Posted on 11/05/2013 7:33:13 PM PST by randita
Republican Ken Cuccinelli's unexpectedly strong showing in the Virginia governor's race will make it more difficult for moderate members of the GOP to pull the party toward the center, says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Polls had shown Cuccinelli down by 7 points to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, but Cuccinelli, a tea party favorite, led vote counts most of the night, with Clinton administration insider McAuliffe pulling out a late victory as bigger cities were counted.
"Whether it's one vote or a million, you're governor for four years," Sabato said. Still, he said, "The conservative Republicans will certainly take heart from the fact that Cuccinelli has done better than expected."
The big story, Sabato said, is Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's huge re-election win in a "deeply blue state." Christie took 59 percent of the vote. He's the first Republican to win statewide with more than 50 percent since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
The United States is so politically polarized that it is remarkable any time a Democrat can win in a heavily red state or a Republican can win in a heavily blue state, Sabato said.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
It’s amazing how many stupid voters there are in the US
America is circling the drain...
bump
These articles from the left are entirely predictable hogwash
I’m not moving to the middle. NO.MATTER.WHAT Got it?
To Hell with the GOP-e’s reaction. Vote out the bastards in 2014!
Good Lord Terry McAuliffe is thanking Bob McDonald for spending on transportation and the great unemployment rate. I never saw a politician give a thumbs up to a different party. Weird.
I blame the stupid libertarians. They gave us 2 terms of Bill Clinton, and now McFraudiff.
Start backing Cruz now and stick with him to the end. The problem last time was conservatives went into the primaries without seeming to have even begun thinking about who to support. And then they changed their mind with every new debate. Time to start organizing now for Cruz.
Based on recent results, it would seem there will never be a strong enough non-stealth Conservative to win, except, perhaps, in/from Texas and Utah.
I'm sorry, but I am not sanguine about Cuccinelli's "better than expected showing" "curbing" any drift to "the center."
It's spinach, and I'll not surrender to the Radical Left's redefinition of "the center."
Not being able to beat scum like Terry McAuliffe in the Old Dominion can be explained away any way one would prefer, but this whistling past the grave yard, backing off on the beatings of the Tea Party until morale improves, or whatever, is pure nostrum.
Hope you’re right, but, “we” (not me!) keep going for somebody who will bring the “crossover” votes, and we end up losing every time. We republicans fail to learn any lessons from those losses. We keep looking for somebody that is “electable”, but we end up with somebody who is not elected.
Should read "...whether the Republican base -- who are mainly social conservatives, tea party people, libertarians -- are willing to embrace somebody as liberal as Chris Christie".
The answer is "No".
If it takes a Chris Christie to win "in a deep blue state", fine. Let him.
But voters in red states won't give him the time of day.
And, if you can't win the red states, winning New Jersey is pointless, isn't it, Larry?
In the words of Nelson Rockefeller's public relations head, Stuart Spencer, "We had to destroy Barry Goldwater as a member of the human race."
Palin, Cruz. the Tea Party.. we're all Goldwaters now. That's what we're getting.
IMHO, the post of the night.
Well, he can’t really thank him for the donor scandal that took a very popular republican governor out of the equation for a close race. Imagine the difference if a non-damaged McDonnell had spent the last 6 months working with the GOP establishment to build up Ken. It would have thwarted the Bill Bolling snub. McDonnell probably could have kept the “republican” virginia beach mayor from endorsing McCauliffe.
But because of the scandal, Bob had to stay out of the race. Which suited the conservatives, since Bob was blamed for the final transportation bill that gave too much to the democrats, and ended up actually hurting republicans in this race (it was supposed to take a “big negative” off the table for our side).
The more interesting thing is the Lt. Governor’s race. If Sarvis had actually taken republican votes from Ken, you may have expected Jackson to actually win. Instead, he lost by 10 points, getting fewer votes than Ken did. Which suggests that Sarvis, in the end, may have taken more votes from Terri then from Ken.
One thing is clear. A conservative can win election here in Virginia, but not if they can be labelled as a far-right conservative, and not if they can’t get at least the grudging support of the mainstream GOP.
If you don’t want to win elections, that is fine. If you want to win, you need more candidates like Reagan, who was conservative but knew how to appeal to the center.
We need a media that will report the truth, which we won’t have for a while. I don’t mind losing elections, but I hate losing an election based on lies. This was a close race, and it is clear that at least 100,000 voters believed the lies of the democrats.
That's fine as far as it goes. I certainly have no problem at all with Cruz. However I believe that he, Palin, Lee, and PERHAPS Sen. Paul need to retreat to the 2013 equivalent of the "smoky back room", out of the sight of you, me, and the media, break the huddle, and come out united.
Granted each and every one of them have egos. I do, however, believe that they all know what's at stake and therefore have the capacity to check said egos at the door for the sake of The Republic.
We were split then. We are split now but I see signs of coalescence around certain conservatives candidates. For instance Cruze, Paul, or Lee could win IF we get behind ONE of them early. But that is the key. And here is one other thing, if you are running and are not first or second after a few races Get Out Of The Race so a conservative can win! Simple.
Libertarian stalkhorse sealed Viginia’s demo-gubnatorial victory.
I’m not worried about the rest of them. I don’t think Palin or Lee could win the general election. I think Cruz can. And I’m not a fan of Paul’s libertarian views when they differ from traditional, Reaganesque conservative thought.
Better than expected by WHOM? Conservatives knew he'd do well, it's the media and folks like Sabato who didn't expect much! I'm sure the fact that he would have WON without the third party candidate scares the bejeezus out of the RINOs.
Especially when it’s as good of a guy as Cuccinelli is. I find it almost impossible not to like the guy. And they did NOTHING for him. Against an outright crook.
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