President, the House and 1/3rd of the Senate were the subject of national elections held November 6, 2012.
Democratic incumbent Barack Obama had the inside track with his party and gained some voter approval with his handling of the Osama bin Laden hunt and assassination. His handling of the economy was also met with approval even though Republicans continued to criticize. He continued the momentum by avoiding war with Iran and Israel and seemed to be in the driver's seat.
No Republican emerged with a clear lead in 2011. CPAC and Fox held the first debate featuring Ron Paul and ex-New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson on the Conservative/Libertarian side. Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum took the more conventional neo-conservative Republican view points in the debate. Missing were Trump, Palin, Huckabee, Guiliani and Bachmann. Bachmann emerged early with a win at the Ames straw poll but faded fast and quit after the Iowa vote. Twenty debates later and four primaries later, as the campaign moved in 2012, the field was down to four candidates. Romney took the lead after Florida, but Gingrich, Paul and Santorum remained in the hunt. By May it was only Romney and Paul but the media dismissed Paul and named Romney the presumptive nominee.
The conventions confirmed Romney and Obama as the candidates. Johnson hopped over the Libertarian party hoping to get a few percent of the vote. Jill Stein a medical doctor represented the Green Party. The usual cast of Socialist and other parties rounded out the field. The Presidential debates featured Romney and Obama and ignored the rest. Romney won the first debate and got a bump in the polls that made it look like a horse race. But Obama came back strong, winning the other debates and executing a strong ground game to surge ahead as election day approached.
As the results came in it was apparent that Obama had prevailed. Fox Network election coverage provided a rare insight into Republican mentality as Karl Rove appeared to "melt down" on screen when Fox called Ohio for Obama. After the election the DJIA gave up a thousand points as Republican post election depression deepened for several weeks. Gun and ammunition sales peaked in anticipation of Obama's second term. It took Christmas and the fiscal cliff negotiations to provide much needed relief.
Neither Louisiana Senator was up for reelection. One LA House district was lost to redistricting as required by the 2010 census. Maneuvering was intense. Logically the 2'nd District in Orleans with its small population was the logical candidate for combination to create a new large black majority district? But that district operates under a consent decree, so the Southwest Louisiana districts of Boustany and Landry were combined with Boustany prevailing in a runoff.
Orleans, Plaquemines and Jefferson Parishes participated in an odd election to retain the tolls on the Crescent City Connection for 20 more years.
Out of 300,000 votes cast the final tally showed the tolls would be retained by a margin of 16 votes.
Around the country, marijuana legalization moved ahead in Colorado and Washington state. The Federal response will be instructive (stub end of Prohibition) but the mixed response to medical marijuana suggest the feds will continue to muddle along. Future proposition elections are sure to see more states legalize pot.
The Congressional election was odd in that Republicans retained solid control of the House (234-195) while receiving a minority of the votes cast for Representatives. Nearly one million more Americans voted for Democratic House candidates but the congressional redistricting that took place after the 2010 Census favored the Republicans in this election. That's the way the Constitution set it up with state by state decision making prevailing over the majority.