By Tim Redmond

The big news of the night is that Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking a serious beating. The two candidates he invested the most time and political capital in -- Rob Black and Doug Chan -- are both going down to a clear defeat. In District 4, Chan has pretty much dropped off the map, with Ed Jew, Ron Dudum and Jaynry Mak locked in a close struggle for first place. Read more »

By Tim Redmond

Just got the word that the Democrats are being hammered all over the state, which is terrible news. Prop 90 is ahead by two points, but L.A. hasn't been counted yet, so maybe there's hope.

Here in SF, we just got new numbers on D8: Dufty's a 65.3, which means he's a clear winner. Alix Rosenthal is at 29.9. That seems to be the only race in which the progressives aren't winning.

By Tim Redmond

The results are starting to roll in, and it's a night for local progressives to remember. Chris Daly is well ahead in District 6, with 46 percent of the vote (to 41 percent for Rob Black). The School Board race is shaping up as a progressive victory, too, with Jane Kim in first followed by Hydra Mendoza and Kim-Shree Maufas. Dan Kelly has dropped to fifth place, and it appears his career on the School Board is over.

With the exception of the Parking Tax, all the progressive measures are passing, even Prop. Read more »

By Steven T. Jones
D8 challenger Alix Rosenthal have been watching the returns from our home with friends, waiting for some numbers before we headed down to her party at the 500 Club. The first big jump on the numbers puts Dufty at 65, Rosenthal at 30, and Starchild at 5. We've always know it would be an uphill battle and it's not looking good, even though we expect Alix to gain ground as the half of the ballots that remain are counted. Read more »

Live report from Tim Redmond

I just spoke by cell phone to a Daly campaign staffer. The campaign has been monitoring the returns at the precinct level, checking the tags as they're printed out of the machines before they go to City Hall. According to those reports, Daly is 950 votes ahead in the 27 precincts they've counted. That's very good news.

The big news on the School Board is that Jane Kim is now in first place, followed by Hydra Mendoza and Dan Kelly. Kim is almost guaranteed victory. It's possible that Kelly won't make the final cut, and three new members will join the board.

By Tim Redmond

Still very early, but it looks like this:

The leaders in the race for school board are Hydra Mendoza, Jane Kim and Dan Kelly. Interesting that Kelly, an incumbent, is in third for three slots, and that's just the early votes. This bears watching. For now, though, good news for Jane Kim.

All the incumbents are way ahead in the Community College Board race. That will change, I think.

Big surprises in district four: So far, Ed Jew, who wasn't even on my radar for this race, is ahead, but it's very close: Ron Dudum is right behind him. Read more »

By Tim Redmond

Well, the very, very early results are in and it looks surprisingly good for Chris Daly. Daly didn't even run an absentee voters campaign, and the absentees are always conservative, but Black leads Daly just 784 to 700.

Bevan Dufty is well ahead of Alix Rosenthal, 1571 to 513.

By the way, the Dems just took the House.

By Tim Redmond

Not a whole lot going on here yet, no results yet and it will be a while. But nationally, the Democrats have picked up nine in the house. Good news so far.

The race that I find the most interesting is the Rhose Island Senate contest, where Lincoln Chaffee, a popular liberal Republican who opposed the war, lost anyway. People were so mad at Bush and the GOP that they voted against a Republican who had soaring popularity ratings.

Says something.

By Tim Redmond

Well, so far, with East Coast results trickling in, the Democrats have picked up three seats in the Senate. The GOP has picked up nothing. Nada. Looking good for the Democrats.

The House is a little slower going. So far, the Democrats are up two.

By Tim Redmond

So, the folks at sfist posted an item earlier today about the door-hangers with the Guardian logo and the Guardian slate on them. Sfist got it wrong, then apologized, but I want to clear up any confusion here:

The Guardian doesn't do slate cards.

We do endorsements, based on our own independent analysis of what's best for the city, the state and the country. When we're done, some of the candidates inevitably decide to quote from our endorsements or use our headlines or our logo to promote their campaigns. Read more »