Elections

In a closely watched West Sacramento school board race, a union-backed teacher held a nearly 2-to-1 lead over a candidate endorsed by the city's mayor and bankrolled by groups challenging labor power.

If the Supreme Court strikes down or otherwise guts a centerpiece of the Voting Rights Act, there will be far less scrutiny of thousands of decisions each year about redrawing district lines, moving or closing polling places, changing voting hours or imposing voter identification requirements in areas that have a history of disenfranchising minority voters, experts say.

WASHINGTON – The politically charged issue of race was before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in a case that could determine how the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act applies to the South.

Stung by an image that it's too rigidly conservative and too "stupid" about its words and tactics, a somber Republican Party vowed Friday to change its ways.

Neel Kashkari, a Republican executive who worked for the U.S. Treasury Department at the height of the financial crisis, is reportedly weighing a run for public office in California.

Election officials in Sacramento and dozens more counties got a glimpse this month at how California's diverse population will affect how they plan for the next gubernatorial election in June 2014.

Voters in West Sacramento's Washington Unified School District will soon decide who to elect to the school board in a special election.

Anne Marie Schubert moved quickly to head off potential opposition Thursday when she announced that the two top law enforcement officers in the county have endorsed her campaign to become Sacramento's next district attorney.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced Monday she will not seek re-election when her fifth term expires at the end of 2014.

Ann Ravel recalled recently what many people thought of her last year, when Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her chairwoman of the commission overseeing campaign finance and ethics rules in California.

Following the controversy in California's initiative campaigns over an $11 million donation from a secretive, out-of-state group, Democratic lawmakers have begun introducing legislation to increase disclosure requirements and the power of the Fair Political Practices Commission to enforce them.

California saw a record share of general election voters opt to cast their ballots by mail this year, with 51 percent of the state's 13.2 million participants using mail-in ballots.

The Brian M. Danzl campaign bet $25,000 that a recount would give the longtime community volunteer a seat on the Rancho Cordova City Council.

Representatives for candidate Brian M. Danzl delivered a cashier's check for $12,567 to Sacramento County elections officials on Tuesday to launch a recount that backers hope can overcome a three-vote margin of loss in last month's Rancho Cordova City Council election.

You're one of the most famous women on earth and you're jobless for the first time in decades. You'd like to make money, but you don't want to rule out running for president. So what do you do all day? Right now, aides and friends say, Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan looks like this: Exit the State Department shortly after Inauguration Day, and then seclude herself to rest and reflect on what she wants to do for the next few years.

For more than 25,000 Sacramento County voters, the process of casting a ballot in the Nov. 6 election started with a few clicks of the mouse.

When newcomer Bonnie Gore is sworn in Monday, there will be just one man on the five-member Roseville City Council.

As Elk Grove prepares to swear in Gary Davis as its first directly elected mayor, the City Council is gearing up to appoint a replacement for Davis' vacated District 4 seat.

A three-vote margin is proving too narrow to ignore in the November contest for the Rancho Cordova City Council.

The final vote update from Los Angeles County on Sunday gave Democrat Steve Fox a slight lead over the presumed Republican victor in the 36th Assembly District, putting the seat in the Democrats' column by a margin of just 145 votes.

In a season of close local elections, the race for a seat on the Rancho Cordova City Council outdid them all.

The balance of power appears to have shifted at Sacramento City Hall.

In a nation divided by its politics, Sacramento has provided a neighborhood-by-neighborhood view of just how narrow the margin between two candidates can be.

An impressive list of candidates has applied for the vacant seat on the Sacramento City Unified School District board, with recommendation letters from a who's who in local politics and school leadership.

Auburn City Council incumbents Bill Kirby and Keith Nesbitt have narrowly survived a challenge from restaurateur Gary Moffat, but some of the candidates had ammo left over from a testy election that went down to the wire.

