• Boring federal government public service announcements airing at 2 in the morning are not going to work.
• Source: McClatchy/GOVERNING   |   California   |   November 20, 2012
• Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, on what California needs to do to raise public awareness about the health insurance exchange, which debuts in October 2013. In a recent focus group, only about 20 percent had heard of it.

• Somewhere, I'm quite certain Lincoln and Dr. King are smiling.
• Source: Detroit News   |   Michigan   |   November 19, 2012
• Mark Rosenbaum, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who argued the case that ended with a federal appeals court throwing out Michigan's voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions and public hiring.

• What happens if I get pulled over and I’m sober, but an officer or his K9 buddy smells the ounce of Super Skunk I’ve got in my trunk?
• Source: Seattle Police Department   |   Seattle   |   November 16, 2012
• A question on the Seattle Police Department's FAQ on marijuana, which Washington state voters -- along with Coloradoans -- approved the recreational use of last week.

• It’s like looking at a bunch of Christmas gifts that are wrapped. ... Until you open it, you don’t know what’s in there.
• Source: New York Times   |   Virginia   |   November 15, 2012
• Doug Domenech, Virginia's secretary of natural resources, referring to the energy resources that may be found off the state's coast and under the ocean if Congress restores a lease sale for energy exploration that the Obama administration canceled after the BP oil spill in 2010.

• I was astonished, amazed, disgusted, sickened, all of the above.
• Source: Stateline/GOVERNING   |   Rhode Island   |   November 14, 2012
• Rhode Island state Sen. John Tassoni Jr., who helped pass the nation's first Homeless Bill of Rights, talking about his visit to a homeless shelter that had deplorable conditions.

• I told them I was the teeny fleck of silver in their otherwise dark cloud.
• Source: Washington Post   |   District of Columbia   |   November 13, 2012
• Bruce Majors, the Libertarian candidate for D.C. congressional delegate who lost his race but earned enough votes to make the Libertarian Party an official party in the District for the first time. The third party has regular ballot access in 30 states.

• Sir, it looks like you live in Dublin, Ireland. I've got 99 problems & your ditch ain't one.
• Source: Twitter   |   Newark, N.J.   |   November 12, 2012
• Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, referencing a Jay-Z song while responding to someone's request via Twitter to fix a pothole.

• You can’t legislate courtesy.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Louisiana   |   November 9, 2012
• John Maginnis, a longtime political observer in Louisiana, where Gov. Bobby Jindal slashed nearly $1 billion in spending that legislators had approved.

• They believe that's a big reason Democrats win elections. Will they try again? Probably.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Minnesota   |   November 8, 2012
• Charles Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota, referring to some Republican lawmakers' belief that voter fraud is common. Voters struck down a plan to require voters to show photo ID, but Samuelson thinks they may continue to push for it.

• Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don't break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.
• Source: Reuters   |   Colorado   |   November 7, 2012
• Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who opposed the now-approved ballot measures that made Colorado and Washington the first states to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana for recreational use.

• Is it undemocratic? Sure. But the alternatives are much, much worse.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Michigan   |   November 6, 2012
• The Detroit Free-Press, which advocates for voters to preserve a controversial Michigan law -- which critics have dubbed the "dictator law" -- that gives the state almost unilateral authority to take control of struggling cities and school districts.
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• If we in this election kill rail … the federal government is not going to hand over that $1.5 billion [in rail funding] to a mayor who says he wants to kill rail.
• Source: The Los Angeles Times   |   Honolulu, Hawaii   |   November 5, 2012
• Honolulu, Hawaii mayoral candidate Kirk Caldwell, speaking about the consequences of electing his opponent, former Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano, who is running solely because he is against the long-planned rail project along the city's coastline.

• I'm having lunch delivered for the 12 or so of you hanging at my place.
• Source: Politico   |   Newark, New Jersey   |   November 2, 2012
• Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, via Twitter. Booker opened up his own residence to neighbors who were still without power after hurricane Sandy.

• I didn’t mind getting this tattoo because it is something that I could live with and it’s something that I believe in.
• Source: ABC News   |   November 1, 2012
• Indiana resident, Eric Hartsburg, who was paid $15,000 by an anonymous Republican eBay user, to get the Romney logo permanently inked on the side of his head.
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• This wasn't an issue where anyone in state government could have done something to avoid it
• Source: Reuters   |   October 31, 2012
• South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, seeking to further explain the massive security breach at the state's Department of Revenue that exposed as many as 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit and debit card numbers to a foreign hacker.