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RandySF's JournalBaydoun wins mayor's race in Dearborn Heights. Hammoud reelected in Dearborn
Dearborn Heights — Acting Mayor Mo Baydoun was elected to become Dearborn Heights' next mayor over City Council member Denise Malinowski Maxwell in a Wayne County community where the former mayor and City Council have feuded for years.
Baydoun, the former City Council chairman, prevailed with 68% of the vote to Maxwell's 32% and replaces former Mayor Bill Bazzi, the city's first Muslim mayor, who is now the U.S. ambassador to Tunisia. Bazzi defeated Maxwell for mayor in 2021.
The victory came on a night when Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud was reelected, but voters soundly rejected a proposal to change to a ward- or district-based City Council system much like Detroit's.
Dearborn Heights resident Jacob Moore, 28, said he voted for Baydoun "because he supports the police."
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/11/04/baydoun-acting-mayor-dearborn-heights-mahmoud-livonia-council/87070461007/
Dems Are Suddenly Very Serious About Retaking the Senate
FOR THE PAST YEAR, Democratic party leaders have been privately resigned to the idea that the 2026 Senate map was too difficult to overcome. It was a take rooted more in math than cynicism. The party had lost touch with voters in many of the states it needed to win and had no clear or compelling argument for how to rebuild a winning coalition.
But Tuesday’s election results have changed that thinking. The party’s strong showing in races across the country—from the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, to state legislative elections in Mississippi and even utility board seats in Georgia—has Democratic leaders believing that winning back the Senate is a distinct possibility in 2026. And it’s not just spin from party loyalists. In my conversations with Democratic leaders and operatives over the past twenty-four hours, it’s clear that
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-very-serious-retaking-senate-2026-midterms?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=87281&post_id=178136051&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2fku&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Redistricting pressure heats up after Prop 50's passage: 'All Democratic elected officials should take note'
The Democrats’ thumping victories Tuesday are piling new pressure on blue states to redraw their congressional maps to strengthen the party’s position ahead of the 2026 elections.
Already, several states are forging ahead.
Virginia Democrats — fresh off a resounding victory in state delegate races — are advancing a constitutional amendment that would likely net the party two House seats, while national Democrats are preparing to send resources to the state to get voters to sign on.
Meanwhile, Democrats nationwide are using Tuesday’s wins to heap pressure on a Maryland legislative leader who is trying to stop the party’s plans to pick up an additional seat there. And some Colorado Democrats are pushing plans to redraw, even if their plans won’t come to fruition until 2028.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/05/democrats-redistricting-california-wins-00638350
Mahmood plans recount over Alharbi's 11-vote win for mayor in scandal-ridden Hamtramck
Hamtramck — City Council member Muhith Mahmood vowed Wednesday to challenge political neophyte Adam Alharbi's 11-vote victory Tuesday in a hotly contested race to be the new mayor of a city scarred by controversy and scandal.
Alharbi won 44.5% of the vote (2,009 votes) to Mahmood's 44.3% (1,998 votes) in a bid to replace Mayor Amer Ghalib in the multiethnic enclave of Detroit.
Mahmood said Wednesday he would call for a recount. He said there appeared to be an issue in one of the city's five precincts where the initial count and the final result did not match. He also said there may be instances in which voters' signatures were missing from their documentation.
"We're holding out hope strongly," said Mahmood, an immigrant from Bangladesh. "We're looking in every corner."
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/11/04/adam-alharbi-wins-squeaks-mayor-muhith-mahmood-blasey-mayor-scandal-ridden-hamtramck/87071950007/
Race for McIver's council seat too close to call
A special election to fill the Newark Central Ward city council seat vacated last year when LaMonica McIver was elected to Congress is too close to call.
Amina Bey, who has the endorsement of Mayor Ras Baraka, leads former Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins by 112 votes, 39.5%-38.1%, in a five-candidate field. There are no runoffs in special elections.
Baraka gave up his narrow 5-4 working majority on the council to back McIver in a special election following the death of Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. in April 2024.
Chaneyfield Jenkins was an at-large councilwoman from 1995 to 2006, and represented the Central Ward for four years before giving up her seat in 2018 to unsuccessfully challenge Baraka for mayor.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/race-for-mcivers-council-seat-too-close-to-call/
Race for Cumberland County Commission seats too close to call
A Democrat and a Republican narrowly lead a race for two Cumberland County Commissioner seats, a race that is too close to call.
Republican County Commissioners Douglas Albrecht (18,606) and Victoria Lods (18,215) faced a challenge from Democrats John Capizola (18,916) and Yolanda Garcia Balicki (18,291). Republicans currently hold a 6-1 majority.