After trailing since Election Day, Democrat Cathleen Galgiani overtook Bill Berryhill by more than 2,100 votes Wednesday night, assuring her of victory in their hotly contested 5th Senate District race.

A slate of reform candidates appears to be winning four seats on the Rio Linda-Elverta water district, based on election results updated Monday afternoon.

The status of the two Sacramento City Council races remained practically unchanged in results posted Monday – meaning both races are still too close to call.

The outcomes of two City Council races remained practically unchanged in results posted today - meaning both races are still too close to call.

California's sex offender registry, the nation's oldest and largest, lists more than 74,000 living Californians convicted of sex crimes since 1947. Like sex offenders elsewhere in the nation, they have been increasingly restricted in recent years as communities have barred them from not only schoolyards and playgrounds but also beaches, libraries, harbors and other public places.

Ami Bera came to the nation's capital this week for freshman orientation in the House, not yet knowing if he had actually won a seat.

Gov. Jerry Brown's campaign for Proposition 30, his sales and income tax increase, more or less promised voters that it would solve the state's chronic budget problems.

Longtime GOP Rep. Dan Lungren has lost his seat in Congress to Democratic challenger Ami Bera in a close race to represent the eastern Sacramento County suburbs.

Younger voters turned out in surprisingly high numbers on Nov. 6, but they didn't spell victory or defeat for Proposition 30 or other key ballot issues, according to the director of the Field Poll.

Two Sacramento City Council races remain too close to call.

Democracy in action is alive and well at the elections office, she noted. But it is a painstakingly sluggish process.

Twenty years after the “year of the woman” election, when a record number of female candidates joined the storied “Senate club,” female lawmakers will be seen in even greater numbers in the halls of Congress come January.

Backers of California's new election system promised voters that the change would put more moderate politicians in elected office.

As ballots continue to be counted, a trend among local school districts appears to be holding – voter participation in school board races varies drastically from one area to another.

Every poll of Californians' attitudes toward the Legislature and other pieces of state government find deep disdain.

As Election Day neared, seemingly everyone with a Facebook or Twitter account was weighing in – some more bluntly than others – on the presidential race. But for many, those partisan status updates, tweets, rants, cartoons, pictures, retweets and videos come at a cost: online "friends."

Nearly $400 million was pumped into the 11 ballot measures California voters considered on Tuesday.

On a conference call with House Republicans a day after the party's electoral battering last week, Speaker John Boehner dished out some bitter medicine, and for the first time in the 112th Congress, most members took their dose.

Assuming Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez is correct in declaring victory, Republicans no longer can press demands, extract concessions or block whatever Democrats want to do if confronted with a massive budget hole amid a rocky economy.

There still isn't clarity in the races for Sacramento's two open City Council seats.

It's official: Democrat Ken Cooley is Sacramento County's newest assemblyman.

Minutes after his plan to create an elected charter panel in Sacramento was crushed on election night, Councilman Kevin McCarty began spinning the outcome as a repudiation of Mayor Kevin Johnson's multiple "strong-mayor" proposals.

With 193,000 ballots yet to be counted, all GOP Rep. Dan Lungren and Democrat Ami Bera, separated by just 184 votes, can do is wait … and watch.

Congress returns to the nation’s capital next week with hopes of a big deal but strong odds favoring another piecemeal approach to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, in a race against the clock to address tax and budget issues while keeping the U.S. economy from tumbling back into recession.

For the first time since the start of the recession, city officials in Sacramento awoke Wednesday morning to the possibility of a hiring frenzy.

Davis Joint Unified School District leaders sounded the alarm and voters responded, narrowly passing parcel tax Measure E to maintain funding for the district's schools.

More than 2,700 California voters who participated in Tuesday’s election described themselves and shared their views on the presidential election and Proposition 30 in exit polling for the National Election Pool, conducted by Edison Research.

After beating back a well-funded effort to abolish capital punishment in California, death penalty supporters said Wednesday that their efforts to have executions resume may include going to the voters in 2014.

