But Babeu's fate may well rest on how two main issues play in the race: One is the state attorney general's investigation into allegations that Babeu threatened to deport his former lover -- allegations Babeu adamantly denies. The second is the revelation that he is gay.

On the latter point first: Babeu is running in the state's most conservative congressional district, in which the rural counties supported the "one man, one woman" ballot measure at rates higher compared to the rest of the state. As House Race Hotline (subscriber) notes, in Pinal County, Babeu's base, voted 61.3 percent in favor for the measure - higher than the overall state percentage.

"Whatever people's views are of marriage, it's not going to translate to opposition to the sheriff," his campaign manager Chris DeRose said.

But Babeu will continue to be asked the question CNN's Wolf Blitzer posed on Monday: Whether gay men and women should have the right to marry. Babeu's answer was general enough to allow it to come up again in the future.

"This is where it falls to the states," responded Babeu, adding "Arizona has made a decision. That's the law of the land. I enforce the law."

"the government shouldn't tell those faiths and those religions that they have to. At the same time, I don't believe they should tell other faiths that they can't. And this is where our government needs to get the heck out of the way. And if it's not harming someone else, then what does it matter? And you can't legislate love," he also said.

On the former point, the investigation -- which Babeu requested himself -- is problematic in that it will continue to stay in the news until it wraps up. Even if he is cleared of any wrongdoing at the conclusion, he will have to withstand headline after headline referencing an investigation of possible violations made by and against him.

Coburn jumped eight spots to snag the most conservative label this year, and it's Gillibrand's second consecutive appearance in the list of top ten most liberal members.

(PICTURES: Most Liberal Senators | Most Conservative Senators)

For the past three decades, National Journal has rated members of Congress based on selected roll-call votes from the previous year to create an ideological scale for Congress. This year, National Journal examined all 949 roll call votes in the House and each of the 235 cast by the Senate, pulling out those that demonstrate clear ideological gaps.

Many votes don't make the cut -- those that involve noncontroversial issues or that fall along regional lines, for instance. This year, 105 House votes and 97 Senate roll calls made the cut in our as economic, foreign or social policy categories.

After the jump, take a look at the full list of the ten most conservative and ten most liberal members of the Senate. And stay tuned to NationalJournal.com as we roll out the annual ratings.

Dodge cited the state party's recent handling of the Maine presidential caucuses as the reason for his exit. The Central Maine Morning Sentinel:

Dodge's exit leaves the GOP race to Snowe and Scott D'Amboise, who is a considerable underdog.

Despite the buzz at the outset of the cycle that Snowe would be vulnerable to a primary challenge from the right, the senator has not attracted any formidable opponents so far.

7) Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is backing Rep. Howard Berman against fellow Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman following a mailer from Sherman's campaign that linked a pro-Berman super PAC to a 2010 pipeline explosion.

6) A new Marquette Law School poll shows former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson leading Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin 48 to 42 percent. Baldwin leads Mark Neumann, 44 percent to 40 percent, and state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, 45 percent to 37 percent.

We'll have more from the survey later this morning.

5) The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration will propose lowering the top income-tax rate for corporations to 28 percent from 35 percent but would raise overall tax revenue by eliminating some deductions.

4) Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is no longer committing to signing a controversial measure mandating women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion if the bill makes it to his desk (though an aide tells the Washington Post he will review it if it makes it that far). McDonnell is a national figure, as chairman of the RGA and someone who is generally considered to be on the short list of potential VP nominees -- this looks like a move with an eye on his national standing.

To Gov. Bob McDonnell, who previously spoke out against full-body pat-downs at the airport, Jon Stewart said: "Women might consider this bill a TSA pat-down inside their vagina."

Don't miss today's Must See Moment at 2:56 when Stewart impersonates Ronald Reagan:

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., holds a commanding lead over the top Republican seeking her seat, former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, while Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is the leading contender to succeed Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., according to new polls released early Wednesday.

In Michigan, Stabenow leads Hoekstra, 53 percent to 32 percent, with 15 percent of voters undecided. Meanwhile, in Arizona, Flake leads former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who is running as a Democrat, 42 percent to 29 percent. Twenty-eight percent of voters in that race are undecided.

