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New Jersey voters are split on whether to legalize gay marriage, but more people now oppose it than support it, a poll found on Wednesday. The Quinnipiac University survey found 49 percent of voters oppose a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, while 46 percent support such legislation, reversing an April poll that found 49 percent supported it and 43 percent opposed it. "When we asked about gay marriage in April, it won narrow approval. Now that it seems closer to a legislative vote, it loses narrowly with the public," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute....

Supporters of a proposed New Jersey law that would allow men to “marry� men and women to “marry� women were gung-ho going into November’s election. Prospects looked good in the state legislature, and Gov. Jon Corzine had promised to sign the “marriage equality� bill whether he was reelected or not. Everyone expected to see the Garden State’s civil union law supplanted by a same-sex “marriage� bill by year’s end, and even after Corzine lost to Republican challenger Chris Christie Nov. 3, people still assumed the bill would get the signature of the lame-duck governor. But when legislators returned to Trenton...

AUSTIN – Here's what I did not hear at the annual confab of Republican governors held here this week: The words socialist, extremist, or government takeover. With the focus on jobs, jobs and jobs, the only red meat was the Texas barbecue. And by design, there was no Obama-bashing. [snip] Barbour cautioned Republican candidates to refrain from attacking the president, period: "People want the president to succeed; good Lord, they want the country to succeed, and particularly the first African-American president has a lot of goodwill. . . . We need to be careful, we need to treat the president...

Thrilled with twin victories this month, Republican governors are looking to lead a party-wide resurgence in 2010 and shape the GOP for years to come. Republicans boast of a strong crop of gubernatorial candidates who could be future party leaders, $25 million in the bank a year before the elections and a difficult environment for Democrats, particularly in financially ailing swing-voting states like Ohio and Iowa. "Next year's going to be a good year for Republican governors," predicted Haley Barbour, Mississippi's governor and chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "In states where there are Republican governors, people can see if...

STATEWIDE -- In what could become the highest profile game of political musical chairs in the state, Democratic sources claim they are considering replacing U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg with outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine. It would work like this: Corzine would resign prior to January, when Republican Christopher Christie takes over as governor. A Corzine resignation would allow state Sen. President Richard Codey to serve as acting governor. Then Lautenberg would retire from the U.S. Senate, leaving Codey to name Corzine to fill the seat until a special election. This is similar to a move made when Corzine resigned the senate...

...two Catholic candidates won elections this year to state-wide office without compromising their pro-life, pro-family principles. The world didn't end, and once they are in office, they won't conduct witch hunts against those who disagree with them on these issues - but they will use their office to promote these central values, which transcend any one religion or political party. Catholics aren't pro-life and pro-family, after all, only because the Church tells them to be so, but rather, they are encouraged to hold true to these commonsense principles because of the witness and encouragement of their Catholic faith. You read...

In his election-night acceptance speech, New Jersey Gov.-elect Chris Christie aimed straight at the Garden State's entrenched political class, vowing to "turn Trenton on its head." As his victory suggests, many residents would welcome such dramatic reform. He has the opportunity to harness popular anger with the previous administration and make real reforms. Christie inherits a state that's in arguably the worst financial condition in its 233- year history. Last year's $7 billion shortfall, closed with stimulus dollars and tax hikes, has resurfaced at an even larger $8 billion for 2010. Residents face crippling property taxes (an average of $7,000...

How’s that “hope and change” working out for you? I can’t speak for the Democrats, but Republicans - particularly New England ones - are loving it. After a year of defeat and dire predictions, Massachusetts conservatives have renewed hope for 2010. There’s definitely change on the way, and in a state whose legislators are about 90 percent Democrat, change can only be good for Republicans. And who can we thank for this new conservative spirit of hopeful-changeyness? The Republican Party’s new hero: Barack Obama. One year ago today, pundits were writing off the American right for the next election cycle,...

