Posted on 11/04/2009 6:11:21 AM PST by markomalley
By electing governors of Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans have demonstrated that two trends suggested in recent opinion polls are for real. The first is that Republicans have pulled off a remarkable comeback after disastrous election defeats in 2006 and 2008. The second is that they now have a realistic shot at capturing the House and gaining Senate seats in the 2010 midterm election.
The stunning success in Virginia and New Jersey was strikingly similar to Republican victories for governor in those states in 1993. Indeed, the margins of victory -- an 18-point landslide in Virginia, a narrow win in New Jersey -- were almost identical to the margins in 1993.
Those victories 16 years ago were the first clue that Republicans were on the rise after losing the White House in 1992. In 1994, Republicans won 52 seats in the House and a dozen in the Senate and took control of both bodies.
Eric Cantor, the House Republican whip from Richmond, Virginia, said sweeping pickups in 2010 are now possible. "If we play this right as Republicans . . . we may lay the foundation for taking a majority" in the House next year. Republicans would need to capture 40 seats to take over the House.
The election triumphs were also "a shot across the bow to moderate Democrats" faced with voting in the House for President Obama's health care proposal and for cap and trade legislation to curb greenhouse gases. "I've got to believe they've gotten their wake-up call," Cantor said. This includes three moderate Democrats in Virginia, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Isn't that an oxymoron...?
This would be good news, if the GOP were commited to reducing government. I’m still skeptical.
NY-23 was a devastating lost.
Hoffman was a terrible candidate. A good man, but a terrible candidate. Also, he didn’t live in the district, and Dede screwed up over royally.
That race was a debacle. It was winnable, but the loss hurts.
The pre-school program in my area in NYS started with moms or dads bringing toddlers to school twice a week for half a day. The parents talked and the kids played in the rooms down the hall. It was not a TEACHING session....more for social skills.
Then there were some changes. Parents wanted more...and they couldn't be with their kids...work you know... Voila....Pre-school aka "free babysitter".
Except a lot of them are on welfare and not working at all.
“Pretty tough to reduce government...Once a program gets some teeth, it’s not only hard to pull it but it tends to get expanded.”
All they have to do is not fund it, and ignore the knashing of teeth by the freeloaders. It’s simple, if not easy, but we would hope people who call themselves leaders would have guts, a forlorn hope, I am sure.
I’m skeptical, also. NY23 exposed the RINO’s - it was a learning lesson, I HOPE - they cannot be trusted!
>> [Hoffman] didn’t live in the district <<
If that’s the case, he had absolutely no business running — and the conservatives who knew about this problem did a great disservice by backing him.
(It’s a real letdown to think about how I and so many others here at FR were cheering wildly for the guy. I feel a bit betrayed.)
IMO, Doug can win this seat next year, as he runs a fully funded, fully supported campaign. For all the FUBARs, he did really well.
Normally, “winning by losing” isn’t much of s strategy. But in this unique case, it is. It showed the RNC the people, the grass roots, the activists are not going to lay down and take it anymore. No more nominating Rats and calling them Republicans.
To me, Christie winning in NJ more than makes up for this. After all, how old is Lautenberg? About 236? Like Linda Lingle in Hawaii (where the combined ages of the US Senators is what, 519), replacement US Senate appointments is something to seriously think about.
Please keep up.
Let us conservatives not be played, placated, controlled...
all of which they said they would do to the extremist wing of the GOP.
“Recovery (Republicans make a comeback)”
*******************************
Yeah, duh...we can even besumbuddy!
Maybe even be a conte-duh!
Remember -- this was a special election to serve the remainder of an unfinished term. There will be a "real" election next November with the rest of the 2010 Congressional elections.
Hoffman lost because a lot of fat, ugly, middle-aged women resented the fact that Dede Scuzzy-whatever got forced out of the race. It's really as simple as that.
Don’t sh!t yerselves, folks!
The only way back is the way the FFs did it the first time—for that we need a lotta Americans; there’s only a tiny, timid remnant at the most left!
Semper Aware
Dick Gaines
**********
This is part of an email I received recently. It lends itself to the point that Daveinyork makes. Some of you have probably already seen this.
“Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY..... during the Carter Administration?
“Anybody?
“Anything?
“No?
“Didn’t think so!
“Bottom line. We’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!
“Ready?? It was very simple...and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.
“The Department of Energy was instituted on 8-04-1977. TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
“Hey, pretty efficient, huh???
“AND NOW IT’S 2009 - 32 YEARS LATER - AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR.. THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB THEY HAVE DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, “WHAT WAS I THINKING?”
“Ah, yes - good ole bureaucracy.
“AND, NOW, WE ARE GOING TO TURN THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY OVER TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?
“HELLLLOOOOO! Anybody Home?”
It’s worth noting that there is no legal requirement for a Representative to live in the district he/she represents. The U.S. Constitution only requires House members to live in the STATE they represent, and it’s worth noting that the whole notion of a “district” is a construct that came into existence afterward. Interestingly, Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution seems to suggest that the House of Representatives would operate with “at-large” representatives from each state, elected on a statewide basis.
The rnc owns this loss 100%.