Did a handful of wealthy conservative interests set out to undermine California unions with a statewide ballot measure only to see it backfire?

Only a couple of decades ago, Prince William County was one of the mostly white, somewhat rural, far-flung suburbs where Republican candidates went to accumulate the votes to win elections in Virginia.

Sacramento voters went to the polls Tuesday and made it clear: they would not accept any more cuts to education.

One of the darkest hours of California's budget dysfunction came in February 2009, when lawmakers slumbered on chairs and under desks in the Capitol as leaders attempted to break a stalemate through physical exhaustion.

Organic farmers and others who backed Proposition 37 to label genetically engineered food said Wednesday that failure of the measure in California won't stop similar efforts in other states. They're looking north to Washington and Oregon and east to Connecticut and Vermont.

Democratic legislative leaders declared Wednesday that they had captured a supermajority of each house, the first time in more than 100 years that the party has wielded such power.

Outcomes of some key, tight races likely won't be known until Sacramento County elections workers plow through more than 193,000 outstanding ballots and issue a series of updates over the next two weeks.

The El Dorado County library funding measure went down to defeat.

Mayor Jeff Slowey knew it would be a tough sell, asking Citrus Heights voters to pass a tax increase on their utility bills.

Roseville Councilwoman Carol Garcia first took office as an appointee in 2007, but as the daughter of a longtime county official she had plenty of campaign experience.

Democrat Ami Bera clung to a razor-thin lead Wednesday in his fight to unseat Republican Rep. Dan Lungren in the 7th Congressional District, with ballot counting in the close race expected to stretch into next week.

Democrats won it all in California this week – prevailing on new taxes and other major ballot measures and apparently achieving supermajorities in both legislative houses and, at least on paper, a free hand to do whatever they wish on anything.

Foreign policy wasn’t the issue that got President Barack Obama re-elected Tuesday, but with upheaval in the Middle East, a war to end in Afghanistan and strained relations with superpowers Russia and China, it’s sure to play an outsized role in shaping his legacy as he enters a hard-won second term.

Gov. Jerry Brown thanked supporters for helping him secure passage of Proposition 30 Tuesday evening, saying "we had to overcome a lot of obstacles ... We overcame them."

Proposition 32 went down to defeat early Wednesday as California unions once again held off a significant threat to their financial political power.

Three weeks ago, Gov. Jerry Brown's ballot initiative to raise taxes was on the brink.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said tonight that Democrats have secured a supermajority in the lower house, a surprising development that could give the party the ability to raise taxes on their own if the Senate follows suit.

California voters approved a complex corporate tax change that would result in out-of-state firms paying an estimated $1 billion more annually for the state budget and clean energy programs.

A measure to repeal California's death penalty was trailing early Wednesday, while voters were approving a reform of the state's "three-strikes" law.

A controversial ballot measure that would have forced unions to scramble for political money was too close to call several hours after the polls closed on Tuesday.

The election will bring a host of fresh faces to Congress, but the control of the two chambers will remain the same: Republicans keep a majority in the House of Representatives, and Democrats hold onto control of the Senate.

Voters have approved a revision of California's landmark Three Strikes sentencing law, passing a measure that eliminates 25 years-to-life sentences for inmates whose third felony offense is not a serious or violent crime.

View exit poll data about the 2012 electorate.

Republican Rep. Dan Lungren's return to Congress remained in jeopardy Tuesday, with the Gold River Republican and Democratic challenger Ami Bera locked in a near dead heat for a suburban Sacramento House seat.

A measure to require labeling of genetically modified foods was defeated Tuesday.

Long lines at the ballot box, overly aggressive poll monitors, malfunctioning machines - hundreds of complaints were reported about voting today, but generally they were minor and affected only a small fraction of Californians.

Gov. Jerry Brown stood this morning at a stand of microphones down the road from his home in the Oakland hills, outside the fire station where he votes, optimistic his ballot initiative to raise taxes may do even better "than most of you are probably expecting."

