Republicans won two key state elections that dealt a stinging blow to President Barack Obama and his Democrats 12 months after they swept into power.
Obama’s favoured candidates lost battles for the governorship of New Jersey and Virginia in Tuesday’s elections and the gain of a vacant congressional seat in a strongly Republican district of New York state was scant compensation for the president.
Republicans Chris Christie in New Jersey and Bob McDonnell in Virginia unseated Democrats to boost their party still reeling from the scale of Obama’s historic White House victory on November 4 last year.
”The Republican Party’s overwhelming victory in Virginia is a blow to President Obama and the Democrat Party,” Republican National Committee (RNC) chairperson Michael Steele said. ”It sends a clear signal that voters have had enough of the president’s liberal agenda.”
Obama spokesperson Robert Gibbs played down the wider significance of the three off-year election races.
”I don’t think the president is looking at these and believes that they say anything about our future legislative efforts or our future political efforts,” Gibbs said.
Exit polls conducted by television networks tilted in favor of his argument, with 55% of Virginia voters and 60% of New Jersey voters saying Obama did not factor into their decision.
In New Jersey, Christie pulled off an upset victory over Jon Corzine in the heavily Democratic state, with a 49% to 45% margin according to preliminary results.
McDonnell defeated Creigh Deeds by 59% to 41% in Virginia, with almost all precincts reporting.
Virginia helped propel Obama into office a year ago as the nation’s first black president, the first time it had backed a Democratic presidential contender in over four decades.
The New Jersey loss was likely more devastating for Obama, who campaigned heavily for Corzine in the state long dominated by the Democratic Party.
In the New York special congressional race, the official, moderate Republican candidate withdrew in the face of the insurgent Conservative candidate.
Preliminary results gave Democrat Bill Owens 49% to 46% for his main challenger Doug Hoffman, who ran on the tiny Conservative Party ballot but was backed by senior figures from the right of the Republican Party.
With nationwide mid-term Congress elections due next year and Obama bogged down in confrontations over the economy, health care reform and the Afghanistan war, many saw the off-year races taking on greater importance.
The Republican Governors Association quickly congratulated McDonnell in Virginia, saying his victory gave the party ”tremendous momentum heading into 2010.”
If the races showed that Obama’s Democratic machine is not invincible, they also bared rifts in the Republican Party over how to rebuild after last year’s drubbing in presidential and congressional elections.
Hoffman’s storming run made him a standard bearer for the wing of the Republican Party organizing nationwide ”tea party” protests against Obama. His high-profile backers included Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate.
Other Republicans argued for a more centrist stand aimed at attracting independent voters. The official Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, endorsed her Democratic opponent Owens, rather than Hoffman, when she withdrew from the race.
Voters also chose mayors in major cities including New York, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston and Seattle.
In Maine, voters rejected same-sex marriage, with initial results showing 53% voted to repeal a gay marriage law, against 47% who favored the measure. Washington state voters appeared on the verge of approving the right to civil unions for gays, with early returns showing a razor-thin margin of 51% to 49%.
New York’s mayor, media tycoon Michael Bloomberg, won a surprisingly tight contest for reelection against Democratic challenger Bill Thompson by 51% to 46%.
Bloomberg, an independent who ran on the Republican ballot, spent a record amount of his own money during the campaign and had been forecast to win by double digits. — AFP