Governor-elect Chris Christie made a surpise appearance at the New Jersey Family Policy annual dinner. Gov Christie thanked the audience for all of the work done on behalf of New Jersey families. Christie told the New Jersey Family Policy group about his own family and his kids and spoke about their shared values. Governor-elect Chris Christie said he prepared his family for the possibility of a loss that was not to be. He huddled with his family on election night before going on stage to accept the election results. His family all shared their love and celebration. Governor-elect Christie graciously...

Full County Results for New Jersey with results for most towns.

In Ohio, citizens marched to the polls on Tuesday and voted to allow gambling casinos in the state. This was obviously a message to President Obama that independent voters are not happy with the way the health care bill is going. Really, I don’t see how else you can interpret it. Ohioans were looking forward to the lower insurance costs that would come with a robust public option, and if the president can’t deliver, they’re planning to pay their future medical bills with their winnings at the roulette wheel. Also, people here in Cincinnati rejected a proposal that would have...

Affecting nonchalance, the White House briefed that President Barack Obama would not be watching the results on election night. By the morning after, however, there was little doubt that he was poring over the sobering details. The most ominous aspect of Tuesday's election results for Mr Obama was that huge numbers of the young people and minorities who voted for him a year ago stayed at home while independent voters swung heavily to Republicans. That meant that Democrats lost two Obama states – Virginia by a whopping 18-point margin and New Jersey, a party stronghold where the President himself campaigned...

Our online activists have been very, very busy. Using Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and cell phones, we've been directing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Doug Hoffman and Chris Christie campaigns. We've been calling voters, urging them to vote for conservative candidates. Personally, I've been e-mailing a few acquaintances of mine in the Dede Scozzafava campaign, asking them to convince Scozzafava to drop out of the race. We work behind the scenes, and under the radar. Quietly and effectively, we've been directing support to the conservative candidates in these races. A few months ago, we were working on behalf of...

My Wednesday Examiner column, written as the 2009 election returns were coming in, stands up pretty well. But let me add some observations written as the course of the elections became clearer. First, in the governor elections in Virginia and New Jersey, the Democratic candidate ran far behind Barack Obama’s percentages in 2008 and the Republican candidates ran ahead of George W. Bush’s percentages in 2004. The numbers are pretty daunting. In Virginia Creigh Deeds won 41% of the votes, way behind Barack Obama’s 53% in 2008. And in New Jersey Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine won 45% of the votes,...

President Barack Obama has brushed aside a sharp rebuke at the polls on the first anniversary of his historic election, saying his administration had saved the nation from economic ruin. Just hours after rival Republicans gleefully ousted Democratic candidates in two key gubernatorial races, the White House dismissed suggestions that the results were a referendum on Obama and his policies. Republicans trumpeted Tuesday's victories in New Jersey and Virginia as a conservative comeback one year to the day after Obama vowed before a tumultuous crowd in Chicago that change had come to America. But Obama reminded a school audience in...

Some of last nights results, pre-recorded from this AM. In our first hour we were joined by Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List. Our second hour featured comedian Brian Regan. Closing out the hour Amy Bach the author of "Ordinary Injustice" to talk about her book. The third hour we had Phil Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers Coach to talk about all thing basketball. Then photographer, Ian Shive, who has an excellent coffee table book, "The National Parks: Our American Landscape", Dennis really gives this book a big thumbs up.

Even a five-point shift would mean big Democratic losses in 2010. Tuesday's elections should put a scare into red state Democrats—and a few blue state ones, too. Barack Obama was said to have redrawn the electoral map by winning Virginia last year with 53% of the vote. On Tuesday, Republican Bob McDonnell flipped the state back to the GOP, winning his election for governor with 59% of the vote. Mr. Obama carried New Jersey easily last year with 57% of the vote. This year, despite being outspent 3-to-1, Republican Chris Christie ousted Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine there by 49% to...

