Reporter Ken Carlson this week caught that Modesto City Councilman Garrad Marsh is passing on land-use votes while the Fair Political Practices Commission evaluates whether he has a conflict of interest on development issues.

We don't have much information yet on the complaint that sparked the investigation, but we're looking into it.

Marsh is known as a slow growth advocate, and development is one of his key issues. A year ago, Marsh rejected advice that he refrain from voting on land use because he had developable property, and early plans to build 22 homes. Something changed to make him take that recommendation more seriously, at least for the time being.

Former Modesto City Councilman Bill Conrad came up short in his bid for the 25th Assembly District, but his second place showing was a surprise that encouraged him to run for office again.

He'd been out of the country for two years while serving with the Army in Afghanistan, and most voters' last memory of him involved the poor campaign he ran for the same Assembly district in 2006.

With that recent history, it looked like former Modesto City Councilwoman Janice Keating or former Turlock Councilman Kurt Vander Weide would have stronger showings. They'd have more money in the bank, and more energy to campaign.

Instead it was Conrad slipping into second behind Modesto Councilwoman Kristin Olsen. He spent about $11,000 on mailers he put together himself. Olsen and Keating each had more than $140,000.

"I've never had more people call and congratulate me for coming in second place," Conrad said.

Sure, turnout's low today, but we're locked in for a full night where voters will answer many questions about their priorities for state and local government.

Here's what I'm watching:

Did Rob Jackson muster enough support to unseat Sheriff Adam Christianson? The conditions are ripe for an upset because of the economic downturn that has Christianson cutting services. A cluster of lawsuits that hit the department over the past couple years didn't help Christianson, either. Still, crime has dropped over the past four years and we'll find out if voters are ready for a change.

Who benefited from the slugfest in the 19th Congressional District? State Sen. Jeff Denham of Atwater and former Congressman Richard Pombo of Tracy hit each other repeatedly in this race, but their jabs could help former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson or Fresno Councilman Larry Westerlund.

A few of us here were pretty impressed with the strong language Stanislaus County Redevelopment Director Kirk Ford used in a press release today to excoriate the state's decision to lean on local redevelopment agencies to shore up its budget.

"It's incredibly narrow-minded of Sacramento to reach into the pockets of local redevelopment agencies, one of the state's strongest job creating engines, at a time when job creation and economic development are desperately needed," Ford said.

County Supervisor Jeff Grover had a tough quote, too.

"Taking this funding will stall job creation efforts in Stanislaus County at the worst possible time. The money being turned over to fund State obligations was going to be used for local revitalization projects that would have improved our community, created jobs and stimulated our local economy."

The Stanislaus Taxpayers Association has a couple pros when it comes to shooting holes in plans to expand local government spending.

The city of Modesto handed the group more ammunition last week when it moved to borrow $5 million from its water fund to pay for a citywide tech upgrade.

It doesn’t take much to derail a tax increase with state law requiring a 2/3 majority to adopt new fees.

The Taxpayers Association in the past five years helped kill two pushes to raise sales taxes to improve Stanislaus County roads. The taxpayer group argued voters just couldn’t trust the people in power to do what they say they’re going to do with your money.

Next time the city moves for a fee increase, Taxpayers Association co-chairmen Eric Reimer and Dave Thomas no doubt will stand up and say, “The city raised your monthly water rates to pay for water services, and instead they bought computer software.”

Slam dunk for the critics.