The NBC News/Marist polls were conducted primarily to survey likely Republican primary voters in the two states ahead of their contests next Tuesday. But each poll also included a question on the states' respective Senate elections, posed to all registered voters.

Stabenow's lead in Michigan is bolstered by a 12-point edge among independent voters, 46 percent to 34 percent. She leads by 12 percentage points among men, but doubles up on Hoekstra among women, 56 percent to 28 percent.

"I refuse to allow the courts to arbitrarily determine who my friends, neighbors, and constituents are, and I will take every necessary step to correct this injustice. I have therefore decided to campaign for re-election in the new sixth district, where a majority of my constituents remain," Bachmann said in an email to supporters on Tuesday afternoon.

Bachmann currently represents the 6th District, which stands to become a bit more GOP-friendly under the new map. There is no law preventing Bachmann from running in the 6th even though her home isn't located there under the new map.

Elsewhere, the new map does not propose any dramatic changes. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Check out the complete map here.

More:

(h/t Daily Kos Elections)

Freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Rep. Don Manzullo, who has served in Congress since 1993, released dueling TV ads this week that go after one another on the same issue: spending.

"Who's he kidding? In just the last year Congressman Adam Kinzinger voted to spend $209 billion more than Don Manzullo did," the narrator of Manzullo's spot says.

Kinzinger addresses the camera directly in his own spot, casting Manzullo as the "King of Earmarks."

Kinzinger's latest ad, released on Monday, is his third spot: His first, released last month, was a positive, introductory ad. He released a second ad last week that went after Manzullo on the issue of debt.

Manzullo has released ads before, but his latest commercial is the first one that directly goes after Kinzinger.

A redistricting map spearheaded by Democrats prompted Kinzinger to challenge the veteran GOP member in the 16th District.

The primary will take place on March 20 and this evening, the two candidates will debate for the first time. Kinzinger outraised Manzullo by $116,000 during the fourth quarter and also had more money in the bank at the end of the period.

Check out both spots below the jump.

It's former Michigan Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra, whose Senate campaign has the backing of Herman Cain. On Monday, Cain's PAC touted Hoekstra's support of the former GOP presidential candidate's much-publicized economic plan.

"I'm delighted to have Pete on board with '9-9-9' The Revolution," Cain said.

Cain's hitting the campaign trail with Hoekstra later this week.

It may seem counterintuitive to tout Cain and his policies in a swing state race against a Democratic senator, but Hoekstra's move appears keyed toward firing up a base whose financial and electoral support he will need in the short-term.

Here's why:

-- Lugar's hitting Mourdock on TV: For the first time, Lugar is criticizing Mourdock on the air. He released radio and TV ads on Tuesday hitting back against the challenger.

"Typical, desperate 11- time candidate, Richard Mourdock is obviously throwing mud to hide his own disastrous record," says an announcer in the TV commercial.

Until now, Lugar has stuck to positive ads aimed at improving his image. Sooner or later, a nasty ad war was bound to happen (Mourdock has already hit Lugar in limited TV buys). The beginning of that war has arrived and it signals the Lugar camp's concern about the threat presented by Mourdock.

-- Club For Growth standing with Mourdock: As I wrote last week, the fact that the Club waited until the 11th hour to get behind Mourdock speaks volumes about the weakness of the challenger's campaign. But with the Club's belated support, Mourdock's anemic fundraising should see a boost.

9) Mark Leibovich's Monday profile of David Plouffe is worth a read and includes some colorful nuggets:

8) Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., pushes back against radio ads against her with matching radio buys of her own.

7) Keep an eye on Minnesota this afternoon, when a panel will release an updated congressional redistricting map.

6) Not a good weekend for Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., who was forced to confront this Miami Herald headline: "Connie Mack preaches penny-pinching on campaign trail, but has past of debt and liens.

5) Straight from the department of unenthusiastic endorsements comes the Cleveland Plain Dealer's backing of Josh Mandel in the Ohio GOP Senate primary:

Rudolph donned a pencil skirt to play a rice-cake toting first lady in the inaugural episode in which Joe Biden gets to borrow the car when he takes responsibility for President Obama's hoagie.