The news was official earlier than anyone expected: Chris Christie won the race for governor in New Jersey.On Election Day, we heard of eyewitness reports that convicted felons were going door-to-door in Morris Township in an effort to get out the vote for the Democrats. And we heard of automated phone calls for independent candidate Chris Daggett that were paid for by the Democrats. There was also a huge rise in absentee ballots, and allegations that ACORN workers had collected absentee ballots at East Orange General Hospital.One guy even showed up yesterday at his polling precinct to find that someone...

JUST 12 months after Barack Obama won office with a promise of change, the Republican Party says election victories in two contests for state governor show voters are tiring of the US President and his policies. Republican candidates yesterday won the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, throwing doubt on the Democratic Party's prospects for mid-term elections next year and on Mr Obama's wider ambitions to pass laws on healthcare reform and climate change. A series of personal campaign visits to New Jersey by Mr Obama over the past few weeks was not enough to help Democrat governor Jon Corzine...

Republicans are celebrating after winning two state governorship elections against President Barack Obama's Democratic Party. Their candidates won races for the governorship of two states that had helped propel Mr Obama into the White House exactly a year ago. Victory for Bob McDonnell in Virginia and Chris Christie in New Jersey was seen as a strong warning signal to Mr Obama as he labours to reform the American health care system, enact legislation restricting carbon emissions and build support for foreign policy initiatives that have so far made scant progress. The results of Tuesday's votes are likely to weaken support...

The White House has distanced itself from Democratic losses in two states, saying the races for governor hinged on local issues and were not a referendum on Barack Obama. The Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey energised the opposition and are a setback for Obama. The president is struggling to overhaul the U.S. health care system, win passage of climate change legislation, and build political support for his handling of the war in Afghanistan. They could also be ominous for Democrats ahead of next year's midterm elections, when a third of the Senate, all of the House of Representatives...

Well, that didn’t last long, did it? The apotheosis of Barack Obama, I mean. The results from yesterday’s electoral contests in the United States are a massive slap in the face for The One. I blame Fox News. Or, rather, he will. It is always embarrassing for a messiah to find himself on the wrong side of history and Barack’s face has more egg on it than a six-portion omelette. It is a delight to see. In Virginia – the key swing state whose rejection of John McCain a year ago was hailed by Democrats as a paradigm of the...

Yes, socially conservative Republican candidates prevailed last night in the big races—the gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey—but it was the special election for New York's 23rd Congressional District that had become a national symbol for the battle between religious conservatives and the GOP establishment. In recent days, it was the race that the big Christian right groups like the Family Research Council and Susan B. Anthony List and the movement's favored politician, Sarah Palin, had become most outspoken about. But after forcing the socially liberal Republican out of the race, the right's candidate, Doug Hoffman of the Conservative...

WASHINGTON – The White House says that Republican wins in two governors' races were not referendums on the president. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that voters went to the polls in Virginia and New Jersey to work through "very local issues that didn't involve the president." The presidential spokesman said voters were concerned about the economy. "I don't think the president needed an election or an exit poll to come to that conclusion," Gibbs said. By contrast, Gibbs acknowledged that the 2010 midterm congressional elections will be more about the Obama agenda.

Mr. Natural sez...

Here is a review of election results by NBC's Chuck Todd on The Today Show this morning, where he pointed out Republicans are "back in the win column after three years of losing." He also said Chris Christie won in New Jersey despite the fact President Obama "put his prestige on the line" there. He showed graphics from both New Jersey and Virginia that indicate the Republicans carried Independents in both states by significant margin, what he called a "worrisome sign" for Democrats. . . . (VIDEO)

CHRIS Christie's gutsy win in New Jersey puts the arrogant big spender Jon Corzine in his place. But it is the election in Virginia that probably has more to say to marginal Democratic congressmen considering how to vote on health-care reform. Obviously, Christie's victory is a body blow to Obama after Corzine outspent the Republican by five-to-one and the president put on a serious push for the incumbent. Corzine's defeat sends a message that the nation is moving sharply against Obama. But Virginia results are the most important. More than 80 Democratic congressmen and 20 senators come from states that...

