Election Roundup

I'm not as enthused about yesterday's results as some seem to be. It's good news for Democrats, but we're still a year away from the election cycle, and that's an eternity for a public with a long-term memory problem.

On the other hand, as long as the press meme is "America is down on GOP," it can't hurt. It's been an awfully long time since that was heard from the media. Anyway, Salon has a nice summary with links:

By landing Air Force One in Richmond, Va., for an election eve rally with Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore, George W. Bush guaranteed that the results of the Virginia governor's race would be viewed as a referendum on his presidency. Here it is: In what was supposed to be a close race, Kilgore lost to Democrat Tim Kaine by a margin of 52 to 46 percent. "Several GOP supporters conceded that the party's inability to recapture the executive mansion reflected dissatisfaction with President Bush," says the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Kilgore's defeat may have been the most direct reflection on Bush, but the news from Tuesday's off-off-year elections was pretty much bad all over for the president's party. In the New Jersey governor's race, Sen. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, cruised to a 10-point victory over Republican Doug Forrester. And in California, voters appeared to be delivering truckloads of humiliation to a governor who was once so popular that there was talk of amending the Constitution so that he could run for president. Arnold Schwarzenegger threw every inch of himself into four initiatives he said were needed to reform the state. Voters rejected every last one of them plus four more that found their way into the $50 million special election the governor called. In its lead news story this morning, the Los Angeles Times calls the vote a "sharp repudiation" of Schwarzenegger that "shattered his image as an agent of the popular will."

The California vote was about Schwarzenegger, not Bush, but the same can't be said of the mayor's race in St. Paul, Minn. Former City Council member Chris Coleman ousted Mayor Randy Kelly by an embarrassing 38-point margin, and even Kelly said that the reason for his loss was his support for the president.

There were some right-wing victories, but nothing of great significance. Nevertheless, they'll be flogges to death by the right-wing pundits and blogs.