2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential candidate who edged out an eight-vote victory over Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucuses, has a long track record on education that includes standardized testing and accountability, charter schools and school vouchers.

Education Week writes:

Romney has a long record and a lot of ideas on education redesign. He’s a fan of standardized testing, and has credited the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 with providing a much-needed boost to accountability. In fact, he was one of the NCLB law’s biggest champions when he ran for president back in 2008. But this year, he has also emphasized the need to step up the state role when it comes to K-12.

The No Child Left Behind Act — signed into law in January 2002 by George W. Bush and supported by the Obama administration — mandated standardized testing that evaluates teachers by score results. In late 2011, the Obama administration offered states “waivers from the most onerous requirements of No Child Left Behind.”

Public school advocates who oppose mandatory standardized testing to determine teacher salaries and state and federal funding for public schools have called for a National Opt Out Day on Jan. 7.

Romney, according to Education Week, “also complimented President Barack Obama’s signature education reform program—Race to the Top—saying the program “had done some good things.”

Race to the Top, “a competitive grant program,” was launched by the Obama administration in 2009 to “encourage and reward States that are creating the conditions for education innovation and reform.”

The program provides funds to states that reform education in four areas: adopting standards and assessments that prepare students for work and college; building data systems that measure student growth and success; recruiting, training, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals; and turning around the lowest achieving schools.

Education Week adds that Romney has “called for getting rid of teacher salary schedules, but said he’d like to pay beginning teachers more. He also waded into the culture wars, saying he thinks students should be taught about the advantages of marriage.”

Education News reported last September that Romney also supports charters schools, school vouchers and “currently supports the federal government’s involvement in education and would keep in place the No Child Left Behind act created under President Bush in 2001.”

Bachmann made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday, saying, “Last night, the people of Iowa spoke, with a very clear voice, so I have decided to stand aside.”

Mitt Romney got top bragging rights in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, edging out opponent Rick Santorum by fewer than 10 votes. Libertarian-leaning Ron Paul secured third place with around 21 percent of the votes, while the rest of the candidates — Newt Gingrich at 13 percent, Rick Perry at 10 percent, and Bachmann at 5 percent — fell much further behind.

Despite his fifth-place finish, Perry seems set to stay in the race, writing on his official Twitter account: “The next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State. … Here we come South Carolina!!!” The tweet included a photo of Perry in jogging gear, giving a thumbs-up.

Photo: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. (Wikimedia Commons/Fibonacci Blue)

From CNN:

Ron Paul finished a close third, according to the state GOP. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who placed fifth, said late Tuesday that he would return to his home state to consider whether his campaign would continue.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, had 30,015 votes. Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and an upstart challenger who just weeks ago polled in the single digits, had 30,007, the state GOP said.

Each had roughly 25% of the vote in Iowa, the first state to vote in the 2012 presidential caucus and primary season. Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas, had 21%. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was at 13%. Perry was at 10%, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had 5%, and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman had 1%.

State GOP officials said certified results will be released in two weeks.

Because the race was initially too close to call, many candidates spoke to their supporters before the final tally was released.

“Game on,” said Santorum, to a crowd gathered in Johnston, Iowa. “What wins in America are bold ideas, sharp contrasts and a plan that includes everyone. A plan that says we will work together to get America to work.”

Even Romney praised Santorum’s efforts when speaking at his celebration party. “This has been a great victory for him and for his effort,” Romney said of Santorum. “He’s worked very hard in Iowa. We also feel it’s been a great victory for us here.”

The focus of the race will now shift to New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Tues., Jan. 10.

Photo: 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

On Thursday morning, Gingrich penned NOM’s “Marriage Pledge,” promising to support a federal marriage amendment, which would prohibit gay and lesbian American couples from marrying; appoint an attorney general and Supreme Court justices who are outwardly opposed to same-sex marriage; appoint a commission that investigates NOM’s opponents; and attempt to nullify same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia.

Over the summer, Romney and fellow candidates Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry signed the pledge. Ron Paul and Huntsman and declined, but NOM President Brian Brown is only going after Paul.

Earlier this week, Gingrich sent a statement of support for the perhaps even more controversial “Marriage Vow” created by Iowa’s Family Leader, an affiliate of Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. He did not sign the 14-point pledge, which at one point including the statement:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

This summer, Bachmann and Santorum signed the Family Leader’s vow while it still included this point about slavery; Perry signed it after the passage was removed due to public outrage.

