This Newsweek story says that a poll commissioned by a Democratic candidate for Governor of California shows these results: Chad Bianco (R) 20%; Antonio Villaraigosa (D) 19%; Steve Hilton (R) 18%; Katie Porter (D) 15%.
A Berkeley IGS Poll released on November 7 shows: Bianco 13%; Porter 11%; Hilton 8%; Becerra 8%.
Georgia held a special statewide election on November 4, 2025, to elect two Public Service Commissioners. This is a partisan office. The election was noteworthy for several reasons.
It was the first time Georgia has held an odd year statewide election to elect state officers since 1883. Normally all Georgia elections for statewide state office are in November of even years.
It was the first statewide election since 1986 in which the Libertarian Party was not on the ballot for statewide office.
The election results were an overwhelming victory for the two Democratic nominees. One polled 62.7% and the other polled 62.9%. This was the first time Democrats had won any state statewide office since 2006. See the results here.
The Public Service Commission regulates utilities. It has five members, so Republicans still have a 3-2 majority.
Georgia held this special election because the office was missing from the ballot in 2024. It was missing in that election because of a lawsuit arguing that electing commissioners statewide violated the federal Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs won that case in U.S. District Court, but lost in the Eleventh Circuit. But the litigation postponed the 2024 election. And because the office was not on the ballot in 2024, the Libertarian Party fell off the statewide ballot. Normally Libertarians always polled enough votes for Public Service Commissioner to retain statewide qualified status. But because that office was missing in 2024, and because there was no U.S. Senate election in Georgia in 2024 either, the Libertarians couldn’t meet the vote test. Georgia Libertarians never get enough votes for president to meet the vote test, except that they did in 2016.
A final irony is that one of the winners in the 2025 election is African-American.
On November 7, a Wyoming state trial court upheld Wyoming’s “sore loser” law, and also the fairly new law that doesn’t let voters choose a primary ballot unless they have been members of that party for several months before the primary. Malcom v Gray, Laramie County, 2024-cv-202658. See this story. The plaintiffs will probably appeal to the State Supreme Court.
In November 2024, John Eder was elected as a Republican to the Maine House of Representatives. Eder had also been elected to the House in 2002 as a Green, and he had been re-elected as a Green in 2004. See the wikipedia page about him.
He represented part of Portland when he was a Green. His new district is centered on Waterboro, which is south of Portland.
On November 4, voters in Cato, New York, faced a ballot with only one candidate for all five positions. The election is partisan, and the candidates listed were Republican nominees. But many people in town made a late decision to file as write-ins, and the write-in candidates won for Town Supervisor, Town Clerk, Town Council (2 seats), and Highway Superintendent. See this story.
Cato is in Cayuga County.
