Voters in a variety of races around the country are headed to the polls today. Here's a list of some of the most notable, in order of poll closing times:
• Pittsburgh, PA mayoral Democratic primary
• Pennsylvania HD-42 & HD-95 special elections
• Other local primaries throughout PA, including for Philadelphia city controller, Harrisburg and Scrantor mayor, Erie County executive, and a judgeship race in York County featuring ex-Rep. Todd Platts (R)
• Portland, OR municipal water fluoridation ballot measure
• Los Angeles, CA mayoral runoff
• Other local L.A. races, including city attorney
• California SD-16 & AD-80 special elections
Polls close at 8 PM ET in Pennsylvania, 10 & 11 PM ET in Oregon (though results typically are not released until all polls have closed), and 11 PM ET in California.
If you have links for results for any of these races (or any others not mentioned above), please post them in comments. This is an open thread to discuss all elections taking place tonight. Enjoy!
8:12 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Here is a brief update on some of the bigger races thus far on this Election Night:
- The Democrats held serve in both Pennsylvania House special elections. In suburban Pittsburgh's PA-HD-42, Dan Miller held the seat for the Democrats rather comfortably (57-37). Meanwhile, in the York-centered PA-HD-95, the Democratic lean of the district came through for Kevin Schreiber, who won 53-39 in a race that Republicans seemed to have irrationally high hopes for victory.
- In Pittsburgh's Democratic mayoral primary (which is likely tantamount to victory in this heavily blue town), Bill Peduto has outpointed Jack Wagner (52-40) to earn the nod for the Ds. Josh Wander was unopposed on the Republican side.
- Polls just closed in the other contests of the night, most notably a pair of special legislative elections in California, coupled with the big enchilada of the night: the runoff for Mayor of Los Angeles, where city controller Wendy Greuel was taking on LA city councilman Eric Garcetti.
8:59 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Here is a California-centric update:
- With only the VBM (vote by mail) ballots tallied, Wendy Greuel has forged a very slight lead over Eric Garcetti in the runoff for Los Angeles Mayor. Right now the margin is about 3000 votes (51-49). In a bit of an upset, Republican Dennis Zine (who had been favored in every single poll) is slightly trailing Ron Galperin (52-48) in the race to replace Greuel as city Controller. Meanwhile, in the L.A. City Attorney's race, incumbent Carmen Trutanich is losing rather badly to Democrat Mike Feuer (58-42) in a result presaged somewhat by the results in the first round.
- Meanwhile, we have conflicting results in the two California state legislative special elections. In the Central Valley-based SD-16 special election to replace Democrat Michael Rubio, Republican Andy Vidak leads 53-40 with 32 percent reporting. But this is a very politically divided district, and nearly half of Vidak's best turf (Kings County) is reporting. Meanwhile, down in San Diego County, in early returns, Lorena Gonzalez is crushing Steve Castaneda (71-29). Both are Democrats, but Castaneda was running as a considerably more "centrist" option.
9:03 PM PT (Steve Singiser): File this under "For What It's Worth":
LMU exit poll: Garcetti 54, Greuel 46. Margin of error : 3.4%. This is Fernando Guerra's election day survey of 800 voters.
— @GeneMaddaus via web
9:54 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Memo to the City of Angels -- you are freaking killing me. No updates for an hour and then...wait for it...a whopping 838 additional votes were counted. Sigh...this is going to be a looooooong night, kids.
9:58 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Meanwhile, an actually legitimate update from CA-SD-16, where a party switch still appears possible. Republican Andy Vidak still leads in this nominally Democratic district, but his margin has narrowed by a couple of points over Democrat Leticia Perez. What was a 53-40 lead for the Republican is now 52-41. Here's why that matters: the race goes to a runoff if Vidak dips below 50 percent. And the combined Democratic vote is 47 percent, and the extra percent is going to a Peace and Freedom candidate. Therefore, if Perez can force a runoff, she'd be at least even money in the runoff, in all probability.
10:13 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Another update for CA-SD-16, and it is, on balance, really bad news for the Democrats. The total is up to 61 percent of precincts reporting, and Andy Vidak is still over 50 percent. He currently sits at 51.0 percent, and there has been no update from Kings County, where there are still just 49 percent reporting. Vidak is crushing in that county (75-21!), meaning there are quite possibly a ton of Vidak votes still out there. Perez's best hope is that the reddest parts of Kings reported early.
10:31 PM PT (Steve Singiser): An additional 40 minutes of counting yields another...61 precincts. But that does total a fairly substantial 11,000 votes. The net result? Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are now essentially tied in the L.A. Mayoral election. Greuel's lead is down to 233 votes.
10:54 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Democratic hopes in CA-SD-16 are still wavering a bit. More Kings County precincts came in for Republican Andy Vidak, who has edged back out to a lead with 51.3 percent of the vote. Remember, he needs a majority to avoid a runoff. No updates from L.A. City, though one arithmetically inclined soul noted that their rate is a robust 71 ballots per minute. And, friends, this is a really big city. See you in the morning, I suppose?
11:04 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Now we are starting to get some more legitimate numbers, and they confirm the long-held suspicion that the walk-up vote favored Eric Garcetti in the L.A. Mayoral race. He now leads 51-49 with 14 percent of precincts in, a lead of 3500 votes. Meanwhile, both Dennis Zine and Carmen Trutanich are losing ground in their races as the walk-up vote is tallied. Meanwhile, down south, CA-AD-80 is all but decided, with Lorena Gonzalez up 71-29 on Steve Castaneda with three-quarters of the vote in. With the LA Mayoral Count and SD-16 counts at a somewhat glacial pace, we probably won't have decisive winners till the morning.
11:07 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Ah. This is an excellent update to close Tuesday with: Portland voters fought back once more against the scourge of fluoride. The measure to fluoridate the city's drinking water was rejected by a fairly sound margin.
Wed May 22, 2013 at 6:23 AM PT (Steve Singiser): With all precincts in, here is how California shook out:
- Eric Garcetti will be the next mayor of Los Angeles, and maybe they oughta hire Loyola Marymount University to do all exit polling, because they hit it on the screws: Garcetti won 54-46. Democrats Mike Feuer and Ron Galperin won City Attorney and City Controller, respectively.
- One dark spot for the Democrats: they failed to hold CA-SD-16, which became open when Democrat Michael Rubio quit to work for Chevron. Andy Vidak, who gave Rep. Jim Costa all he could handle in 2010, won the seat over Leticia Perez 52-42. Meanwhile, Lorena Gonzalez easily won CA-AD-80 in a Democrat-versus-Democrat runoff.