RICHMOND, Va. — Eager to drain the 2009 elections of drama and import, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs claimed Tuesday night that President Barack Obama was “not watching returns.” You can be sure that he is studying them closely now: The off-year elections were in two big races an unmistakable rebuke of Democrats, reshuffling Obama’s political circumstances in ways likely to have severe near-term consequences for his policy agenda and larger governing strategy. Independents took flight from Democrats. They suffered humiliating gubernatorial losses in traditionally Democratic New Jersey, where Obama lent his prestige in a pair of 11th-hour campaign...

Just in case you haven't heard. Christie won New Jersey. Hoffman lost New York. Bloomberg won his third term. And McDonnell won Virginia. I've gathered together in the video section some of the concession speeches and acceptance speeches. Creigh Deeds Concession Speech After Losing The Race In Virginia. Chris Christie’s Speech After Winning New Jersey. Gov. Corzine’s Concession Speech. Bob McDonnell’s Acceptance Speech After Winning The Virginia Race. Bloomberg Wins Third Term As New York’s Mayor. DCCC Chair Van Hollen On New Yorks 23rd: If The Conservative Party Candidate Wins It Will Embolden The Far Right Extremes. Hannity Talks To...

Up shot of article (my snap translation):--Obama in a painful situation, because just one year ago, he took these states. Now, tonight, they fell to the Republicans.--It seems that with the election of the 2 Republicans and defeat of Obama, his prized "Health Care" program is in jeopardy.--The results show the sentiment of the American People in those states toward Obama and is a reflection of what might be expected a year from now in the 2010 midterm elections.--Obama had quite a year in Virginia (in 2008), which did not go for a Democrat for President in 44 years, and...

This race was a political long-shot and Doug Hoffman, when you consider the dynamics of the race, did an outstanding job. The same pundits who wrote Christie off, will be the same ones talking how the conservative movement is not real and offer the Hoffman election as proof the conservative movement and Palin as a losing platform/ride. If that is the case, then Christie would have lost, because he ran on the conservative platform. The same conservative platform played out in Virgina. And Obama campaigned in the races, Palin didn't... As I stated here on this website: A Gentle Reminder...

Though a majority of late-deciding New Jersey voters leaned toward incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine, it wasn't enough to save the Democrat from anger in a state battered by high taxes and scarred by government corruption. Tuesday: Chris Christie stands with wife Mary Pat Christie and children Bridgett and Patrick ahead of their voting in Mendham, N.J. (AP Photo) Exit polls showed independent voters that gave President Obama a huge advantage in the state last year strongly favored Republican Chris Christie on Tuesday. Though a majority of late-deciding New Jersey voters leaned toward incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine, it wasn't enough to...

Chris Christie, an aggressive former prosecutor who racked up a perfect conviction rate in public corruption cases and became the darling of New Jersey's Republican Party establishment, has unseated the deep-pocketed but unpopular Gov. Jon Corzine. .

Blue Dogs got a warning shot across the bow...The bluest of blue states, and a deep pocketed incumbent Govenor who spent $28 million dollars and brought it Biden, Clinton 2x, and Obama 3x, gets sent home by Republican Chris Christie....

Britt Hume says that D'rats have lost their intensity and the "intensity" has moved over to the Tea-Party Movement. Karl Rove put the best perspective by saying how Corzine outspend his opponent by 3 to 1 and still LOST

EDISON, N.J. -- Republican Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, pulled out a win for the New Jersey governor's race against a deeply unpopular Democratic incumbent whom voters blamed for the state's high taxes and budget woes. The Associated Press called the race for Mr. Christie over incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine just after 10 p.m. With 71% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Mr. Christie had 50% of the vote to Mr. Corzine's 44%. Mr. Corzine ran a campaign that emphasized his experience with reducing the state's debt, getting children insured, and getting school aid more evenly divided among the state's...

