The Iowa Republican Party wants Sarah Palin to visit its state.

(CNN) — Who wouldn't want a big name to headline a major fundraiser? And the Iowa Republican Party is going after one of the biggest draws right now, Sarah Palin.

As first reported in the Des Moines Register and confirmed by CNN, the state GOP is courting the Alaska governor to be the keynote speaker at their annual Ronald Reagan dinner this autumn. The event is the party's largest fundraiser of the year, and has become a popular stop for White House hopefuls.

Aides to Palin have not immediately responded to inquires from CNN regarding whether the outgoing governor will attend the dinner.

Palin shocked many across the country last week when she announced that she would not only not run for re-election next year, but that she would resign as governor later this month.

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Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's term expires in 2011.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has a busy week of political travel ahead of him, sparking chatter that he's collecting chits for 2012 presidential run.

Barbour — a widely-respected figure among party insiders who will wrap up his second term, conveniently, in 2011 — is visiting a trio of important states this week, beginning on Monday in Virginia, where he's campaigning for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell.

On Wednesday, he'll work his southern charm up north in Bedford, New Hampshire at a fundraising reception for the state GOP. And on Thursday, he's speaking at another state party fundraiser in the pivotal caucus state of Iowa.

Matt Strawn, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, said Barbour was invited to speak at their "Night of the Rising Stars" in Des Moines, in part, because Barbour knocked off a Democratic incumbent to claim the governorship in 2003. Iowa Republicans are trying hoping for a similar result against Democrat Chet Culver next year.

"Haley has a message that will resonate with Iowa Republicans, capturing a governorship and providing competent and common sense conservative leadership," Strawn said.

Barbour, a 61-year old native of Yazoo City, Mississippi, is a former lobbyist and Republican National Committee chairman who won the governorship in 2003 and was easily re-elected in 2007. Even with a Democratic legislature, he has governed as a strong fiscal and social conservative, although he did sign into law a cigarette tax increase in May.

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(CNN) — The Iowa Supreme Court unanimously rejected a state law Friday that banned same-sex marriage.

Iowa now will become the third state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Friday's decision upheld a 2007 ruling by a lower court that Iowa's 1998 law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples went against the state's constitution. It becomes effective in 21 days.

"This is a great day for civil rights in Iowa," said attorney Dennis Johnson, a co-counsel with Lambda Legal, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of six same-sex couples seeking to marry in Iowa.

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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal heads to the state that kicks off the presidential primary season.

(CNN) — Bobby Jindal's in Iowa today. Louisiana's Governor will make a stop in Cedar Rapids to tour some of the damage from devastating floods earlier this year. He'll also participate in a fundraiser with some of the victims from the flooding. Tonight Jindal heads to Des Moines, where he's the keynote speaker at a fundraising dinner for the Iowa Family Policy Center's "Celebrating the Family" banquet, a major Christian conservative event.

Jindal's considered by many in the Republican party to be a rising star and his trip to Iowa, the state that kicks off the presidential primary season, is raising speculation that he might be interested in making a bid for the Republican Presidential Nomination in 2012. But Jindal says such talk is misplaced and that he has no plans to make a run for the White House.

Jindal was a Congressman from Louisiana's first congressional district when he was elected the state's governor in 2007. At 36, he became the youngest current governor in the country. Jindal was born in Louisiana to parents who immigrated from India.

There was speculation this past summer that Jindal was, among others, in consideration for the Republican vice presidential nomination. In late July Jindal squashed such talk, saying he would not be the GOP vice presidential nominee. John McCain eventually picked another GOP governor, Sarah Palin of Alaska, as his running mate.

Harkin retains his Iowa senate seat.

(CNN) — CNN projects that four-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin will defeat Republican Christopher Reed in the Senate race in Iowa.

CNN projections are based on exit poll data from key areas.

Gov. Palin said Saturday that Sen. Obama has a big government agenda.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (CNN) — Campaigning Saturday in Iowa, a state where polls show Barack Obama enjoying a healthy lead just 10 days before the election, Sarah Palin warned that putting Obama in the White House along with Democrats running both chambers of Congress will turn the country into a nanny state.

Palin cautioned Iowans that under Obama’s “big government agenda,” their income, property and investments would be “shared with everybody else.” She labeled Obama’s plan to provide tax credits to lower and middle-income wage-earners “the philosophy of government taking more, which is a misuse of the power to tax.”

“It leads to government moving into the role of taking care of you, and government and politicians and, kind of moving in as the other half of your family to make decisions for you,” she said. “Now they do this in other countries where the people are not free. Government as part of the family, taking care of us, making decisions for us. I don’t know what to think of having in my family Uncle Barney Frank or others to make decisions for me.”

With audience members shouting “socialist!” throughout her speech, the Alaska governor said that time is running out for Americans to realize the danger of a having a Democrat in the White House.

