Is the hope now that California will become a kingmaker in a way it hasn't been?
Mr Ozawa was kingmaker, as both faction leader and LDP secretary-general, but never prime minister.
But it could be a kingmaker if neither of its rivals wins a majority.
Plainly, barring a wholly unexpected upset, Mr Lieberman will be kingmaker after the vote.
He was the headline-grabber, the deal breaker and certified kingmaker of the coalition.
He can probably expect to be at least a kingmaker, if not king.
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During the heyday of the 1990s tech boom, Quattrone was the kingmaker.
Moreover, even as kingmaker, it is not at all clear that Mr King could bring about the change he seeks.
Mr Tyhypko, who once posed for the cover of a men's health magazine, could be the kingmaker in the second round.
That would leave them with a good chance of playing kingmaker in an endless series of left-leaning or right-leaning coalition governments.
The kingmaker is likely to be Ivica Dacic, leader of the Socialist Party, which with its allies is polling at 11.8%.
If we see the same fall-off this time around, the youth demo will likely lose the kingmaker status it held in 2008.
He adds that Microsoft can play kingmaker here, given its pivotal role as the provider of search services on the site.
Lieberman stayed with the Democrats, but for a while anyway, he was seen as the most important lawmaker, or kingmaker, in Washington.
His barely concealed ambition, to be not merely the richest man in Russian business but also the kingmaker, may yet be realised.
He has much more power in his now very strong kingmaker position.
That made Berlusconi the coalition kingmaker at a time when the nation is counting on action to create jobs and enact political reform.
The retirement of former PM and LDP kingmaker Takeshita Noboru, 76, is widely regarded as heralding a generational change in the hidebound party.
And if he turned out to be Congo-Brazzaville's kingmaker, he would have great influence in an oil-rich country with a major port on the Atlantic coast.
Peters, whose populist New Zealand First party came third, is kingmaker.
Takeshita was his successor as Japan's unofficial "kingmaker" in the 1990s.
China has traditionally been a kingmaker in isolated and sanctioned countries and well-placed to capitalize on the infrastructural and extractive needs of emerging economies as well.
Few expect him to be the next prime minster, but his party could play a role as a kingmaker or form a solid opposition in parliament.
Meanwhile, his political movement has become a kingmaker in Iraqi politics: Its 39 members of Iraq's parliament were key to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's winning a second term.
But come the general election union members will still make fine get-out-the-vote foot soldiers for whoever wins the Democratic nomination, even if union bosses can no longer play kingmaker.
He was a young politician who couldn't win a congressional seat in his own neighborhood, and yet he was asking the state's political kingmaker to back him for a statewide race.
Virginia is one of the states deemed too close to call, and this year it looks poised to be the kingmaker because of the way the other swing states will split.
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Whatever his future inclinations, Razaleigh remains a potential kingmaker.
If his critics are correct, and he is just too liberal to be elected pope, he does have enough influence to be a grande elletore - a kingmaker whose views could sway the conclave.
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