For weeks, state campaign regulators were determined to sleuth out the donors behind an $11 million contribution that landed in the middle of California's initiative wars last month.

If Dave Wheeler wins a bitterly contested seat on the Loomis Town Council in today's election, he may have to choose between the elected post and his day job as chief of the Loomis fire district.

Eighteen years after forcing her mother to miss a vote, Cassandra Dunn finally has a chance to make up for it.

WASHINGTON – After billions of dollars, hours of debates and frantic last-minute pitches from the candidates, it's now up to the voters to decide whether to give President Barack Obama a second term or change course with Republican Mitt Romney.

Tell us if you voted. Share an Election Day report from your polling place, neighborhood or office. Chat live with members of The Sacramento Bee's political team. Follow election news and join the chat to share your observations and comments.

The number of Californians who vote in today's election is expected to drop by 1 million compared with four years ago, despite a record number of registered voters in the state.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama held a slim advantage in national and battleground polls going into Election Day as the candidates made their last mad dashes across swing-state America and their campaigns braced for a day of intense battle – and the legal fights that may follow.

If you're thinking about this week's local elections, think school bonds and tax issues.

The California Supreme Court on Sunday ordered an obscure Arizona nonprofit to submit its donation records immediately to state regulators, but it remained unclear whether voters would know the source of the contribution before Tuesday's election.

The choir sang, morning announcements were made and Mildred Rodgers watched as Gov. Jerry Brown took the pulpit at West Angeles Church of God in Christ.

The polls will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday, but this presidential election already is notable for the volume of vote-by-mail ballots flowing into county offices and for the large number of registered voters.

Jerry Brown has amassed a strong record of winning California elections in a career that's spanned more than four decades, beginning with a seat on the Los Angeles community college board in 1969.

It's the time of year when households are deluged with political mailers, many of which are immediately chucked into the recycling bin.

Virgil Goode has absolutely no chance of winning the presidency. But here in his home state, his quixotic quest for the White House as the Constitution Party candidate could peel votes away from Mitt Romney, and that is making some Republicans nervous.

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney entered their final weekend of campaigning Saturday facing a stubborn landscape of competitive states that are producing equal shares of hope and fear amid conflicting signals about the outcome.

Gov. Jerry Brown has framed it as a simple choice for voters: Pass Proposition 30 or schools will suffer early shutdowns and college students will pay higher tuition.

Gov. Jerry Brown, rallying union workers and volunteers here Saturday for his campaign to raise taxes, continued to hammer his opponents for accepting an $11 million donation from an opaque, out-of-state group, while urging supporters to intensify their efforts in the final days before the election.

The number of Californians registered to vote has reached a new high of 18.2 million, with nearly 77 percent of the state's eligible residents able to participate in Tuesday's election.

It's early November in Sacramento. The leaves are changing, the nights are getting cooler and there's a campaign flier in your mailbox depicting a City Council candidate as a real-life Pinocchio.

A powerful ad hoc coalition of Roseville city leaders – past and present – has issued a letter calling out City Council candidate Phil Ozenick for what its members deem an exaggeration of his role in the creation of a local retirement community.

Capitol Alert's Torey Van Oot sat down this week with a few of her colleagues in the The Bee Capitol Bureau to go over the basics of some of the statewide ballot measures facing voters on Tuesday.

California officials Friday asked the state Supreme Court to force an Arizona nonprofit to submit information related to its recent $11 million political contribution.

Only days before millions of Americans cast their ballots, a climate of suspicion hangs over Tuesday's national elections.

President Barack Obama holds a commanding lead in California heading into Tuesday's election, according to a new poll, although the gap between the Democratic incumbent and Republican challenger Mitt Romney has tightened a bit.

The headline on the news release made it sound like manna from heaven for the Proposition 37 campaign:

Democrats appear poised to retain control of the Senate, but this year's forecasts are full of more uncertainty than usual.

