It’s that time of the year that puts most taxpaying folk into an anxious frenzy: income tax return season. Many might still be waiting nervously or patiently at the mailbox (or closely watching bank accounts if you went direct deposit) for signs of that return from our benevolent, all-seeing, all-knowing government.

That annual ritual is also fraught with the typical political debate over the role of our onerous and sloppy tax system. Conservative Republicans are typically accused of using our tax system to punish the poor while rewarding the rich; conversely, liberal Democrats are purported to fight day and night, through blizzard-filled winters and torrid summers to ensure the protection of the poor.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, a historical glance at the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), as well as the Child Tax Credit (CTC) – two heralded initiatives greatly benefiting the working poor and struggling middle class – paints a very different portrait of the GOP.

This race is tied. It’s been tied for weeks now, with some polls showing libertarian-leaning Republican Ryan Frazier with a slight lead; others showing incumbent Democrat Ed Perlmutter up by 3 to 4.

Two of the four Republican candidates in D.C. Council races this year are black gay men. That may seem surprising — exit polls showed just 27 percent of gay voters chose the GOP ticket in 2008, while just four percent of black voters did so.

In Ward 1, Marc Morgan is challenging Democrat Jim Graham, who is seeking a fourth term. Morgan, a fundraiser and strategist for environmental, HIV/AIDS, and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender causes, is focusing primarily on green technology as a means to bring jobs and businesses into the ward. He also wants to rebuild D.C. education programs to increase college opportunities.

In Ward 5, Tim Day, an advisory neighborhood commissioner and native, is taking on Democrat Harry Thomas, Jr., who is seeking a second term. Day, the first in his family to attend college, heads his own accounting firm. He is a cancer survivor and serves as a spokesman for the Avon Walk for Cancer. Like Morgan, Day is also an advocate for HIV/AIDS causes.

The Neighborhood Beat Box a student-run news service from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism highlights an urban Republican who has spent her life fighting for the residents of Harlem.

Join HHR Blog tonight as we listen to Laquan Word, a Republican running for Brooklyn’s, 18th Senatorial District.

With so much national media attention focused on the new Arizona immigration law, one would think that Meg Whitman would be struggling to gain any traction with Hispanic voters in California. But the results of a new Field poll suggest that Whitman is actually gaining support among Latino voters and as a result, has pulled into a virtual dead heat with Democrat Jerry Brown.

A new Field poll shows Brown leading the race 44% to 43% with 13% of California voters still undecided. But by far the most interesting part of the poll is that it shows Whitman gaining Hispanic support. 18% of Californians are Hispanics, and most of the time, they vote for Democrats. Thus, if Jerry Brown is going to win in California, he needs to win the Hispanic vote by a substantial margin in order to offset Whitman’s lead amongst white, non-Hispanic voters (who make up 69% of the state’s likely voter electorate).

The Field poll has non-Hispanic voters favoring Whitman 48%-40%). Yet Field only finds Brown leading by eleven among Hispanic voters (50%-39%). Back when Field surveyed the electoral landscape in January, Brown’s lead was at 24 points. One would think that having a Republican governor in a neighboring state pushing an unpopular (among Hispanics, at least) immigration law would have given Brown a bigger boost.

Mary Church Terrell was born to two slave parents on September 23rd, 1863 in Memphis, Tennessee. Her middle name was Eliza, while her married name was Terrell. Mary Eliza Church was born in the same year in which The Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation bestowed freedom upon those slaves residing in The Southern States. Slavery had ended in the Northern States years earlier. Mary Church, therefore, while not free at birth was emancipated as soon as the Union Soldiers were able to liberate her family.

Mary Eliza Church’s mother was named Louisa Ayres. Louisa Ayres Church, upon emancipation, owned and operated a successful hair salon with a Caucasian clientele. Mary’s father was named Robert Reed Church. Robert Church, who had been a blacksmith as a slave, upon emancipation opened a prosperous saloon and engaged in a number of successful real-estate investments eventually becoming a Minister. Robert Church was Memphis’ first African-American Millionaire. Louisa and Robert has two children together with Mary’s younger brother named Charles. Robert Reed Church’s father was rumored to have been his Caucasian Owner named Charles Church.

Recently, a Conservative Police Officer came banging on my door asking me to drop the term “Urban” because it means “Black”—or else he’d lock me up!

HHR Blog had the opportunity to interview GOP candidate Victor Armendariz a Mexican-American running for a seat in Georgia’s 4th congressional district.

HHR Blog had the opportunity to interview GOP candidate Cory Ruth who is running for Georgia’s 4th congressional district. He will face Liz Carter and Larry Gause in the July Republican primary. The Fourth Congressional District of the U.S. State of Georgia includes parts of Dekalb, Rockdale, and Gwinnett Counties in the metro Atlanta area. The district is currently represented in the 111th Congress by Democrat Hank Johnson.

Paul makes the same argument that conservatives made in 1964 and thus, makes the same theoretical mistake.

One could argue strongly that the failure of the Republican Party to compete in urban settings has left most Jewish voters with only one Party to negotiate with – The Democrats

HHR Blog had the opportunity to interview GOP candidate Tom Reed a candidate for NY-29. The district was formally held by Rep. Eric Massa but because of his recent scandals, announced that he would resign his seat on March 8, 2010.

Save for a special election in Florida’s 19th congressional district, the May special election in Hawaii’s 1st congressional will be the next snapshot of American popular opinion on the road to the November elections this year.

Save for a special election in Florida’s 19th congressional district, the May special election in Hawaii’s 1st congressional will be the next snapshot of American popular opinion on the road to the November elections this year. FrumForum sat down with Charles Djou, the Republican candidate in this upcoming race.

Unlike Florida-19, which was won by President Obama by over thirty points in 2008, Hawaii-1 looks to be a district where voter dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party could lead to a Republican pick-up. While still quite blue (D+15 in the Cook Partisan Voting Index), Hawaii’s 1st congressional district has gone to the GOP in the last four governor’s races.

Further, the special election is set up in winner-take-all format, meaning that there are no primaries. With two, maybe three Democrats in the race, Djou thinks that Hawaii-1 could be the inverse of one closely-followed special election in upstate New York: “I think that my special election could essentially be the inverse of the New York-23 election, with the Democrats splitting the vote.”

GOProud leaders will assist in the campaigns of two openly gay, black, Republicans competing for DC Council ward seats in this year’s election.