REGIONAL – Next Tuesday, November 4, marks Election Day 2014. For many, it will mark the end of a particularly vicious Midterm battle between our nation's congressional Democrats and Republicans, with control of the Senate to be determined, along with the nature of the next two years of President Obama's term in office. As well as an early sign for how big a political outburst the national battlegrounds will become in 2016, when Congress will again come into play, along with the presidency. And most are saying what happens next week could very well be reversed.

For us here in the Rondout Valley, Shawangunks and southern Catskills, what seemed to be certain races last year are now turning out to be sleepy shoo-ins, and several unforeseen openings are drawing attention as the most interesting decisions to be made.

Last week we covered the state representational races, from the various assembly contests that saw a table-full of candidates sharpening differences before a breakfast gathering at the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce (missing only Sullivan County's unchallenged incumbent Democrat Aileen Gunther) to an equal number of state senate face-offs which included the hellion battle going on between Cecelia Tkaczyk and George Amedore, who also faced off two years ago with the Democrat ultimately winning.

Inside these pages, you'll find the rest of what will be on your ballots next Tuesday.

For statewide races, you can find out the basics about the top candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and comptroller, as well as the three proposals needing approval or disapproval on the back of your ballots.

Regionally, we outline what's at stake in a big judicial race for the state supreme court, as well as for a new Ulster County Family Court seat created this past year with two strong women running against each other to gain it.

Locally, the surprise that we'd even have any town council races at all has led to spirited races in Rochester and Rosendale, where the nominating and replacement processes of current town boards seem to be at play as much as the candidates themselves.

Ah, what a fun politicized nation we've become without easy-to-identify enemies to fight in the world around us anymore. Will things be settled come next week's paper, when we report results (hopefully not held up as they have been of late in some local villages, or may be in several southern state races this year)? Not definitively. And certainly not without any quieting of the nation's, state's, or region's deep partisan rifts.

After all, it seems we've finally entered the age of endless punditry. Read on!