These are some of the notable events relating to politics in 2004.
Events
January
January 1- Adnan Pachachi becomes president of the Iraq Interim Governing Council and will serve for the duration of the month. January 1 – Joseph Deiss takes office as President of the Confederation in Switzerland, Samuel Schmid as vice-president. January 4 – Texas Congressman Ralph Hall switches to the Republicans. Hall had been a Democrat. January 4 – Mikhail Saakashvili is elected as President of Georgia. January 6 – 2000 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bill Bradley endorses fellow Democrat Howard Dean for President. January 8 – Gavin Newsom is sworn in as Mayor of San Francisco. January 8 – Roosevelt Skerrit is sworn in as Prime Minister of Dominica following the death of Pierre Charles on January 6. January 12 – Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is sworn in as Governor of Louisiana. January 13 – Haley Barbour is sworn in as Governor of Mississippi. January 13 – Howard Dean wins a non-binding primary in Washington, D.C., with 43% of the vote. Al Sharpton comes in second with 34% of the vote. January 13 – Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill contributes to a book that claims that George W. Bush wanted to attack Iraq since January 2001 and not after the September 11th terrorist attacks as had been believed. January 13 – The Turkish Cypriot leader approves a new cabinet headed by Mehmet Ali Talat. January 14 – Óscar Berger Perdomo is inaugurated as President of Guatemala. Eduardo Stein Barillas becomes vice president and Jorge Briz Abularach becomes foreign minister. January 14 – Madan Lal Khurana is sworn in as governor of Rajasthan. January 14 – Nikolay Shaklein is sworn in as governor of Kirov. January 15 – Carol Moseley Braun drops out of the 2004 United States Presidential race and endorses Howard Dean. January 16 – Ban Ki Moon is named foreign minister of South Korea. January 19 – The Iowa Caucuses are held. John Kerry wins with 38%. John Edwards comes second with 32%. Howard Dean comes in third with 18%. Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt comes in fourth with 11%. January 20 – Richard Gephardt quits the 2004 Presidential race after a poor showing in the Iowa Caucuses. January 20 – Bill Janklow's resignation from Congress takes effect. Janklow had been convicted of a felony in December 2003. January 25 – Mikhail Saakashvili is sworn in as President of Georgia. January 27 – John Kerry wins the New Hampshire Primary with 38% of the vote. Howard Dean gets 26% of the vote. January 27 – Don Brash Speech Orewa Rotary Club on Nationhood against Māori racial separatism in New Zealand January 27 – A House of Commons vote on University tuition top-up fees is narrowly won by the British Government. It is, however, the worst voting result for Tony Blair since he came to power in 1997.