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Congressman Rush Holt's Retirement Sparks Fierce Primary in New Jersey

Year after year, his campaign slogan read, “my Congressman IS a rocket scientist.” A nuclear physicist and former college professor, Rush Holt, the eight-term congressman from New Jersey’s 12

^th District, was perhaps best known as the legislator who won Jeopardy five times and beat the computer, Watson.

Analysts Say Top-Two Primary Right for Independent Shift in CA Electorate

Eligible voters in California stand around 24 million, and roughly 17.6 million (nearly three-fourths) are registered to vote, according to the

latest report released by the secretary of state. Since 2010, registration for the Democratic Party has dropped one percentage point to 43.6 percent and Republicans have dropped two percentage points to 28.7 percent.

5 States With The Worst Ballot Access Laws

Third parties that have a national infrastructure such as the Green Party and Libertarian Party have waged legal battles from California to North Carolina to improve their ability to get on the ballot. In California, a more lax state regarding ballot access laws,

Terry Baum went through several legal hurdles in her race against U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi as the Green Party candidate.

5 Lawmakers in 10 Elections Makes TX-23 Most Volatile District in State

Democratic congressman Pete Gallego is facing a potentially tough fight to maintain his House seat in Texas's infamously volatile 23rd Congressional District, where five different officials have been elected over the course of ten election cycles.

What "Being Right" Means in a World of Value Judgments

“Thomas Gradgrind, sir . . . with a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple arithmetic.”—Charles Dickens, Hard Times

Here is a quick test that you can use to tell if you are wrong: if you think that every thing about your position on a controversial issue is right, and that the other side of the issue is 100% in error, then you are almost certainly wrong.

If More People Have Guns, More People will Use Guns—and More People Will Die

We’ve all seen the stories: a father is

shot in a movie theater for texting his four-year old daughter, a young man is shot in a car for playing his music too loud, a neighbor shoots two men who are lookin

One Oklahoma Lawmaker Wants to Privatize Marriage -- Or Does He?

According to a Oklahoma news station, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Edmond) has filed a proposed amendment to the state's constitution that would change marriage in the state in a whole new way. Turner wants voters to believe that his solution to a potential court ruling that could overturn the state's ban on same-sex marriage is to get the state out of the business of regulating marriage period.

LGBT Equality: The Final Civil Rights Fight

There are many politicians that have come to support gay rights in recent years, but in most cases “support” is a nebulous concept that is more often used as political cover from both sides of a heated debate. In other words, there is a stark difference between being a supporter of gay rights and being an advocate for gay rights.

A Brief History of Immigration Policy in the U.S.

Although President Obama once

called immigration “the most important domestic policy agenda of his second term,” political discord -- particularly within the Republican ranks -- h

2015 Defense Budget Once Again Takes Aim At Military Families

Despite a small

victory last week, service members and veterans groups are once again crying foul. As the U.S. Department of Defense tries to cut even more money from an already tight budget, members' pay and benefits are on the chopping block, something that critics say is taking the easy way out instead of looking for better ways to trim the fat out of the budget.