Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers told a Senate committee Wednesday that unless Congress acts to block a Tohono O’odham Nation casino in his city, residents should prepare for widespread Las Vegas-style gaming throughout the Valley.

After the end of a bitter GOP primary, the first general election skirmish in the battle for Arizona’s 9th Congressional District centers on the crisis in health care for veterans.

Legislation is rarely killed on the House or Senate floor. By the time a bill has run the gauntlet through committees, caucuses and debate from the Committee of the Whole, and finally reaches an official floor vote, its passage is almost guaranteed.

In a move that is certain to send Democrats into a mad scramble, U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, 70, today announced that he is retiring from at the end of the current term, when he completes his 23rd year in Congress.

WASHINGTON ai??i?? Some feisty Republicans are challenging a claim widely held among GOP leaders that the party must support more liberal immigration laws if it's to be more competitive in presidential elections.

The national mood on immigration has changed dramatically since Arizona approved a first-of-its-kind immigration law, igniting a furor over border security and the country's treatment of immigrants.

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber is holding onto his slight lead in his 2nd Congressional District race against Republican Martha McSally even as all the ballots in GOP-heavy Cochise County have been counted. Barber had a 709 vote lead as vote-counting resumed in Pima County early Thursday. The race remains too close to call.

He concedes that the worst-case scenario is a once-in-100-years event, but Rep. Trent Franks, R-Glendale, said the U.S. still needs to defend against an electromagnetic pulse attack or solar storm that could cripple the nation.

Congressman Ben Quayle had a commanding second quarter, raising nearly twice as much as fellow Republican incumbent David Schweikert.

Matt Jette, who in 2010 unsuccessfully ran in the Republican gubernatorial primary, has shifted his sights to Washington D.C. and shifted his party affiliation from red to blue in order to do it.