General Election

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says he'll run his first TV ad of the general campaign in a couple of days. Romney told reporters Thursday that it will be a positive spot introducing him to voters. Separately, sources familiar with the ad buy told The Associated Press that the spot is slated to run next week. Data from television stations shows the ad will air in Iowa, North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio — all critical battleground states in the fall.

Republican Mitt Romney's resounding primary victory in New Hampshire was tarnished by an underlying statistic: More than half of the independents voting in the GOP contest, according to exit polls, supported the second- and third-place finishers, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. Now evidence is emerging that a portion of those crucial swing voters remains up for grabs or has gone elsewhere since Paul and Huntsman dropped out of the presidential race, instead of getting in line behind the all-but-certain Republican nominee.

The race for the GOP nomination is over — really, Newt — and Democrats should be feeling pretty good. Barack Obama's polling numbers have bounced back from their lows of last summer. The wealthy Mitt Romney, meanwhile, seems out of touch with ordinary voters. His "likability gap" is rivaled only by his gender gap. With employers finally hiring, the US economy is perking up. People are angry about rich folks getting tax breaks. And over the last six months, the Republicans have managed to alienate some of the largest voting blocs out there, notably women and...

Former Republican Lt. Gov. T. Garry Buckley, who won the office despite losing a general election, has died at age 89. Buckley's family says he died peacefully of old age on Wednesday in Stowe, where he lived with his wife. Buckley became lieutenant governor in 1977 after losing the general election the year before. No candidate received a majority in the race, so the state Legislature had the power to pick. Democrat John Alden won 48.4 percent of the popular vote, Buckley won 47.6 percent and John Franco, of the Liberty Union, won 4 percent.

Black and champagne-colored sport utility vehicles lined up outside Mitt Romney's North End campaign headquarters one day last week and, for one of the few times this year, the candidate bounded into the building for what amounted to a homecoming. Greeting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was an eclectic cast of advisers who are as familiar to him as his own family, an extraordinarily tight-knit circle that includes about a dozen men and women who, for more than a decade, have formed the core of Team Romney.

WASHINGTON — Mitt and Ann Romney have given $150,000 to the Romney for President campaign, marking the first time they have contributed their own funds to the 2012 race, a campaign official said Friday. By contrast, Mitt Romney gave $45 million to the failed 2008 presidential race. He had said during the 2008 race that he was loaning the money but eventually acknowledged that he would never get it back. The $150,000 contribution will not show up for at least another month in campaign reports, but a campaign aide confirmed the contribution.

MONTPELIER - Vermont lawmakers are considering an amendment to the state Constitution that would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they are going to turn 18 before the general election. "We know the youth vote has traditionally been lower than other groups," said Senator Jeanette White, Democrat of Windham. She is chairwoman of the Senate Government Operations Committee and principal backer of the measure in the Senate, which passed it last week. "By bringing the youth into the process earlier, we'll be making lifetime voters out of them," White said.

Mitt Romney sought to regain control of the Republican presidential nominating contest tonight, not just by winning the New Hampshire primary but also by being first among the candidates to speak and targeting President Obama alone in his remarks. True, he faces a grueling 11-day campaign in South Carolina, where Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry will triple tag-team him in a last-ditch stand among more hospitable social conservatives. But with back-to-back wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Romney is rapidly approaching...

Mitt Romney is using a speech in New Hampshire tonight to formally kick off his campaign against President Barack Obama, capping a transition from primary contestant to general-election combatant. The former Massachusetts governor and private-equity executive, anticipating victories in today's Republican primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, will use the occasion to reintroduce himself to voters as his party's presumptive nominee, according to a campaign adviser.

Five states vote Tuesday in the ongoing Republican presidential primary campaign, but presumptive nominee Mitt Romney will not be in any of them to receive the results. Instead, he will make his first public appearance in New Hampshire since winning the state's primary in January to deliver a prime-time speech outlining his general election campaign themes against President Obama. Romney will speak after 8 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, N.H., senior state strategist Jim Merrill confirmed to a local reporter.

In his second general election television ad, Mitt Romney continues his effort to assist American voters in viewing him as their president. Following up a "Day One" ad that debuted last week, his campaign committee says in a second installment that Romney would immediately focus on deficit reduction during his first day in office. "President Romney stands up to China on trade and demands they play by the rules," the 30-second commercial adds. "President Romney begins repealing job-killing regulations that are costing the economy...

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will deliver her first speech outside the country since at least 1988 before a U.N. labor conference in Geneva on June 14, the head of the U.N. labor office said Tuesday. Suu Kyi's speech to the annual conference of the Geneva-based U.N.'s International Labor Organization will be a key element of her first trip abroad since 1988, when she returned to Myanmar to care for her ailing mother. "This will be the first place where she will speak internationally after leaving Myanmar," Juan Somavia, the ILO's director-general, said...

WASHINGTON - Mitt and Ann Romney have given $150,000 to the Romney for President campaign, marking the first time they have contributed their own funds to the 2012 race, a campaign official said Friday. By contrast, Mitt Romney gave $45 million to his failed 2008 campaign. He had said during the 2008 race that he was loaning the money but eventually acknowledged that he would never get it back. The $150,000 contribution will not show up for at least another month in campaign reports, but a campaign aide confirmed it. It was first reported by CNN. While a...

In his first ad of the general election , Mitt Romney says he would start his first day in office by approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline, introduce tax cutting legislation, and seeking to repeal President Obama's health care law. The upbeat 30-second spot, released on Friday morning, starts with a question, "What would a Romney presidency be like?" "Day one, President Romney immediately approves the Keystone pipeline, creating thousands of jobs that Obama blocked," a deep-voiced narrator says.

Mitt Romney's first general-election TV commercial promises he would introduce tax cuts and approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline on the first day of his presidency. The Republican candidate released the ad Friday, coupling it with a fundraising pitch. The 30-spot is upbeat, in contrast to an ad President Barack Obama is running that criticizes Romney as a businessman. Romney has called the Obama ad "character assassination. " In Romney's commercial, his first since becoming the presumptive nominee, an announcer asks: "What would a Romney presidency be like?"

In his first ad of the general election , Mitt Romney says he would start his first day in office by approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline, introduce tax cutting legislation, and seeking to repeal President Obama's health care law. The upbeat 30-second spot, released on Friday morning, starts with a question, "What would a Romney presidency be like?" "Day one, President Romney immediately approves the Keystone pipeline, creating thousands of jobs that Obama blocked," a deep-voiced narrator says.

In his second general election television ad, Mitt Romney continues his effort to assist American voters in viewing him as their president. Following up a "Day One" ad that debuted last week, his campaign committee says in a second installment that Romney would immediately focus on deficit reduction during his first day in office. "President Romney stands up to China on trade and demands they play by the rules," the 30-second commercial adds. "President Romney begins repealing job-killing regulations that are costing the...