Though Gingrich did not put his signature to this particular pledge, he did promise that, as president:

I will vigorously enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted under my leadership as Speaker of the House, and ensure compliance with its provisions, especially in the military. I will also aggressively defend the constitutionality of DOMA in federal and state courts. I will support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification. I will also oppose any judicial, bureaucratic, or legislative effort to define marriage in any manner other than as between one man and one woman. I will support all efforts to reform promptly any uneconomic or anti-marriage aspects of welfare and tax policy. I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.

Watch Ron Paul explain why he does not support a Federal Marriage Amendment at the Family Leader’s Thanksgiving Forum:

The Human Rights Campaign has pointed out the irony of the National Organization for Marriage praising Gingrich as a “marriage champion,” considering the former speaker of the House has been married three times, and it is public knowledge that he has cheated on previous spouses.

Photo: Newt Gingrich (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

Republican presidential favorite Newt Gingrich has pledged his support for the controversial anti-abortion movement known as “fetal personhood,” by signing a pledge that has yet to be signed by opponent Mitt Romney.

Personhood USA, the group behind “fetal personhood” petitions that have appeared in states across the country, announced yesterday that Gingrich had signed its pledge. In doing so, he opposes ”assisted suicide, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and procedures that intentionally destroy developing human beings” and agrees to “work to advance state and federal laws and amendments that recognize the unalienable right to life of all human beings as persons at every stage of development.”

“To the best of my knowledge, I will only appoint federal judges and relevant officials who will uphold and enforce state and federal laws recognizing that all human beings at every stage of development are persons with the unalienable right to life,” Gingrich pledged.

In November, Gingrich said he would support a national personhood bill, which would define life as beginning at the moment of conception. He clarified his words earlier this month, telling ABC News’ Jake Tapper he believes life actually begins at “successful implantation,” not fertilization.

Other pledge signers include presidential contenders Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has yet to sign the pledge, adding ammunition to those who have criticized him for being a “flip-flopper” when it comes to hot-button issues like abortion. In a Thursday morning appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted Romney for changing his positions on both abortion and health care reform.

Romney refused to sign a different anti-abortion pledge earlier this year, arguing it was “too broad.”

2012 GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

Jacksonville’s Susie Wiles, the former campaign manager for Gov. Rick Scott, has joined the team of would-be GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Wiles was working closely with Romney opponent Jon Huntsman until July, when she left her position as campaign manager.

At the time, Wiles said “it was just time” to leave the Huntsman campaign, saying she had only signed up “to get [the campaign] started.”

Wiles has now been named as a co-chair of Romney’s Florida advisory council.

Wiles’ husband, veteran Republican advance man Lanny Wiles, remained with Huntsman until August, when he also left the campaign. Though he said at the time that he remained “an avid supporter of Governor Huntsman,” he, too, now appears to be backing Romney.

Via Politico:

Gingrich, however, is the latest in a revolving list of candidates who have floated to the top of the party’s primary contest as an alternative to effective frontrunner Mitt Romney. PPP recently reported Gingrich leading Romney among Colorado Republicans 37-18, partly due to the fact that Gingrich is drawing the lion’s share of Herman Cain supporters left in the lurch when their man dropped out of the race in the wake of horrifically managed spiraling sex scandals.

That Newt is leading here is an obvious problem for the state GOP. Unaffiliated voters make up roughly a third of the Colorado electorate and Obama is polling way out in front of Gingrich in that demographic. PPP surveyed roughly 800 voters this week in Colorado and found Obama leading among independents by a 56 to 32 point spread.

PPP reported a plus/minus 3.5 percent margin of error in the week’s survey. Director Tom Jensen seemed to be having fun writing up the polling results.

Our new Colorado poll is more evidence that the Newt surge could be disastrous for GOP hopes of beating Barack Obama next year….

As weak as Obama is in Colorado, if the Republicans nominate Newt Gingrich it doesn’t look like it matters. Obama leads Gingrich 50-42 in the state, including a whooping 56-32 advantage with independents. Gingrich is a reviled figure with only 32 percent of voters seeing him favorably to 55 percent with a negative opinion, including a 25/59 spread with independents…

The GOP’s move toward supporting Gingrich is seriously endangering its chances of winning in the fall.

Jensen writes that Romney is running roughly neck and neck with Obama and that, if Republican primary voters can hold their noses and vote to nominate him as their general election candidate, Colorado could “go back into the swing state category.”

“Or it could be another easy Obama win as it was in 2008.”

