11/7/13, "New Assembly Speaker only change in Legislature's leadership," Bergen Record, NorthJersey.com, Michael Linhorst
New Jersey Senate Republicans didn't pick up a single seat and remain a minority. 24 Democrats, 16 Republicans.
The NJ Assembly had a 48-32 Democrat majority going into the election. So far, one GOP Assembly seat has been added. The seat is in District 1 which is in the southernmost part of New Jersey in Cape May County area.
==================
The myth of "Republicans" in blue states helping the national GOP:
11/6/13, "Look to Cruz, Not to Christie," George Neumayr, American Spectator
"Arnold Schwarzenegger won re-election handily in 2006, defeating his hapless opponent Phil Angelides by a 56% to 38.9% margin. Yet this sizable win was a meaningless victory for the GOP. Similarly, Chris Christie’s thumping victory on Tuesday night over an equally forgettable candidate contains almost no national meaning, save that Chris Christie is good for Chris Christie. Like Schwarzenegger, Christie cruised to re-election not as a real Republican but as a preening non-partisan moderate. Like Schwarzenegger, Christie’s popularity hasn’t translated into any support for Republicans in his own legislature.
Which raises the question: How could Christie turn blue states red nationwide if he can’t turn his own legislature red?
The breathless burbling about how Chris Christie’s victory “shows the path forward for the GOP” conveniently ignores his inability to turn New Jersey red for anyone but himself. Before election day, the New Jersey media didn’t see any reason for the Dems to worry about a Christie victory, as they enjoy a 48-32 majority in the Assembly and a 24-16 lead in the state Senate. While these numbers may change, early reports indicate most incumbents will be reelected. The New Jersey media reported that most polls indicate support for Christie won’t help any down-ballot Republicans. In 2009, Christie’s coat-tail effect was negligible too, resulting in only one new Assembly seat for the Republicans.
Like Schwarzenegger, Christie is a useful idiot for the Democrats—a needy, politically correct, ruling-class Republican who is trending liberal on everything from “climate change” to gay marriage to size-of-government issues. Christie loves the liberal limelight—a trait that will only intensify over time. The Democrats know a Trojan Horse when they see one.
Of course, establishment Republicans—the same geniuses who parachuted Schwarzenegger into office to the long-term detriment of their party—will ooh and ahh over Christie’s victory and argue that Tuesday’s results, in which the moderate in New Jersey won and the conservative in Virginia lost, illustrate the wisdom of ideological flexibility and the value of distance from the Tea Party. Never mind that Cuccinelli, who ran a lame and scared campaign, had made a point of avoiding Ted Cruz, even though it was Cruz’s brave stance against Obamacare and the consequences of its buffoonish rollout that ended up making the race much closer than anyone expected.
“In the clearest sign yet of the potent effect of the government shutdown on the Virginia governor’s race, Republican Ken Cuccinelli avoided being photographed with Ted Cruz at a gala they headlined here Saturday night—even leaving before the Texas senator rose to speak,” reported Politico in early October. Republicans who behave in this craven fashion don’t deserve to win. Cuccinelli didn’t lose because he hewed to the Tea Party line; he lost because he didn’t. Had he played up his conservatism instead of running away from it while lashing McAuliffe as a pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage socialist, he might have galvanized conservatives and won the race.
Even the media found it a little difficult to sustain the this-is-a-defeat-for-the-Tea-Party narrative after the Virginia results came in, as they showed a race that the Republicans could easily have won, had the Libertarian not run, had Cuccinelli actually tried, had stingy Republican fat cats donated money to ad campaigns, had Republicans bothered to expose McAuliffe’s radicalism, etc.
The future of the GOP is not Christie but Cruz. Have the Republicans learned nothing from Romney’s loss, McCain’s loss, Dole’s loss?* The lesson is simple: do not run moderates; that just hands victory to the Dems from the start. A basic test for any GOP nominee should be: Can this candidate win his own state? In Christie’s case, the question, despite Tuesday’s results, remains open. After all, he wasn’t exactly running against Hillary Clinton. Another test is: Can this candidate reclaim his own legislature for his party? If not, all the enthusiasm is empty. Republican governors in blue states that remain for all intents and purposes blue always end up doing damage to the party, racking up personal victories for themselves while selling out the party’s principles." via Legal Insurrection commenter
===============================
*Comment: The GOP isn't about winning elections. The GOP is a business group. To the extent it has any ideology, it's no different from far left democrats'. It's actually better for the GOP if democrats remain in charge. This way they can stay in the background and do their deals. Big GOP donors don't even care about winning elections. Karl Rove wasted all their money in 2012 and no one complained.
============================
11/6/13, "Why we need a Capitol City Project today," Anne Sorock, Legal Insurrection
How transparent, Wall Street Journal.
