Posted on 11/19/2009 6:55:27 AM PST by Second Amendment First
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 upset Nov. 3.
Lawrence Levy, who directs the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, on Long Island, said Nassau County voters were driven to the polls to reject local taxes that put additional pressure on their already strained family budgets.
“These are people who aren’t used to being economically insecure. They’re not used to thinking in terms of losing their homes,” Levy said. “Democrats have held on for a long time, but now it looks like voters are willing to give Republicans a chance. Nobody owns the suburbs anymore.”
That sentiment applied up and down the East Coast in the 2009 off-year elections, as suburbanites registered their discontent by rejecting Democratic incumbents, even in typically blue-tinted counties.
Across the Hudson River, in New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine lost his reelection bid, and his Republican opponent came within striking distance of victory in suburban Bergen County, a Democratic area and the largest county in the state. Gov.-elect Chris Christie also bested Corzine in Middlesex County, a suburban bellwether that President Barack Obama won by 22 points in 2008.
In the Virginia governor’s race, the news for Democrats was hardly better: Republican Bob McDonnell trounced Democrat Creigh Deeds in nearly every suburban Northern Virginia county that supported Obama last year. The only holdouts, Arlington County and the city of Alexandria, were the closest municipalities to Washington.
Some candidates already hitting the trail for 2010 say the worst may be yet to come, as voters grow frustrated with the sputtering economy and wary of the Democratic Party’s domestic agenda.
“There’s this sense that we didn’t give you a mandate, Democrats, but we gave you an opportunity to handle the situation, and it’s still pretty tough,” said Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak, who represents suburban Philadelphia and is pursuing a bid for Senate in 2010. “Hope’s not a strategy, and, therefore, they want to see results.”
Two counties in Sestak’s district, Delaware and Chester — linchpins of recent Democratic victories in the state — gave the party reason for concern earlier this month when they voted strongly for the largely anonymous Republican candidate in a state Supreme Court race just a year after giving Obama wide victory margins.
In counties like these, according to Sestak, moderate and conservative-leaning independents are particularly unnerved by a sense that Washington’s plans for economic recovery seem to be working slowly, if at all.
“There’s no such thing as a shovel-ready job. We oversold things,” Sestak said in a phone interview from York County, where he was participating in an event with veterans over the weekend.
Democrats offer a host of explanations for their weak performance in the suburbs this year: Off-year elections favor the opposition party, turnout was low in many of these races, several candidates put in especially weak performances on the stump.
Asked about the Supreme Court race in his state, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell cautioned not to “draw too many inferences” from an off-year election for a relatively obscure office.
“Republicans turned out more — as they always do, in greater percentages — in the suburbs, as they did across the state,” he said, predicting a different outcome next year, when higher-profile offices are at stake. “In 2010, with governor and senator, big turnout. It will be 2006 all over again, in my judgment.”
The Democrat Party gave us this evil Islamo-marxist. The Dem moderates should have fought harder to stop this nightmare.
Time for major changes including egtting rid of stinking RINOs like McCain, Newt, Graham-nesty, Crist and others.
Hold on. They won that congressional district in CA - that shows that people love the Dem agenda. Who cares about NJ, VA, and all the down ticket elections in MI, OK, Nassau County, etc. The California Cong District #10 special election and that 3-way madness in NY 23 portend great dem gains in 2010. Just ask Nancy.
"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
"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
and this is precisely what makes you fearful about where Obama is headed.
In any sane political environment, a Democrat administration would be triangulating and tracking to the center by now. But this bunch is just digging in to their leftist orthodoxy even deeper. Looks like they are getting ready for a fight and don’t care if they get to serve another term.
Yes the entire state of CA has plunged into total madness.
OK! About time, we're ready.
"We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore!"
Clear?
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