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Twenty-five years ago, I worked on polling for candidates for governor in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican politics revolves around the issue of status -- the current commonwealth versus statehood -- and voters were and are closely divided between the two parties that back each alternative. Questions routinely used in polls in the mainland didn't work in Puerto Rico. Ask voters there for favorable impressions of the statehood party candidate, and you got a glorious rush of positive comments from statehood voters -- while from commonwealth voters, not a single word of praise. Ask for unfavorable impressions, and the statehood voters...

Thank you. [Cheers] Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you....welcome. Thank you, it's great to see you all here. Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. You know, there are so many people that I want to thank here tonight. So many people. First of all, I want to thank all of the people of California. I want to thank them... I want to thank those who voted for our propositions, and also I want to thank those who did not vote for our propositions. I want to thank them for being part of the...

Driscoll Survives It's the closest Syracuse mayor's race in 80 years Wednesday, November 09, 2005 By Frederic Pierce and John Mariani Staff writers Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll won a second term Tuesday in the city's tightest mayoral race in 80 years, beating Republican Joanie Mahoney by 3.6 percent of the vote. Driscoll took 49.4 percent of the vote, while Mahoney took 45.8 percent, according to unofficial results from the Onondaga County Board of Elections. Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins earned 4.6 percent. "We held together, we closed ranks," Driscoll told a cheering crowd of about 500 supporters in Eastwood's Palace...

Unofficial 2005 election results for NJ Governor Follow the money. (Look at Essex.) NOTE: Newark, the 'drag and drop' capital of NJ, is in Essex County Corzine "walking around money" is virtually unlimited (source: Chris Matthews) Calculating a black man's worth to be 5/3 of a vote is no less racist, and arguably more so, than calculating his worth to be 3/5 of a white man; the latter is demeaning, but the former is dehumanizing. THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT? clinton legacy of lynching update

The 2001 elections http://www.michaelbarone.com ^ | 11/7/01 | michael barone The 2001 elections, Democrats have been spinning for weeks, are a harbinger of what will come in 2002 and 2004. Anticipating the victories they have now won in the races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, Democrats suggested that 2001 would show a weakening of the Republican Party and an inability by George W. Bush to translate his 85 percent-plus job approval rating into victories for Republican candidates. Now that we have the results, how valid are these claims? Odd-year elections are a harbinger of off-year and presidential-year elections...

Corzine elected governor of New Jersey 13 minutes ago Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record) was elected governor of New Jersey on Tuesday, defeating Republican Doug Forrester after an exceptionally nasty and expensive race, media outlets reported. Corzine, a multi-millionaire and former Wall Street executive, and Forrester, a wealthy business owner, spent an estimated $72 million of their own money in campaigns marked by charges of corruption and infidelity, including the Forrester campaign's use of damning quotes by Corzine's ex-wife.

For Everything Jersey on this Election day...find info at http://videos.news12.com/2005NJVOTE/NJVOTE2005.HTM#Public%20Questions

Ap reporting Kaine winner via Hannity and Colmes

Discuss the results of the Virginia election as results come in. The governor's race is especially important, but there are also races for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Also, there are significant House of Delegates races Virginia Election Results in Real Time

Nov. 7, 2005Washington, D.C. To: Our ReadersBecause of tomorrow's elections, this week's Evans-Novak Political Report will be delivered Wednesday -- a day later than usual. However, we send you this special update on tomorrow's major elections.Governor 2005New Jersey: Late rumors of a staffer sleeping with him and then secretly obtaining an abortion will not be enough to sink the campaign of Sen. Jon Corzine (D), especially when his Republican opponent, Doug Forrester, is defending against his own late scandal, an alleged affair. Corzine should win by 3 to 5 points tomorrow.This is Jersey politics at its best (or worst)....

NEWARK, N.J. -- Sen. Jon Corzine, the New Jersey Democrat, brings his characteristic grandiosity even to his buyer's remorse. In 2000, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs pulled $60.2 million from his wallet to buy a U.S. Senate seat. But just four years after the most expensive Senate campaign in American history, he decided to escape from that seat -- for which he paid $27,489.03 a day, prorated over six years -- and try to become governor. His Senate colleagues, their feelings injured, may wonder, ``Was it something we said?'' New Jersey should wonder whether some future Corzine whim might...

