diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 221e3a2..851d331 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import codecs
 changelog = "debian/changelog"
 if os.path.exists(changelog):
     head = codecs.open(changelog, 'r', 'utf-8', 'replace').readline()
-    match = re.compile(".*\((.*)\).*").match(head)
+    match = re.compile(r".*\((.*)\).*").match(head)
     if match:
         version = match.group(1)
 
diff --git a/ubuntutools/sponsor_patch/bugtask.py b/ubuntutools/sponsor_patch/bugtask.py
index 167cef7..ebb40f6 100644
--- a/ubuntutools/sponsor_patch/bugtask.py
+++ b/ubuntutools/sponsor_patch/bugtask.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class BugTask(object):
         self.bug_task = bug_task
         self.launchpad = launchpad
 
-        components = re.split(" \(| ", self.bug_task.bug_target_name.strip(")"))
+        components = re.split(r" \(| ", self.bug_task.bug_target_name.strip(")"))
         assert len(components) >= 1 and len(components) <= 3
         if len(components) == 1:
             self.package = None
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ class BugTask(object):
             self.series = components[2].lower()
 
         if self.package is None:
-            title_re = '^Sync ([a-z0-9+.-]+) [a-z0-9.+:~-]+ \([a-z]+\) from.*'
+            title_re = r'^Sync ([a-z0-9+.-]+) [a-z0-9.+:~-]+ \([a-z]+\) from.*'
             match = re.match(title_re, self.get_bug_title(), re.U | re.I)
             if match is not None:
                 self.package = match.group(1)