A slate of reform candidates calling themselves the GLAD team is running for the Rio Linda-Elverta water district board.

Opposition to a controversial campaign finance ballot measure has grown over the last six weeks and now outnumbers support by 16 percentage points, according to a new Field Poll.

If the Sacramento region had Electoral College votes, it would be a huge swing state, bombarded with ads and visits by presidential candidates.

With concern over the cost of capital punishment rising, California voters may be poised for a historic vote to abolish the state's death penalty, a new Field Poll indicates.

An Arizona nonprofit that spent $11 million last month on two high-profile California initiative battles appealed an unfavorable trial court decision Thursday, blocking for now the state from obtaining records as requested.

There definitely has been a big surge in California voter registration in recent days – largely young and Democratic – fueled by the party's pre-election drives and a new online registration system.

(Nov. 1) Public support for Gov. Jerry Brown's initiative to raise taxes remains below 50 percent, but the measure no longer appears to be on a downward trajectory, leaving Brown within striking distance one week before Election Day, according to a new Field Poll.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge confirmed Wednesday her ruling against an obscure Arizona campaign group, saying California officials' inability to investigate its funds would cause irreparable harm to voters.

Preparations for Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, are in high gear here at The Sacramento Bee, with the most experienced political team in the region. Use Sacbee.com throughout the day for breaking news, analysis, photos and video.

In an election year full of uncertainty, one thing seems fairly sure: Republicans will retain firm control of the House of Representatives.

This Tuesday is Election Day when voters choose a president and decide other races and measures. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The California Democratic Party called Wednesday for a state investigation into whether the Republican former lieutenant governor, enmeshed in a tight race for the U.S. House of Representatives, failed to disclose two 2007 state campaign fund-raising events to regulators in violation of campaign financing law.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Tuesday that an obscure Arizona nonprofit must submit documents for a state audit of its $11 million initiative contribution, siding with the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Democratic congressional candidate Ami Bera is making women's reproductive health issues central to his closing argument in the 7th Congressional District.

Fair Political Practices Commission officials will not investigate claims that Davis schools officials illegally campaigned for a parcel tax to fund schools on Tuesday's ballot.

The measure on Tuesday's California ballot asks voters if food companies should be required to label genetically engineered food. At the core of the debate is a seemingly simple question: Is it safe to eat?

The National Republican Congressional Committee recently launched its latest attack ad against Ami Bera, the Democrat challenging GOP Rep. Dan Lungren in the 7th Congressional District. Here is the text of the television spot and an analysis by Torey Van Oot of The Bee Capitol Bureau.

There is nothing like open seats to bring out a healthy crop of candidates. That is just what happened in Rocklin after two of three City Council members opted not to seek re-election.

Potential school closures, declining enrollment and how to best move schools forward are among the issues raised by three candidates running for the Sacramento City Unified School District board in Area 3, which represents parts of Rancho Cordova, Rosemont and College Greens neighborhoods.

Tony Krvaric knew he wasn't going to get much help from the national presidential campaign in his effort to get people to the polls to boost local GOP candidates to victory.

Attorneys representing an obscure Arizona nonprofit that spent $11 million this month on California initiative wars told a court Monday that the federal Citizens United campaign-speech ruling is one reason the group can shield its donors.

A week before Election Day, the effort to convince voters to approve Proposition 30 appears to be falling short.

The campaign for Proposition 37, which would require new labels on food containing genetically engineered ingredients, is on the air with its first statewide television ad combating the opposition's argument that the measure would raise grocery prices.

The advertising war between Proposition 32's supporters and opponents symbolizes the big-money politicking that each side denounces.

The four men running for Sacramento City Council really want your vote.

Like most people whose lives depend on Pentagon spending, Danielle Wagner has paid close attention to the presidential election, especially when it comes to what President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have to say about the military.

