Wall Street improvements and the increase in the housing market in California will add close to $4.4 billion in cash for the state through the next budget, instead of the projected amount by Brown of just $1.2 billion, said Mac Taylor, a Legislative Analyst who is nonpartisan, in a report on Friday.

In addition, the changes in federal taxes, which reduced the take home pay for Californians this year, will cost less for the state than Brown suggested, said the report.

The latest budget proposal by Brown released this past Tuesday seemed pessimistic, said the report. A great deal of the extra cash, received from tax receipts, would go to schools under the education funding law in California.

However, the new figures in the report could make it difficult for Brown to keep his lid on spending in Sacramento, where he disagrees with lawmakers on the amount the economy in California is improving and how any extra, if there is extra, money should be allocated.

Legislators in the Democratic Party quickly embraced the higher numbers. Bob Blumenfield, the Budget Chairman in the Assembly and a Democrat said that the outlook of the Governor contradicts a consensus that is growing among economic forecasters that echoes the data in Friday’s report.

Many legislators want to restore the aid that was cut to the needy in order to balance the state’s budget over the last few years.

It had been thought Brady would drop from the lead role of the GOP following a controversial period that pitted social moderates in the Republican Party against fellow social conservatives in the party.

The Illinois legislature has legislation pending for same-sex marriage and this year Brady voiced support for the pending legislation despite the state GOP platform having a plank that says marriage should be between just a male and a female.

Brady made a personal endorsement of the legislation, not as the chairman of the state Republican Party, but Republican conservatives at the top of the party made complaints very quickly.

Although Brady was able to survive the immediate attempts at dumping him, it was clear his fate was sealed after a meeting in April of GOP leaders that set up a succession plan.

Matt Murphy a State Senator was talked about as a replacement for Brady, but he withdrew his name for consideration on Monday. Murphy is a potential candidate for governor of the state and holding a party post would have created a conflict of interest.

Brady, upon stepping down, gave thanks to Mark Kirk, a Republican U.S. Senator who won the former seat of President Obama in 2010 and other leaders of the GOP.

Brady’s resignation is just the latest problem for the GOP that had held the governorship of Illinois for close to 25 years until then-Governor George Ryan was indicted and imprisoned for his tenure as the Illinois Secretary of State.

Losses in the elections in November of 2012 also gave the Democrats majorities that were veto proof in both the Senate and House in Illinois.

The debate was not held on local television but Colbert Busch’s question to Sanford about his Argentina disappearance back in 2009 was the lead story on late night news in the state. While, Governor Sanford went to Argentina to spend time with his girlfriend while still married.

Sanford, who is a Republican and Colbert Busch a Democrat, told the audience they would go after federal spending if they are elected. Then Colbert Busch said to Sanford that protecting the money of the taxpayers does not mean taking it and leaving the country for personal reasons.

Sanford said he did not hear the question posed by Colbert Busch however, the debate hall audience did. Members of the audience said afterwards that if they had disappeared from work for five days they would have been fired.

They also said what would have happened if a tragedy like the Boston Marathon Bombings would have taken place while he was in Argentina.

One observer was surprised how well Colbert Busch held her own even though it was her first debate. She started out nervous but ended up strong said audience members. Sanford was jeered frequently by the most supportive Colbert Busch crowded, especially when he mentioned Nancy Pelosi the Democratic House leader trying to link Colbert Busch to the Democrat Pelosi in his district which is GOP supportive.

Colbert Busch said she supports abortion rights and gay marriage, which is typically unpopular with Republicans in South Carolina.

Sanford said that gay marriage should be an individual state issue and he did not mention his opinion on abortion, but while governor and in Congress during previous terms, he supported restricting abortion.

Senator Sharon Brown a Republican from Kennewick, Washington introduced the legislation that would allow any business the right to deny goods or services if they felt doing so was against their philosophical beliefs, religious beliefs or matters of their conscience.

The legislation would not be applicable in denial of services to people who under federal law are in a protected class such as disability, religion or race.

Senator Brown said the bill seeks to protect religious organizations or people from legal persecution. She said state law has a big lack of protection for religion. Ten other lawmakers in Washington state signed the bill.

The new proposed legislation has not been referred to any committee and has not been scheduled for a hearing in front of the public.

It is unlikely this will take place prior to the regular session of the legislator ending this Sunday. Nevertheless, if someone succeeds in having a special session called, as is expected, the legislation could be heard at that time.

In early April, a lawsuit was filed by the ACLU after Baronelle Stutzman would not provide flowers for the wedding of a gay couple even though the couple had been long time clients of her floral shop.

McConnell aides weighed the merits of an attack on Judd over her religion, family values and mental health. Judd announced in March that she would not run against McConnell for a Senate seat in 2014.

One of McConnell’s male aides can be heard saying that Judd was clearly emotionally unbalanced. He continued by saying it was documented that she had suffered tendencies for suicide and had been hospitalized during the 1990s for 42 days because of a mental breakdown. The tape also says that they planned to say that Judd was against “traditional Christianity.”

The same strategy team for McConnell also weighed a possible attack against 34-year old Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes the secretary of state, who was thought to possibly be the Democrat’s nominee against McConnell.

An aide said the group had filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act through an independent third party in order to obtain any dirt on the possible challenger. The aide added that the only hit they had on Grimes was she endorsed the Democratic national platform for 2009.

The campaign for McConnell continued to say that Grimes’s could be attacked as a self-centered person or egotistical person.

Last year a recording was released of a Republican fundraiser for Mitt Romney in which the former governor of Massachusetts could be overheard saying how 47% of the people in the U.S. were dependent on the U.S. government. Romney later apologized for the remarks.

