Looking Back at Election Day 2009: Patrick Dresslar

Can we get a little perspective over the whopping TWO Democratic losses last week?  They were both gubernatorial races and both need to be analyzed with a little more diligence in my opinion. 

Take Virginia for example.  In each gubernatorial election since 1981, Virginia has given the party of the incumbent President a loss.  Tuesday's results were no different.  And let's not forget that President Obama's victory in Virginia last year was a major upset, as the state had not voted for a Democratic president since 1964 (Lyndon Johnson).  So it is not exactly like Virginians have "turned their back" on Obama, they have simply resumed their historical voting record.  In New Jersey, Chris Christie's election is not a shock to Democrats.  This is a state that has had an even number of Democrats and Republicans at the gubernatorial level over the last 20 or so years, so let's not read too much into this from a national politics perspective.  This is a decision based on state needs, which often mask national political trends.

For each state result, a more in-depth look should assuage any Democratic fear of a reversal of their 2006 and 2008 victories in 2010.  I don't have the raw data on Independent voters and whom they pulled the lever for, but I will concede that many, like myself, have grown wary of the startling amount of federal spending and indecision on Afghanistan under the president we helped elect.  But at the same time, the Republican party is a party with no identity, no voice, no leader, and no apparent new political ideas at the moment, and so the GOP will be hard pressed to convince the American electorate that they are the right party to lead this country after the 2010 midterm elections.  Needless to say, it is going to be an intriguing, and I'm sure nasty, political year with the stakes so high for both parties.

Email Patrick