Leading Off:

? CO-Gov: Aww yeah! Ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo, whose maximally anti-immigrant zealotry makes him exactly who the Colorado GOP does not want as their standard-bearer, just declared that he's going to make a second run for governor. I admit I'm surprised at this turn of events, since Tancredo only first publicly mooted the idea last week, and even he said that he wasn't seriously considering the race. But Tancredo says he was motivated by Gov. John Hickenlooper's decision to temporarily stay the execution of a convicted murderer, as well as new gun safety legislation signed into law earlier this year.

It's immigration, though, where Tancredo has always shined brightest, and even if he doesn't capture the Republican nomination, he's very likely to pull the entire field rightward on the issue. That would be dangerous for whomever emerges with the brass ring. So far, the only other contender is Steve Laffey, the former mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island (yeah), though Secretary of State Scott Gessler may enter soon, too. Enjoy fending off Tom Tancredo, fellas.

Leading Off:

? VA-LG: E.W. Jackson isn't just an oppo researcher's dream, he's an oppo researcher's mescaline-fueled fantasy bender riding on pegasus-back. Every day there's something new and amazing about the Virginia GOP's lieutenant governor nominee; here's the latest:

In an April 28, 2011 statement while he was a Senate candidate, conservative minister and lawyer E.W. Jackson held up the three-fifths clause as an "anti-slavery" measure. The context of his statement was to attack President Obama after a pastor at a church service he attended referred to the three-fifths clause as a historical marker of racism.

"Rev. [Charles Wallace] Smith must not have understood the 3/5ths clause was an anti-slavery amendment. Its purpose was to limit the voting power of slave holding states," Jackson, an African-American, said in his statement.

Obviously this needs no further elaboration. Meanwhile, Jeff Shapiro of the Richmond Times Dispatch claims that Jackson "may be facing a rear-guard effort to strip him of the nomination" by Republicans terrified of his candidacy. But, he adds, "there apparently is nothing in the GOP's rules authorizing anyone or any committee to remove a duly nominated candidate for state or local office." So sorry!

8:40 AM PT: Special Elections: Republicans pulled off a major upset in a California state Senate race on Tuesday night. Johnny Longtorso has all the details:

California SD-16: Republican Andy Vidak won this seat outright, picking it up from the Democrats. He got 52 percent of the vote, while Democrat Leticia Perez got 42 percent. Democrats Frank Ramirez and Paulina Miranda each got about 3 percent of the vote, while Peace & Freedom candidate Mohammed Arif got 1 percent.

California AD-80: ConservaDem Steve Castaneda got clobbered, only getting 28 percent of the vote against fellow Dem Lorena Gonzalez, who took the rest.

Pennsylvania HD-42: Democrat Dan Miller easily held this seat for his party, defeating Republican Dan Remely by a 57-37 margin, with Libertarian George Brown pulling in 5 percent.

Pennsylvania HD-95: Another Dem hold, with Kevin Schreiber beating Republican Bryan Tate by a 53-39 margin. Green Party candidate William Swartz got 8 percent.

California's SD-16 is pretty frustrating, and it's now the second Democratic seat in a row that ex-state Sen. Michael Rubio has helped place in GOP hands. Last cycle, he dropped out of the race in the open CA-21, leaving Dems with a weak alternative who got clobbered in the fall. That move was at least understandable, since Rubio had just had a child who was born with Down syndrome.

But earlier this year, he abruptly resigned his Senate seat to take a job with Chevron, triggering this special election. Huge sums were spent on Perez's behalf (though Vidak spent a lot as well), but it evidently wasn't enough. This is a very disappointing setback, particularly since had Perez won, she'd have been a good option to take on GOP Rep. David Valadao in the 21st. She still could, of course, but it's a troubling sign that Democrats couldn't hold on here.

Leading Off:

? CO Recall: There are some new recall efforts underway that you may not yet know about, but you'll want to. Last fall, Democrats succeeded in winning the Colorado state House back from Republicans, giving them full control of the legislature and the governorship. That's allowed Democrats to pass a number of progressive pieces of legislation, including same-day voter registration, a state-level DREAM Act, civil unions, and, most notably, a trio of new gun safety measures, among them expanded background checks and magazine size limits.

It's those laws in particular that have gun activists in a predictable furor, and they're fighting back by attempting to recall several Democratic legislators, chief among them state Senate President John Morse. While the effort is nominally being spearheaded by a pop-up local group called the "Basic Freedom Defense Fund," the NRA itself is now spending money to push the recall forward. (Their crappy mailer (PDF) claims that more than 15 rounds now constitutes "standard capacity.")

Morse is term-limited next year and could resign to avoid the recall, but he doesn't want to hand the NRA an easy victory and is taking this very seriously. Organizers only need 7,178 valid signatures to force a recall, which would be held under forgiving California-style rules, where a "recall: yes/no" question is paired with a "so who do you want to replace Morse" question. Though Morse's 11th District is actually pretty blue, despite being nestled in the conservative city of Colorado Springs, he only narrowly survived in 2010 and his supporters have already begun advertising on his behalf. And importantly, a Republican doesn't have to beat him for the recall to succeed?Morse's opponents just need to get enough people to vote "yes" on the recall itself.

The good news is that progressives are already mobilizing in Morse's defense?and a separate recall campaign, against state Rep. Mike McLachlan, failed before it could even start, for lack of signatures. Recall proponents are also trying to put state Sens. Evie Hudak and Angela Giron on the ballot, though in both cases, they face much higher signature requirements than with Morse. Petitions for Morse, by the way, are due June 3, while Hudak and Giron's must be submitted a week later. We'll definitely be following all these affairs closely.

