General News Terry McAuliffe & Chris Christie win

I always wonder how blue states elect a republican nominee and vice-versa.

I remember that California elected Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-California) almost ten years ago. I always wondered how that happened.

 

Obviously not surprising that Christie smashed Buono. But I'm quite surprised how narrowly McAuliffe is going to win. The Affordable Care Act definitely played a role in keeping the Virginia race close.

Christie is by far the most electable Republican in 2016.

 

I'm more happy that the Cuch lost than McAuliffe winning, but I'm even more happy that Northam won. The reason why he was trailng in the beginning was because they were just counting votes from southwest va, which is super red. )When I went to vote, there were only Cuch signs out front and a guy who calls himself "Republican Dave" was there begging people to vote for Cuch >_> I hate where I live) