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PONTIAC, Mich. (WJBK) - Two former leaders of the Oakland County Democratic Party are facing a total of nine felonies for allegedly forging election paperwork to get fake Tea Party candidates on November's ballot. "It is not a partisan statement, and we need to make that very clear," said Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. Former Oakland County Democratic Chair Mike McGuinness and former Democratic Operations Director Jason Bauer face up to 14 years in prison if convicted. "Some of the people didn't even know they were on the ballot till they began receiving delinquency notices of filings that were required...

California Rep. Jane Harman (D) will resign from Congress, according to two senior Democratic leadership aides, a surprise announcement that will set off a special election in her 36th district.

George Skelton has an interesting column today, Whitman paid a high price for Latino distrust of GOP . Writes Skelton, "Senior advisor Rob Stutzman isn't exactly spilling his guts about the former EBay chief's spectacular thumping. The billionaire lost to low-budget Jerry Brown by 54% to 41%, despite spending a record $160 million-plus, roughly $142 million of it her own money."But the veteran Republican strategist is blaming the mini-landslide size of Whitman's loss on some ugly dust-ups over illegal immigration that alienated Latinos from the GOP." Bunk. Let's start with the biggest factor in Whitman's Titanic disaster of a campaign...

SACRAMENTO - In the Year of the Republicans, California is the great exception. Whatever force hit the rest of the country in November stopped at the California border. Democrats won every statewide office on the ballot. They increased their already hefty majority in the State Assembly and maintain a sizable majority in the Senate. Their congressional delegation remains intact, as well. For Democrats, that is cause for celebration, given the battering they took almost everywhere else. But it is also cause for sober reflection. Are they up to the task of governing?

The pro-Republican wave in the rest of the nation on Nov. 2 is likely to pay dividends for the party for years to come, with the GOP so strong in the state legislatures, which control post-2010 census redistricting, that gerrymandering alone may yield 20 more House seats for the party in 2012. But in California, Republican prospects could scarcely be grimmer. Exit polls showed independent voters were overwhelmingly opposed to all but one of the statewide GOP candidates. Independents were key to Republican gains elsewhere. Meanwhile, the long-expected emergence of Latinos as a dominant voting bloc appears at hand. Exit...

On Tuesday, November 2, voters across the country turned out in droves to give Republicans control of the House of Representatives GOP wins in the U.S. Senate trimmed the Democratic majority, and over 675 State legislative seats were taken from Democrats nationwide. So historic was the win that the Minnesota Senate will be run by Republicans for the first time in that state's history, and Alabama will be in GOP hands for the first time since reconstruction. But what happened to California? Are Californians really so liberal that they would elect a man who was once known as "Governor Moonbeam"...

For most of the country, the midterm elections ended last Tuesday when the final ballots were counted. However, the race in California’s 11th Congressional District remains a tight race between Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney and Republican challenger David Harmer. In a careful recount of the ballots, Harmer is currently trailing McNerney by just 2,000 votes, leaving no room for error. Bay Area tea party members have been serving as careful watchdogs over the process. One group, the Tri-Valley Patriots, caught an interesting snapshot which suggests some ballot counters may have a vested interest in keeping the Democrat in office:

Democratic Rep. Jim Costa has declared victory in his race against Republican challenger Andy Vidak. New vote tallies from Fresno County put Costa 1,200 votes ahead of Vidak — Costa was losing to Vidak Tuesday by 145 votes — and his campaign believes his lead will continue to increase as the final absentee ballots are counted. “This has been a hard-fought campaign. It appears that it is now over. I believe our 1,200-vote margin will not only stand up, but will increase as the remaining few ballots are counted,” Costa said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Attorney General, 2 House races still razor-thin

DWAYNE BROWN (Host): Most results are in, but the race for California attorney general may not be decided for weeks. We're joined on Morning Edition by nonpartisan Sacramento political consultant Leo McElroy. Republican Steve Cooley, Leo, leads democrat Kamala Harris by about 41,000 votes in the attorney general's race. What's at stake? LEO MCELROY (Political Consultant): Well, there are a couple of things at stake. For one thing, Cooley pretty much becomes the state-wide leader of the republican party if he manages to win because the republicans got shut out in every other race. So Cooley suddenly becomes a giant...

