to keep that job next year, setting up a showdown with the most senior black congressman in the chamber that all involved had ...

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WASHINGTON — The Senate’s Republican leader has a simple postelection message for President Barack Obama: Move toward the GOP or get no help from its lawmakers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday offered an aggressive assessment of the election ...

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans aren’t just looking to wrest control of the House from the Democrats, they’re hoping for an electoral cataclysm — a pickup of dozens of seats — to change the nation’s direction in a year marked by ...

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They hung him in effigy a year ago, protesting the health care overhaul. A first-term Democrat, he had won narrowly in 2008, prevailing in one of the most conservative congressional districts in Maryland. This year, he’s been seen as the ...

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ANNAPOLIS — Republican members of the Maryland House of Delegates are pledging to seek tax cuts and reduce state spending. House Republican Leader Anthony O’Donnell gathered Thursday with incumbent GOP House members and Republican candidates to sign a “Prosperity Pledge ...

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WASHINGTON — The Senate passed long-delayed legislation Thursday designed to open up credit to small businesses and award them with other incentives to expand and hire new workers. Democrats won a 61-38 vote to pass the legislation, joined by two ...

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