Recent campaign fliers by Assembly candidate Ken Cooley are dominated by a large picture of a congressman he doesn't even support – Dan Lungren.

Committed a surge of 30,000 U.S. troops to help pacify Afghanistan that he says has succeeded in allowing the United States to plan for ending American combat operations there by the end of 2014.

Assembly candidate Brian Dahle is ripped as a big spender who travels the world on the taxpayers' dime in a radio and direct-mail campaign by a group supporting his opponent, Rick Bosetti. Dahle, a Lassen County supervisor, is seeking the 1st Assembly District seat, winding through parts of nine counties, from Modoc County south to Nevada and a portion of Placer counties.

A failed candidate for Sacramento City Council is apparently still trying to influence the race.

Imagine getting a letter from the boss, telling you how to vote.

The presidential race may be lackluster in solidly blue California this year, but it's not hard to see the congressional races in Sacramento – just turn on the television.

This month's record-high gas prices continued to fuel attacks in the 7th Congressional District race Thursday, as Rep. Dan Lungren again accused his rival of supporting policies that could drive up prices even more.

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney dueled Thursday across America's swing states, working feverishly to push early voters to the polls and battling hard for the votes of women.

State campaign regulators will make their case in court Tuesday – one week before the Nov. 6 election – for why an Arizona-based nonprofit should divulge information tied to an $11 million California donation whose donors remain secret.

A committee advocating for Proposition 32, the Nov. 6 measure to change California's campaign finance law, recently launched a 30-second TV ad. Here's the text of the ad with analysis by The Bee Capitol Bureau's Jon Ortiz.

Campaigns backing state ballot propositions have cumulatively raised more than $250 million in contributions - roughly $17 for every California resident likely to vote in a couple of weeks, according to data from the California Secretary of State.

Democratic Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani's state Senate campaign has been attacked in recent weeks by a radio ad from a secretive web of campaign committees. The Stockton assemblywoman and a Republican colleague, Bill Berryhill, are butting heads in a closely watched 5th Senate District race, based in San Joaquin County. The following is a text of the ad and an analysis by The Bee's Jim Sanders:

Emmakate Paris was a one-woman tornado the other day, whipping through the racks at the thrift shop here, hunting for clothes for her children and one special item for herself: a green suit. For Halloween, she wants to dress up as Tippi Hedren from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds."

The Fair Political Practices Commission will decide today whether to pursue its lawsuit against an opaque Arizona-based nonprofit that recently gave $11 million to fight Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative and support an effort to curb union dues collection.

For Democrats, the outcome of next month's congressional elections could be like kissing your cousin.

Now in the presidential campaign's final two weeks, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney crisscrossed the nation Wednesday in search of support from the remaining undecided voters in swing states who will determine the next occupant of the White House.

Democrats seized Wednesday on a Republican Senate candidate's comments about pregnancy, looking to regain an upper hand with female voters not only in that state but also in the nationwide presidential campaign.

FRESNO – His tax initiative in trouble just two weeks before Election Day, Gov. Jerry Brown is re-tuning his campaign message, casting his initiative as a jobs measure in a bid to broaden its appeal.

Attack ads hammer the message to voters: Democrats Cathleen Galgiani and Fran Pavley are wasting your money by pocketing tax-free salaries of $180,000 and $261,000, respectively.

Reducing costs while maintaining the level of service residents expect will be a major challenge for Folsom City Council members in the next four years, say candidates vying for the office.

The No on 30 campaign launched a new ad this week attacking Gov. Jerry Brown's initiative raising taxes for education and the state budget. Following is the text of the ad and an analysis by Kevin Yamamura of The Bee Capitol Bureau:

President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney spent their final debate Monday circling the globe's hot spots as they clashed over the merits of diplomacy and brinkmanship in Libya, Israel, Iran, the Middle East and other volatile areas.

