Francois Hollande won the French Presidential election on Sunday. Hollande defeated Nicolas Sarkozy and became the first Socialist candidate to win the Presidency since 1985. Francois Mitterand was the last Socialist French President from 1981-1995. Hollande is expected to raise taxes and increase government spending.
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James Sutliff
Standard & Poor’s cut the credit rating for Spain to BBB+ from A. The two notch downgrade came with a negative outlook and a cut to the gross domestic product growth forecast. Standard & Poor’s has a projected forecast of a 1.5% contraction for Spain GDP. The previous forecast projected GDP growth of .3%.
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http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/04/26/sp-downgrades-spain-to-bbb-on-debt-concerns/
Jim Sutliff
On Tuesday, Mitt Romney swept the primaries in five states. Romney won primaries in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware. There were 209 delegates at stake in the five primaries. Romney has approximately 739 delegates and needs 1,144 to secure the nomination.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/24/romney-sweeps-five-primaries/
Jim Sutliff
Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch will face a primary against Dan Liljenquist. Liljenquist received 40.8% of the state delegates to force a primary. The Republican primary will be held on June 26th. Orrin Hatch has served six terms in the United States Senate.
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James Sutliff
Mitt Romney is projected to win the Maryland and Washington DC primaries. There are 53 delegates at stake in the two contests. The Wisconsin Republican Presidential primary is too close to call. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are almost tied at 40% with most of the votes still to be counted.
To read a related Yahoo! News article, please click here:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mitt-romney-projected-win-maryland-primary-000051319.html
Jim Sutliff
Congress passed a stopgap 90 day bill that will provide funds for Federal highway projects. The measure passed the House on Thursday with 266 votes supporting the bill. The U.S. Senate passed the bill with a voice vote. The President is expected to sign the stopgap bill on Saturday.
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James Sutliff
The Wisconsin Republican Presidential primary will be held on April 3rd. The winner take all contest has 42 delegates at stake and will be a battleground state in November. A recent poll had Romney in first with 39% and Santorum in second place at 31%. The poll has a 5.4% margin of error.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/27/candidates-make-push-ahead-wisconsin-primary/
Jim Sutliff
Rick Santorum received almost 50% of the vote in the Louisiana Republican Presidential primary. There were 20 delegates at stake on Saturday and the remaining 26 delegates will be decided in June. Santorum has had a strong showing in most of the southern primaries. The next few contests are on April 3rd in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Washington DC. Santorum is expected to campaign heavily in Wisconsin over the next week.
To read a related Yahoo! News article, please click here:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/rick-santorum-projected-win-louisiana-primary-010309736.html
James Sutliff
Mitt Romney received 47% of the vote and won the Illinois Republican Presidential primary. Rick Santorum finished second with 35%, Ron Paul was third with 9%, and Newt Gingrich came in fourth with 8%. There were 54 delegates at stake in the Republican primary and Romney won at least 41 delegates. The next contest is in Louisiana on March 24th.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/20/romney-seeks-to-cushion-delegate-lead-in-illinois/
Jim Sutliff
Mitt Romney won the Puerto Rico primary and all 20 delagates that were at stake in the contest. Romney has 521 delegates compared to Rick Santorum with 253, Newt Gingrich with 136, and Ron Paul with 50 delegates. The candidates need 1,144 delegates to secure the Republican nomination. The Illinois primary will be held on Tuesday and the Louisiana primary will be Saturday.
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James Sutliff
Rick Santorum won primaries in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday. Santorum received 35% of the vote in Alabama and 33% in Mississippi. The southern victories give Santorum momentum heading into the Missouri caucus on Saturday and the Louisiana primary on March 24th. Romney won contests in Hawaii and American Samoa.
To read a related CNN article, please click here:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/14/politics/campaign-wrap/?hpt=hp_t2
Jim Sutliff
The CNN Election Center has a Republican Presidential delegate calculator. The delegate calculator has a leaderboard that displays the number of delegates won by each candidate as well as the number required to secure the nomination. The calculator is interactive and allows for data to be entered for each candidate in every contest.
To visit the CNN GOP Delegate Calculator, please click here:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2012/calculator/
James Sutliff
Rick Santorum is the projected winner of the Kansas Republican Caucuses. Santorum has 53% of the vote with Romney in second at 17%. Gingrich is third with 16% and Ron Paul is in fourth at 13%. There are 40 delegates at stake in Kansas and Santorum will win at least 25. The next two elections are on Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi.
To read an MSNBC article, please click here:
http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/10/10634057-santorum-wins-kansas-caucuses
Jim Sutliff
Mitt Romney won the Washington GOP caucuses with 38% of the vote. Ron Paul came in second with 25% and Rick Santorun finished third with 24%. The Romney victory is his fifth straight win and provides momentum heading into super Tuesday. Super Tuesday will have 10 contests and there are 419 delegates at stake. Currently, Romney is polling behind in key states like Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Romney and Santorum are within a few percentage points in Ohio.
To read a related Fox News article, please click here:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/03/gop-candidates-washington-caucuses/
James Sutliff
Moody’s lowered the credit rating for Greece to C from Ca. Moody’s indicated that the debt restructuring would provide investors with significantly less than their face value. Earlier in the week, Standard & Poor’s indicated that the restructuring plan for Greek debt was a selective default.
To read a related Bloomberg article, please click here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-02/greece-ratings-cut-by-moody-s.html
Jim Sutliff
