Election Day Countdown

One day to go (and as Election Projection notes, exactly one year to go until the 2006 midterms), and things couldn't be more exciting in New York, New Jersey, California, and Virginia.

PoliPundit is hosting a predictathon on the ballot initiatives and gubernatorial and mayoral races.  Michelle Malkin has a comprehensive round-up of pre-election coverage.

New Yorkers can bone up on non-mayoral decisions, like public advocate, comptroller, borough presidents, city council, and the four ballot initiatives courtesy of Gotham Gazette's Election 2005 coverage.

Finally, the always erudite Larry Sabato at UVA's Center for Politics weighs in on the big races and their implications for 2006.

My predictions:

• NJ Governor: Corzine (Dem)
• VA Governor: Kilgore (Rep)
• NY Mayor: Bloomberg (Rep)
• NY City Council: Net 2 seat gain for Republicans (via Patrick Murphy and Joel Zinberg victories in Districts 4 and 5)
• CA Initiatives: Who know what those krazy Kalifornians want.  People seem to think only the tenure initiative will pass.  I have more faith in the Governator's pull.  I'll give him 3 passes.

Update: Wow! Via PoliPundit, Bloomberg now has a monstrous 38-point lead, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.  Mike leads by 20 points even among Democrats and by a whopping 49 points in Manhattan.  The only subgroup that has Ferrer out front is Hispanics, among whom the challenger leads 57-40.

Both candidates are asking voters to ignore the polls, but this is getting downright embarrassing.  (That being said, a note to New York Republicans: don't get complacent and blow off getting to the polls tomorrow.  There are plenty of candidates in very tight non-mayoral races that need your support.)

The New York Sun has already published a piece entitled "Why Bloomberg Won".  Probably a slightly safer bet than Dewey over Truman.

The Ferrer campaign and its apologists are accusing Mr. Bloomberg of having bought the election, as if New Yorkers were so easily manipulable. By this logic, New York City would have been carried by Governor Golisano and President Perot. Other Democrats blame Mr. Ferrer for running a gaffe-filled campaign. Our own tradition in election week is to pay homage to the wisdom of the voters, which in this case means celebrating a city that, for all the stereotypes about it being a hotbed of Greenwich Village and Upper West Side-style leftism, is increasingly open to common sense when it is spoken, notwithstanding the party affiliation of the speaker.
...
The aggressive counter-terrorism and crime-fighting measures undertaken by Mr. Bloomberg's police department headed by Raymond Kelly inspire confidence, even though they've also inspired a law suit by the New York Civil Liberties Union. Mr. Bloomberg, who erred in raising taxes in his first term, is clearly the low-tax candidate in this race against Mr. Ferrer, who wants to raise taxes even more and prevent some of Mr. Bloomberg's tax increases from sun-setting on schedule.
...
We don't mind saying that we'll take no joy in seeing Fernando Ferrer get such a beating as the polls indicate he's going to get. ... [T]he mayor's impending victory is the latest in a series of political developments suggesting that when one gets down to particulars, New Yorkers aren't as far left as the stereotype - and that they are part of a national rightward trend in America that has been the big political story of the past generation.

Previously:  Blogburst for Patrick Murphy