Voters in a variety of races around the country are headed to the polls today. Here's a list of some of the most notable, in order of poll closing times:

? Pittsburgh, PA mayoral Democratic primary

? Pennsylvania HD-42 & HD-95 special elections

? Other local primaries throughout PA, including for Philadelphia city controller, Harrisburg and Scrantor mayor, Erie County executive, and a judgeship race in York County featuring ex-Rep. Todd Platts (R)

? Portland, OR municipal water fluoridation ballot measure

? Los Angeles, CA mayoral runoff

? Other local L.A. races, including city attorney

? California SD-16 & AD-80 special elections

Polls close at 8 PM ET in Pennsylvania, 10 & 11 PM ET in Oregon (though results typically are not released until all polls have closed), and 11 PM ET in California.

If you have links for results for any of these races (or any others not mentioned above), please post them in comments. This is an open thread to discuss all elections taking place tonight. Enjoy!

8:12 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Here is a brief update on some of the bigger races thus far on this Election Night:

• The Democrats held serve in both Pennsylvania House special elections. In suburban Pittsburgh's PA-HD-42, Dan Miller held the seat for the Democrats rather comfortably (57-37). Meanwhile, in the York-centered PA-HD-95, the Democratic lean of the district came through for Kevin Schreiber, who won 53-39 in a race that Republicans seemed to have irrationally high hopes for victory.
• In Pittsburgh's Democratic mayoral primary (which is likely tantamount to victory in this heavily blue town), Bill Peduto has outpointed Jack Wagner (52-40) to earn the nod for the Ds. Josh Wander was unopposed on the Republican side.
• Polls just closed in the other contests of the night, most notably a pair of special legislative elections in California, coupled with the big enchilada of the night: the runoff for Mayor of Los Angeles, where city controller Wendy Greuel was taking on LA city councilman Eric Garcetti.

8:59 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Here is a California-centric update:

• With only the VBM (vote by mail) ballots tallied, Wendy Greuel has forged a very slight lead over Eric Garcetti in the runoff for Los Angeles Mayor. Right now the margin is about 3000 votes (51-49). In a bit of an upset, Republican Dennis Zine (who had been favored in every single poll) is slightly trailing Ron Galperin (52-48) in the race to replace Greuel as city Controller. Meanwhile, in the L.A. City Attorney's race, incumbent Carmen Trutanich is losing rather badly to Democrat Mike Feuer (58-42) in a result presaged somewhat by the results in the first round.
• Meanwhile, we have conflicting results in the two California state legislative special elections. In the Central Valley-based SD-16 special election to replace Democrat Michael Rubio, Republican Andy Vidak leads 53-40 with 32 percent reporting. But this is a very politically divided district, and nearly half of Vidak's best turf (Kings County) is reporting. Meanwhile, down in San Diego County, in early returns, Lorena Gonzalez is crushing Steve Castaneda (71-29). Both are Democrats, but Castaneda was running as a considerably more "centrist" option.

9:03 PM PT (Steve Singiser): File this under "For What It's Worth":

Leading Off:

? VA-LG, VA-AG: Oh yeah. This one's gonna be fun. Over the weekend, Virginia Republicans nominated hyperconservative Christian minister E.W. Jackson as their candidate for lieutenant governor, in a move almost perfectly designed to alienate moderate voters who might otherwise cast ballots for the GOP. (Jackson led in every round of voting and won on the fourth ballot at the party's convention.) Let's just say that Jackson loves hateful rhetoric and has never, ever thought to restrain himself when speaking publicly. Right Wing Watch has been all over it. Here's a small sample:

? Referred to gays and lesbians as "perverted," "degenerate," "spiritually darkened" and "frankly very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally."

? Said regarding homosexuality: "it poisons culture, it destroys families, it destroys societies; it brings the judgment of God unlike very few things that we can think of."

? Argued that gays seek to "sexualize [children] at the earliest possible age" and use "totalitarian" tactics.

? Argued that "liberalism and their ideas have done more to kill black folks whom they claim so much to love than the Ku Klux Klan, lynching and slavery and Jim Crow ever did, now that's a fact."

? Maintained that Obama "seems to have a lot of sympathy for even radical Islam" and argued that Obama "certainly does have a lot of affection and favor for Islam, that seems to be his priority?Christianity, I don't really think about that with him, I really don't, that's a joke."

? Compared Democratic leaders to "slave masters" who make sure that black people who disagree with them are "punished."

In fact, RWW has an entire "E.W. Jackson" tag that's filled with pages and pages of instant oppo material dating back several years. But the best may be this absolutely gonzo web video in which Jackson, handed an axe painted to resemble the American flag, slices open a watermelon adorned with the words "Federal Budget," Gallagher-style. It was something Jackson put together last year, when he finished in fourth place in Virginia's GOP Senate primary, with just 5 percent of the vote. Basically, Republicans tapped a crazy Some Dude with a penchant for incendiary lunacy as the no. 2 on their statewide ticket. Freakin' awesome.

Meanwhile, in the attorney general's contest, state Sen. Mark Obenshain narrowly defeated state Delegate Robert Bell, after gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli (who was unopposed) endorsed Obenshain. Obenshain, by the way, once introduced a bill that would have required women who miscarry "without medical attendance" to report the event to the police, or potentially face a year in prison. Obenshain later withdrew the legislation, and on Monday claimed it was never his intent to burden women who experience miscarriages in this way.

And because they weren't through giving gifts to the Democrats, Republican delegates decided they'd had so much fun that they'd hold another convention next year! That means freshman Sen. Mark Warner's opponent will get selected by the same group of people who just graces us with the likes of Cuccinelli, Jackson, and Obenshain. As Ice Cube might say, it was a good day.