New Jersey goes Republican too, bad night for Democrats
No matter how they slice and dice it, Democrat losses in the New Jersey and Virginia governor races are bad news for the party of President Barack Obama as he tries to move an ambitious agenda forward.
Congressional Democrats are already jittery about mid-term elections in 2010 when the party of a first-term president usually loses seats. And Tuesday’s Republican wins will only scare them more.
Even before the New Jersey race was called for Republican Chris Christie over incumbent Governor Jon Corzine, Democrats were postulating that this would be the race to watch rather than the Republican win in Virginia where Bob McDonnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds.
“If the Democrats have a bad night…” James Carville, Democratic pundit, said on CNN after the Virginia race was called but before the New Jersey results were out.
“Let’s assume that the Democrats lose New Jersey, it could have an effect that people in Congress say ‘you know I’m not going to go along with some of Obama’s stuff, I’m really scared, we’ve gotta be careful, we’re going into 2010.’ That could be a reaction to that, maybe even an overreaction, which could be a danger,” Carville said. “That’s something that could have some implications.”
The White House has been downplaying these elections which come one year after Obama won the presidency. Spokesman Robert Gibbs was telling reporters that Obama was not watching the returns. (Fairly sure he’ll get the word somehow).
What it all means will be debated for days, weeks and months as the 2010 mid-term elections come closer.
The First Draft: Elections East-West
Elections in the East, elections in the West.
Hot off the wire: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been declared re-elected.
Afghanistan’s election commission made the declaration after Karzai’s opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew and a run-off election was canceled. “The Independent Election Commission declares the esteemed Hamid Karzai as the president,” the commission’s chief said.
This will no doubt increase the pressure on President Barack Obama to roll-out his new Afghanistan strategy earlier rather than later, now that he knows who the United States will be dealing with.
Matthew Hoh, the former State Department employee who quit last month in protest over U.S. policy in Afghanistan, told NBC’s “Today” show that the Karzai news was “disappointing” and despite the investment of a lot of U.S. resources, “we didn’t get what we put our troops there for.”
Closer to home (just over the bridge from Washington) it’s the day before the election for Virginia governor and (up the highway a bit) the election for New Jersey governor.
Like it or not, Tuesday’s elections will be seen by some as a referendum on the policies of Obama, who has attended campaign events for the Democrats running in the two governor races.
I wonder if the “acorn effect”will take place in the NJ election? the local economy will miss the 10 dollar bills they throw around.If mickey mouse and donald duck are duck taped in a barn some were it could have a dramatic effect on the turn out!
“People on Capitol Hill, they watch the news”
President Barack Obama, on a campaigning blitz for fellow Democrats facing tough fights to stay in office, or get there, is trying to tie the state races to national issues to convince voters their ballot will have a broader impact.
“People on Capitol Hill, they watch the news,” he said.
On Wednesday, the president flew to New Jersey for a rally backing Governor Jon Corzine, who only just climbed into a tie with his Republican opponent, according to opinion polls.
Corzine is struggling in his bid for re-election Nov. 3, although New Jersey is a heavily Democratic state.
On Friday, Obama spent the afternoon at events for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who also faces a stiff fight for re-election next year and low opinion poll numbers, although he too runs a state that is thoroughly blue.
Obama was set to visit Connecticut, another strongly Democratic state, Friday evening to help raise money for Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. His popularity has been hit by voters’ perception that the five-term U.S. senator is too close to the finance industry largely blamed for the international economic slump. Dodd is up for re-election in 2010.
And next Tuesday, Obama will hold a rally for Creigh Deeds, a Virginia state senator trailing by double digits in that state’s governor’s race against its Republican attorney general, Robert McDonnell. Virginia and New Jersey are the only U.S. statehouses up for grabs on Nov. 3.
Obama’s support for Deeds will help put an end to McDonnell’s promise of a liquor store on every corner and a gun in every hand. Deeds is closing in on McDonnell because:
McDonnell supports privatization of Virginia’s liquor industry. As a result, he has received over a half million dollars from the alcohol beverage, hotel, and recreation industries with 5K alone from alcohol beverage distributors including K from Premium Distributors of Va LLC, from the Va Beer Wholesalers Assn, K from Silver Eagle Distributors LP, and K from Associated Distributors/The Charmer Sunbelt Group.
See http://www.vpap.org/committees/profile/m oney_in_industry2/1581?sector=3
McDonnell also supports a loophole in gun registration that has allowed terrible tragedies in Virginia, most notably at Virginia Tech. The NRA has spent well over a half million dollars on advertising in support of McDonnell’s support for the gun regulation loophole.
McDonnell’s promise of a liquor store on every corner and a gun in every hand is simply not a good idea.
The First Draft: The president keeps campaigning
Back from his overseas trip, President Barack Obama has spent this week as campaigner-in-chief.
Every day Obama has pushed lawmakers to approve an overhaul of the healthcare industry — the president’s top legislative priority.
And last night he made a quick trip up to New Jersey to do some political campaigning and inject some presidential charisma into Governor Jon Corzine’s struggling re-election campaign.
While Obama was stumping for Corzine, his vice president Joe Biden was on a similar mission — campaigning for the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, Creigh Deeds.
The Virginia and New Jersey governor elections in November are among the first major contests since Obama took office in January and could be seen as barometers of his success in achieving his agenda.
Obama is also pressing Congress to pass healthcare legislation before its August recess.
After meeting Obama at the White House on Thursday, moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe said she urged the president to be patient. She told him it was “overly ambitious” to set an August deadline for Senate passage of the massive healthcare overhaul.
another very unpopular democratic politician having to get obama to try and bail him out. his trip to nevada to try and rescue harry reed did not make a lot of difference. this is now a one man party as the popularity of the democratic congress sinks even lower,they have built this man up, now if it is all a ruse and he does not live up to the great expectations that people were lead to believe was a certainty ,then these are going to be interesting times politically,particularly if in two years we are bleeding taxes and unemployment is about 13%.
Election Results. Nov.3,2009
November 6, 2009 by politicalsnapshots.wordpress.com
Election Results. Nov.3, 2009
The election results of Nov. 3, 2009 in Virginia, New Jersey and New York, will not give us a conclusive answer as to the resurgence of the Republican Party, nor the coming demise of the Democratic Party. At the same time, not paying attention to certain clues will be politically futile.
Few reasons for Democratic Party loss.
* Low voter turn out in historically Democratic strongholds.
* High unemployment, (in spite of 10,000 points at the Dow and so-called economic growth ballyhoo.)
* The disappointment of the progressive forces that helped put Obama in the White House. (Especially young white voters). Disparity between campaign rhetoric and reality.
* The uncertain, dim future of the U.S. economy.
* The unpopularity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and,
* The Health Care Reform drama. (“not bound by any time lines” Sen. Reid)
For the time being, the Democrats might take third party candidates, as in (New York 23rd District) as their friends who might weaken the Republican Party. But, third party candidates are a double edged sword. In the future, progressive local candidates could arise challenging the status quo within the Democratic Party.
In other words, it will not be hard to envision for Conservatives and Progressives running their own candidates. After all, the rise of independents is based in the awareness that the two major political parties in the U.S. are not in step with the needs of the majority of the people. It is also an acknowledgment that the two party monopoly of politics is not conducive for democracy.
Finally, as my dear friend Ashley St.Claire says, “ may be, just may be, the so-called “ Blue Dogs”, ( I don’t know about the color but, the second part, they might be, if they call themselves one) might have a better fit in the Republican Party.”
Professor Mekonen Haddis