Posted on 11/04/2009 2:21:04 AM PST by markomalley
—Chris Christie, a Republican former U.S. attorney, unseated New Jersey Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, a billionaire former Wall Street executive.
—In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell beat Democrat R. Creigh Deeds to replace the term-limited Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine.
U.S. HOUSE:
—California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi easily defeated his Republican opponent, attorney David Harmer, in a special election for a Northern California congressional seat.
— Democrat Bill Owens won a special election for a rural New York congressional seat that Republicans had held for decades. Some prominent Republicans, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, had backed Conservative Doug Hoffman. The hand-picked GOP candidate, state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, withdrew from the race and threw her support to Owens.
MAYORS:
—In Atlanta, a six-way race to succeed term-limited Mayor Shirley Franklin, the city's first female mayor, will lead to a December runoff. The two top vote getters Tuesday were City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who was trying to become the city's first white mayor in a generation, and state Sen. Kasim Reed, who is black.
(snip)
—Maine voters, given the chance to make the state the first to approve gay marriage at the ballot box, voted down a same-sex marriage law approved by legislators in May.
—Maine voters approved a referendum that stretches the state's medical marijuana law by expanding the conditions under which people can be prescribed marijuana and by allowing for retail dispensaries from which the drug can be distributed to patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
I don’t agree.
It was a close race (3-4%). You’ve got to ask yourself some questions. Included:
1) Had the NY Republican Party nominated Hoffman, what would have happened? (Prediction: he would have spanked Owens)
2) Had Scozzafava not endorsed the Dhim (an unprecedented maneuver), what would have happened?
The fact that a third party candidate (a conservative party candidate) come within 3-4 points of winning is a HUGE thing that, while it is going to be spun as a defeat for the pubbies, should be having “blue dog” democrats sh*tting their pants.
I also wonder how many absentee/early votes were cast for Scazafavva that would have gone for Hoffman.
Who are these people that voted for Scozzafava yesterday?
Hoffman lacked a few thousand votes because a)absentee ballots were cast long before he had momentum and b) Scozzafava and her RINO backers siphoned off votes and c) The RNC invested more money in attacking Hoffman than Owens.
What is evident is that a) Dede could never win but only play spoiler b) Hoffman had overwhelming support among Conservatives/Republicans (real ones).
Hoffman had a fighting chance. Scuzzy didn’t. Had the RNC backed the Conservative instead of the RINO he would have easily won the seat.
That’s the message the GOP has to learn. RINOs will be challenged and brought down by us.
The Hoffman race was still a step in the right direction. If the country is to be saved, first we must save the Republican Party. The message to the Republicans is that they better get on the wagon with Fiscal Conservatism, or they will be abandoned.
We have drawn our line in the sand, and they see it.
The Drunken Sailor party is over for the Republicans. ‘Bout time!
WRONG!!! What is a huge thing is a Dem took a seat that had been a Repub seat for almost 100 years! This is what yobama wanted when he asked the former rep to take the position he did.
It appears the people in that area of NY finally have went to the Dem side of things ... just like NH and the Repubs (conservatives) are out in that part of the country.
This race is a bad Oman.
You nailed it there.
Are you saying we would have been better off leaving and working for suzzyfava?
Not so much, the real fight will happen one year from now, the Dhimmi merely won a special election by the slimmest of margins, next election Hoffman, if he runs again, will be more well known as well as having Obama’s record to run against.
No! What I'm saying is that I believe the race was lost from the beginning ... when the original rep left for a yobama post. AND. Also when the GOP in that area did not have a primary.
I would not put it past the folks in Dist. 23 to be pissed off at the rep they had just voted in, taking off to Washington for a yobama post, so they probably lost trust in the Republicans ... THEN ... since there was no primary for the repubs, the people got disillusioned again and many probably stayed home.
I hope this race sends out a HUGE teachable moment to all Repubs/Conservatives in office to NEVER even consider a special appointment from yobama and give up their seat that the people ELECTED them to.
That was similar to my thought when the post got offered early on!
No info in this article about state legislative elections in NJ and VA. That is very important. Word was Repubs gained several seats in VA.
Apparently a Republican won a statewide race in PA for supreme court. That sounds like good news too. No wonder it seems to be largely ignored in the media.
It’s dismal and even more so if the voting process wasn’t tainted.
Oh it WAS tainted! I have no doubt!
Also from the article:
—In Texas, voters passed a constitutional amendment aimed at preventing the government from taking private property purely for economic development.
1.) He entered the race late. That hurt.
2.) Compared to Owens, Hoffman had zero name recognition.
3.) Newt's endorsement of Scuzzafava undermined Hoffman. Maybe just a little, but it still hurt in the end.
4.) Hoffman was outspent by his rivals.
5.) Hoffman was fighting a three-front war: Owens, Scuzzafava AND the RINO establishment in NY.
6.) Scuzzafava had hard-core supporters who did a revenge based vote against Hoffman. Hence, why she got 5% and why some others went over to vote for Owens.
7.) Hoffman did not have as much political expertise in running as effective a campaign as Owens did.
A year from now, Hoffman will be ready. In the meantime, people need to rally around Hoffman. I imagine that the RINO establishment in NY will not be happy that THEIR candidate was forced to withdraw or face the embarrassment of placing third while not withdrawing from the race. Hence, the RINO establishment in NY will seek to undermine Hoffman's chances of running on the Republican ticket or any ticket at all in 2010.
BTW, I wonder if the RINO establishment in NY directed Scuzzafava to endorse Owens, given that THEIR candidate was forced to withdraw from the race or face the embarrassment of placing third while not withdrawing from the race.
About 5%
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