Lods was elected county commissioner in 2022; her victory over incumbent Darlene Barber allowed Republicans to take control of the Board of County Commissioners. She has lost two races for county clerk against Democrat Celeste Riley. Albrecht, a former Vineland councilman, was elected in 2019.
Capizola had served as an interim county commissioner in 2023 but lost his bid for a full term last year. Garcia Balicki challenged State Sen. Michael Testa Jr., the Cumberland County GOP chairman in 202
https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/race-for-cumberland-county-commission-seats-too-close-to-call/
Stephanie Lagos (D) is next mayor of Bordentown City
Stephanie Lagos, the chief of staff to First Lady Tammy Murphy, is expected to become the new mayor of Bordentown City after emerging as the top vote-getter in a race for the three city commissioner seats.
Local tradition dictates that the candidate who receives the most votes becomes mayor.
Lagos, who is also Gov. Phil Murphy’s deputy chief of staff, finished first with 1,153 votes, and current mayor Jen Sciortino finished second with 982 votes. Grace Archer (834) leads Edward Foley IV (825) by nine votes in a contest for the third commissioner seat. A fifth candidate, Sean Reiter, has 509 votes.
Sciortino is also a top aide to Murphy.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/stephanie-lagos-is-next-mayor-of-bordentown-city/
Democrats have a big night in Union County local races
Democrats in Union County had an extraordinarily successful night, bolstering the political power of Senate President Nicholas Scutari, the Democratic county chairman, with Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill winning by a 2-1 margin, adding two Assembly seats in the 21st district, and scoring victories at the municipal level.
In Westfield, where two-term Mayor Shelley Brindle did not seek re-election, the seat stays Democratic: Jeremy Berman defeated Michael Domogala by a 59%-41% margin.
Democratic newcomers also held all four council seats: Reshma Adwar in the 1st Ward with 56%, Vikram Venkataraman in the 2nd Ward with 60%, Jennifer Gilman with 62% in the 3rd Ward, and Drew Pecker with 59% in the 4th Ward.
Democrats flipped three council seats in Summit: Daniel Crisafulli unseated At-Large Councilman Kevin Smallwood, 54%-46%; Jaclyn LaSarcacina ousted 1st Ward Councilwoman Delia Hamlet, 54%-46%; and in a race for an open 2nd Ward seat, Chantal Landman beat Thomas Szeiber, 56%-=44%.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/democrats-have-a-big-night-in-union-county-local-races/
Barberio (R) Inches Ahead In Mayoral Race, Democrats Take Council Seats: Unofficial Results
PARSIPPANY, NJ — Incumbent Republican James Barberio is looking to be Parsippany’s mayor for a fifth time, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s election. However, it appears two Democrats have clinched the two spots on Parsippany’s Council.
Barberio was facing Democrat Pulkit Desai in a race for mayor on Tuesday, who maintained a healthy lead for much of the evening. However, Barberio seemed to have narrowly pulled ahead as the final votes were tallied.
As the unofficial results stand, Barberio holds just over 200 votes ahead of Desai. See the results below, provided by the Morris County Clerk's Office:
Barberio was seeking another four-year term, having served as Parsippany’s mayor from 2010 to 2018. After losing his third re-election attempt in 2017 to Democrat Michael Soriano, Barberio returned in 2021 to beat Soriano and has served as the town’s mayor since.
https://patch.com/new-jersey/parsippany/barberio-inches-ahead-mayoral-race-democrats-take-council-seats-unofficial
NJ-11: With Sherrill now governor-elect, John Bartlett (D) will run for her House seat
Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett (D-Wayne) announced today that he will run in the special election for Sherrill’s 11th congressional district, a suburban, light-blue district that spans parts of Morris, Essex, and Passaic Counties. Bartlett has been in local politics for decades – he even briefly ran against Sherrill for the 11th district in 2018 – and he said he’s the right candidate for a troubled political era.
“Mikie Sherrill has been an excellent representative for the 11th district, and she’s going to be a great governor,” Bartlett told the New Jersey Globe. “And now it falls to the voters of the 11th district to select her successor, at a time when Washington D.C. is on fire and all the norms and all the bipartisan relationships that used to protect our democracy seem to be crumbling under the weight of the second Trump administration.”
“We need somebody who’s ready to step into this breach on Day One,” he added.
Bartlett isn’t the first Democrat to enter the race for the 11th district and he undoubtedly won’t be the last, making for a hectic and crowded special election. Its schedule remains unclear for now – it will depend on both the timing of Sherrill’s resignation from the House and on potential action in the state legislature to speed up New Jersey’s languid special election procedures – but the Democratic primary could arrive as soon as late January or early February.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/with-sherrill-now-governor-elect-john-bartlett-will-run-for-her-house-seat/
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