In all, six politicians were arrested including two other Democrats and three Republicans. They were charged with receiving collectively over $100,000 worth of bribes in secret meetings that were held at times in hotel rooms, state offices and even parked cars, according to documents filed in court.

The scheme could potentially be the largest scandal involving politicians in years in New York. Authorities said the scheme was carried out to game the first mayoral race that is wide open in New York City in more than 10 years. In November, New Yorkers will go to the polls to vote for a mayor to replace the outgoing Michael Bloomberg, who will wrap up a third term at the end of 2013.

Queens Democrat Malcolm Smith, a New York State Senator, who was considered by most to be a long-shot mayoral candidate, is alleged to have made payments to a councilman of New York City to help bring about meetings with top Republicans of New York to assist in helping him get on the ballot for mayor in November.

Smith along with Daniel Halloran, the councilman, who is from Queens as well, was amongst six politicians taken into custody Tuesday. Late in the day on Tuesday, the six appeared before a Federal judge in White Plains, New York and had to post bail of $250,000. The charges the six will face range from mail and wire fraud to bribery and extortion.

The passage of the controversial law comes at a time of passionate debate nationwide over arming schoolteachers following the massacre of 20 students and six employees of an elementary school in Connecticut last December.

Shortly after the shooting, the National Rifle Association suggested that armed guards protect each school in the country.  Proposed new legislation allowing personnel at schools to carry weapons was introduced in more than 24 states. All of the measures, with the exceptional of South Dakota’s have stalled in their respective legislatures.

In several states, there are already provisions in existing laws that make possessing guns for teachers possible in classrooms. The fact is a few school districts across the country already have teachers who carry weapons. However, South Dakota became the only state known with a specific statute authorizing teachers to carry firearms in a school K-12.

The bill in South Dakota was sponsored by Scott Craig, a first term Republican in the state house of representatives, who said his hope was the measure would shift the discourse on safety in schools in the U.S.

The new law leaves it up to individual districts to make the decision to allow teachers to be armed or not. However, it remains to be seen if many of the schools in the state will allow guns in their classrooms and whether other states in the nation will pick up South Dakota’s lead.

Governor Daugaard, who is a Republican, said he thought not many school districts in the state would allow their teachers to possess firearms, but he said it was important that the choice is available to them.

Only three years have passed since Scott Brown’s surprising victory for the Republicans replaced the late Senator Edward Kennedy. However, the only candidate in the GOP actively exploring a possible campaign is a businessman from Cohasset whose only experience in politics was a failed bid to be a town selectman.

Daniel Winslow, a State Representative for the GOP from Norfolk, has emerged in recent years as a strong voice in the Massachusetts legislature and said he would be releasing a statement on Tuesday announcing if he would run for the seat or not.

Since Brown’s announcement on Friday that he was not going to run, in quick fashion, many prominent personalities in the GOP including – William Wel the former governor of Massachusetts, Kerry Healey a former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor, Richard Tisei a former minority leader in the Massachusetts Senate, and Tagg Romney, Mitt’s son – all announced they did not want to run for Kerry’s vacant seat.

Brown has remained a popular candidate in Massachusetts and was expected to be the choice to run in the special election, after he lost in November to Elizabeth Warren.

The Massachusetts Democrat, who is known for being outspoken, ended his 16 terms officially this week in the House of Representatives. He said however on Friday the wanted to become the replacement on an interim basis for Senator John Kerry who was nominated to be the next Secretary of State by President Obama.

If Kerry were confirmed, Deval Patrick, the Governor of Massachusetts and a fellow Democrat would appoint a replacement for Kerry to remain in the senate seat until there could be a special election held months later to fill the seat permanently.

With major issues being proposed in Congress on reductions in spending and increasing the national debt ceiling, Frank said he would be interested in rejoining the fray. Frank said he was interested in interim seat in early December.

Frank wants to be around for the major decisions that are going to take place over governmental spending through the latter part of February, which he says, will make it a crucial time for Washington and he would like to be a part of it.

Simply put Frank said that February through April would be the most important three months in economic and financial history in America. Frank, while the House and Financial Services Committee Chairman helped to pass a signature accomplishments of the Obama Administration with the overhaul of the financial laws in 2010. The measure is known as Dodd-Frank, which was named for him and former Senator Christopher Dodd from Connecticut.

Booker announced his decision on Thursday via Twitter. It means the Newark Mayor decided against a possible race against current Governor Chris Christie, a Republican. However, depending upon how things work out, he might end up in a primary race for the Democrats against current Senator Frank Lautenberg, who would not comment on Thursday about his future political plans. Lautenberg is 88.

The announcement by Booker alters both races and the politics in the largest city in the state, where his current term will not end until June 2014. Booker said without a doubt he would complete his full term as the mayor of Newark, but regarding his future in politics, he said he would be exploring the possibility of a run in 2014 for the U.S. Senate.

With close to two years to go before the election takes place, there will remain much doubt about it, including if Lautenberg intends to run for reelection and whether Booker would still pursue the Senate seat even if Lautenberg decided to run.

A spokesman for Lautenberg said the Senator was concentrating on the Superstorm Sandy recovery and gun control. The spokesman added that the past few months have been painful for both the state of New Jersey and the U.S. and Senator Lautenberg was busy working on the difficult issues everyone is facing.

Booker, in his Twitter statement, praised the work record of Lautenberg. Booker attached a video to his statement that said it would be an honor and a privilege to continue Lautenberg’s legacy of governmental service.