BERKELEY - Massachusetts made history on Tuesday by electing Democratic lawyer Deval Patrick to the governor’s office. He will be the state’s first African-American governor, and only the second in the United States.

BERKELEY - In the pivotal Virginia Senate race that will determine which political party controls the Senate, James Webb on Tuesday led Senator George Allen by a scant seven thousand votes.

BERKELEY - Democrats ousted incumbent Republican senators in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Missouri, threatening to end 12 years of Republican Senate control.

SAN RAMON - With three- fourths of precincts in the 11th Congressional District reporting a slim lead for this little known Democratic challenger, Jerry McNerney, a wind energy engineer, is hoping to sail to Washington on the winds of change.

BERKELEY - With races in Indiana, Arizona and Kentucky pushing their incumbents out, it became clear soon after the polls closed on the East Coast Tuesday night that the Democrats would take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years.

BERKELEY – With the Democrats winning a majority in the House in Tuesday’s elections, San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi is all but certain to become the first woman to hold the powerful position of Speaker of the House.

BERKELEY- Three months after losing his party’s primary to a virtual unknown, Sen. Joe
Lieberman (D-Conn.) was re-elected for a fourth term on Tuesday.

TRACY – In what has become one of the most divisive Congressional races this election season, many voters in the key 11th congressional district were reluctant to disclose whether they supported Congressman Richard Pombo (R-Tracy) or his Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney, at the ballot today.

BERKELEY – After 16 years in Congress, Republican John Doolittle may be losing his once solid grip on California’s District 4 heading into the election today, based on his associations with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and an overall disillusionment among voters with Republicans and the Iraq war.

BERKELEY – U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), who couldn’t win his own party’s primary, will likely cruise to an easy victory as an independent in his re-election bid today, according to the most recent polls.

BERKELEY- As millions of Americans headed to the polls today, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi was poised to become the nation’s first woman to hold the powerful title of Speaker of the House, and the first Democrat to do so in more than a decade.

BERKELEY- Penn, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Oxford, Yale. These are the alma maters of today's young African American politicians, the likes of U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. from Tennessee, U.S. Senator Barack Obama from Illinois and Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, N.J.

BERKELEY- The closest borders to Ohio’s First District are the back hills of Kentucky where there’s still a greater chance of finding homemade peach pie than street-cart tamales. That hasn’t stopped Republican Rep. Steve Chabot from making illegal immigration a focus in this highly contested House race.

BERKELEY- An unpopular Republican governor, moderate Democratic candidates and a history of tight races could make Indiana voters put three blue-party candidates in the U.S. House of Representatives.

BERKELEY- For 14 years congressman Richard Pombo has represented California’s 11th district, a suburban swath 55 miles east of the Bay Area. This election cycle, bad publicity, negative advertising from environmental groups, and Jerry McNerney, a scrappy Democratic challenger, threaten to unseat the Republican from Tracy.

BERKELEY- Massachusetts, the home of Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, and Michael Dukakis, is a bit of a paradox. Despite its liberal inclinations - most notably its stance on gay marriage and its reputation as “Taxachusetts” - the state has elected three Republican governors since 1990.

BERKELEY- At the end of last year, Virginia Senator George Allen must have been feeling cocky. With no Democratic challenger in sight, Allen expected to easily win his seat, no matter who stepped forward. Charismatic, commanding, and confident, Allen is a man who sometimes wears cowboy boots and rides his favorite stallion to campaign events. Back in 2005, things looked so good, he barely had to leave Washington to check on the status of his state.

BERKELEY -- A Democratic majority in Congress may result in the passage of only a few pieces of legislation over the last two years of the Bush Administration, according to congressional experts at Bay Area universities and political institutes.