Virginia. New Jersey. District 19, Michigan State Senate. Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Wow. A huge night for Republicans.
Take Virginia for example. President Obama carried Virginia by 7 points in 2008. Republicans have lost the last 2 gubernatorial races and last 2 Senate races in Virginia. President Obama and the Democrats campaigned hard and spent millions for Democrat candidate Creigh Deeds. The result? Republicans won the elections for Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General. Prior to tonight, Republicans have only won all 3 statewide offices on one occasion--1997.
New Jersey? One of the most heavily Democrat states in the nation, where the Republican was outspent by the Democrat incumbent by 3-to-1.
Exit polls in both Virginia and New Jersey showed the greatest concern on voters' minds was the economy. Not health care. Not forced unionization. Not cap-and-trade.
So, Nebraskans, what's this mean for partisan Democrat Tom White?
Have no idea what this means for White. It completely makes sense that the economy was #1 on voters' minds. A few days ago read this and found it interesting: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-30/why-the-democrats-should-lose/
ReplyDeleteFormer Sen. and Nebraska Governor Bob Kerrey apparently thinks that Tom White's chances went from slim to none as a result of Tuesday's election:
ReplyDelete“Every Dem who is up in either 2010 or 2012 knows that last night was big — if the right wing hadn’t meddled in New York’s 23rd, that would have gone GOP, too,” said former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, adding that he fears Democrats may be heading for a repeat of some 1990s history. “The electorate appears restless and angry. If they begin to ‘vote the bums out’ as they did in 1994, Democrats know that the next election is going to be extremely difficult.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29168.html
Peggy Noonan writes about the election results in her latest WSJ online opinion column:
ReplyDelete"The reality is that over the past 10 months the great recession settled in, broadened its presence, and became part of the national landscape. It became the big bad thing for normal people. It became a literal daily threat ("Is Daddy going to lose his job?") that underscored a chronic anxiety. That anxiety is that spending at all levels of government, and the tax demands it will bring and has brought, will make the overall economy worse."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704013004574517751596221752.html
The unemployment numbers are alarming. Meanwhile the Democrats are engaged and stuck in the "health care reform" business--and the House bill is terrible. They deserve to be thrown out. And Rep. Fortenberry seems pretty tone deaf on the subject. He and Rep. Terry are interested in preventative approaches, which should make sense but surprisingly aren't so effective at controlling costs.
http://www.annals.org/content/150/7/485.full
Democrats can maybe hope for more extreme right candidates like the ones Sen. Jim DeMint's PAC (?) supports.
Don't live in his district and don't know a lot about Rep. Terry. . . Sen. White has been impressive to watch in the Legislature, imo. He seems to be a reasonable guy and a good candidate for Congress.
I like Peter Beinart's stuff because he often points out patterns, which is interesting. btw I thought Noonan's "callous children" column was breathtaking. Sad.