Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET

(CBS News) After coming under fire for pushing controversial laws like Florida's "stand your ground" law -- and losing multiple corporate allies -- an influential conservative legislative group announced on Tuesday it is limiting its scope to economic issues.

Indiana State Rep. David Frizzell, the 2012 National Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), said in a statement that ALEC is eliminating its Public Safety and Elections task force, which dealt with non-economic issues.

"While we recognize there are other critical, non-economic issues that are vitally important to millions of Americans, we believe we must concentrate on initiatives that spur competitiveness and innovation and put more Americans back to work," Frizzell said.

Continue »

Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader says he sees "far too little difference" between President Obama and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, arguing that "we deserve more choices in this country."

In the interview with Hotsheet on Monday, Nader said the president and his likely Republican challenger are essentially the same when it comes to foreign policy and their attitudes "toward Wall Street and corporate power." The primary difference, he said, is their position on social services.

"I think Obama is more protective of Social Security and Medicare than Mitt Romney would be," said Nader. (Watch the ten-minute interview at left.)

During his presidential campaigns - including a 2000 run that some say was responsible for George W. Bush's defeat of Al Gore - Nader largely maintained that there was essentially no difference between the major party nominees, a position that angered some of his sympathizers.

Continue »

Updated 3 p.m. ET

(CBS News) House Speaker John Boehner finally got into the 2012 presidential race today, saying he will be "proud to support Mitt Romney and do everything I can to help him win."

In response to a question from CBS News as to whether the speaker would finally endorse Romney, Boehner said that "it's clear now that Mitt Romney is going to be our nominee."

He added that as chairman of the GOP convention, he had not wanted to endorse before now to give the candidates a "fair process and a fair opportunity."

Continue »

(CBS News) The race to replace retired Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will kick into full gear after today, when Republicans choose their candidate in a special election primary.

There are four Republicans on the ballot in today's Arizona primary. The winner will face off in a June 12 special election against Democrat Ron Barber, Giffords' former district director, who is uncontested in today's primary.

Giffords, a three-term Democrat who represented Arizona's eighth district, stepped down from Congress in January, just over a year after she was shot in the head in a mass shooting. Giffords has endorsed Barber -- who was also injured in the 2011 shooting -- in the race to replace her.

The Republicans hoping to compete against Barber are: State Sen. Frank Antenori, construction manager and former Marine Jesse Kelly, retired Air Force pilot Martha McSally and University of Arizona broadcaster Dave Sitton.

Continue »

This post originally appeared on Slate.

One way to think about the 2012 presidential campaign is as a battle between two houses: Barack Obama's White House and Mitt Romney's San Diego house. The Romney campaign would like to make Obama a prisoner to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., turning every perk and privilege of the presidency into a sign that he is far removed from the people he is supposed to lead, especially anyone struggling in this economy. "Years of flying around on Air Force One, surrounded by an adoring staff of true believers telling you what a great job you are doing, well, that might be enough to make you a little out of touch," said Mitt Romney after his Wisconsin primary victory.

The Obama campaign has a similar idea. They would like you to think of Mitt Romney as a man so encased in wealth that he can afford esoteric luxuries like the new car elevator planned for his San Diego home. (At Obama headquarters, they've named the elevators Romney 1 and 2 for each of his wife's Cadillacs.) "Gov. Romney calls the president out of touch," Joe Biden said last week in his dual role as attack dog and envoy to The Everyman. "Hey, how many of y'all have a Swiss bank account? How many of you have somewhere between $20 and $100 million in your [retirement account]?"

At the start of the general election, where each candidate is trying to define their opponent in the race for middle-class support, both have settled on the same message: My opponent is "out of touch." The candidates will talk about jobs, tax rates, and the deficit, but those dry policy issues aren't going to stir the passions. Campaign strategists want to gall--or at least frighten--people into thinking that the other party's candidate is so bubble-wrapped in privilege that he is incapable of understanding the problems of real people.

Continue »

(CBS News) After years of intense public criticism, Congress has seriously curbed its earmark habit of spending tax dollars for pet projects outside the normal public review. The new "Pig Book" -- which has tracked Washington pork since 1991 -- says the amount of tax dollars destined for earmarks in 2012 is way down: $3.3 billion.

The high was $29 billion in 2006.

Tom Schatz's watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, publishes the Pig Book. He says the decline in earmarks is due to the House banning them in 2010 and the Senate following suit in 2011, after several years of anger from taxpayers.

"The good news is it's the smallest amount of money since 1992, and the lowest number of earmarks since we issued the first Pig Book in 1991," Schatz told CBS News.

Continue »

Updated April 17, 9:15 a.m. ET

Ann Romney is not only raising her profile of late, she is also raising some money -- serious money.

The wife of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney turned 63 today, and tonight she is in McLean, Va., outside of Washington, fundraising for her husband's campaign. Tomorrow, she will be in New York City for a birthday luncheon hosted by Donald and Melania Trump, which has netted over $600,000 for the Romney campaign, according to a Trump spokesman.

The impending Manhattan event has proved so financially successful, says Trump spokesman Michael Cohen, that the Romney campaign asked Trump to host a similar fundraiser when Romney secures the Republican presidential nomination. According to Cohen, tickets to that event would sell for $50,000 and 50 donors have already expressed interest in attending.

Continue »

Fully embracing his role as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney on Monday told President Obama to "start packing."

The response came in an interview with ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer, who asked Romney if he had anything to say to the president.

Romney's confident tone came as the first Gallup daily tracking poll showed him pulling slightly ahead of the president, although in a statistical dead heat. However, a CNN survey showed him trailing Obama.

Romney and his wife, Ann, both sat for the interview, which took place at Boston's Fenway Park before the former Massachusetts governor took in a Red Sox game with members of his family and supporters who had won a trip to the event.

Continue »

(CBS News) The first thing you need to know about Beth Myers, Mitt Romney's senior advisor who will be leading the search to pick his vice presidential nominee: She's not going to pull a Dick Cheney.

"I would say that is not a high likelihood," Myers joked when asked tongue-in-cheek by CBS News/National Journal if she planned to replicate the actions of George W. Bush's vice president, who was appointed to lead the veep search before settling on himself.

Myers is a relatively private person whose new responsibilities on the campaign thrust her into the spotlight Monday after Romney told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that he has tapped his longtime aide to vet his future running mate.

Myers knows Romney well. She met him in the 1990s when she moved back to Massachusetts (she had first lived there while attending Tufts University) but got to know him well in 2002 when she volunteered on his gubernatorial campaign. She served as his chief of staff during his time as governor before managing his unsuccessful 2008 bid for the presidency.

Continue »

This post originally appeared on Slate.

The maxims of the 2012 race are multiplying. The latest: Somewhere a microphone is always hot. On Sunday, Mitt Romney was unknowingly overheard at a Florida fundraiser by reporters for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News giving his wealthy backers a sneak preview of his presidential plans. He outlined some of his theories for cutting the bloated federal government, including eliminating the Department of Housing and Urban Development and trimming the Department of Education. He also floated the idea to the upscale crowd of removing the mortgage interest deduction for second homes as well as ending the state income tax deduction and state property tax deduction, tiny but specific steps on how he would remove loopholes in the tax code to pay for his tax cuts. He and his wife, Ann Romney, also delighted in the political "gift" given to them last week by Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen.

Continue »