New Jersey Governor's Race John Corzine - 43% vs. Doug Forrester - 41%

October 28, 2005--For the first time this year, Tim Kaine has moved ahead of Jerry Kilgore in a Rasmussen Reports election poll.Kaine, the Democrat, now earns 46% of the vote while Kilgore attracts 44% in the race to be Virginia's next Governor. State Senator Russell Potts attracts 4% of the vote, up from 2% a week ago.While Kaine now has a two point advantage, the race remains too close to call. The survey's margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points, with a 95% level of confidence.In the previous Rasmussen Reports election poll, Kilgore had a two percentage point...

October 24, 2005--The race to succeed Mark Warner as Governor of Virginia remains too close to call.Republican Jerry Kilgore attracts 48% of the statewide vote while Democrat Tim Kaine earns 46%. Independent candidate Russell Potts is poised to earn just 2% of the vote. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.In the previous Rasmussen Reports election poll, Kilgore also had a two percentage point advantage, 46% to 44%. In late September, the two leading candidates were tied at 45%.This is the second 2005 Virginia election poll with "leaners"...

THIS YEAR'S gubernatorial race in Virginia has lacked a compelling theme or personality. Much of the contest has been driven by wedge issues and other distractions divorced from most voters' central concerns. Both major candidates have avoided straight talk about the cost of improving the state's road network and other priorities. But all that should not obscure this basic conclusion: Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the Democratic candidate, would make a much better governor than former attorney general Jerry W. Kilgore, the Republican. Possessed of an agile, incisive mind and slightly allergic to the allure of sound-bite politics, Mr. Kaine...

Three weeks from Election Day and a turn in the polls as Democrat Tim Kaine for the first time takes the lead in our exclusive SurveyUSA tracking poll. The statewide poll, taken of 750 Virginians over the weekend, shows Kaine leading with 47% of the vote. Republican Jerry Kilgore has 45%. Trailing far behind is independent candidate Russ Potts with 4%. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.7%, meaning the race is a statistical dead heat. But our tracking does show a steady climb for Kaine. In March and June Kilgore was ahead by 10 points. By...

I keep reading that stories that support for the ballot propositions backed by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is very weak. Even the Washington Times claims two are failing ("in the polls"), as if that finding represented a concensus of polls (Oct. 17, "For Arnold stakes are high"). I had thought I had seen them doing well, so I looked it up on the internet. The most recent poll I could find was done by Survey USA, released October 2nd. Its results: Proposition 73: Physicials must notify a parent of a pregnant minor 48 hours before performing the abortion. Yes, 59%....

Richmond HISTORY IS NOT on Jerry Kilgore's side. The Virginia governor's election comes one year after a presidential election. And in the last seven races in Virginia, going back to 1977, the candidate of the party in the White House has lost. Kilgore, the former state attorney general, is, like Bush, a Republican. Still, Virginia is a Republican state (both U.S. senators, 8 of 11 House members, solid majorities in the state senate and house). But the governor's race is different. It's partly a referendum on the president.Popular presidents don't help much. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton saw governors in...

October 12, 2005--The televised debate is over and the race to replace Mark Warner as Virginia Governor remains too close to call. Republican Jerry Kilgore attracts 46% of the statewide vote while Democrat Tim Kaine earns 44%.Two weeks ago, the two leading candidates were tied at 45%.Jerry Kilgore has been at 45% or 46% in four of the six Rasmussen Reports Virginia election polls this year. Once, he was above that at 47% and once below that at 43%.Kaine's support was at 39% to 41% in the first four Rasmussen Reports Virginia election polls. His numbers have improved a bit...

There's always a dispute over whether the elections held one year after a presidential election are politically significant. You can argue it both ways, and once you know the results, you can pretty well guess which way each party will argue. Still, it's worth taking a look at them, for voters will be choosing the mayor of the nation's largest city, the governor with the greatest institutional power (in New Jersey), and the governor whose jurisdiction includes Washington, D.C.'s Northern Virginia suburbs. Also, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put several propositions on the California ballot. If passed, they will significantly reduce...