Got a tip? Story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (Photo: myfloridalegal.com)

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is slated to co-host a Republican presidential candidate forum on Fox News’ Huckabee this Saturday, exactly one month before the Iowa caucuses. Bondi will interview candidates alongside Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Candidates Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have all been confirmed for the event. No word on whether or not one-time frontrunner Herman Cain, who is currently being dogged by accusations of a longtime affair with a Georgia woman, will also appear. According to The New York Times, the network is also awaiting responses from Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman.

“This forum is an excellent opportunity to engage each of the candidates in a candid conversation about issues that are important to voters in our state and across the nation,” Bondi said in a press release sent out by the Republican Party of Florida. “This will be a historic election, and I am excited to play a part in helping voters gain a better understanding of candidates’ beliefs on fundamental issues such as constitutionalism and the role of government.”

Bondi appeared alongside many of the GOP presidential contenders in August, when she spoke at CPAC FL. During the event, Bondi sat on a panel that discussed  strategies to end “unconstitutional ObamaCare.”

The forum will take place at 8 p.m. Sat., Dec. 3.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry, who has been called “weak” by immigration-enforcement supporters, has picked up the support of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, notorious for his immigration-detention measures and his birther conspiracy theories.

The Phoenix New Times reports:

According to multiple national news outlets, Arpaio will campaign with Perry in New Hampshire on Tuesday, where he will give the Texas governor a political tip of the cap.

Neither the Sheriff’s Office or Perry’s campaign responded to New Times‘ request for confirmation of the reported endorsement, and none of the news outlets reporting the political nod are naming names — ABC News cites “a source with knowledge of the endorsement” as the source of the information. CNN is equally vague, attributing its report to a source within the “governor’s campaign,” while NBC cites a “a source familiar with the matter.”

Arpaio was heckled as he spoke at “Choose Liberty,” a recent event organized by the Eastern Orlando Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity.

Numbers USA — an organization that supports “Attrition Through Enforcement” immigration policy and wants “lower immigration levels” — blamed Perry’s poor showing in the Florida straw poll on his weak stance on immigration enforcement.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has criticized Perry for supporting in state college tuition for undocumented students in Texas. The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports immigration enforcement measures like Arizona’s controversial S.B. 1070 has said “Perry cannot run on is his very questionable, liberal immigration record.”

The New Times adds that “Perry isn’t exactly the hawkish border bully we’d expect Arpaio to support — given some of the sheriff’s other options,” and “in a recent debate between GOP presidential candidates, Perry made what many consider to be a political misstep for a candidate hoping to woo Conservatives: he showed a little compassion.”

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (Photo Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s recent call for a humane path to immigration enforcement makes him the most recent conservative voice calling for solutions that encompass something more than the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Color Lines, a daily news site “in service to racial justice,” writes today that Gingrich’s”remarks were a reminder of how far the right has moved on immigration, and how twisted the immigration debate has become for both parties. It’s too soon to say, but Gingrich’s remarks could be a sign that Republicans are ready to heed growing calls from within their own party to temper the anti-immigrant rhetoric and stop alienating Latino voters.”

At last week’s CNN GOP presidential debate focused on national security, Gingrich said, “I don’t see how the — the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century. And I’m prepared to take the heat for saying, ‘Let’s be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship, but by finding a way to create legality so that they are not separated from their families.’”

The Washington Post reports that “Gingrich attracted huge crowds in Florida this weekend, but he continued to face down accusations from his rivals that he is too soft on immigration to win the Republican presidential nomination.”

The Post adds that Gingrich, “who joined former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney at the top of the field less than two weeks ago, showed no sign of slipping at two appearances along the southwest Florida coast — a conservative enclave and critical battleground in the state’s Jan. 31 primary.”

Gingrich has laid out a 10-step program for immigration reform — without citizenship for undocumented immigrants — that would create “a truly efficient and fair system that embraces the rule of law, while acknowledging and celebrating the valuable economic, cultural and social contributions that both existing and future visitors and immigrants have to offer our country.”

The Hispanic Leadership Network, “a sustained effort to engage the Hispanic Community on center-right issues,” co-chaired by former Gov. Jeb Bush and launched this year, is working on several issues, including immigration, to “find common sense solutions to address our broken immigration system.” The Leadership Network will host its national conference in Miami in January 2012.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has said legal and illegal immigration remains a problem that needs to be confronted, and “that Republicans would do better to tone down the overheated rhetoric and focus on a positive immigration reform agenda.”

Rubio has also said that the Republican Party “should be the pro-legal immigration party,” saying it’s time for GOP candidates to start talking about “how we modernize our legal immigration system.”