That’s why I launched the Capitol City Project this week; to shed light, without regard for party labels, on the connection between media, the political elites, lobbyists–and the staffers that run the show in our Capitol City DC.
We launched with the first in a series of profiles of those insiders whose caricatures grace the walls of The Palm, a steakhouse chain that is the center of power lunching in DC. Our first Palm profile: Terry McAuliffe, along with a story we dug up reporting on him shouting about porn across the table at The Palm where he held court years ago. A waiter at the restaurant told us, confirmed by the restaurant’s brochure, that you need 15,000 points spent ($1 = 1 point) to receive a caricature, or be famous.
The story of Chris Christie reveals exactly where our Republican Party insiders would like us to go. Observe those crowning him from the inside and you’ll see revealed a network that is more about power than principle. If the GOP can shed all its principles, just imagine how many Republicans we could get elected, they seem to say. It is a strategy concocted by those who seek to hold on to power, centralized in the Capitol City.
We at the Capitol City Project will be reporting on the entertaining, the sobering, the unbelievable, and the everyday stories that Americans need to hear.
You may be interested to learn that Chris Christie’s caricature is on the wall of The Palm restaurant in the Capitol City aka DC – -the same wall as McAuliffe and the Clintons.
More to come." image via Anne Sorock, Legal Insurrection
===============================
Pathetic Wall St. Journal Editorial noted by Anne Sorock. Journal fails to cite exit polls available specifically on the "shutdown blame" question which found it was a wash, both sides were blamed equally. Even the Washington Post reported that fact. The Journal doesn't mention the election was lost by only 3 points:
11/5/13, "The Portents of Election 2013," Wall St. Journal Editorial, "Republicans beat themselves in Virginia. Is Christie a model?"
"The major political parties split Tuesday's pair of Governor's races, as Democrat Terry McAuliffe won a close race for an open seat in the swing state of Virginia while Republican Chris Christie romped to a second term in New Jersey. The party that should do the most soul-searching is the GOP.
Start with the embarrassing fact that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli lost to Mr. McAuliffe, a carpetbagger and crony capitalist from central casting. The chief fundraiser for Team Clinton was the first Virginia gubernatorial candidate of a sitting President's party to win since 1977. The defeat has many fathers, including incumbent Republican Bob McDonnell, who can only serve one term and got himself into a political-gift scandal that made it hard for the GOP to run an ethics campaign against Mr. McAuliffe.
Mr. Cuccinelli's supposed friends in
the tea party also stabbed him in the back by pushing the government
shutdown. About 30% of Virginia voters live in the Washington, D.C.,
suburbs that are packed with government employees, and the Democrat won
that suburban vote by 62% to 33% according to the exit polls.* If Senator
Ted Cruz,
Heritage Action and the kamikaze caucus had spent money for Mr.
Cuccinelli instead of attacking fellow Republicans in August, he might
have won.
The bigger question for 2014
and beyond is whether Virginia is moving from swing state to majority
Democratic. This seems unlikely only four years after Mr. McDonnell won
59% of the vote. Mr. Cuccinelli also spent the last week campaigning
against ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion in Virginia, and it helped him
close what was a double-digit deficit.
But
Mr. Cuccinelli's dour social conservatism hurt him among some voters.
His positions on abortion and gay marriage are the same as Mr.
McDonnell's and for that matter not much different from Mr. Christie's.
Yet Mr. Cuccinelli sometimes gives the impression of being a charter
member of the cast-the-first-stone coalition, which made it easier for
Democrats to stereotype him with their deluge of TV ads financed by the
Clinton machine.
Mr. Cuccinelli never
found a strategy or language to neutralize the Democratic "war on women"
or war on immigrants charges, which is a warning to Republicans in all
but the most conservative states. His hardline immigration position
repeated
Mitt Romney's
blunder in a state that has a growing Hispanic population. Mr.
Cuccinelli won the white vote by 20 percentage points, but the
electorate was only 70% white compared to 78% four years ago. He won by
four points among men but lost women by eight.
The
other big question from Tuesday is what Republicans can learn from Mr.
Christie's resounding triumph. Part of the victory is personal, a
tribute to his outsized personality and talent for blunt persuasion. His
embrace of President Obama after Hurricane Sandy a year ago irritated
many Republicans and hurt Mr. Romney, but it sealed Mr. Christie's
reputation as a leader for New Jersey.
One
mistake for the GOP to avoid is casting Mr. Christie as a "moderate"
because he won twice in a Democratic state. The Governor has by and
large governed as a conservative reformer. He vetoed a tax increase on
millionaires and capped property taxes. He pushed tenure reforms that
will make it easier to fire bad teachers, and he extracted far more
pension reform out of a Democratic legislature than did Democratic
Governors Jerry Brown in California or Andrew Cuomo in New York.
Mr.
