Posted on 11/03/2009 10:47:05 PM PST by Libloather
US Republicans score big in off-year elections
AFP
November 4, 2009, 1:06 pm
NEW YORK (AFP) - US Republicans won two governors' seats in off-year elections that dealt a stinging blow to President Barack Obama and his Democrats exactly 12 months after they swept into power.
In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie pulled off an upset to defeat Jon Corzine, the incumbent governor in the heavily Democratic state, by a margin of 55-44, according to preliminary results.
And in the first Republican victory of the night in Virginia, Bob McDonnell took back the governor's mansion from the Democrats by defeating Creigh Deeds 63-37 percent, preliminary results showed.
The results were setbacks for Obama, who had campaigned in both states on behalf of his party's candidates, and will help buoy Republicans left reeling by the scale of his historic White House victory on November 4, 2008.
Virginia is an important pivotal state and a year ago helped propel Obama into office as the nation's first black president, the first time it had backed a Democratic presidential contender in more than four decades.
The loss in New Jersey was likely to hurt Obama even more since he campaigned heavily there on behalf of Corzine, including at a rally with 11,000 people over the weekend. The state has long been dominated by the Democratic Party.
Another race under close scrutiny was for a vacant congressional seat in upstate New York, where the right of the Republican Party backed a member of the tiny Conservative Party, rather than the official Republican candidate.
With mid-term nationwide elections to Congress due next year and Obama bogged down in confrontations over the economy, health care reform, and the Afghanistan war, the results of Tuesday's three off-year races were under close scrutiny.
(Excerpt) Read more at au.news.yahoo.com ...
Wait a minute—the “lost” ballots in car trunks are sure to appear next week—all in corzines favor. I’m sure there are millions of them if that is what it will take.
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