Voting Underway for Election Day 2013

Candidates for governor, mayor, and a host of ballot issues are on the ballot Tuesday as voters across the country take to the polls for Election Day 2013.

Here are just some of the top races to watch as experts warn this year’s election results could serve as a test-run of what’s to come in the 2014 midterm elections, when Democrats will be fighting to keep control of the Senate and gain control of the House.  

In Virginia, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe is up against anti-worker Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli for governor.

“Polls show McAuliffe leading in the Virginia race, which is by far the most competitive contest in the off-season cycle,” reads a recent Politico article. “Vice President Joe Biden warned Democratic voters that the only way Republican Ken Cuccinelli could beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe is if they don’t bother to show up at the polls on Tuesday.”

Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono is up against Republican incumbent Chris Christie in New Jersey’s election for governor. Democrat Bill de Blasio is running for the city’s top job of mayor against the GOP’s Joe Lhota. And two progressive Democrats are vying to become the next mayor of Boston: Martin J. Walsh, a state representative and friend of labor, and John R. Connolly, a former teacher.

Off-year elections in 2005 and 2009 foreshadowed success for Democrats and Republicans, respectively, in the mid-term elections that followed, which experts say could be the case again this year.

If Republicans take over the Senate and keep the House in 2014, that could usher in an onslaught of anti-worker, anti-collective bargaining bills aimed at further disenfranchising America’s middle class.

For information on voting, nearest poll location, and hours of operation, click here.

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