Christie's biggest disappointment has been failing to improve the
state's economy. New Jersey still ranks 49th in the Tax Foundation's
state tax climate index, ahead of only New York. The state jobless rate
is still 8.5%, among the 10 highest in the country. It's true he
inherited a mess, but Mr. Christie will need a new reform agenda in 2014
to impress national GOP primary voters going into 2016.
We'll
be watching to see if Mr. Christie had any legislative coattails, but
Republicans everywhere should study how he managed to win among
non-Republican voters. You need them to become a majority party.
Correction: An earlier version of this editorial misstated the exit poll results on the shutdown."
==========================
Added: Why are open borders a "conservative" issue to WSJ? Borders are a matter of life and death for all people in all countries.
==============================
11/6/13, "Exit polls: Shutdown had limited impact in Cuccinelli loss," The Hill, Cameron Joseph
"Democratic predictions that the government shutdown would drag down Republicans didn't play out in Virginia, according to exit polls, a sign that the issue might not boost the party in 2014 as much as Democrats had hoped.
While Democrats won Virginia's gubernatorial election, exit polls show almost as many voters blame President Obama for the shutdown as blame House Republicans.
According to the Virginia exits, 48 percent said they blamed Republicans for the government shutdown, with 45 percent blaming Obama.
That’s a much narrower split than was found in national polling on the issue following the shutdown.
If the shutdown didn't move votes in Virginia, a swing state with a disproportionate number of federal workers, less than a month after it occurred, it's unclear whether voters in red states a year from now will turn out to vote against Republicans on the same issue....
Republicans argue that the Virginia race tightened because of ObamaCare, though the exit polls found a similarly narrow split on the law."...
"Democratic predictions that the government shutdown would drag down Republicans didn't play out in Virginia, according to exit polls, a sign that the issue might not boost the party in 2014 as much as Democrats had hoped.
While Democrats won Virginia's gubernatorial election, exit polls show almost as many voters blame President Obama for the shutdown as blame House Republicans.
According to the Virginia exits, 48 percent said they blamed Republicans for the government shutdown, with 45 percent blaming Obama.
That’s a much narrower split than was found in national polling on the issue following the shutdown.
If the shutdown didn't move votes in Virginia, a swing state with a disproportionate number of federal workers, less than a month after it occurred, it's unclear whether voters in red states a year from now will turn out to vote against Republicans on the same issue....
Republicans argue that the Virginia race tightened because of ObamaCare, though the exit polls found a similarly narrow split on the law."...
============================
11/6/13, "Terry McAuliffe won, but why was the Virginia race so close? Here are 6 reasons." Washington Post, The Fix, by Peyton M. Craighill and Scott Clement
"Voters in the governor’s election did not blame Republicans much more than President Obama for the government shutdown."...
=======================
Romney and Jeb Bush were apparently involved in Cuccinelli's campaign. Too bad:
11/6/13, "Cuccinelli loses by 3 points in Virginia after astounding comeback," Human Events, John Hayward
"Cuccinelli has been outspent in each race he’s ever run, but the truth is that while the party’s elected moderates backed him up (Romney, Jeb, and others all fundraised for him), the NOVA business community and establishment Republicans didn’t. A smarter campaign would’ve made it harder for McAuliffe to get this support early on, driving up his negatives when he still had low name ID and making it harder for business dollars to justify backing him – but a campaign that gets completely shaken up two months out from Election Day isn’t a smart one, typically.""
.
===================================
Comment on above: Romney and Jeb Bush are neither "elected" nor "moderate" and if anything are the essence of "establishment Republicans." If Cuccinelli deserved to lose it was for poor judgment in imagining any establishment GOP would help him.
.
Uncertainty Persists in LD38
Updated 9:52 a.m.
As of right now, Save Jerseyans, the NJ GOP can only confirm its gain of one Assembly seat (down in LD1).- See more at: http://savejersey.com/2013/11/uncertainty-persists-in-ld38/#sthash.4nGHrj48.dpuf
despite
GOP Governor Christie at the top of the ticket winning by 22 percentage
points statewide, the Senate Republicans did not pick up a single seat.
They remain the minority in the chamber, where Democrats hold 24 of the
40 seats, - See more at:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/New_Assembly_speaker_only_change_in_Legislatures_leadership_.html?page=all#sthash.2hYKNtRl.dpuf
New
Assembly speaker only change in Legislature’s leadership - See more
at:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/New_Assembly_speaker_only_change_in_Legislatures_leadership_.html?page=all#sthash.2hYKNtRl.dpuf
New Assembly speaker only change in Legislature’s leadership
Thursday, November 7, 2013 Last updated: Thursday November 7, 2013, 8:48 PM
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/New_Assembly_speaker_only_change_in_Legislatures_leadership_.html?page=all#sthash.2hYKNtRl.dpuf
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