Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Election Day Elsewhere

I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the races on the Eastern seaboard. It looks like the Republicans won huge in Virginia, took out the odious John Corzine in New Jersey and that the strange special election in NY CD 23 will go to the Democrat.

Of these, my first take is that the most important result is in New Jersey. Chris Christie isn't necessarily the Republican from Central Casting, but he seems like a smart enough guy and he was certainly a better candidate than Corzine, the limousine liberal plutocrat who essentially bought this seat last time. Jersey is a tough place for Republicans to win and Christie won't necessarily have a lot of room to maneuver, but he'll have a chance to make some needed changes in the Garden State.

Were these results a referendum on Obama? I don't know about that. If Obama and his buds in Congress double down and try to ram the current version of Obama Care down the throats of the country, they'll meet significant opposition and 2010 could get very ugly for the Democrats. The people who are probably paying the most attention locally are Tim Walz and Collin Peterson. And they should be.

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