Thread: Running around the country: 11 other important elections

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Running around the country: 11 other important elections

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

Governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey highlight Tuesday's off-year elections, but voters across the U.S. were deciding several other contests that could have national implications:

Mayors

Boston: For the first time in 20 years, Boston's mayor won't be Tom Menino, who chose not to run for a sixth term. The two Democrats left in the race — City Council member John Connolly, 40, and state Rep. Marty Walsh, 46 — were within the margin of error in the final opinion polls, but Walsh, who won the endorsements of numerous labor and minority activist groups, surged from almost 10 point down in the last month.

Detroit: Mike Duggan, 54, the former head of the Detroit Medical Center, had a 2-to-1 lead over Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, 58, in the final polls. If he wins Tuesday's runoff, he will the first white mayor in four decades in the 85 percent African-American city.Whoever wins, he won't have much authority: Detroit has declared bankruptcy and is run by a state-appointed emergency manager.

New York: Democratic Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, 52, had an almost 3-to-1 lead in the final polls over Republican Joe Lhota, 59, who resigned as head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority to run for mayor. De Blasio, who would be the city's first Democratic mayor since 1993, emerged from a crowded Democratic primary field after City Council President Christine Quinn and former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner fell by the wayside.

Other elections

Virginia: With about 45 percent of the precincts reporting, Republican state Sen. Mark Obenshain, 51, ledt Democratic state Sen. Mark Herring, 52, in the race for attorney general with 56 percent of the vote. The two fought a tight contest, but Democrats and outside groups poured money into the race in an attempt to tie Obenshain to the floundering gubernatorial campaign of Republican Tea Party favorite Ken Cuccinelli.

Alabama: The Republican runoff for a Dec. 7 special election in the 1st Congressional District was a proxy battle for the turmoil in the national party. Former state Sen. Bradley Byrne, 58, who defected from the Democratic Party in 1997, had the backing of establishment Republicans and business groups. But Dean Young, 49 — a Tea Party conservative who falsely said in an interview last week that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya — was running neck and neck with Byrne in the final polls.

Ballot initiatives

Colorado: Voters were expected to pass a 25 percent tax on recreational marijuana beginning Jan. 1, when retailers being selling pot legally in the state, which was one of the first two (with Washington) to legalize it.

Much less likely to pass was a ballot measure in which 11 rural counties in the northeastern corner of the state were voting on whether to start the process of seceding from Colorado to try to become the 51st state.

New York: Gov. Andrew Cuomo is backing a constitutional amendment that would make New York the biggest state to allow Vegas-style casinos on non-Indian lands.

Texas: Polls showed Harris County voters mostly favoring a referendum measure to turn the "Eighth Wonder of the World" — the now-crumbling Houston Astrodome — into a convention center. Opponents acknowledged the Astrodome's historical importance as the first domed baseball stadium but said the $217 million price tag was too high.

Washington: Major national grocery chains went all out to defeat a statewide initiative that would make Washington the first state to require labels for foods containing genetically modified ingredients. (Connecticut has already passed such a law, but it wouldn't go into effect until other states pass similar measures.) Opponents outspent backers by almost 3-to-1, arguing that the requirement would send food prices through the roof.

And in the city of SeaTac, south of Seattle, local residents were deciding whether to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour — more than twice that national level — for many workers in and around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news...elections?lite

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A crucial drive: Houston Texans shuttle seniors to voting booths

Published November 05, 2013FoxNews.com

Here’s one way to not block the box — the ballot box, that is.

Led by retired offensive lineman Chester Pitts, current and former Houston Texans will reportedly drive senior citizens in Texas to the voting booth on Election Day. Pitts, who retired in 2011, now works for a local television station in Houston and has joined forces with Harvest Community Center for the second consecutive year to help elderly voters make it to the polls, PepperonSports.com reports.

“Seniors, you can learn so much from them and just being around them for the length of time we were was an amazing experience,” Pitts told the blog, which is run by sports journalist Jackie Pepper. “Their gracious attitude told me this was something I had to keep doing.”

Texans linemen Duane Brown and Brandon Brooks, as well as former Texans defensive lineman Travis Johnson and former Houston Oilers receiver Haywood Jeffries, will join Pitts behind the wheel of several large passenger vans to shuttle the elderly voters.

Pitts said he hopes more players will get involved next year, particularly as the NFL battles allegations of bullying in Miami and increased scrutiny of its response to severe injuries and concussions.

“There is no responsibility for professional athletes to do this,” Pitts continued. “But as a professional athlete, you are a role model and I believe you should always do what is right. Helping others, especially our seniors, is always important and as long as I am able, I want to do just that.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...voting-booths/

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