The candidates have been this election season's primary focus in the media, and with good reason. But Talking Points Memo points out that, no matter which direction Congress heads, there are several important ballot measures that could seriously affect life at the state level. Some highlights:

Last night Keith Olbermann had some choice words for Jon Stewart, who seemed to imply during the Rally for Sanity that MSNBC was just as much of a partisan shill network as FOX. 

But Olbermann didn't name Stewart "Worst Person in the World." Because even though MSNBC takes its journalistic mission far more seriously than FOX, the "Worst Persons" segment was "institutionalizing" anger rather than allowing it to spring organically from the events of the day, Olbermann said:

On an election day rife with radical right wing candidates, Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo is particularly out there, known for his xenophobic views on immigration, racist diatribes and hypocritical hiring of undocumented workers.

There is no Republican Party anymore. There is only the Tea People Party (Call it the TP party if you like). Oh there may be a few holdouts in Maine who call themselves Republicans out of pure snobbery I suppose, but for all intents and purposes this year the Republican Party died.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is not happy about a measure on the California ballot that would block massive corporate tax breaks from going into effect in 2010 and 2012. So they're smartly taking a two-pronged approach to help defeat Prop. 24: attacking it through Fox News Business Network and donating over a million to a group working against the Proposition (which would bring in an estimated 1.3 billion in state revenue, helping plug California's massive budget hole.)

Politico's Mike Allen and Jim Vendehei have a piece -- one based entirely on anonymous GOP sources, so take it with a grain of salt -- suggesting that Republican leaders consider a Sarah Palin run in 2012 likely, think she has enough support within the party's base to win the nomination, and have concluded that with Palin heading the ticket, Obama would be re-elected easily.

For all Democrats, rabid and reluctant Obama supporters alike, who've been secretly wondering "Would we be in this mess if Hillary had won?" New York Magazine's John Heilemann has an answer: "probably." '"Hillary in 2016? Absolutely. Hillary in 2012? You are high," he writes.

While things aren't looking too good for New York State gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino on election day, he decided to party it up nonetheless, capping off a reprehensible campaign season with yet another decidedly gross show of character.

On her show last night, Rachel Maddow looked at a Washington Post/ABC poll that shows registered voters prefer Democrats to Republicans by 5+. Dems score better on the economy, "values", and "fixing the nation's problems." When the poll flips tolikely voters though -- the registered voters most inclined to make it to the polls -- Republicans surge ahead.

Maddow has a fairly straightforward solution to the "enthusiasm gap" that threatens sweeping wins for Republicans on election day:

According to the Gallup poll released Sunday, the Republicans have a 15-point lead among likely voters. NBC/ Wall Street Journal has them up by 6. CNN/Opinion Research shows the GOP with a ten-point lead. Pew has a 6-point spread, and the ABC/ Washington Post poll shows the Republicans leading by 4 (all via PollingReport).