Like most everyone else, I am thrilled to see a new Congress that looks more like America than ever before. I am lifted by their new energy and commitment. I am delighted that their first shared effort was a sit-in protest demanding action on climate change, held inside the U.S. House of Representatives and the office of the Democratic Party leader.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - It’s official. This year was the costliest midterm election in US history. Outside spenders forked out $1.31 billion. That’s an increase of 61% over the 2014 midterms. The total over-all cost of $5.2 billion is a 35% jump over 2014.

The political advertising side of a campaign is a massive investment. Rhetoric filters into living rooms across America at all hours of the day and night, while a candidate gives a stump speech to a crowd of thirty.

Update: 11/15/18, 1:00 pm ET: US Rep Bruce Poliquin announced on Twitter before the second round tabulation that he would continue his legal challenge against ranked choice voting even if he won. He is asking Judge Walker to rule on the constitutionality of ranked choice voting by December 14.

We need to talk about Florida.

The Sunshine State is holding three statewide recounts: for governor, U.S. senator, and state agricultural commissioner. (This does not count the three other recounts in state legislative races). To put this number in perspective, between 2000 and 2015, there were only 27 statewide recounts in all American elections, meaning Florida’s 2018 elections account for about 10 percent of all statewide recounts held in the 21st Century.

Democrats have a supermajority in Sacramento, having won or leading in 58 of the Assembly's 80 districts and could hold as many as 60 or 61 seats after all the ballots are counted.

But that far from guarantees legislative wins when you consider the factions taking shape.

Three distinct caucuses have created large blocs of votes which will no doubt fight for the direction of California and their respective groups.

Dear newly elected Congresspeople,

Yes you, the newbies, the previously little-knowns, the everyday men and women who finally had enough, and who responded to the call of their communities and fellow-citizens to do something by running for public office. For most of you, it was the first time.

You did it! You ran and you won! You had to overcome gerrymandering, voter suppression, maybe even voter fraud. You needed multiples of normal turnout, and you succeeded. Huge numbers of voters came out to support you and what you stood for.

This is my post-election column where I analyze the impact of independent voters who came out in force last Tuesday, almost 34 million of us. Huge. The stats and takeaways are at the end of this column, dear reader, so if you prefer to cut to that chase, scroll on down.

The odd thing about the recount underway in Broward County, Florida, is that there's nothing odd about it.

With ballots still being counted over a week since the polls closed, this is the second election year boondoggle in a row for the county that encompasses FL-23, the Florida U.S. Congressional district of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), and for its elections supervisor, Brenda Snipes, who publicly endorsed and even campaigned with Wasserman Schultz for her reelection this year.

The California Republican Party isn’t salvageable at this time. The Grand Old Party is dead – partly because it has failed to separate itself from today’s toxic, national brand of Republican politics.

Painful though it was, that was the message I delivered at the California Priorities Summit, sponsored by the Sacramento Bee in Sacramento last week.