LLS
Hidek6 wrote:
>> Hoffman’s home address got gerrymandered out of the district. <<
Alberta’s Child wrote:
>> It’s worth noting that there is no legal requirement for a Representative to live in the district he/she represents <<
I’m not persuaded. Not matter what kind of legal loopholes there might be, I think it’s downright wrong for a representative not to live in the district.
What does the dept of education do? the dept of agriculture? HUD? HHS?
Did anyone see NEWT on Fox last night, was he on? Tonight he will be on Hannity to gloat and scold all of us.
They are all Illegal!
No it wasn't...45% voted conservative and the people who work and have families and generally just pull the "r" lever without paying attention threw the election to the dems with 6%.
Worked just as the Rep/Dem coalition wanted it to, the little "r" should have been off the ticket. People are waking up. Republicans are for big government and they sabotaged the NY-23 election. It won't happen again.
Thanks for the update. I don’t give a flip w/the RINO says but I want to see how Sean reacts - does he instead give the RINO a scolding! Rino Newt is out of the closet - let’s see what the ‘great conservative’ Sean says.
EXACTLY!! Good post!
“Hoffman lost because a lot of fat, ugly, middle-aged women resented the fact that Dede Scuzzy-whatever got forced out of the race.”
You telling me they are gonna lose weight and become beautiful in 1 year to vote for Hoffman ? They should have overwhelmed Owens because the Army’s 10th Mt. regiment is stationed near there and they are getting hosed by the Obamamessiah .
Here’s a small but interesting snippet from the Lehigh Valley (NJ) Times-Express:
“Gaining about 71 percent of the vote, Doherty (R) unofficially received 51,599 votes, compared to Baron’s (D)20,694 votes. Doherty is set to replace Sen. Marcia Karrow, who defeated Doherty at a special party convention in January before losing her primary bid to him in June. (Making Doherty the Independent Republican)”
“Doherty will serve the remaining two years of the Senate term previously held by U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon, who left the Senate to begin his Congressional term earlier this year.”
“Tuesday’s loss marks Baron’s second failed attempt at the Senate seat. The orthopedic surgeon lost to Lance two years ago by about 19,000 votes.”
____
—Note that despite:
The lack of incumbency,
Failing to get the GOP establishment’s blessing,
A tough primary battle,
Doherty increased the GOP margin of victory from 19,000 to 51,000, to 71% compared to about 54% of the total vote cast in 2007, with the very same Democrat opponent.
Well Hannity was a giggles and smiles last night as he interpreted all the wins as a prediction of 2010. Will see how he fares tonight.
The loss hurts Rinos in NY-23. That is about all it hurts.
It was a disappointment to be sure, but when you factor in all the negatives against Hoffman - the joint effort by the pseudo-Repub leftist and the Dem leftist against him, his late arrival on the scene, his monetary deficit, pulling out the big gun dems against him - he did an amazing job and came amazingly close to winning.
This is an ENCOURAGEMENT to conservatism, and the effect we are going to continue to have on the party establishment.
Yesterday was a banner day for the GOP (the revitalized, stronger, more conservative version of it), and I, for one, am thrilled.
I disagree with this totally.
Hoffman 1)was unknown until very late, 2)screwing up the absentee vote, 3)was a third-party candidate, 4)had money from 2 parties against him, 5)ran against a moderate Democrat, 6)in a District that voted for Obama, 7)the RINO endorsed the Democrat, 8)Hoffman has zero charisma, 9)some people resented that he was something of a carpet-bagger... ....and YET, he almost won!
Newt will not gloat and scold. To the contrary, he is the one who still needs to kiss and make up. If Dede the Traitor had kept her mouth shut, I’d agree with you. But once she endorsed the RAT, she made Gingrich look like a fool.
I have heard that the District won't even exist in 2010.
But if it does, the GOP will retake it with the right candidate.
NY-23 was a devastating lost.
Hoffman was a terrible candidate. A good man, but a terrible candidate. Also, he didn’t live in the district, and Dede screwed up over royally.
That race was a debacle. It was winnable, but the loss hurts.
Yes, the loss hurts. But given what it took to get the Republican Party's attention, it shouldn't be entirely surprising. We had $900M of our own money to overcome, and the Republican brand to overcome - and that alone could have accounted for the margin of defeat.The Republican Party gets a do-over in just one year, tho - and that is time enough for the party to get its act together and provide a candidate we can support. Maybe not Hoffman - but he has had an expensive education and has built name recognition enough to have come within striking distance of victory, and we probably should go with Hoffman again. He may not live in the district, but he does have a business in the district, and his house formerly was in the district before redistricting occurred. If he believed in that as a deciding factor in the race, in a year he could move. But he is hardly a carpet-bagger in any case.
There is something to be said for nominating someone you know as a good man . . .
The GOP hasn’t made a comeback at all... but conservatism has.
Take note, Newt, McIdiot, Snowe, Hatch, and all the other RINO basbags out there.
Well, let’s hope they make the most of the time they will have in office. Don’t disappoint the voters!
>> he had promised to move BACK into the district if he won the election <<
Yep, that’s good enough for me — as long as we can believe a promise by a politician.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
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