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Sen. Obama waved before boarding his campaign plane Thursday after an event in Indiana.

(CNN) – As Election Day inches closer, Barack Obama continues to hold a significant lead over John McCain, according to CNN's average of several recent polls.

The Illinois senator now holds an 8-point lead over McCain in the latest CNN poll of polls, 50 percent to 42 percent. That lead is 1 point lager than it was in Wednesday's poll of polls.

The national general election poll of polls consists of four recent surveys: Fox/Opinion Dynamics (October 20-21), Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (October 20-22), Gallup (October 20-22) and Diageo/Hotline (October 20-22). The Poll of Polls does not have a sampling error.

A pastor at a McCain rally said non-Christians are hoping for an Obama win.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNN) – A minister delivering the invocation at John McCain’s rally in Davenport, Iowa Saturday told the crowd non-Christian religions around the world were praying for Barack Obama to win the U.S. presidential election.

“There are millions of people around this world praying to their god—whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah—that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens,” said Arnold Conrad, the former pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church in Davenport.

The remark was made before McCain arrived at the rally but the Republican nominee's campaign quickly put out a statement distancing itself from the remarks.

“While we understand the important role that faith plays in informing the votes of Iowans, questions about the religious background of the candidates only serve to distract from the real questions in this race about Barack Obama's judgment, policies and readiness to lead as commander in chief,” said McCain campaign spokesperson Wendy Riemann.

This incident comes a day after a Minnesota voter asked Senator McCain if Barack Obama was an Arab at a town hall in Lakeville, Minnesota and just three days after Lehigh GOP County Chairman Bill Platt made a speech at a McCain rally in Pennsylvania where he refered to the Democrat nominee for president as Barack Hussein Obama.

(CNN) – Hillary Clinton is stepping up her efforts to push her supporters to vote and campaign for Barack Obama.

“As we continue to read the headlines about our troubled economy, the stakes of this election only get higher,” Clinton said in a Friday message. “Today I am asking all of you to hit the phones, hit the road and spread the word that we must elect Barack Obama President and we must send a filibuster-proof majority to Congress.”

Clinton’s political action committee, HillPAC, is launching a new grassroots movement on Saturday morning that will help mobilize volunteers to phone-bank, blog and canvass for Obama and other Democrats in tough congressional races. This effort, called “Hillary Sent Me!” will focus on a different battleground state each week.

“This is a call to action,” Clinton said. “We all have a role. And there is not a moment to lose. Tell them that Hillary sent you.”

Clinton’s speech to the Democratic National Convention at the end of August helped to bridge the gap between the two former rivals, as the former presidential candidate formally asked her delegates to vote for Obama. But John McCain’s campaign has continued to highlight Clinton voters who have endorsed the Republican nominee in a bid to woo disaffected former backers of the New York senator.

Hillary Sent Me! will send supporters to New Hampshire the weekend of September 27 to campaign for Obama and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who is fighting for GOP Sen. John Sununu’s Senate seat. The group will mobilize volunteers in Ohio and Pennsylvania in the middle of October.

New polls show a shift in one battleground race.

(CNN) — Barack Obama appears to be holding on to a significant edge in Iowa in new poll numbers released this weekend, but his advantage over John McCain in Minnesota, which hosted the Republican convention earlier this month, seems to have evaporated.

Obama, who won the Iowa caucuses in January, has 52 percent of the vote in that state to McCain’s 40 percent among likely voters in a Des Moines Register poll conducted September 8-10. A CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted August 31-September 2, during the GOP convention, showed a 15-point advantage for Obama, 55 to 40 percent over McCain.

But in Minnesota, where McCain accepted the GOP nomination this month, Obama’s 12-point edge in the last CNN/Time/ORC survey – also conducted during the Republican convention — has disappeared in a new Star Tribune survey: that poll finds both men tied at 45 percent each among likely voters, with 10 percent unsure.

During the convention, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said he thought his state "would be open to a candidate like Senator McCain" — but added that he believed "Democrats still have an advantage here."

Both surveys have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Election Center: Check out CNN's electoral breakdown

CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation surveys earlier this month also suggested tight races in four other battleground states: New Hampshire, Michigan, Virginia, and Missouri.

Those polls showed slim advantages for Obama in New Hampshire and Michigan, while McCain was narrowly on top in Virginia and Missouri.

CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from The Best Political Team.

(CNN) — With Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama set to answer questions from Pastor Rick Warren at a forum on Saturday night, issues of faith dominated political headlines Friday.

In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, White House Correspondent Ed Henry reports on McCain's efforts to hold on to the votes of social conservatives and evangelicals; voters that were critical to President Bush's election and re-election.  On the same theme, Carol Costello takes a more personal look at how each man deals with discussing his personal faith in his political life as a presidential candidate.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider goes back to Iowa, where the 2008 presidential campaign began in early January.  The state known for its first-in-the-nation caucus is shaping up to be a November battleground.

