Well, it was a landslide in Congress and in the Governor's mansions, but how did the 2006 elections affect downballot races? I've put together a rundown of the statewide races aside from Senator and Governor: Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor, Comptroller, Agriculture Commissioner, Superintendant of Education, Mine Inspector (seriously, Arizona elects this)...

Just a quick note, I'm only covering races in which the party control has changed. Also, I'm only covering Lt. Governor seats that are elected independently of the Governor. If I've missed anything, be sure to tell me.

Broken up into regions, it looks something like this...

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I've never donated money to a political candidate before. Mostly because I've never had the money. But now that I have a job, although it doesn't pay too much, I have a little extra cash kicking around, so I decided to take the plunge and do it. I sent $20 each to two candidates:

* Phil Kellam is running against Bush's Hampton Roads hand puppet, Thelma Drake, in VA-02. Yes, he's a Blue Dog, but he's about the only candidate that has a chance of winning in this red district that I moved to this year.

* Jon Tester needs no introduction here, but he's going to need help from as many people as possible in order to counteract Conrad Burns's piles of Republican money.

And now, the hard sell: What I want to ask now is that anyone reading this who has never contributed to a candidate before, find one you like and give them some money. Even if it's only $10 or $20, it's still better than nothing. We all need to come together and support Democratic candidates, because the price of inaction is too great.

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And this guy wants to be governor?

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Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley has made a decision on who will be his running mate: State Delegate Anthony Brown, the House Majority Whip and an Army Reserve Lt. Colonel who served in Iraq from September of last year to June this year. Obviously the war isn't going to be a big issue in a gubernatorial election, but you can add another fighting Democrat to the list.

I do find it odd that Duncan is also considering a PG County legislator as a running mate. I would expect him to pick someone from the Baltimore area, for the all-important region balancing.

Back in March, I wrote up a Senate analysis. I thought I'd update it, eight months down the line, so here goes...

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Yahoo News link.

Is he going to try and hold on to his seat until 2006, or will there be a special election next year? To me, it seems highly unlikely that he'll be able to stay in office for another year. Either way, good luck to Francine Busby -- and here's hoping that Cunningham leaves a bad taste in the 50th District voters' mouths.

A Rasmussen poll (the first polling for this race that I've seen) shows Nelson leading Pete Ricketts 52-29 and David Kramer 57-25. Also notable is Nelson's favorable ratings: an astonishing 70 percent of Nebraska voters have a favorable view of Sen. Nelson, and only 22 percent view him unfavorably. His challengers have anemic ratings: 39-29 for Ricketts, and 32-33 for Kramer. (They don't poll Don Stenberg, Nelson's 2000 opponent, but I can't imagine he's doing that well either.)

Nelson's in better shape than Maria Cantwell and Debbie Stabenow. I think this one can be taken off the table of competitive races.

Rasmussen's new poll has Cardin up 49-41, but Mfume tied 44-45. it's important to note that Mfume's unfavorables are higher than his favorables at this point. not a good sign for him.

I wouldn't have known this had it not been for Survey USA, but in two weeks Maine voters will be deciding whether or not to repeal a law that protects gays and lesbians from discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and credit. Similar laws have been repealed by voters in 1998 and 2000. Let's not let this happen again. Maine voters, remember to vote No on Ballot Question 1 on November 8.

Thank you, Survey USA.

Pretty impressive, but in a district that's half Republicans, it's still going to be an uphill fight to oust him.