• Meanwhile, elsewhere on the ballot ...

    Matt York / AP

    Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks to supporters during an election night party Tuesday, Nov. 6, in Phoenix. At right is his wife, Eva.

    By NBC News

    Other results that might have flown under your radar on Election Night:

    • Republican Joe Arpaio, 80, nationally famous for his fierce enforcement of laws against illegal immigration, won his sixth straight term as sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz. Arpaio — who is the defendant in federal and civil lawsuits accusing him of violating the rights of undocumented immigrants — defeated Democrat Paul Penzone, a former Phoenix police officer, Telemundo Arizona reported.

    • Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., beat Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson to become the nation's first openly gay senator, NBC News projected. Thompson — who served as secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of former President George W. Bush, announced his retirement from politics in his concession speech.

    • The latest effort to abolish the death penalty in California was headed for defeat, NBC 4 in Los Angeles reported. Proposition 34 would have applied retroactively to nearly 725 people on California's Death Row and would also have diverted $100 million from the state's general fund to help solve more homicide and rape cases.

    • Republican Kerry Bentivolio — a reindeer farmer and Santa Claus impersonator — defeated Democrat Syed Taj, a physician, in Michigan's 11th Congressional District, NBC News projected. The race became wide open after Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a five-term Republican, resigned in July after failing to produce enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

    • "Joe the Plumber" — real name Samuel Wurzelbacher — lost his House race to Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, winning only 24 percent of the vote, NBC station WNWO of Toledo reported. Wurzelbacher, who came to prominence as a politicized symbol of the economy's toll on the middle class in during the 2008 campaign, had said he would advocate for veterans and use his "notoriety" to help others — no matter their party affiliation.

    • Republicans lost their 102-member supermajority in the Texas House, opening the door for Democrats to slow or block the majority's conservative agenda, The Associated Press reported. That means Republicans can no longer suspend the rules to push through legislation over the objections of minority Democrats. Last year, Republicans had enough lawmakers to form a quorum without any Democrat showing up for work.

    • But Republicans won enough seats in the Tennessee Senate to earn their first supermajority since Reconstruction.

    • Voters in Wichita, Kan., defeated a measure to put fluoride in their water, NBC station KSN reported. "I'll be in my office tomorrow morning at 7:30 like most every dentist in Wichita," said Dr. Lucynda Raben of Wichitans for Healthy Teeth.

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  • Feds: Democratic campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee defrauded dozens out of $7M

    By msnbc.com news services

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Democratic campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee defrauded at least 50 candidates, officeholders and political organizations out of $7 million in a scheme that dates back more than a decade, according to a court filing made Tuesday by federal prosecutors.

    The U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento filed the additional charges in federal court, providing the most detailed account to date in a case that has left some Democratic candidates scrambling for campaign cash in an election year.


    Such filings typically are a prelude to a plea, but prosecutors would not confirm such a development or offer any further details.

    Durkee, who heads Durkee & Associates in Burbank, was arrested in September and charged with suspicion of mail fraud after millions of dollars disappeared from the campaign accounts of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, other Democratic members of Congress and several Democratic state lawmakers.

    The filing details a complex shell game in which Durkee shifted campaign money to cover an array of personal and business expenses.

    Disneyland bills
    In one example, $23,000 taken from Feinstein's account was used to help pay American Express credit card charges from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Amazon.com, Disneyland, Trader Joe's and Turners Outdoorsman.

    Other misappropriations from Feinstein's account covered payments for a Long Beach condominium owned by Durkee and to the 401(k) plan for her employees.

    The court filing said Durkee had devised a scheme from January 2000 until she was arrested last September "to defraud clients of Durkee & Associates, and to obtain money from them by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises."

    It said she had signature control over roughly 700 bank accounts, including those used by political campaigns.

    Durkee's attorney, Daniel Nixon, did not return telephone and email messages Tuesday evening.

    Durkee was scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon at a hearing that had been set before Tuesday's developments.

    Political treasurer Kinde Durkee is accused of stealing money from California campaigns for personal use. Political attorney Bob Bauer joins Chuck to explain the legal issues.

    She has been accused of looting the accounts of dozens of Democratic officeholders, candidates and political organizations. Prosecutors also say Durkee filed false information with the Federal Election Commission and the California Secretary of State, which track campaign contributions and expenditures.

    Feinstein alone estimated that she may have lost $5 million, but there has been no firm accounting of the losses because the money has been so difficult to track.

    The fraud investigation froze the coffers of dozens of Democratic politicians across the state of California during an election year, and left candidates scrambling to raise more money.

    In a separate order filed Monday, the U.S. attorney's office and Durkee agreed to a forfeiture auction of her Burbank home, which it says she owns with her husband, John Forgy. The couple owes $671,000 on the house, as well as $17,471 in state tax liens, according to the filing.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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