Long before political ads dominated the airwaves and arguments erupted over which Nov. 6 tax initiative best serves schools, Gov. Jerry Brown sought crucial support from county officials in a cramped conference room one block from the Capitol.

In a complaint filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission, a Davis political action committee contends that the city's school board and its president are illegally using taxpayer dollars to stump for a school funding measure on the November ballot.

Talented candidates, impressive endorsements, hefty résumés: Voters in the race for the Davis Joint Unified School District board have all in abundance.

Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, is running a new radio ad questioning the résumé of his opponent, Democrat Ami Bera. They are competing for the 7th Congressional District, an eastern Sacramento County seat considered one of the country's most competitive House battles. Here is the text of the ad and an analysis by Torey Van Oot of The Bee Capitol Bureau.

Sarah Moussa is just 25 years old and has a demanding day job working for state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. So how does she want to spend her spare time? She'd like to pore over the Sacramento city constitution for a couple of years.

After more than two decades as a major player in California's crime and punishment policy, the state's correctional officers union has embraced a quiet – and cheaper – pragmatism.

Sacramento has long been considered one of the most integrated cities in America, and Sacramento's Mormon stake, or network of 13 parishes, reflects that.

Union-backed opponents of Proposition 32, a Nov. 6 measure to change campaign finance law, have been broadcasting a 30-second TV spot that blasts the proposal. Organized labor is on the attack because the measure bans their funding source for political activities – payroll deductions.

Controversies over the $660,000 in fees that nuns were charged to remove oaks from their property and a plan to expand neighborhood electric car lanes are emblematic of the philosophical differences separating candidates for Loomis Town Council.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday accused opponents of his Nov. 6 ballot measure of illegal money laundering, saying the committee that accepted an $11 million donation from an out-of-state group is shielding the identities of its donors because it is ashamed of them.

A Bee review of thousands of staff financial disclosure forms found that nearly 200 legislative aides reported earning income from an outside political source while working for the Legislature in 2010, the last statewide election year. Even in 2011, an election off-year, dozens had a paying side job in politics.

Fiscal stability, experience and student performance are key themes in the race for Woodland Joint Unified School District trustees.

The campaign against Proposition 37, which would require new labels on food containing genetically engineered ingredients, is airing television ads around the state that include the argument that Proposition 37 would increase costs for consumers and farmers.

Citrus Heights residents will decide Nov. 6 whether to boost the city's utility users tax to fund street maintenance and public safety.

Public safety and street maintenance are key issues in the Citrus Heights City Council race, with five of six candidates supporting a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot that would raise the city's utility users tax to pay for those efforts.

The Rev. Brian Young has been preaching about tolerance ever since two conservative families left his evangelical church four years ago, furious about a Barack Obama bumper sticker in the parking lot.

For a casino mogul worth an estimated $25 billion, $34.2 million may sound like chump change. Yet that's how much money Sheldon Adelson has donated so far to aid Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and organizations supporting Romney this election, making him the donor of donors for the GOP.

Roseville never seems to have a hard time finding City Council candidates.

Having trouble sorting through the 11 measures on next month's ballot?

California State University officials acknowledged Thursday that one of their professors had crossed the line in using public resources to advocate for Proposition 30.

As details emerge about an out-of-state group that dumped $11 million into California politics this week, a good-government organization this morning called for an investigation into who is behind the money.

With gas prices in California hitting an all-time high last week, Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, is out with a new ad blasting his Democratic opponent, Ami Bera, on gas taxes and other revenue increases. The National Republican Congressional Committee is also airing a television spot claiming Bera supports hiking gas prices to reduce consumption. Here is the text of the ad and an analysis by Torey Van Oot of The Bee Capitol Bureau.

Monday is the last day to register to vote for the presidential election, according to the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters.

In California's ever-expensive ballot wars, voters typically know who funds advertisements that hold great sway with the electorate.

If he had just one vote on Nov. 6, the president of the California Federation of Teachers wouldn't use it on Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike for schools.

