Eliza Asks

Rules of the Game: "Democrats and their allies face a tricky problem in the wake of a midterm defined by big money: Should they keep bashing interest group cash, or fight fire with fire?"

"For Mayor, the Odds Aren't Great"

Joshua Spivak has written this oped for the Miami Herald. It begins: "Facing a well funded recall campaign, Mayor Carlos Alvarez has good reason to worry. In addition to the fact that he could be forced to face the voters at a time of serious voter anger at elected officials, the nature of the recall operates against its target. Once on the ballot, recalls have a good chance of succeeding."

"Too much money in politics? Ain't seen nothing yet "

AP offers this report (with AP's apparent apologies to BTO).

"Kirk Can't Join Senate at Start of Lame Duck"

The WSJ Washington Wire reports. That makes my idea for Sen. Kirk to lead the fight for campaign finance disclosure in the lame duck even harder.

"Redistricting Could Give GOP Ten More Seats"

Following on my post here, more on the redistricting consequences of Tuesday's election at Political Wire, Hotline on Call, and Politico.

At Politico, Ben Smith also has links to two monstrous RNC spreadsheets showing partisan control for redistricting purposes, for Congress and the state legislatures.

The difference between the spreadsheets' bottom line and mine basically reflect different assessments of the photo-finish races:
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Republicans controlling the Colorado state House (yielding split control overall)
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Democrats winning the Illinois governor's race (yielding Dem control overall)
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Democrats winning the Minnesota governor's race (yielding split control overall)
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Republicans controlling the New York state Senate (yielding split control overall)
and with what now looks like a tie in the Oregon state House, that accounts for most of the difference.

"Foley concedes defeat, but GOP wants probe of Bridgeport vote"

That's a lucky break for Connecticut election administrators, who will now face much less intense scrutiny about the problems in the state's last election.

Missouri 3rd District Congressional Race: Candidate Concedes, as Some of His Fears of Voter Fraud Have "Evaporated"

Following up on this post, see here (via TPM).