The votes have been counted—most of them anyway—and it's time to reflect on all that went into the 2014 Midterm elections. But before we do that, here's a collection of photos from the night that was make or break for local politicos.

Just as we predicted in March 2012, a Sicilian American, Bellarmine-educated attorney was elected mayor of San Jose this week. As of 2am, Sam Liccardo held a 2-percent lead over Dave Cortese.

There’s a lot riding on Election Day in Silicon Valley. Here's a breakdown of some locals races and where each candidate is expected to spend their night partying/crying into their drink.

San Jose Inside has learned that Kerry Hillis, a policy aide currently on leave from county Supervisor Cindy Chavez’ staff, purchased the anonymous attack blog The Daily Fetch from political consultant Jay Rosenthal in late 2012, according to a source. Hillis has also done work for San Jose's police union and mayoral candidate Dave Cortese.

A complaint filed against Sam Liccardo’s mayoral campaign alleges the San Jose council member broke election law by failing to report an in-kind contribution for the second time. But according to Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen, who provided Liccardo with an email list, it's all a simple mixup.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed on Wednesday called for a federal investigation into accusations that the police union president abused his authority by thwarting the city’s recruitment efforts. A day later, Reed and his political consultant found themselves on the receiving end of calls for an inquiry.

An op-ed by a former San Jose police cadet touched off a debate about whether the head of the Police Officers Association committed an ethical violation by encouraging recruits to drop out. Jim Unland, president of the police union, has denied the allegations.

When it comes to openness and sunshine in government, Sam Liccardo has a better record than his opponent for mayor. He also has a plan. He has been accessible during his terms of office and doesn’t dodge tough issues or constituents.

Two new polls show candidates are neck-and-neck in both the San Jose mayor's race and the battle for Silicon Valley's 17th Congressional District seat. But, as expected, not everyone agrees on the numbers.

Sam Liccardo’s mayoral campaign sent an email blast Thursday announcing it had filed another ethics complaint against opponent Dave Cortese. There could be a couple issues with the new complaint, though.

As the federal government struggles to catch up to a massive backlog of pending benefit claims from ex-military men and women, Santa Clara County will consider a pilot program to expedite applications from local homeless veterans.

Four former San Jose police chiefs got together last month for an orchestrated media event. While they blamed the city's pension reforms for driving officers away, none bothered to mention that their huge pension payouts boost the argument as to why pensions needed to be scaled back.

Five weeks from Election Day, the San Jose mayor's race—expected to be the most expensive race in city history—is ramping up. Attack ads are in the mail, media attention is intensifying and candidates are squaring off in public debates. Here's a list of upcoming events.

Few scenes illustrate the fall of a once-powerful political family like a former labor boss passive-aggressively stalking people at Starbucks.

Taking a page from the script of “Friends,” Dave Cortese defended his improper collection of campaign cash in the San Jose mayor's race by stating that his campaign was on “a break.” The city's Ethics Commission ruled last week that he should return $9,825.

Santa Clara County wants greater financial control of its embattled EMT service provider, Rural/Metro.