AP reporting Kaine winner with 74% reporting
Mark Robert Warner is a Democratic politician and the current Governor of Virginia. As he closes in on the final months of his Gubernatorial term , Warner's poll ratings indicate that he is the most popular Virginia Governor in a generation in a state that traditionally voted for the opposite party.
One very interesting point that seems to have been overlooked: In one of the districts (36) with a very liberal population, the incumbent Democrat (Plum) ran without any Republican opposition. The only opposing candidate was a Libertarian (Ferguson) who received 21% of the vote. If you look at other races in the area, 3d party candidates are lucky to get 2%.
This tells me that voters are not so thrilled with the Democrats, either. The Washington Post, of course, has a headline reading, "Backlash against GOP hit hard in Northern Virginia". I think the backlash was against the poor gubernatorial candidate (and campaign) that the Repubs chose to run.
Living in Virginia, I can tell you that it's no big surprise that Kaine won. From the beginning Kilgore's one campaign motto seemed to be: "Vote for me. I'm not Kaine." His campaign ads were completely negative. Combine that with the fact that both campaigns were fined for improper campaign fliers, and it's quite evident that both candidates were doing anything and everything to win. Unfortunately for Kilgore, Kaine is following in another Democrat's footsteps, Mark Warner. Despite the biggest tax increase in Virginia's history, Mark Warner is viewed favorably by most, including Republicans.
Honestly, it killed me to vote yesterday. We had the "choice" between Kaine, Kilgore, or Potts; and if you ask me, it was no "choice" at all. I would have preferred that Mark Warner stay in office with choices like that.
Still, believing that it all starts at home and not wanting another spend-tax-spend-tax Democrat, I voted a straight Republican ticket. The counties overwhelmingly voted for Kilgore. The city voters tipped the scale however by voting for Kaine. No surprise there either. The biggest social welfare recipients live in the cities, and they will always vote Democrat.
The only positive outcome to the election is that Republicans won the down ticket positions. This will lend balance over the next six years for Virginia. Hopefully, we won't have anymore turncoat Republicans voting for more tax increases.
On the grander scale, I hate to admit it, but I do feel that the Virginia election is indicative of things to come. It reflects the apathy of Republicans who are dissatisfied with the candidates being offered, who are simply fed up with our so-called representatives not doing what they were elected to do. If Republicans in Washington don't shape up, they will be shipping out as well.