Christie's going to get more than 60% it seems... he's at 60.4% with 97% of precincts reporting... a 22.4pt lead.
— @ForecasterEnten
Dem w NJ roots notes Christie had lonely victory: few R state leg victories. Makes RGA gig/'16 exploring look more appealing come nxt yr
— @jmartNYT
:
6 takeaways from Election Night 2013
Christie’s win, contrasted with Cuccinelli’s loss, could hardly provide a starker contrast for the GOP and a clearer message about how it wins in the future. Exit polls showed Christie winning among women and running even with his Democratic opponent among Latinos. If Republicans could emulate that in other states, they would win just about all of them. Christie is a pragmatic conservative politician who won a massive victory in a blue state; Cuccinelli was a very conservative tea party-esque candidate who lost to an unheralded opponent in one of the nation’s premier swing states. Tea partiers often argue that Republicans can only win presidential races with a true conservative on the ballot. The problem for the broader GOP is the definition of a true conservative has become increasingly stringent. As Tuesday’s elections demonstrate, the GOP — at least in places like Virginia and New Jersey — would be much better served nominating a Chris Christie conservative than a Ken Cuccinelli or Ted Cruz conservative. Of course, this message has often fallen upon the GOP base’s deaf ears (think Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Christine O’Donnell, Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin) and it likely will again.
NY Times on the AL-1 primary, won by the establishment R, Bradley Byrne over hard right Dean Young 53-47:
While Mr. Byrne tried to tamp down the party establishment versus Tea Party story line, many in the business community and the Republican Party saw it as just that: the first big intraparty electoral battle since the government shutdown.
Rs ought to be a little nervous that AL 1 race was as close as it was. The civil war is far from over....
— @StuPolitics
Oh, and that AL-1 race?
The Guardian had a great Q&A:
Where was Barack Obama born?
Byrne: He was born in Hawaii and he has produced a birth certificate.
Young: That is what we call the $64,000 question! I have no idea! [When pushed for an answer:] Kenya.
Need a recap? Just check out
Daily Kos Elections from last night.
So, de Blasio won by almost 50 points. Big whoop. Can he lead?
— @Ron_Fournimeh
More politics and policy below the fold.
Take a break from election night stories and read this heartbreaking–and true to life–portrayal of Newtown today by Lisa Miller:
As mourning came to Newtown, so did an outpouring of sympathy and money. Which has sometimes made the mourning even harder.
Ok, thanks for reading. Now back to our regular program.
Here are exit polls from NJ and VA. Virginia seems a lot more applicable nationally. And while the Gov. race was closer thn many pollsters had it, some got it right and most got the other two elections (Lt Gov, a big D win—and the hotly contested AG race) right.
WaPo:
The Virginia attorney general’s race was a virtual dead heat and headed for a recount early Wednesday morning, with Democratic State Sen. Mark Herring clinging to a 541-vote lead over Republican State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain with 2.2 million ballots cast, according to unofficial results posted by the state board of elections.
Robert McCartney:
Of the many lessons to draw from Virginia’s unusual gubernatorial election Tuesday, one of the most surprising was Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s victory even while supporting such liberal policies as same-sex marriage and stricter gun controls.
That’s an enormous change in Virginia just within the past decade, and it illustrates how a purple swing state is acquiring a more bluish tinge.
Jonathan Chait:
Four Problems With Chris Christie 2016
It is easy to forget how culturally foreign the northeast is to a Southern-dominated party, and how Christie’s belligerent tone may confirm the worst suspicions about him. Conservative columnist Phillip Klein once reported the frequent murmurings of disapproval he found among primary voters when he was covering Giuliani’s race: “one thing I kept running into among voters in early states when covering the campaign was that his background as a New Yorker was a real turnoff and made voters view him as rude and somehow shady.”
Carter Eskew:
While off-year elections suffer from a surfeit of interpretation, it’s hard not to see the victories of Christie and McAuliffe as sending a similar message: Republicans must be moderate to win.
And that message will affect the current House how?
Michael Gerson sums up the modern Republican party with a memorable turn of phrase:
It is one thing to engage in Pickett’s Charge; another to describe it as a victory.
CNN:
Christie did very well for a Republican with core Democratic constituencies. He won more than 45% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29. He won nearly three in 10 self-described liberals. He won roughly half of the Hispanic vote. And he won roughly 20% of the African-American vote.
These are all critical selling points for Republicans hungry to take back the White House in 2016.
If there's one warning sign for Christie's 2016 hopes, it's the fact that the exit polls show he would lose his home state to Hillary Clinton by six points. That doesn't fit with the narrative that he's a Republican capable of winning in blue America.
