Ex-cop and current gun owner Val Demings. (Photo: ValDemings.com)

In advance of the upcoming elections, the women's magazine Marie Claire got a look inside the purses of several prominent female candidates for their "Running in Heels" feature. Based on their findings, iPads and other Apple gear are must-have accessories on the campaign trail, but a few of the women in the article apparently tote less standard fare including one candidate with a heavy energy drink habit and another who's packing heat.

New Mexico Senate candidate Heather Wilson, Hawaii congressional hopeful Tulsi Gabbard and Connecticut Senate candidate Linda McMahon said iPads were among the essentials in their purses. Elizabeth Warren, who is running for Senate in Massachusetts, noted she carries a "backpack" rather than a purse and said she brings around an iPod rather than a tablet.

In addition to the iPad, Ms. Wilson said she has an "iPhone, credit card, PowerBars and Rockstar Lemonade" in her "small Coach briefcase." Ms. Gabbard opts for something far more mellow than energy drinks to go along with her tablet. She revealed her purse is also stocked with "meditation beads," a hairbrush and, of course, "campaign brochures."

Locally, Queens Assemblywoman Grace Meng was featured in a separate sidebar that covered her daily routine, but didn't reveal what's inside her bag. We reached out to Ms. Meng's campaign and found the contents of her purse contents include,  baby wipes, Fresh brand lip gloss, flats, a Kellogg's cereal bar, and an iPhone.

For her part, Illinois congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth is clearly quite proud of her bag, which is a vintage store find.

“I have a fabulous vintage hot-pink purse I got for $10. It fits my speeches, netbook, Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in Rhubarb, and Sephora Minimergency Kit,” reported Ms. Duckworth.

Tammy Baldwin, who is running for Senate in Wisconsin, said her bad holds "only the essentials."

"I keep my purse small so my male staff aren’t embarrassed if they have to hold it for me.”

By far, the most interesting find was in the purse of Democratic Florida congressional candidate and former Orlando police chief Val Demings, who is apparently armed out on the campaign trail.

“I carry a 9-millimeter gun in my Dooney & Bourke that was a gift when I retired from the police department,” she said.

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President Obama visiting his high school in Hawaii in 2008. (Photo: Getty)

This morning, Buzzfeed published excerpts from Dave Maraniss' upcoming biography of Barack Obama that detail the president's usage of marijuana in high school and his years at Occidental College. Mr. Maraniss revealed some of the common names for pot stains in Hawaii, the specific weed slang employed by President Obama and his buddies at Punahou high school and their preferred smoking soundtrack (Blue Oyster Cult, Stevie Wonder and Aerosmith).

Though the excerpts from Mr. Maraniss' book have generated considerable excitement among the chattering classes, the president has admitted to youthful drug use for years now and, in the past, former classmates have described it as a relatively small part of his life.

In his 1995 memoir, Dreams of My Father, President Obama admitted to regularly smoking pot and occasionally doing cocaine in his younger days.

"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man," wrote the president of his drug use.

Mr. Maraniss' book describes how President Obama participated in a high school clique called the "choom gang" with "choom" being Hawaiian slang for smoking pot. It also reveals that the president gave the "choom gang" a shoutout in his yearbook. President Obama's association with the "choom gang" was previously described in a 2007 Los Angeles Times story. That story also described high school friends of the president disputing details of his memoir.

Similarly, the New York Times published a story in early 2008 that involved "more than three dozen interviews" with "friends, classmates and mentors from his high school and Occidental" who all disagreed with the idea drugs played a large role in President Obama's life. Vinai Thummalapally, a former college roommate of President Obama's who is now the U.S. ambassador to Belize, told the Times the president was "not even close to being a party animal" in his college days.

"If someone passed him a joint, he would take a drag. We’d smoke or have one extra beer, but he would not even do as much as other people on campus," said Mr. Thummalapally.

Serge Kovaleski, the Times reporter who wrote the article about the president's drug use concluded President Obama's that either President Obama's friends were trying to protect him or that he played up his drug use in his memoir for dramatic effect. Mr. Kovaleski said his interviews with the president's old friends "could suggest he was so private about his usage that few people were aware of it, that the memories of those who knew him decades ago are fuzzy or rosier out of a desire to protect him, or that he added some writerly touches in his memoir to make the challenges he overcame seem more dramatic."

There's no question the president did indeed indulge in pot smoking in his younger days, the point of revisiting these old stories is to illustrate the fact President Obama's drug use has already been rather thoroughly examined. Since we've all been down this road before and new polls show a growing majority of Americans support legalizing weed, perhaps the president's real pot scandal should be the reversal of his 2008 campaign promise to let states decide whether to allow medical marijuana rather than what he called his drugs back in high school and how much of them he used.

Rick Santorum (Photo: Getty)

Rick Santorum continued to poke holes in Mitt Romney's aura of inevitability by following up his victory in the Alabama primary with a win in the Mississippi primary tonight. Though Mr. Romney still has a large lead in the overall delegate count, a win tonight would have gone a long way toward cementing his status as the clear frontrunner. Mr. Santorum's wins in more conservative states are prolonging the race for the Republican nomination and fueling the perception Mr. Romney has issues connecting with important elements of the Republican base. Despite his losses in the South, Mr. Romney is expected to win tonight's caucuses in American Samoa and Hawaii, though those results won't be official until much later due to the time difference. 

As of this writing, Mr. Romney is in third place behind Mr. Santorum and Newt Gingrich in both Alabama and Mississippi with over 90 percent of precincts reporting. Despite his second place finishes, the night was particularly bad for Mr. Gingrich, who was relying on victories in the Deep South to help him fuel a "last stand" on the campaign trail.

According to The Associated Press, again as of this writing, Mr. Santorum is expected to earn 21 delegates from his wins in Alabama and Mississippi compared to 17 for Mr. Romney and 16 for Mr. Gingrich. Seventeen delegates are at stake in Hawaii and six will be allocated in American Samoa. According to The New York Times Mr. Romney currently has 472 delegates and Mr. Santorum has 244 out of the 1,144 needed to secure the nomination.

Rick Santorum could have a big night tonight

Rick Santorum won the Alabama primary tonight. NBC News declared Mr. Santorum the winner a little less than one hour after polls closed. Mitt Romney, the frontrunner for the nomination, still holds a strong delegate lead, but he has had trouble winning primaries in the Southern states.

There are 50 delegates in Alabama. Three of Alabama's delegates are unbound superdelegates, 21 are awarded based on Congressional districts and the other 26 are awarded based on statewide results. Each of Alabama's seven Congressional districts awards three delegates based on a "winner takes most" system. If a candidate wins over 20 percent of a statewide vote they win all of the statewide delegates. Otherwise those 26 delegates are allocated proportionately. According to The New York Times, Mr. Santorum currently has 34.4 percent of the vote with 35 percent of precincts reporting.

The Alabama primary was a tough loss for Newt Gingrich, who is strongest in the Southern states and was counting on wins below the Mason Dixon line to help him make a "last stand" in the race for the Republican nomination. Alabama is one of four primaries occurring tonight along with Mississippi, a caucus in Hawaii and a caucus in American Samoa. American Samoa is expected to go to Mr. Romney because of that state's large Mormon population. Mr. Romney also has a wide lead in the polls in Hawaii. The Mississippi primary is expected to be a close call between Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum. As of this writing, The New York Times says 63 percent of Mississippi's precincts have reported and Mr. Santorum is leading with 32.8 percent of the vote followed by Mr. Gingrich at 31.7 percent and Mr. Romney with 30 percent.