NJ Governor-elect Chris Christie

Republicans have gotten up off the mat, winning 2 gubenatorial elections yesterday.  Neither were too much of a surprise, although some analysts (myself include) expected Jon Corzine to eek out a win in New Jersey.   Governor-elect Chris Christie failed to reach 50% of the vote (there was an independent candidate in the race), but he still out-distanced Corzine amongst voters that sighted his ability to “bring change” to New Jersey.

A noticeable black eye for the GOP, though, came from upstate New York.  The far right wing of the GOP staged a coup, forcing the Republican candidate to bow out of the race with less than a week to go.  The strategy backfired, though, as voters in the NY 23rd elected a Democrat — bucking almost 100 years of Republicans from the area.

And, of course, voters again dealt a blow to equal rights by hatin’ on the gays in Maine.  At some point the 14th Amendment has to kick in, right?  Gay folks should be able to get married and be just as miserable as the rest of us.  (I kid, honey!)

So what does it all mean?

I honestly think the talking heads and national pundits take the easy way out by calling this a blow to the Obama administration. 

VA Governor-elect Bob McDonnell

Does it help?  Of course not.  I do think, especially looking at exits polling from New Jersey, that we can safely say the “change election” from 2008 has carried over to this year.  The Party in power is in trouble. 

I’ve always felt that gubernatorial elections have very little to do with national politics.  People are worried about their local budgets, school systems, and highway programs.  Folks from CNN, MSNBC, and FOX need to justify their air time, so we’ll hear from all of ‘em how this is a huge blow to the President.  While I agree that it does not help, we only need to look to upstate New York to see that there is hardly a mass movement towards conservatism.

Big name after big name (looking at you Ms. Palin) supported the insurgent third-party candidate in a traditionally Republican Congressional district.  The Democrat won.  No, that does not mean Watertown, New York, has become the new San Francisco.  It does mean, though, the extreme sides of either party will find it difficult to win with any consistency. 

The most troubling thing I can see from this election for the Democrats is that most self-identified Independents in New Jersey voted Republican this time.  I’d be interested to see if that were true in other elections.  Independents lifted President Obama to the White House.  If they have alienated this key voting bloc, we could definitely see a huge shift in Congress in just 364 days.