2005 Campaign News & Analysis Update for 10/29/05 to 11/5/05

In This Edition: OH reform, VA, NYC, NJ, CA48, CA special election, and assorted mayoral races; polls, ads, etc. Election day is Nov 8!

Counting Down the Days

OH

VA
Polls

Campaign

NJ
Polls

Campaign

NYC

CA-48 Special Election; replacing Chris Cox (R)

CA $50M Special Election

Other

In Washington state, anti-taxers seem to have the edge in a bid to overturn a transportation package funded by a gasoline tax. The tax plan was strongly backed by the business community and passed with support of both parties in the legislature.
Several hot-button social issues will be on the ballot Tuesday. Texans will decide whether to add their state to the long list of those that have defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.

In Maine, voters will be asked whether a law passed by the Legislature that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation should be kept or repealed. The most recent survey data shows Down Easters preferring to keep the law as is, but historically, pre-election surveys about gay-related ballot measures in Maine have understated the strength of anti-gay voting on Election Day.
[…]
In the meantime, voters in both California and Washington state will face dueling health care measures. Californians will choose between two visions of prescription-drug pricing policies, one backed by activists and another by the pharmaceutical industry, while Washington residents, in a battle that has broken records for initiative spending in the state, will choose whether to back doctors or trial lawyers on the issues surrounding medical malpractice lawsuits. Paradoxically, an August poll had both Washington state measures comfortably ahead.

Washington state voters will also choose whether to outlaw smoking in indoor public places. The measure was leading in summer polling.
[…]
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, City Council President Frank Jackson, who topped incumbent Mayor Jane Campbell in an eight-way, nonpartisan primary, has the edge going into Nov. 8. In Detroit, embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is badly trailing ex-Deputy Mayor Freman Hendrix.

In St. Paul, Minn., incumbent Mayor Randy Kelly trails ex-City Councilman Chris Coleman, due largely to Kelly’s endorsement of Bush last year. In San Diego, ex-Police Chief Jerry Sanders leads city councilwoman and surfer Donna Frye in a city that has chewed through several mayors in the last year.

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Cross-posted at Penndit.
Cross-posted at My Left Wing.