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Democrat Bill Ownes leads over Conservative Doug Hoffman with over 60% of the vote in. AP Photo
It was undoubtedly not a good day for the Democrats. Virginia was an expected loss. The state has always ran close and President Obama was only able to win the state due to a surge of new voters and African-American voters. The uninspired Democratic candidate Craig Deeds failed to capture the Obama enthusiasm and was simply out-campaigned by the Bob McDonell. In the end a low turnout in Virginia doomed Deeds and McDonell was able to win by a large margin.
New Jersey was a different story. The state tends to be much more Democratic than Virginia and it was hoped that Democrats could pull of the New Jersey magic to make late gains and surge to a victory. Instead it turns out that Christie actually gained momentum in the last days. Corzine was doomed by a number of mishaps during his tenure as Governor and the highest property taxes of any state in the country. New Jersey should certainly concern Democrats more than Virginia when they analyze how these two races predict 2010.
Having said this the Democrats have some reason to be hopeful in looking at New York's 23rd district. Right now the Democrat Bill Owens leads in New York's 23rd with over 64% of the precincts report. The race has not been called but it is a surprise that the race is even this close seeing how dominated the district is by Republicans. The conservatives trumpeted Doug Hoffman in New York's 23rd even if it meant ousting the Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava. Hoffman's ultra-conservatism and the support of people like Glenn Beck seems to have backfired. Voters of the district have not given this much of their vote to a Democrat since before the Civil War.
If Republicans continue to punch themselves in the face like they did in New York's 23rd it could spell doom for Republicans in 2010. Conservatives are already talking about challenging Charlie Crist's attempt to win a U.S. Senate seat in Florida. If moderates like Crist lose their primary and conservative candidates like Hoffman become the nominees for Republicans it could help turn many races toward the Democrats as it has done in New York's 23rd.
For more info: Glenn Beck attempts to create his own image in Congress through Doug Hoffman.
Comments
if you add the votes....more people voted for one or the other republican than the Democrat. In other word, if Scozzafava was not in the race, there is not doubt in my mind that Hoffman would had won
and the teabagger spin begins....
bored loves to be teabagged I bet!
I'm all in favor of this strategy being taken nationwide - please, teabaggers, continue allowing previously safe Republican seats to be taken by liberal Dems.
In a way both Joe and Ines are right!!! But Ines more so. If the Reublican party would have supported Doug Hoffman he would have won hands down ...just look at the raw count.
The Republican Party NEEDS to get rid of clowns like Newt G. and Insider Elites like the RNC chairman Mike Steele. There are way too many Democrat/Socialists masguerading as conservatives within the Republican party. Either they get purged or they can keep the Republican Name Franchise, and the True Conservatives will reorganize as The Conservative Party.
I hope Doug Hoffman stays politically active for the upcoming battle in a year. We have Ron Paul, Huckabe, Michele Bachman, Sarah Palin, Marcia Blackburn, Jim DeMint, Bobby Jindal, Dick Armey and others to go forward with.
Michael Steele....Please step down.
Jaime: It seems to me that you're saying that all conservative politicians from sea to shining sea should agree on everything. Why would that be so? Since it's plainly apparent that a conservative from Kansas and a conservative from New York probably aren't going to see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues, why would a Kansan presume to know what is best for a New Yorker, or vice versa? It makes no sense. Scozzafava's beliefs pretty accurately mirror those of her conservative constituents... Hoffman's don't. That's why he lost.
No I wasn't saying all opinions have to be the same. But about certain basic Conservative values most Conservatives throughout the country agree. Scozzafava was NOT a Conservative, she is a Liberal in a Republican dress, and the Republican constituency there could see right through her. She was in fact selected by the local Republican leaders NOT by popular vote. When she was challanged and the #'s obviously showed Little Conservative support she quit. Why she was even on the ballot after quiting is a good question!!
In fact you are wrong about the Conservative vote. She got very FEW votes....probably those Liberal/Republicans who like to call themselves "Moderate". It is not surprising that A Liberal Democrat won there....it is eyeopening to see just how MANY votes Doug got in relation to Dede. Something like 91% of the Conservative Republican vote went to him!! And that sends a huge message. Conservatives have HAD it with Phony Republican/Conservatives who are liberal!
And your 20 to 25 percent share of the electorate means you are relegating yourselves to permanent minority party status. Enjoy it.
Jaime: She was on the ballot because she suspended her campaign only a few days before the election. Simple as that.
I'm confused at how you say conservatives shouldn't have to agree on everything, but there are "basic conservative values" must all conservatives throughout the country must agree on. That sounds like a litmus test to me. So please, let's have the list of orthodox positions one must hold to be considered a conservative.
Joe and Bored. Your comments and especially the "litmus Test" talking points are making the rounds lately in the new Liberal version of how Conservatives are supposed to let Liberals OF BOTH PARTIES define them.
It is funny really AND telling that "The 20-25%" as bored claims is all the conservatives amount to, this "25%" is definitely NOT welcome in Your supposedly big tent. The truth is it is far larger than 25%...more like half or better of the country is Conservative and is more so as this whole Change and Hope is FORCED down our throats. Again look at Dougs Raw count more like 46%.
If you think you can force your agendas on us without major pushback, you don't understand America or Conservatives. It will come to a head...it would be best to keep imported Euro-Socialism out of the American system however sophisticated you may think you are by adopting such tactics.
And Joe it is not as simple as that: She was listed on the Ballot twice. The truth is that ANYTHING is ok, as long as it serves a Liberal agenda. In fact I believe Owens was listed on the Ballot twice as well.
Jaime: She was listed twice on the ballot because she was the nominee of more than one party. Do you not have much experience voting? This is commonplace, for both parties.
Bored: I would agree with you that there's a fine line between having a litmus test for one's political ideology and simply not having any standards. I think that conservatives are currently going too far in their exclusivity (Scozzafava was a fairly run-of-the-mill conservative in New York).
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