Don't miss today's Must See Moment at 1:53 when Stephen Colbert gets "Trumped":

Since his rise to prominence as a senior aide to Bill Clinton, Emanuel's outbursts and cantankerous relationships with the press, political foes and coworkers alike have become the stuff of legend.

When The Promise, Jonathan Alter's in-depth account of the first year of the Obama White House, was released in 2010, the documentation of Emanuel's antics received as much coverage as the inner-workings of the administration's push for health care reform. The objects of Emanuel's rage ranged from Clinton, his old boss, to Bo, his new boss's dog.

When Emanuel left the White House last year to run for mayor of Chicago, the Beltway lost one of its most colorful characters. But Emanuel fans will be glad to know that his return home doesn't seem to have softened him much at all. The Chicago Tribune posted a transcript this week of a recent interview with the mayor -- and it is loaded with quintessential Rahm-being-Rahm moments. Here are a few things we learned perusing the transcript:

Emanuel is not a fan of Chicago Tribune reporter David Kidwell:

At the very beginning of the Feb. 8 interview, Emanuel playfully (we think) tells Kidwell: "I hate you."

But the mayor was just getting warmed up. A bit later, Kidwell prefaced a question by saying, "With all due respect." Emanuel shot back: "I don't think you have any respect for me so don't worry about it."

-- The ABC News/Washington Post poll last week was not an outlier after all, we learned this week. Three other national polls (CBS/New York Times, CNN/ORC and Pew) all showed President Obama gaining ground -- and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ceding it. The CNN poll showed Obama's approval hitting 50 percent among all adults, and his lead over Romney among registered voters is now five points (up from a one-point Romney lead a month ago). Obama also hit the 50-percent mark in the CBS/NYT poll, and he also netted six points in a matchup with Romney among all voters, breaking a tie from a month ago. In the Pew poll, Obama again gained six points over the past month against Romney, turning a two-point lead into eight.

But Romney's problems start well before the general election. He ended the week trailing former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in the Gallup tracking poll by four points, and the three national polls also show Santorum edging in front of Romney. Romney finds himself boxed in: The most conservative voters in the GOP primary still aren't buying him, and the crucial swing voters in the general election are souring on his candidacy. What we learn about Romney over the next week leading up to Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 28 may dictate his chances of being the nation's next president.

-- Obama made his first visit to Wisconsin in over a year this week, and we were reminded of why he's been absent for so long. Last year's dispute over collective bargaining triggered a series of state Senate recalls in the Badger State -- but in districts Republicans won in 2008, even as Obama carried the state by double digits. So his presence would not have been helpful.

But next up is a different type of recall, a statewide affair in which turnout will matter, regardless of where in the state it comes from. Obama will have a decision to make about how closely he wants to tether himself to the Democratic nominee in the near-certain recall. And how close he stays will say a lot about what the White House thinks the chances of defeating Gov. Scott Walker look like.

-- It's been over a week since Obama reversed course on a controversial contraception mandate that caused an uproar from conservatives and the Catholic Church. But his proposed compromise hasn't done much to quell Senate Republicans' anger. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., is tethering himself to Sen. Roy Blunt's amendment while Sarah Steelman and Crossroads GPS are going on offense with the issue in Missouri. Using the issue as a contrast point isn't without risk: Brown, in particular risks alienating the middle in the Bay State.

-- In two major statewide races still waiting on official election dates, the delays are having opposite effects on the frontrunners' campaigns. In Texas, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the heavy favorite in the Republican Senate race, watches as his invincibility takes a hit with each new delay of the Lone Star State's primary date. A drawn-out primary battle means more time for his chief opponents, former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz and former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, to raise money, boost their name ID and chip away at Dewhurst's commanding lead in the polls.

But Wisconsin's Walker is looking to extend the delay in the Wisconsin's recall process as long as possible. Due to a quirk in the state's campaign finance law, Walker can raise unlimited funds until the date of the election is set, allowing him to further bolster his already massive campaign warchest.