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One underplayed aspect of this year's elections that I think could make an impact is the return of disaffected Republicans who didn't even bother coming out to vote in 2008 because they were unhappy about the nomination of John McCain. They may have felt it didn't make any difference who they voted for then, but feel differently about things now that they've seen the impact of Democratic control in Washington. On the Virginia exit poll 94% of respondents said who they voted for President last year and their responses average out to a 13.2% advantage for Bob McDonnell. Since McDonnell...

Despite talk about easing burdens on businesses to encourage them to create jobs, companies in Virginia will be paying more in taxes come Jan. 1. The state unemployment tax that businesses pay on each employee will be going up, from an average of $95 per employee per year to an average of $171 a year in 2010, $234 in 2011 and $263 in 2012. The tax goes into the fund the state uses to pay unemployment benefits... When the unemployment fund gets low, it triggers an automatic increase in the tax. The increase is determined by a formula. Virginia Employment...

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine (D) proposed Friday replacing the local car tax by increasing income tax $1.9 billion a year. But Republicans in the General Assembly and Gov.-elect Robert F. McDonnell (R) have said they are opposed to any tax hikes. The outgoing governor also proposed about $2.3 billion in budget cuts to help make up for a nearly $4.2 billion shortfall by 2012. ... Kaine recommended eliminating 1,879 jobs as well as 664 layoffs, many of them in the departments of transportation, corrections, juvenile justice and at the University of Virginia. In public education, he would cap the number...

It’s final. Republican Ron Villanueva is the winner of the 21st House District seat after a recount Monday. Villanueva, a city councilman, increased his margin of victory over incumbent Democrat Bobby Mathieson by two votes after all the ballots were rechecked. In the end, Villanueva received 7,674 votes, and Mathieson got 7,658. “I feel elated,” Villanueva said Monday night. “It was exciting to see the process in action.” Mathieson, who asked for the recount, said his camp was aware going in that a different outcome was unlikely with so many ballots cast electronically and the chances of finding mistakes minimal....

Last month, Americans watched as Virginia and New Jersey elected two new governors. While the lessons of both campaigns are still being dissected, virtually everyone agrees that Chris Christie profited most of all from having a terrible incumbent as an opponent. The real lessons for political candidates in competitive races stem from Virginia’s Bob McDonnell. McDonnell didn’t just win big. He helped his party win every statewide seat with on coattails. The talking heads chalk up his astounding victory to his singular focus on jobs and the economy. And as usual, the talking heads are 100% wrong. To be sure,...

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II is known for speaking his mind. As he prepares next month to be sworn in as the top attorney for the state, nothing has changed. For those concerned that the attorney general-elect is going to embrace his conservative principles and take on anyone who opposes those beliefs — even the federal government — Mr. Cuccinelli said they are right to be concerned. "If they're worried that I'm going to sue the federal government, their worry is well-placed," Mr. Cuccinelli said. In the Republican state senator's acceptance speech after winning the election in November, he promised to...

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - What a difference a year has made for Virginia's Republican Party. Hailing a turnaround that seemed impossible after a historic 2008 trouncing in a Democratic sweep led by Barack Obama, jubilant Republicans cheered the party's newest star, Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, at their annual winter meeting Saturday. "The Republican resurgence has begun in Virginia," McDonnell told a crowd attending the party's 26th Annual Donald W. Huffman Republican Advance in Williamsburg. In Staunton, nearly 160 miles west down Interstate 64, the Democratic Party's central committee hunkered down under a heavy snowstorm. McDonnell's victory by 19 percentage points over...

It seems simple to write off the four elections that got much of the attention last month in New Jersey, Virginia, New York and California. Democrats and Republicans each won two, so what really changed? They weren't indicative nationally and represented no more than local issues playing out locally, right? Wrong. They represented a conservative groundswell — ideologically and personally.The table below shows the four races. The first two columns indicate the percentages of the vote total gained by each party in the 2008 presidential election and the 2009 state and congressional elections. The third column shows the difference...

GOP Firehouse Primary for 37th Senate Dist. Posted on November 30, 2009 by Riley The firehouse primary to determine the Republican nominee in the special election to fill the 37th State Senate Dist. being vacated by AG-elect Ken Cuccinelli will be held TONIGHT! Here’s the details – Dec 1, 2009 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm Centreville High School 6001 Union Mill Rd Clifton, VA 20124-1131 Identification will be required in order to vote All voters will be required to sign a pledge stating that they intend to support the nominees of the Republican Party in the future. Electronic voting machines...

