Republican Carly Fiorina is refusing to concede in her effort to oust Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Major news outlets — including Fox News, NBC, CNN and the Los Angeles Times — have projected Boxer as the winner.

“But all those people that have already declared this race, maybe that wasn’t a smart thing to do,” Fiorina told her followers in the wee hours Wednesday when about a third of the votes had been counted. “And we are in a dead heat,” she said. “So the facts are it is too close to call and it’s going to be a long night.”

Boxer noted to her supporters at a simultaneous rally that media outlets had quickly declared her the winner earlier that night “and we’re going to win this race.”

“We just pulled out to a several point lead and that’s before L.A.’s in and that’s before Alameda County is in,” Boxer added. “And so I am thrilled.”

She thanked her supporters for helping her win “the toughest and roughest campaign of my life.”

Environmentalists and GOP strategists disagree over whether climate change was a major factor in the House Democrats' defeat.

A high-profile California ballot initiative that would have essentially killed the state’s global warming law was heading for a big defeat early Wednesday.
 
The defeat of Proposition 23 is a major victory for environmentalists and Silicon Valley capitalists, who battled oil companies that backed the measure in a fight that saw both sides spend millions of dollars.
 
But the night also brought a potentially troubling development for climate advocates. A separate California ballot initiative called Proposition 26 — which green groups contend would cut off crucial funding for the state climate law — was projected to win.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will beat Republican Carly Fiorina and win another six-year term, according to separate projections by Fox News, NBC and the Los Angeles Times. 

Critics have labeled both Boxer and Fiorina extremists. Boxer led a heavily partisan effort to enact climate change legislation and was booted from her leadership role in that effort, while Fiorina is skeptical that climate change is even occurring. Boxer has been helped by campaign appearances from President Obama and Vice President Biden and a fundraising and spending advantage.

A Boxer victory could preserve two things for Democrats in the next Congress: a slim majority overall in the Senate and a potentially combative environmental debate on the Environment and Public Works Committee. 

Boxer’s hometown newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, made a surprising non-endorsement in the race, citing her combative style as a reason she was not given the lead in trying to craft a bipartisan deal on climate policy this Congress.

Boxer, though, successfully hit Fiorina on social issues — such as the Republican’s stance in opposition to abortion rights — in securing a strong early lead among female voters. Fiorina tried to appeal to centrists by focusing on economic issues, including the state’s unemployment rate, the third highest in the nation.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is ready to run for chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, he told The Hill.

Barton, who made waves when he apologized to the head of BP for enduring a "shake-down" by the White House during the Gulf Coast oil spill, said he's prepared to challenge a nearly decade old rule to go for the top spot on the energy panel.

Under current House GOP rules, a lawmaker can serve only three consecutive terms atop a committee. Barton served one term as Energy and Commerce chairman before assuming the role of ranking member, when Democrats won control of the House in 2006. He served two terms in that position but says his time as ranking member shouldn't count against him in his quest to regain the gavel.

He says he will seek a waiver of that rule, adopted in 1993, for the 112th Congress under what is expected to be a GOP majority.

Barton's outburst during a summertime hearing, for which the senior Texan was reprimanded by leadership, including Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, seemed to doom his goal of reclaiming the gavel.

But since the time he apologized for making the outburst, Barton has raised a lot of money for GOP candidates and intends to appeal to the GOP Steering Committee for a waiver.

He will face a growing field of senior House GOP lawmakers with their sights set on serving atop the powerful Energy and Commerce panel, including Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.)

Barton had said in a recent op-ed that if Republicans won the House he would "ask my colleagues for the privilege of serving as chairman of the committee I love."

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) is the projected winner of his reelection contest against Republican Charlie Baker.

The outcome should lead to sighs of relief from environmentalists. Patrick supports the proposed Cape Wind project that’s slated for construction in federal waters off the state’s coast.

Baker opposes the wind farm, and, as this ClimateWire piece shows, he might have had opportunities to fight the project despite the Interior Department’s approval.

Elsewhere, Baker was apparently lukewarm on the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state cap-and-trade program that Patrick signed onto.

Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) held off GOP challenger Elliot "Spike" Maynard to win an 18th term in West Virginia's coal-centered 3rd congressional district. Rahall, one of Capitol Hill's strongest coal-industry supporters, nonetheless had to fend off conservative attacks that he's aligned with liberal Democratic leaders on unpopular state issues like climate change. 

Several news networks are projecting that Republicans will win enough seats to claim the House majority from Democrats.

But a top prize will remain up in the air: chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee that has jurisdiction over EPA, electric utilities and other major energy matters.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the panel’s top Republican, has signaled that he’ll fight for another spin as chairman. But Barton was politically damaged by his infamous apology in June to BP’s then-CEO Tony Hayward.

Barton laid out his agenda in a Washington Times op-ed last week. But some lobbyists and congressional aides say Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) has the pole position to become the GOP caucus pick to head the panel, and other lawmakers including Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) are also eyeing the slot.

Barton and Upton both say EPA rules on air pollution and other issues go too far. Look for the agency to be in Republicans’ crosshairs regardless of who GOP lawmakers select as chairman.

Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin's victory deals a major blow to the GOP's long shot effort to reclaim the Senate majority.