Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, the No. 2 Republican in the House, announced Thursday that he is stepping aside after Democrats expanded their congressional majorities and captured the White House.

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has downplayed reports that he was being considered for treasury secretary, telling New York radio station WCBS on Wednesday that he isn’t looking for the job and wants to stay in New Jersey.

Speculation swirled over what appointments President-elect Barack Obama would make as he pivots from an election campaign to the task of building a Democratic administration.

Barack Obama won with wide voting margins in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, painting the metropolitan area a decidedly deeper shade of blue in Tuesday’s historic presidential election.

“We may not get there in one year or even in one term,“ he said. “But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.“

Obama’s election a catharsis for many Americans

Big turnout sees change in voting demographic

Barack Obama declared winner in preliminary results

With 14 percent of precincts reporting, McCain had 140,161 votes or 54.84 percent, compared with 112,045 votes or 43.84 percent for Democratic U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

The White House was the main prize of the night on which 35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats were at stake. In both cases, Democrats hoped to pad their existing majorities, and Republicans braced for losses.

Late Monday, McCain’s campaign sued the Virginia electoral board, trying to force the state to count late-arriving military ballots from overseas. No hearing has been set.

McCain stepped out of a sport-utility vehicle Tuesday morning with wife Cindy as a small crowd cheered “Go, John, go!“ and “We love you!“ One person carried a sign that read, “Use your brain, vote McCain!“

“The journey ends, but voting with my daughters, that was a big deal,“ Obama told reporters later.

“My friends, it’s been a long, long journey,“ McCain told supporters gathered at an early morning rally Tuesday in Prescott, Arizona, where he kicked off his Senate campaigns. It was the final stop in a sprint across three time zones that took him to seven states Monday.

This time, Gov. Sarah Palin can claim vindication against allegations that she abused her power in office by firing her public safety commissioner.

Even in reliably red states where Barack Obama has little chance of winning on Tuesday, unprecedented numbers of registrations and early votes have been tallied, and elections officials are predicting a record turnout in places where neither candidate even bothered to campaign.

Election watchers won’t have to wait for polls to close in the West to know how things are going. The first clues will come early, when voting ends in Georgia, Indiana and Virginia.

“She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.“ Obama announced the news from the campaign trail in Charlotte, N.C. with his sister.

The presidential candidates are capping a history-making campaign with a dash from Florida through a half-dozen other crucial states as John McCain tries for an upset over Barack Obama.

David Petraeus knows Iraq and he’s learning Afghanistan. But the biggest test facing the four-star general as he takes charge of Central Command is probably Pakistan — threatened with financial ruin, torn by an Islamic extremist insurgency and armed with nuclear weapons.

Their sense of urgency growing as the clock runs down, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are spending their time — and their money — trying to win over the same voters in those few states still too close to call.

Barack Obama, gunning for a national landslide, now leads in four states won by President Bush in 2004 and is essentially tied with John McCain in two other Republican red states, according to new AP-GfK battleground polling.

As blustery winds and a biting cold settled in under gray skies, Palin promised that she and McCain would “shake things up in Washington,“ cut taxes, win the war in Iraq and get the economy back on track.

In a rural Tennessee county where you can’t buy alcohol or even find a Wal-Mart, residents of tiny Bells stopped each other to ask if anyone knew the pale-skinned young local accused of plotting to kill dozens of black people, including Barack Obama.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska’s political patriarch in disgrace.

“They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama,“ Jim Cavanaugh said. “They didn’t believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying.“

While in Virginia today, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hopes to upend Democrat Barack Obama’s advantage in pre-election polls in a state that hasn’t backed a Democratic White House hopeful since 1964.

Arkansas shooting kills two on college campus.

A judge ordered a one- to two-day halt to jury deliberations in Sen. Ted Stevens’ corruption trial Friday, the latest setback in a gripping case and one that could delay a verdict until after Election Day.

OPEC said at an emergency meeting Friday that it will slash oil production by 1.5 million barrels to stem the “dramatic collapse” of oil prices, but crude prices plunged 5 percent anyway as financial markets spiraled downward across the globe.