Just had a small earthquake in the Bay Area

4.3 centered down in San Juan Bautista. Surprised to feel it all the way up here.

6.0 earthquake strikes Alaska northwest of Anchorage

Just now on my phone. They’re going to feel that.

Viewership for last Friday's Michigan-UConn Women's basketball game peaked at 1,208,000 viewers

Ohio voting rights groups urge Gov. DeWine to veto bill nixing absentee ballot grace period

Ohio voting rights advocates are urging Gov. Mike DeWine to veto a voting measure approved just before lawmakers left for the holidays. The bill, Ohio Senate Bill 293, eliminates a grace period for absentee ballots post-marked by Election Day to arrive by mail, which GOP lawmakers have been whittling away in recent years.

Lawmakers also lumped in several provisions targeting noncitizens on the voting rolls. It’s an issue Secretary of State Frank LaRose has repeatedly raised even as he insists on Ohio’s “gold standard” electoral system.

LaRose has flagged hundreds of registrations since taking office. State and county prosecutors have largely dismissed his allegations as meritless. Earlier this month, LaRose tried again and sent those cases to U.S. Department of Justice.

The last-minute changes to S.B. 293 will give much greater weight to LaRose’s regular reviews of the voter rolls.



https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/27/ohio-voting-rights-groups-urge-gov-dewine-to-veto-bill-nixing-absentee-ballot-grace-period/

NJ-12: Plainfield mayor (D) will run for Congress

Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp is running to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), adding another prominent name to the increasingly crowded Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district.

Mapp, a major figure in Plainfield politics for nearly three decades, is the first Union County politician to enter what could end up becoming a heavily regional contest.

“I am running because service is my calling,” Mapp said in his campaign announcement yesterday. “I am running because New Jersey’s middle class deserves a fighter. And I am running because the people of the 12th District deserve a representative who will deliver, not just promises, but progress.”

Mapp began his political career on the Plainfield City Council, serving two non-consecutive stints from 1999 to 2006 and again from 2009 to 2013. He also spent a short period on the Union County Board of Freeholders.




https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/plainfield-mayor-will-run-for-nj-12/

Downe requests recount on liquor license ballot question

The Cumberland County township of Downe requested a recount in a referendum that would have allowed town officials to issue a liquor license.

Downe has no liquor licenses, and residents voted to keep it that way (pending a recount) and rejected the question in a 255-277 finish, a 52%-48% result. Downe Mayor Michael Rothman filed testimony in support of the recount, saying several voters were turned away because of malfunctioning voter machines and were not properly informed of their right to cast provisional ballots.

“I am aware of several residents who had difficulty registering their votes on the ballot question due to malfunctioning voting machines and due to the absence of emergency ballots and conditional ballots or due to failure of such ballots being offered in lieu of working machines,” Rothman wrote.

In a filing, the township of Downe listed two voters who they allege were unable to cast their ballot on the referendum. If rejected, a similar proposal cannot be put on the ballot for another five years.




https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/downe-requests-recount-on-liquor-license-ballot-question/

NJ-11: Morris Dems will hold convention on December 14, Essex Dems on December 2

Two county Democratic organizations have announced their endorsement convention schedules in the special election for Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s 11th congressional district: Essex County Democrats will hold their convention on December 2, and Morris County Democrats will do so on December 14.

In Essex County, the endorsement vote will be conducted via Zoom among elected district leaders who live in the 11th district. Candidates interested in seeking the endorsement must submit a letter of intent to run by 5 p.m. on November 30.

At the end of the convention, the top vote-getter will be recommended to Essex County Democratic Chair LeRoy Jones for the organization’s official endorsement. There will be no runoff, meaning that the winner could receive the endorsement with far less than 50% of the vote.

In Morris County, the convention will be conducted in-person among elected committeemembers and other local party leaders; candidates must submit their intention to screen for the endorsement by 5 p.m. today, with virtual screening interviews taking place next week.


https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/morris-dems-will-hold-nj-11-convention-on-december-14/

NJ-11: Ro Khanna endorses Analilia Mejia

Analilia Mejia’s campaign for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, which began with a day-one endorsement from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), has picked up another supporter with serious national progressive credentials.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), a California Democrat best known in recent months for spearheading an effort to release the Epstein files, endorsed Mejia today; Khanna was the co-chair of Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, while Mejia was the campaign’s national political director.

“Analilia Mejia has been fighting for working families her entire life,” Khanna said. “She’s an organizer at heart who knows how to win, and is not afraid to speak truth to power. In this moment, with democracy itself under attack, she is exactly the type of leader we need in Washington.”

This isn’t Khanna’s first foray into New Jersey politics; in April, he hosted a town hall in New Jersey’s competitive 7th congressional district, and he also endorsed Mussab Ali in this year’s Jersey City mayoral race (Ali ultimately finished in fourth place). Khanna’s brother, Vikas Khanna, was the acting U.S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey at the beginning of this year.



https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/ro-khanna-endorses-analilia-mejia-in-nj-11/

How every N.J. congressional district voted in the 2025 governor's race

After the 2024 elections, Republicans were excited about the possibilities that New Jersey’s congressional map presented to them. The map had been drawn by Democrats to elect a mostly Democratic congressional delegation, but thanks to Donald Trump’s enormous gains across the state, their coalition was looking shakier than ever.

After this year’s gubernatorial election, Republicans’ optimism will be hard to sustain. Mikie Sherrill, en route to a double-digit blowout against Jack Ciattarelli, won ten of the state’s 12 congressional districts, and did better in every single district than both Kamala Harris in 2024 and Phil Murphy in 2021.

State-level elections aren’t always perfect indicators of how federal elections will go, and a lot could happen between now and November 2026. But if even some of what transpired this year repeats itself, congressional Democrats are likely feeling fairly good about their prospects in New Jersey.

“It’s a very, very different electorate than what we were looking at just a year ago,” said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “I think there’s a lot of reasons to think that 2025 was a precursor of 2026. And if it is, I think that Republicans need to hunker down and secure all the patio furniture.”



https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/how-every-n-j-congressional-district-voted-in-the-2025-governors-race/

Debbie Wasserman Schultz joins Jewish leaders backing Eileen Higgins (D) for Miami Mayor

Several of Miami-Dade’s most prominent Jewish elected leaders are lining up behind Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins’ bid for Miami Mayor.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, and Miami-Dade County School Board member and former state Rep. Joe Geller are joining Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — the county’s first Jewish Mayor — in backing Higgins. All are Democrats.

Wasserman Schultz said Higgins “has proven, time and again, that she is the leader Miami needs.”

“She has delivered for residents, families, and small business owners — building affordable housing, improving transit, protecting Biscayne Bay, and cutting through bureaucracy for the people she served on the County Commission,” Wasserman Schultz said of Higgins.


https://floridapolitics.com/archives/767328-debbie-wasserman-schultz-joins-jewish-leaders-backing-eileen-higgins-for-miami-mayor/