Finally, it's Friday so Jennifer Mikell brings you some of this week's most memorable moments from the campaign trail.

Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.

The CNN Election Express is heading across the country.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) – We’re back where it all began. Iowa’s caucuses kicked off the presidential primary season back on January 3. And Barack Obama’s victory in Iowa altered the landscape in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The CNN Election Express spent about a month in Iowa late last year to cover all the campaign action. Now we’re back — and for good reason. If you thought once the caucuses ended, Iowa was out of the political picture: Think again.

Vice President Al Gore won the state by only 4,000 votes in the 2000 presidential election. President Bush carried the state by only 10,000 votes four years ago. This time around, the fight for Iowa’s seven electoral votes should be another close one. The most recent state polls give Obama a slight lead over presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

Today we’re at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. The annual fair is a must for anyone running for the White House, and it’s also a great place to talk to voters about what’s on their minds.

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The CNN Election Express is heading across the country.

ABOARD THE CNN ELECTION EXPRESS IN ILLINOIS (CNN) — We’re heading west, making our way through what can safely be considered Obama Country.

The Democrat’s presumptive presidential nominee also has a day job, and that’s Senator from Illinois. Before that Barack Obama was a longtime state lawmaker here, and prior to that he was a community organizer in Chicago.

We’ve been driving through a number of crucial battleground states on our way from DC to Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention, but this isn’t one of them. Vice President Al Gore won Illinois by double digits in 2000, Senator John Kerry took the state by double digits four years ago, and Obama’s expected to easily win his home state this time around.

While there’s not that much electoral drama in Illinois, it’s a different story in the two states we just passed through. Indiana’s a traditional red state that Obama would like to turn blue. And Michigan’s a state that's gone for the Democrats in the past two presidential elections, but John McCain would like to turn it red.

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McCain visited the flood-stricken town of Columbus Junction, Iowa Thursday.

(CNN) — John McCain's campaign is striking back after a top staffer for Iowa Governor Chet Culver said Thursday that the Democratic governor had unsuccessfully asked the Arizona senator to avoid making a scheduled campaign trip to the flood-ravaged state.

Patrick Dillon, Culver’s chief of staff, said in a statement there had been worries McCain's arrival would put a strain on already-overtaxed area law enforcement. The presumptive Republican nominee visited several hard-hit towns in the state Thursday.

President Bush also visited Iowa Thursday.

A McCain aide said the campaign took steps to avoid burdening any flood recovery efforts. “We worked with the local authorities to make certain we weren’t getting in the way. We’d be happy to put you in touch with the local mayor and sheriff who were part of our tour,” a McCain aide told CNN and pointed to an AP-reported comment from the mayor of the town of Columbus Junction, Iowa that McCain’s Thursday visit had not posed any difficulties.

“The governor never called the campaign to express this concern,” the McCain aide added.

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McCain found his springtime Iowa swing a far more pleasant trip.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) – Ah, Iowa. Where the grass is a green, the temperature is a balmy 72 degrees, and a triumphant Sen. John McCain stands before a Republican audience as his party’s standard-bearer.

Yes, the landscape of the Hawkeye State has changed considerably since the political world evacuated en masse late in the evening on January 3, headed to New Hampshire and beyond on chartered jets, steeling themselves for just a few more weeks of campaigning, thinking each party’s nominees would soon be determined.

On Thursday, four weary months later, the national reporters and TV crews assigned to McCain’s campaign returned to Des Moines for the first time since January to cover a town hall put on by the presumptive Republican nominee.

The scene offered a few muted flashbacks to those frigid weeks before the caucuses: the fleet of women wearing fire truck red “Divided We Fail” t-shirts, the elderly gentlemen sitting and clutching small American flags, even the slow-paced, meet-the-candidate format of the town hall itself.

The politician on stage chatted about ethanol subsidies and lauded the tenacity of Iowa farmers. CNN even spotted Tim Albrecht, Mitt Romney’s ubiquitous former Iowa communications director, milling around, lending a friendly helping hand to the event planners. This all seemed familiar.

But in other ways during this journalist homecoming, it was bizarro Iowa.

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(CNN) – Iowa has spoken, after nearly a year of campaigning by a crowded presidential field.

In Monday’s The Best Political Podcast, Chief National Correspondent John King reports on the Iowa caucuses. Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider delves into CNN’s Iowa entrance polling data and explains what caucus goers liked about Sen. Barack Obama and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

John King and Dan Lothian also look ahead to New Hampshire’s primary on January 8. Plus: the headlines percolating on the Political Ticker after the caucuses and political parting shot from I-Report cartoonist Jim Brenneman.