Monday is the last day to register to vote for the Presidential election, according to the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters.

Rancho Cordova taxpayers eventually will pay $9.1 million to retire just $514,000 in capital appreciation bonds issued by the Folsom Cordova Unified School District – about $18 in payments for every $1 borrowed.

He waited all of 45 seconds to make clear he came not just ready for a fight but ready to pick one.

Two years ago, Democratic politicians and their union allies placed a measure on the ballot to eliminate California's requirement of a two-thirds legislative vote for state budgets – but that's not what they told voters.

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney aggressively challenged each other Tuesday night in their second debate, with more than 90 minutes of sharp attacks, interrupted answers and testy exchanges over the economy, taxes, immigration and energy.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday urged students to rally support on college campuses for his Nov. 6 ballot initiative to raise taxes.

Republican Assembly candidate Peter Tateishi was ripped as a "lobbyist" who will harm the middle class in a campaign flier funded largely by public employee groups this month. The attack ad was bankrolled by Opportunity Political Action Committee, whose top donor is California State Council of Service Employees. Tateishi and Democrat Ken Cooley are running in the 8th Assembly District that stretches from Citrus Heights to the Sacramento County line south of Wilton. The following is a description of the ad and an analysis by The Bee's Jim Sanders:

It's not often the youngest voters can weigh in on something that will have an immediate and concrete impact on their lives. But that's the case with a tax measure on California's Nov. 6 ballot known as Proposition 30.

When President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney walk out tonight for their second debate, they won't be the only people in the spotlight.

Backers of Proposition 33 have run a series of TV ads depicting motorists who support the initiative, which would alter the way auto insurance premiums are regulated in California. Here is a text of one of the ads, and an analysis by Bee staff writer Dale Kasler.

As judicial races go, the contest in El Dorado County is remarkable – particularly because a sitting judge's competency has been called into question by a colleague on the bench.

Sacramento's newly drawn City Council District 4 is like a city unto itself.

Charles Koch's wife says there is much endearingly quaint about the man so many now vilify. Yet even Liz Koch's stories about him show a drive and a relentlessness that sometimes scare her. And she's suffered for some of his decisions that have demonized Charles and David Koch in American popular culture. The family now lives night and day with bodyguards.

As he began his second governorship last year, Jerry Brown warned that California faced a potential "war of all against all" if the state budget was not fairly balanced, or as the former Catholic seminarian put it in Latin, "bellum omnium contra omnes."

Strategists affiliated with the campaigns of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney say they have access to information about the personal lives of voters at a scale never before imagined. And they are using that data to try to influence voting habits – in effect, to train voters to go to the polls through subtle cues, rewards and threats in a manner akin to the marketing efforts of credit card companies and big-box retailers.

Porterville is a region, because of its agricultural setting and large Latino population, steeped in one major policy area neither Romney nor Obama talks about much – immigration.

The Koch brothers' political spending and the network of conservative political organizations and think tanks they fund have sparked protests, condemnation and criticism. In his most extensive interview in 15 years, Charles Koch, along with his family and friends, talked about why he wants to defeat Obama and elect members of Congress who will stop what he calls catastrophic overspending.

Proposition 35 grew from an unsuccessful effort by two activists - Daphne Phung, founder of California Against Slavery, and former Facebook executive Chris Kelly - to get laws passed in the Legislature.

Ten office seekers, two slates and numerous candidate forums have made the race for the three seats on the Natomas Unified school board one of the most competitive on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The Met, a Sacramento City Unified charter school, had a $7.5 million renovation last year driven by green energy guidelines. Insulation consists of recycled blue jeans. Countertops were once glass jars. Bathrooms have high-tech "airblade" dryers, and nary a paper towel is found.

The Obama administration's handling of the Libya attack has opened a new front in the presidential campaign just weeks before Election Day, as Republicans seize on it to question the president's performance as commander in chief.