Steve Contorno is a Congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner. He joined the Examiner in 2011 to cover Virginia politics after writing on state and local government for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contorno holds a bachelor's degree in news-editorial journalism from the University of Illinois and has a master's in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois-Springfield.
By Steve Contorno | 06/19/13 05:50 PM
Senate Republicans on Wednesday said that a repeal of the federal estate tax must be a key component of any tax reform proposal, setting up a showdown with President Obama, who hopes to raise the levy to help reduce the deficit. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Vice President...
By Steve Contorno | 06/19/13 05:40 PM
It was just a few months ago that Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio brought the Conservative Political Action Conference crowd to its feet with back-to-back speeches that left many in the audience waxing poetic about the two freshman firebrands and their prospects in 2016. But while...
By Steve Contorno | 06/19/13 12:20 PM
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska endorsed same-sex marriage Wednesday, making her the third Republican senator to switch positions on the issue. In an op-ed published on her website, Murkowski, who backed a 1998 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, said her evolution on the topic...
By Steve Contorno | 06/18/13 11:15 AM
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., wants Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016 and on Tuesday joined a group of activists hoping to make that happen. The pro-Clinton Super PAC Ready for Hillary announced that McCaskill, who backed President Obama in 2008 over Clinton, was behind the...
By Steve Contorno | 06/17/13 04:25 PM
Public opposition to arming Syrian rebels has grown even as President Obama indicated last week the administration is planning military assistance to some groups fighting President Bashar Assad's government. A Pew Research Center poll released Monday showed that a whopping 70 percent of...
By Steve Contorno | 06/13/13 07:05 PM
The battle for political control of Virginia began in earnest this week when the Democratic Party completed its ticket, and both parties are scrambling to convince an increasingly purple state that they're not the ideologues their opponents claim they are. Democrats nominated Sen. Ralph...
By Steve Contorno | 06/12/13 09:00 PM
The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Virginia, Chesapeake pastor E.W. Jackson, admitted Wednesday to past financial problems, including a bankruptcy and a slew of unpaid taxes in Massachusetts and Virginia. Jackson, in his first press conference since winning his party's...
By Steve Contorno | 06/11/13 05:30 PM
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., might be just a freshman lawmaker, but on Tuesday he demonstrated he can speak Spanish at a senior level. Kaine, who spent part of his college years as a missionary in Honduras, became the first senator of recent memory to deliver a floor speech entirely in Spanish...
By Steve Contorno | 06/11/13 04:55 PM
Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli vowed Tuesday to boost workforce training for the jobless to help drive down unemployment rates in areas of the state where it stubbornly remains high. Cuccinelli visited a pair of Southside businesses to announce a workforce development...
By Steve Contorno | 06/10/13 09:15 PM
Virginia voters on Tuesday will complete the Democratic ticket in this year's statewide elections, picking candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general in primaries that will determine who will share the ticket with gubernatorial contender Terry McAuliffe. The Democratic primary,...
By Paul Bedard | 06/17/13
By Paul Bedard | 06/19/13
By Byron York | 06/18/13
By Timothy P. Carney | 06/19/13
By Paul Bedard | 06/19/13
Today, speaking at the Brandenburg Gate, President Obama paid appropriate tribute to the brave East Germans who rebelled 60 years ago against Communist dictatorship:
Read More...The Boston Marathon bombings highlighted, once again, the challenges of assimilating Muslim youth. And while the onus of accountability ought not rest exclusively on Muslim Americans, it...
Read More...The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it was moving forward with its attempt to negotiate with the Taliban, which has opened a long-awaited political office in Doha, Qatar. The...
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