Elections to watch today

I'm not just watching the elections in Detroit and Ann Arbor.  I'm also paying attention to those in New York City, Toledo, and Colorado.  Follow over the jump for the latest on those stories.

The New York Times sums up the campaign for mayor in Long, Stormy Mayoral Primary Hurtles to Finish.

There were arguments over dogs and kittens, a minor contretemps about circumcision and a weightier one over antiterrorism efforts, and first-day-of-school promises to improve public education, as New York City’s long and tumultuous mayoral primary campaign raced to an end on Monday.

On Tuesday, voters will take the first big step toward choosing a successor to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in a contest that has increasingly turned on crucial elements of his legacy on public safety and income inequality. But despite a widely publicized free-for-all among multiple candidates, fewer than one in four Democrats and Republicans are expected to vote in the party primaries.

With polls suggesting Bill de Blasio was comfortably ahead in the Democratic contest, attention was focused on whether he would surpass the 40 percent threshold needed to become the nominee, or face a runoff against the runner-up — expected to be either William C. Thompson Jr., a former comptroller, or Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker.

In the Republican race, Joseph J. Lhota, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and John A. Catsimatidis, a billionaire businessman, were leading the field; with so few Republican voters in the city, polling is considered unreliable.

Notice whose name is missing from the leaders?  Weiner.  I have something special planned for him tonight when the results are announced.

In related news, Spitzer at least has a fighting chance.

In the Democratic primary race for city comptroller, the NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll finds former Gov. Eliot Spitzer at 47 percent and Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, at 45 percent among likely voters, with 7 percent undecided. In their poll last month, Mr. Spitzer had a wide lead.

In the Quinnipiac poll, Mr. Stringer was supported by 50 percent of likely voters, compared with 43 percent for Mr. Spitzer. Seven percent were undecided, and 13 percent of those who backed a candidate said there was a good chance they would change their mind.

Next, WNWO recaps the primary election for Toledo's Mayor in Voters head to the polls to cast their ballots for Toledo's Mayoral race.

Election voulenteers (sic) opened the poll doors bright and early at Reynolds Elementary. WNWO's Ashley Moser reports live on Decision 2013 from South Toledo.

I want to see if infrastructure was a deciding issue.

Finally, the New York Times writes about the last set of today's elections I'm following outside of Michigan in Recall Fights in Colorado Grow Fiercer in Last Days.

At first, Angela Giron was surprised to find herself in the cross hairs of a campaign to recall Colorado lawmakers who had supported a slate of new gun-control laws. She had won her State Senate seat by a 10-point margin. Her Southern Colorado district is heavily Hispanic and reliably Democratic, hardly ideal terrain to oust a lawmaker with Mexican roots whose mother once worked picking beans.

 “I thought, what the heck?” Ms. Giron said. “Why would they do that?”

But over the summer, Ms. Giron found herself at the center of a citizen-led recall campaign heavily financed by the National Rifle Association and other conservative groups and Second Amendment advocates, who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertisements and mailings to oust her  and a fellow Democrat, John Morse, the president of the Colorado Senate.

Unlike NYC and Toledo, where I really don't have a preferred result, I strongly hope the recalls fail.

That's it for this morning.  I'll be back tonight with the results.