Click here to subscribe to The Best Political Podcast

–CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart

(CNN) — The candidates, the press corps, the national parties may all be griping about 2008's incredibly early and compressed primary calendar — but it seems the rest of the country may not share those complaints, according to a new survey.

A Gallup poll released Friday found that 49 percent of the country thinks it's a good thing that the caucuses and primaries begin in January. Another 27 percent say it's neither good nor bad. Just 22 percent are troubled by the unprecedented early start to the presidential selection process.

The fact that the contest may be a relatively short sprint didn't seem to trouble a majority of those surveyed, either: 45 percent said it was a good thing that both parties' nominees would likely be known by early February, and 18 percent more said it would be neither good nor bad. Thirty-six percent said they'd like to see the process last longer.

Americans are less enthusiastic about the king-maker role now filled by Iowa and New Hampshire. While 26 percent thought it was a good thing that those two states always weighed in first, 28 percent thought it was a bad thing. Forty-four percent were ambivalent about the current arrangement.

But those surveyed appeared overwhelmingly unhappy about the fact that most of them may not get the chance to cast a meaningful presidential primary vote: 71 percent said that it was a bad thing that the nominees are usually determined before many states hold their primaries or caucuses. Just 11 percent said it was a good thing, and 17 percent said it was neither good nor bad.

The survey of 1,008 Americans was conducted December 10-13, 2007, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd abandoned their campaigns.

(CNN) — Delaware Sen Joe Biden and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd abandoned their bids for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night.

"I count the past year of campaigning for the presidency as one of the most rewarding in a career of public service. Unfortunately, I am withdrawing from that campaign tonight," Dodd said in an e-mail message sent to supporters tonight.

"But there is no reason to hang our heads this evening — only the opportunity to look towards a continuation of the work we started last January: ending the Iraq War, restoring the Constitution, and putting a Democrat in the White House. … You've been an invaluable ally in the battle, and I'll need you to stick by my side despite tonight's caucus results."

"I'm withdrawing from the presidential race, but let me assure you, we do not exit this race with our heads hanging," Dodd told his supporters Thursday night. "Rather, we do so with our heads very, very high."
Dodd received less than 1 percent in the Iowa caucuses, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

The 5-term senator called his campaign "one of the most rewarding in my life of public service" and said the results, while not what he had hoped, "sent a clear message that his party is united in the belief that this nation needs change."

Biden sounded a similar note. In a speech before his supporters — who at one point chanted — "Joe, Joe," he said: "I ain't going away, let me make that clear." He said he had no regrets, and the reason he embarked on the campaign was because he believed in the nation. "There's no reason not to be happy," he said. "The promise of this nation is immense." He said he plans to return to the Senate as head of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson — who will finish a distant fourth in Iowa, with roughly 2 percent of the vote — is staying in the race. "We are on the way to New Hampshire tonight. We plan to make this a referendum on the Iraq war. This is far from over," Press Secretary Tom Reynolds tells CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

Richardson Communications Director Pahl Shipley confirms the news, adding that "New Hampshire is a new game. Every vote counts."

Related video: Biden drops out

Related video: Dodd drops out

– CNN's Mark Preston and John King

Who will get second place in Iowa's Democratic caucuses?

(CNN) — John Edwards is neck-and-neck with Clinton for second place, because 19 percent of Democrats said in entrance polling that it is most important to them to choose a candidate who "cares about people" – 45 percent of that demographic went to the former North Carolina senator, while 23 percent went to both Obama and Clinton

Just over half of Democratic caucus goers said change was the number one factor they were looking for in a candidate, and 51 percent of those voters chose Barack Obama. That compares to only 19 percent of "change" caucus goers who preferred Clinton.

Meanwhile, only 20 percent of Democrats said Clinton's campaign mantra — experience — was the most important attribute of a presidential candidate. Clinton won 49 percent of those voters, while Richards came in second with 20 percent.

–CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider

CNN's Mike Roselli captured the mood at camp Clinton Thursday night.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) – Long after the local and national TV outlets had turned away from her headquarters, Hillary Clinton was still going.

She worked the stage full of supporters that had assembled behind her. She hugged and shook hands with prominent backers such as Madeleine Albright and Terry McAuliffe and stopped to talk with Iowa surrogates who had become constants on her travels across the state. One woman decked out in full AFSCME regalia commanded the senator's attention until they were practically alone on the stage.

Sen. Clinton descended from the stage and worked the remaining fans pressed against the bunting clad ropeline, posing for pictures and signing autographs. She outlasted President Clinton, not one ever to leave a ropeline early.

Once the candidate had exited the ballroom, the campaign soundtrack looped for the umpteenth time as supporters milled about picking up signs, swilling beer, and posing for pictures at the podium where their candidate had just spoken.

–CNN Senior Political Producer Sasha Johnson