The death of "the Strawberry King," visits by presidential candidates, a shooting that temporarily paralyzed the city and a veteran politician's return to office were among the top stories of 2008. ...more

December 31, 2008

Republican John McCain is trying to keep Florida from swinging to the Democrats with a cross-state bus tour and a series of 'Joe the Plumber' events aimed at blue-collar workers. ...more

October 23, 2008

A new elected official will represent state House District 56 come January. ...more

October 19, 2008

Democrat Barack Obama proposed more immediate steps Monday to heal the nation's ailing economy, including a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures at some banks and a two-year tax break for businesses that create new jobs. ...more

October 14, 2008

On the biggest issue on voters' minds, the economic crisis, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke for most ordinary Americans when she blamed greed and corruption and said, "We need to stop that." ...more

October 4, 2008

In their first debate of the 2008 presidential campaign, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama immediately discarded the scheduled topic of foreign affairs Friday night and waded into a discussion of the nation's financial crisis, with both saying they were optimistic that Congress would agree on a financial bailout plan in the coming days. ...more

September 27, 2008

We hear it every election season: Candidates for political office seldom give straight answers. Instead, much of what we learn about them comes from political advertisements developed by their opponents and special-interest groups. ...more

September 24, 2008

The Obama and McCain campaigns have agreed to an unusual, free-flowing format for the three televised presidential debates, which begin Friday, but the McCain camp fought for and won a much more structured approach for the questioning at the vice presidential debate, advisers to both campaigns said Saturday. ...more

September 21, 2008

The financial crisis has turned the race between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama into an audition for who could best handle a national economic emergency. ...more

September 19, 2008

Some political pundits have said that if it were not for his last name, he might have been the Republican nominee for president this year. But former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tells me he is happy to support the McCain-Palin ticket, which he predicts, perhaps predictably, will win. Of Gov. Sarah Palin, he says, "She has generated so much enthusiasm, which was the one element of the campaign that was completely missing." ...more

September 14, 2008