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State Central Committee member Chuck Smith has announced his run for the 2nd Congressional seat in VA, election in 2010. Chuck is a former Marine and Navy JAG officer. This is the seat where Democrat Glenn Nye recently beat Republican Thelma Drake. For more information, see http://chucksmith2010.com/index.html

Minnesota State Canvassing Board review of challenged ballots in the U.S. Senate race HERE

In a shocker, there will be a GOP Rep. in New Orleans. In a surprising twist, GOPers won a sweep in LA tonight in two general elections, picking up embattled Rep. Bill Jefferson's (D-LA 02) seat in New Orleans, and holding retiring Rep. Jim McCrery's (R) seat in the Shreveport-based Fourth District. But the surprise of the night, and possibly the cycle, was in the Big Easy. Atty Ahn “Joseph” Cao (R) defeated Jefferson 50-47%. Dems outnumber GOPers here 6-1, and African Americans make up 61% of the vote. But the NRCC must've had an inkling that something was up...

LA-2 , Orleans, Jefferson Parish: In a huge upset win, little known Republican attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao beat nine term and criminally indicted William Jefferson(D). Jefferson had been expected to easily win. Cao becomes the first Vietnamese member of U.S. Congress. LA-4, Shreveport-Bossier City, Sabine Parish, et. al., Western LA, TX/AR border: Republican Dr. John Fleming wins. Fleming was trailing by about 3% early in the election results but came on strong in the end to beat Carmouche(D) by 356 votes. Carmouche has not conceded election – recount probably pending. With these results, the 111th U.S. House of Representatives...

Louisiana Secretary of State Election Results by Parish-Unofficial Results for Election Date: 12/06/08 U. S. Representative, 4th Congressional District

The recount has swung back and forth between the two men, with batches of uncounted ballots being discovered here and there as well as clerical errors changing the totals. With the recount virtually complete on Friday, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Coleman led Franken by 787 votes. Local newspapers put Coleman's margin at about 200 votes, tallying ballots that had previously been challenged.

With all but one precinct re-counted in the Minnesota Senate race, Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias is claiming Franken leads Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) by four votes. The number from Franken's internal tally does not include the Minneapolis precinct where 133 ballots went missing. The Franken count includes the thousands of disputed ballots that both campaigns objected to during the recount process.

The U.S. Senate recount neared its final hours Thursday, buffeted by the kinds of disputes over missing ballots and challenged ballots that have become familiar in the month since the post-election drama began. Yet at day's end, with 99 percent of the ballots counted, the gap separating Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken was only 36 votes larger than it had been at the start. Coleman now leads by 251, according to Star Tribune tabulations. As on Wednesday, the case of 133 missing ballots in Minneapolis held center stage. The city's top election official said she did not...

This Saturday there is another runoff election in Louisiana's fourth congressional district. Let's hope and pray we win this one as well. Saxby Chambliss's impressive win last Tuesday night renewed my vision for hope and change. Yes we can! Hopefully Gov. Sarah Palin will campaign for the GOP candidate, John Fleming. Sarah rocks! Ask Saxby!

Al Franken’s campaign claims it now holds a 22-vote lead in the U.S. Senate race with just 138,000 votes left to be recounted. This figure contrasts with other tabulations, based on numbers from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office, that show Coleman maintaining a 303-vote lead. The Franken numbers differ in a couple of respects from the SOS data. Most importantly the Democratic camp’s vote tally relies on the call made by local election officials in determining which candidate an individual intended to support. By contrast the other tallies don’t take into consideration the roughly 6,000 ballots that have been...

Take it to the bank.

The polls close in ten minutes. Hopefully Georgia has held the line today. Poll traffic was reported as steady here Northeast Atlanta today...

Former U.S. representative and current Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum (R) said he will “seriously consider” running to replace Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) in 2010. “At this point, my plan is — at the appropriate time — to announce my intention to seek reelection as Florida’s attorney general,” McCollum said in a statement Tuesday following an announcement from Martinez that he would not seek a second term. “However, given today’s development, I will seriously consider and discuss with my family a race for this U.S. Senate seat, and we will share our decision at a later date.” McCollum said he...

The hand recount of Minnesota Senate ballots is in its final week, but the results are likely to be inconclusive. The declaration of a winner will be on hold until thousands of disputed ballots are sorted out. By Friday, all of the state's 87 counties should be done with their collective review of 2.9 million ballots. A five-member board will gather beginning Dec. 16 to rule on ballot challenges made by Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken. As of Monday night, Coleman was up 344 votes when Nov. 4 and recounted numbers from precincts are put side...

The recount is around 88% complete with Coleman ahead in the official tally by 282 votes. At the same time, there are 5,623 ballots which have been challenged by one or the other campaign, and these ballots are removed - temporarily - from the official tally. Therefore the 282 vote lead is not very meaningful; what matters is the dispensation of the challenged ballots. For example, if these challenged ballots break 52.6% to 47.4% in favor of Franken, he wins. Note also that the vast majority of challenged ballots will go against the candidate making the challenge. That's because most...

The Coleman campaign has just issued the following press release that confirms the nightmare scenarios sketched out by John Fund in his Wall Street Journal column today: ST. PAUL - Hours after the Franken campaign failed to convince the Minnesota State Canvassing Board to intervene on its behalf, Senate President Harry Reid (D-Nev) supported Franken's attorney's statement that they are prepared to take the Minnesota election to the U.S. Senate for a decision. Later Wednesday afternoon, Reid opened the door for Senate intervention into the Minnesota election processing, saying: "Today's decision by the Minnesota Canvassing Board not to count certain...

The State Board of Elections has certified challenger Tom Perriello as the winner over Republican Congressman Virgil Goode. The board today certified Perriello as the winner by 745 votes in the 5th District congressional race. Goode is entitled to a recount if he chooses.

ATLANTA | Democrat Jim Martin is campaigning feverishly, aided by Barack Obama's grass-roots organization from the presidential race and a flood of support from the national party, but he remains an underdog against incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss in a Georgia runoff election considered pivotal for the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. Mr. Martin is behind in polls, has half the cash of his opponent and early-voting turnout among black voters is stagnating - a crucial block for any Democrat in this mostly conservative state where Republicans also hold the other U.S. Senate seat, the governor's office and...

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) could be ripe for a challenge for his seat in 2010, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. Only 36 percent of voters in the survey said Martinez deserves a second term. More voters — 38 percent — say that he doesn’t, and 26 percent are not sure. When asked whom they would vote for if the election were held today, 40 percent said they would support the Democratic candidate and 36 percent said they would back Martinez.

Abstract: The runoff for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia is providing a stark example of how candidates in the 2008 election have been able to skirt campaign-finance limits -- without actually breaking the law. Federal campaign-finance law limits individuals to donating $2,300 to a candidate per election. Yet Republicans and Democrats are soliciting donations more than 10 times that amount for the Dec. 2 runoff in Georgia. GOP fund-raisers are asking people to give as much as $65,500 toward incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss's campaign, while Democrats are seeking donations up to $30,800 for challenger Jim Martin. So how are...