Listen up, California. The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You're the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it. After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We'd feel sorry for you if you didn't constantly flip us the bird. Instead, we're making bets on...

Waiting game in 11th District by Jon Mendelson / Tracy Press Tracy Press Nov 05, 2010 David Harmer (left) and Rep. Jerry McNerney are still unsure as to who will sit in the next Congress. Will Tracy next be represented in Congress by Jerry McNerney or David Harmer? It’s a question that might not be answered for weeks. That’s because even though the incumbent Democrat congressman led Republican challenger Harmer by 134 votes as of Thursday, according to the California Secretary of State, thousands of ballots remain uncounted. The 11th Congressional District spans four counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa...

Much has been written about the oil and gas billionaire Koch brothers and their multimillion-dollar donations to right-wing causes. Charles and David Koch’s combined $43 billion wealth has made them virtually unstoppable this election cycle; even prolific left-wing philanthropist George Soros recently said he was powerless against the “avalanche” of donations from conservative billionaires like the Kochs. However, in recent days a handful of liberal billionaires have decided to take on the Kochs in one of the most hotly contested battles this election season: Proposition 23, the California ballot that may well prove a bellwether for the future of energy...

Californians can see Greece from their bedroom windows, yet they voted for the status quo that's destroying their state anyway. It’s the proverbial morning after and with votes counted, California has won the Dumbest State Award in a historic landslide of monstrous proportions.All Californians can now see Greece from their bedroom windows. No need to even go to the backyards and crane their little necks.In the coming years, the unions, who have been bilking Californians in a protection-racket type scheme, will be taking to the streets in massive, destructive temper tantrums just like those out-in-the-cold workers in other failed socialist...

*snip* Compare this with the House campaign body, the NRCC. After getting clobbered over the NY-23 race and Dede Scozzafava, the NRCC took a hands off approach and let local voters choose their candidates. Not the NRSC. It doubled up around the country igniting a civil war with the grassroots — a civil war that would have never happened but their getting into Florida and doubling down. The NRSC’s argument amounts to telling the world that voters exercising their right to pick their candidates are stupid and Jim DeMint is stupid for siding with the voters. One final thought —...

alifornia Republicans woke up Wednesday with a political hangover. Nationally, they celebrated the GOP's taking control of Congress, but their dismal showing in California gave them a lingering headache. Many of them wondered how they missed the national wave - and differed on which direction to go next. They lost nearly every statewide office, drubbed by double digits in most of the races. Meg Whitman couldn't win the governorship despite straddling the political middle and spending a record $160 million. Carly Fiorina couldn't roust Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, despite tacking right and exploiting Boxer's low approval ratings.For months, party officials...

An Alameda County Superior Court election remained undecided Wednesday, with Victoria Kolakowski - who would become the nation's first transgender judge - holding a slight lead over John Creighton. Kolakowski, an administrative law judge for the state Public Utilities Commission, led Creighton, a deputy district attorney, by 50.22 to 48.77 percent, or 3,300 votes out of 230,000 total votes cast, the county registrar's office reported.

(Newser) – In California, one literally does not need a pulse to win an election. State Sen. Jenny Oropeza zipped to victory last night, capturing 57.8% of the vote in her heavily Democratic district some two weeks after she died. Republican John Stammreich, who might have expected that being alive would boost his chances, managed to reel in only 36.3% of the vote, reports the Daily Breeze. A special election will be held to fill the seat.

A Democratic governor and a legislative change from two-thirds to majority passage of the state budget means Democrats will control spending. It is true that Brown and Democrats will be able to jam through their own spending plan without GOP votes if they choose to; passage of Proposition 25 allows lawmakers to pass budgets with the simple majority that Democrats command. It will no longer be necessary that two-thirds of the Legislature approve. In that way, Tuesday's vote "is a tectonic shift," said GOP strategist Adam Mendelsohn. "Republicans are going to have to think seriously about how to reestablish their...

In one of the most critical midterm elections in recent years, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer won over Whitman and Fiorina, both by at least 10% while on the national level, Republicans took back a majority of seats in the house, with 239 to Democrat’s 18, and Democrats kept their hold on the Senate, with 51 to 46. California kept true to its blue roots, choosing Brown over Whitman in a time when the Democratic vote is not the most popular one. His 13% lead over Whitman was predicted, however, as Whitman’s image had faltered with the public in the...