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December 31, 2012 Despite what has been called a status quo election, the 113th Congress will bring with it generational changes and some history, including the first all-female delegation for a state, and the fewest number of military veterans since World War II. Here are some of the noteworthy newcomers.

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December 27, 2012 Blacks also voted at a higher rate than other minorities in what could turn out to be a historic election, according to the Pew Research Center.

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December 24, 2012 The 2012 Republican presidential nominee had to be convinced by his family to get into the race, his son tells the Boston Globe. "He wanted to be president less than anyone I've met in my life," Tagg Romney says.

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December 24, 2012 George McGovern, Arlen Specter, Warren Rudman, Dan Inouye ... just some of the political giants who died in 2012. This week's super-sized Political Junkie column is dedicated to their memory.

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December 12, 2012 Michigan this week provided more shock treatment for organized labor and, by extension, the Democratic Party. And a lame-duck Legislature showed that elections do have consequences. But in this case, it was the election two years ago — the one that swept out Democrats in key statehouse races.

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December 9, 2012 The growing number of voters not aligned with a specific religion helped President Obama overcome deficits with Protestants and Catholics in key swing states. The Pew Research Center calls this group "nones" — agnostics, atheist and those who define themselves simply as "religious" or "spiritual but not religious."

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December 7, 2012 After lifting President Obama to re-election, African-American and Hispanic advocacy groups want him to champion initiatives that will specifically benefit minorities.

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November 23, 2012 Think superPACs were a waste of wealthy donors' money this election season? Consider how New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's superPAC was able to help engineer an upset in one congressional race outside Los Angeles.

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November 21, 2012 Election-related lawsuits have more than doubled since 2000. There has been at least one post-election litigation in every general or midterm election since 2000, with the exception of 2002. Legal experts blame the flawed election process and the fact that voters don't like their candidates to concede.

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November 20, 2012 President Obama's campaign operation apparently isn't going to be totally retired just yet. Instead, the Obama team is considering deploying some of its grass-roots elements to push Congress to solve the fiscal cliff problem and help pass the president's agenda.

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November 20, 2012 Two weeks after Election Day, it appears the partisan makeup of the new House of Representatives will be 234 Republicans and 201 Democrats, although the outcome is not yet official in two states. That would be a gain of eight seats for the minority Democrats.

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November 20, 2012 The race between West, who joined the House during the 2010 conservative sweep, and Democrat Patrick Murphy will go down as one of the most expensive and bitter in history.

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