Results of SurveyUSA News Poll #16075

A few weeks ago seven of the eight incumbent Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates who lost their seat to a Republican had one other thing in common - a lower National Rifle Association (NRA) rating that their opponent . . . [and] the disparity in support for gun rights between the parties seems to have sharpened.

CEDAR CREEK, Tex. –After four years of grappling with how to appeal to voters, a group of top Republicans believe they’ve found a winning formula for 2010. Call it the McDonnell Strategy. The shorthand: run on economic policy, downplay divisive cultural issues, present an upbeat tone, target independent voters and focus on Democratic-controlled Washington—all without attacking President Barack Obama personally. It’s an approach that elected Bob McDonnell to the Virginia governorship earlier this month. While Republicans posted two hard-fought gubernatorial victories on Nov. 3, McDonnell’s path to victory is the one that most encourages the GOP, a remarkable case of...

AUSTIN – Here's what I did not hear at the annual confab of Republican governors held here this week: The words socialist, extremist, or government takeover. With the focus on jobs, jobs and jobs, the only red meat was the Texas barbecue. And by design, there was no Obama-bashing. [snip] Barbour cautioned Republican candidates to refrain from attacking the president, period: "People want the president to succeed; good Lord, they want the country to succeed, and particularly the first African-American president has a lot of goodwill. . . . We need to be careful, we need to treat the president...

Thrilled with twin victories this month, Republican governors are looking to lead a party-wide resurgence in 2010 and shape the GOP for years to come. Republicans boast of a strong crop of gubernatorial candidates who could be future party leaders, $25 million in the bank a year before the elections and a difficult environment for Democrats, particularly in financially ailing swing-voting states like Ohio and Iowa. "Next year's going to be a good year for Republican governors," predicted Haley Barbour, Mississippi's governor and chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "In states where there are Republican governors, people can see if...

Suburban Democrats are bracing to defend their recent gains amid unmistakable signs of volatility among an electorate that is impatient with the pace of economic recovery. Their concerns are coming into sharp focus amid ongoing developments in Nassau County, N.Y., where County Executive Tom Suozzi, a rising star in New York politics and a prominent suburban Democratic politician, might lose his seat in a recount. Suozzi’s predicament comes on the heels of other troubling developments in some of the nation’s largest suburban counties, including nearby Democratic Westchester County, where voters tossed out County Executive Andrew Spano in a startling...

Asian voters switching to Republicans? ... All this evidence strongly suggests that Republicans made gains and Democrats suffered significant losses among Asian, and specifically among Indian-American voters, in Middlesex County. This upscale group, ready enough to vote for John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008, seems to have been repelled by New Jersey’s high taxes and big government under Jon Corzine. There should be some lessons here for Republicans generally—and for Democrats as well.

Mounting evidence that independent voters have soured on the Democrats is prompting a debate among party officials about what rhetorical and substantive changes are needed to halt the damage. Following serious setbacks with independents in off-year elections earlier this month, White House officials attributed the defeats to local factors and said President Barack Obama sees no need to reposition his own image or the Democratic message. Since then, however, a flurry of new polls makes clear that Democrats are facing deeper problems with independents—the swing voters who swung dramatically toward the party in 2006 and 2008 but who now are...

Asian voters switching to Republicans? Prowling through the election returns in the governor races two weeks ago, I was surprised to find that Middlesex County, New Jersey, voted for Republican Chris Christie over Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine by a 48%-44% margin, almost exactly the same as Christie’s 49%-45% statewide margin. Middlesex County has been a Democratic county for as long as I have been studying election returns (going back to the 1960 election). In close elections it voted 58%-42% for John Kennedy in 1960, 46%-43% for Hubert Humphrey in 1968 (when he failed to carry New Jersey), 51%-47% for Jimmy...

Prowling through the election returns in the governor races two weeks ago, I was surprised to find that Middlesex County, New Jersey, voted for Republican Christie over Democratic incumbent Corzine by a 48%-44% margin, almost exactly the same as Christie’s 49%-45% statewide margin. Middlesex County has been a Democratic county for as long as I have been studying election returns (going back to the 1960 election). In close elections it voted 58%-42% for John Kennedy in 1960, 46%-43% for Humphrey in 1968 (when he failed to carry New Jersey), 51%-47% for Carter in 1976, 46%-38% and 56%-32% for Bill Clinton...

If you were watching television on Tuesday night as the election returns came in showing Republicans capturing the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, you probably missed seeing the biggest losers of the evening. You may have caught the concession speech of Creigh Deeds, who ran 12% behind Barack Obama's winning percentage of the vote in Virginia, and that of Jon Corzine who, after spending over $100 million of his own money on three campaigns, ran 13% behind Obama's winning percentage in New Jersey and got evicted from Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton. But you missed seeing the guy...