 ELECTION NIGHT COVERAGE:
Hear live election night coverage beginning Tuesday night at 9 on Newsradio 930 WBEN.
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Beyond WNY:
GOVERNORS:
Voters in two states, New Jersey and Virginia, are electing governors.
-The New Jersey race has centered on the economy and the state's highest-in-the-nation taxes. Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, the billionaire former Wall Street executive, is fighting to earn a second term. His opponents are Republican former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and an independent candidate, former state environmental official Chris Daggett.
-In Virginia, where Democrats last year handed the GOP its first presidential defeat in 44 years, the GOP is trying to stage a comeback. Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, a state senator who narrowly lost the attorney general's race to McDonnell four years ago, are running to replace the term-limited Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine.
MAYORS:
Mayors are being elected in several major cities.
-In Atlanta, six candidates are seeking to succeed term-limited Mayor Shirley Franklin in an election that is expected to lead to a December runoff. The top contenders include City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who was trying to become the city's first white mayor in a generation.
-In New York, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to spend more than $100 million of his fortune in a bid for a third term, the most expensive self-financed campaign in American history.
-In Houston, four candidates were competing to succeed three-term Mayor Bill White, including city Controller Annise Parker, who would be the city's first openly gay mayor.
-The mayors of Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh are up for re-election.
U.S. HOUSE:
Two special elections, one in northern California and one in upstate New York, won't change the balance of power of the 435-member House, where Democrats hold 256 seats. Both seats were vacated when the incumbent took a job in the Obama administration.
-A special election in New York's rural and strongly Republican 23rd Congressional District highlighted divisions in the GOP when some prominent Republicans, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, backed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. The defections lead the GOP candidate, Dierdre Scozzafava, to bow out and support Democrat Bill Owens.
-Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi faced off with Republican attorney Dave Harmer for a Northern California congressional seat.
BALLOT MEASURES:
-Voters in Maine have the opportunity to make it the first state to approve gay marriage at the ballot box with a referendum on whether to accept or reject a same-sex marriage law approved by legislators in May.
-In Washington, voters will be deciding whether to keep a Legislature-approved "everything but marriage" domestic partnerships law, which grants registered partners the same legal rights as married couples.
-Ohio voters will decide whether to bring casinos to the state.
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(WBEN) - In Erie County approx. 42 percent of the races have no opposition, inlcuding the city of Buffalo where incumbent Democrat Byron Brown is assured a second term..
County wide races: Sheriff Tim Howard vs. Democrat John Glascott, and Comptroller Mark Poloncarz vs. Rep. Phil Kadet.
All Erie County legislators face re-election, but 5 are unopposed. County executive Chris Collins has targeted Poloncarz for defeat, and is also involved in 2 legislature races: Lynne Dixon vs Robert Reynolds in Hamburg and Evans, Kevin Hardwick vs. Incumbent Michelle Ianello,
Elsewhere: There are several intense local races, but 66 out of 155 candidates in Erie County have no opposition, including Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
Town Supervisors or those who want to replace one face opposition in Amherst, Aurora, Boston, Brant, Colden, Collins, Concord, Hamburg & Orchard Park.
Contentious 3-candidate supervisor races are in Amherst, Aurora & Hamburg.
In Amherst, board member Barry Weinstein, faces Democrat Alice Kryzan and Conservative Bill Kindel. Two propositions are on the Amherst Ballot- one dealing with board member sucession, the other on whether a board can overturn previous rulings against development with a simple majority.
In Aurora, Incumbent Dwight Kreiger faces Republican Jolene Jeffe and former town supervisor Tom Cotton
In Hamburg, incumbent Steve Walters faces Dennis Gaughan and Patti Michalek.
On The WBEN Liveline:
Len Lenihan & Jim Domagalski - Erie Democratic & GOP Chairs
Across America......
(AP) In a very early test of President Barack Obama's political influence, two states are choosing whether to continue Democratic rule while voters elsewhere elect a handful of congressmen and big-city mayors.
Elected just a year ago, the president has spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to ensure that Democrats win governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey and pick up a GOP-held congressional seat in upstate New York.
In doing so, Obama raised the stakes of a low-enthusiasm off-year election season - and risked political embarrassment if any lost.
All three could.
Heading into Tuesday's elections, Democrat gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds was trailing Republican Bob McDonnell in polls by double digits in Virginia. In a three-way race in New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine was in a close race with Republican Chris Christie and independent Chris Daggett. And in the race to fill the vacant 23rd Congressional District seat in New York, Democrat Bill Owens was in a tight fight with conservative Doug Hoffman after the GOP's hand-picked candidate bowed out over the weekend.
Elsewhere, California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi is expected to maintain the Democratic Party's hold on the open 10th Congressional District seat near San Francisco, while New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to cruise to a third term. Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh also will elect mayors, while voters in Maine and Washington weigh in on same-sex unions and voters in Ohio decide whether to allow casinos.
To be sure, it's easy to overanalyze the results of such a small number of elections in a few places. The results will only offer hints about the national political landscape and clues to the public's attitudes. And the races certainly won't predict what will happen in the 2010 midterm elections.
But, given that Democrats control the White House and Congress, defeats in Virginia - a new swing state in national elections - or New Jersey - a Democratic stronghold - would be setbacks for the White House, even though both states having long histories of electing governors from a political party opposite that of the president.
After all, this is a president who won a year ago in an electoral landslide after building a fundraising and organizational juggernaut that attracted scores of new voters into what Obama loyalists have called a movement. And this is a party that has comfortable majorities in the House and Senate - and that controls governor's mansions in Virginia and New Jersey.
As the Democratic Party chief, Obama had little choice but to work hard to elect Corzine and Deeds; doing otherwise would have been seen by the base as a breach of duty.
So, he campaigned several times for Corzine and raised money for Deeds. Obama also was featured in campaign advertisements for both. He characterized the success of their candidacies as key components for the White House to make good on its political promises and advance its agenda. And he deployed the Democratic National Committee and his own political campaign arm, Organizing for America, to ensure the swarms of new voters he attracted in 2008 turn out even if he's not on the ballot.
Of the two races, a Republican victory in Virginia would be the most telling about potential trouble ahead for Democrats as they compete in swing states next fall.
Long reliably Republican in national races, Virginia is a new swing state. It's home to a slew of northern bellwether counties filled with swing-voting independents who carried Obama to victory last fall, the first Democrat to win the state in a White House race since 1964. Rapidly growing counties like Loudoun and Prince William swung toward Democrats in the 2005 governor's race, previewing an Obama win three years later.
Conversely, New Jersey is a traditional Democratic-leaning state with an incumbent Democratic governor. As such, it's the trickier of the two for Republicans to win - and yet the GOP just might.
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