Election '09 Tests Obama's Clout In NJ, Virginia Dems face possibility of big electoral setbacks a year after presidential win WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's political clout was on the line Tuesday as Virginia and New Jersey chose governors in contests that could serve as warning signs for Democrats about the public's mood heading into an important midterm election year. Elsewhere, Maine voters weighed in on same-sex marriage in a closely watched initiative, and New York and California picked congressmen for two vacant seats. A slew of cities selected mayors, and Ohio voted on allowing casinos. One year after Obama...

WASHINGTON – Republican Bob McDonnell opened a lead in early counting in Virginia's governor's race Tuesday as independent voters swung behind the GOP and fled Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, a reversal from a year ago when they catapulted President Barack Obama to the White House. New Jersey decided whether to stick with unpopular Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, while voters elsewhere cast ballots in local races. Democrats had won big victories in Virginia in 2006 and 2008, but interviews with voters leaving polling stations in the swing state on Tuesday were filled with signs of possible trouble for Obama and his...

Christie WINS!

TRENTON, N.J. – Republican Chris Christie has defeated Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey. With 71 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Christie had 50 percent of the vote to Corzine's 44 percent. Christie, a 47-year-old former federal prosecutor, became the first member of his party in a dozen years to win a statewide contest in heavily Democratic New Jersey. The Republican victory deals a blow to President Barack Obama as he readies for next year's midterm elections. Obama campaigned heavily for Corzine.

BREAKING

Chris Christie has on the New Jersey Governor’s election with a plurality THE POLITICIZER projects. Why we’re calling the race: Corzine is under performing in counties he won in 2005. Bergen County, where any Democrat needs to win by 4-5% to win the state, Corzine is tied with Christie (80% reporting) Corzine has lost Gloucester County, where he won in 2005 by 10% Corzine is under performing in heavily Democratic counties like Hudson, Essex and Camden. Chris Daggett is under performing in heavily Republican counties, allowing Christie a larger margin of victory in GOP counties than Corzine is getting in...

Ay 9:15 pm, Christie 72, Corzine 20.

At 9:15 PM EST CHRISTIE 389,955 51% CORZINE 319,655 42% IN: %32

8:28 PM - Internal exit polls showing very good signs for Christie in NJ, most importantly Christie is running very strong independents. With indies breaking overwhelmingly for Christie, it could spell trouble for Democrat Corzine. It stands to note that the Democrats have a very strong coalition, so the sway of indie voters may not influence the as strong as it did in Virginia. However, CNN exit polls suggest that most voters - 38 percent - "said the quality they were looking for most in a candidate was the ability to bring change and most of them said they had...

Everybody and their brother thinks that New Jersey is going to go down to the wire. But one of my readers is plugged in to a New Jersey Democrat, and this guy's running of the numbers goes to Republican Chris Christie winning by one percentage point. Admission against interest, and all that. Take it for what it's worth. 11/03 08:18 PM

This seems pretty darn big: In New Jersey, CNN's exit poll says Christie won independents 58-33 over Corzine, with indies making up 27 percent of the electorate. Public Policy Polling notes that their final poll had Christie winning the independents by 23; the exit polls indicate Christie won them by 25. They interpret this as a sign that most Daggett supporters and undecideds went into the Christie pile. PPP's final poll put Christie up 6 overall. 11/03 07:48 PM

TONIGHT: RESULTS... REPUBLICAN TAKES VA: 656,124 McDonnell [R] 427,075 [D] NJ: 11,652 Christie [R] 7,930 Corzine [D] 1,894 Daggett [I] NY: 9 PM Hoffman [C] Owens [D] ABCNEWS: Vast Economic Discontent Spells Trouble for Dems in 2010...

NJ: 8,519 Christie [R] 4,019 Corzine [D] 1,125 Daggett [I]

Here is the link for today's election. Results should start coming in after 8:00 pm. http://elections.nj.com/dynamic/files/elections/2009/by_state/NJ_Page_1103.html?SITE=NJNEWELN&SECTION=POLITICS