Live Blogging the Election Returns  —  We will be covering tonight's election returns beginning at around 5 p.m. Eastern, an hour before the first polls close in Kentucky and Indiana.  —  You can follow along here and check out our hour-by-hour, district-by-district guide for watching the returns.

Victories Suggest Wider Appeal of Tea Party  —  The Tea Party victories by Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida underscored the extent to which Republicans and Democrats alike may have underestimated the power of the Tea Party, a loosely-affiliated, at times ill-defined …

The end of an era: ACORN files Chapter 7 bankruptcy  —  For over 40 years ACORN has fought the good fight.  From a few initial neighborhoods in Little Rock, Arkansas, we grew to become a large, active, national organization of low- and moderate-income families, mostly people of color …

Prop. 19 headed to defeat, exit polls show  —  California voters appear to have rejected Prop.  19, an effort to legalize marijuana and allow local governments to tax the sale of the drug.  —  Prop. 19 received national attention, but relatively little money was spent on the campaign.

Rand Paul Wins: What Does It Mean?  —  Tea party Republican candidate Rand Paul has won the Kentucky US Senate race.  Throughout the campaign, Democrat Jack Conway occasionally seemed to come almost within striking distance, but ultimately Conway, the state attorney general …

Where Do Democrats Go Next?  —  DEMOCRATS can recover from the disappointments of this election and set the stage for success in 2012.  But to do so we must learn from Tuesday's results.  —  Many of our problems were foreseeable.  A public unhappy about the economy will take it out on the party in power …

Barbara Boxer projected to win a fourth Senate term  —  U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer is projected to win a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, based on exit poll results.  —  Boxer defeated former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina after a bruising multimillion-dollar campaign.

Exit Polls: the surprise in Delaware  —  (CNN) - The thing about Delaware is: it's no Kentucky.  —  The Tea Party's first Senate loss of the night may be no big surprise - the only question heading into tonight's been how big a victory margin Chris Coons would capture over Christine O'Donnell.

Michele Bachman Humiliates Chris Matthews: How's That Leg Tingle Doing Tonight?  —  Rep. Michele Bachmann went on MSNBC for an interview with Chris Matthews tonight and handled him with dismissive tone the hack deserved.  All he wanted to do was bait her with unprofessional journolisty questions …

New Black Panther Seen At Polling Place  —  No Voter Intimidation Reported Tuesday At Poll  —  PHILADELPHIA - Fox 29 News spotted Tuesday a member of the New Black Panther Party standing outside of a local polling place where voter intimidation was reported two years ago.

Toomey captures seat of his old nemesis, Arlen Specter  —  Pat Toomey has won his race against Rep. Joe Stestak (D) and captured the Senate seat that Sen. Arlen Specter held for 30 years.  —  The victory is sweet vindication for Toomey who narrowly lost a bitterly contested GOP primary race …

Colorado and Washington Senate contests tight, could drag on  —  The margin separating Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Republican Ken Buck in Colorado's Senate race was less than 9,500 votes Wednesday morning.  —  With 79 percent of precincts reporting results, Buck was clinging to a slim lead …

Feingold campaign manager: It ain't over  —  Feingold's campaign manager George Aldrich told the crowd in Middleton that only 40 percent of the vote has been reported.  —  “Russ is down by 80,000 votes, but...up to 1.4 million votes haven't been counted,” he told the crowd.

Bush Considered Dropping Cheney From 2004 Ticket  —  President George W. Bush considered dumping Vice President Dick Cheney from his 2004 reelection ticket to dispel the myths about Mr. Cheney's power in the White House and “demonstrate that I was in charge,” the former president says in a new memoir.

Democratic Coalition Crumbles, Exit Polls Say  —  Amid deep pessimism about the economy, the coalition of voters that gave Democrats control of Congress in 2006 appears to have fractured.  —  Preliminary exit polls showed that the party lost ground to Republicans in Tuesday's midterm elections among women …

Frank easily wins re-election, defeats Bielat  —  loading video...  Requires Adobe Flash Player  —  NEWTON - Barney Frank, the irascible powerbroker who has survived scandal, repeated redistricting, and the ups and downs of the Democratic Party, today easily beat back his strongest challenge in years.

Welcome, Senate Conservatives  —  Remember what the voters back home want—less government and more freedom.  —  Congratulations to all the tea party-backed candidates who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections.  The next campaign begins today.

The Morning Briefing: The Tsunami  —  [UPDATE]: The whole of the Maine legislator has flipped to the GOP.  Several people I have talked to said such a deep and thorough shift to any one party has not happened in one election in the past 100 years.  —  This is an unusual Morning Briefing …

A Whiter Shade of Orange  —  John Boehner and for some reason Joe Paterno via pennstatelive at flickr.com  —  Well, that went well didn't it?  I pretty much figured those saying the “likely voter” model was too generous to the GOP were too optimistic and sadly, my intuitive sense was right (a real rarity).

Redistricting wins for GOP  —  Republicans made big gains in state legislatures tonight, capturing full control of both legislative chambers — crucial to partisan redistricting — in six states.  —  Republicans took over control of both houses in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Reports of Intimidation and Electronic Problems Surface at Polls Across the U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — Voters in some states encountered isolated problems with electronic voting machines and delays in the opening of polling stations, but they also reported many instances of voter intimidation and misinformation.

Another Election, Another Wave  —  Two years ago this week, triumphant Democrats were throwing around the word “realignment,” as in the kind of Democratic majority that could endure for a generation or more.  Tuesday morning, those same Democrats awoke wondering whether they could cling …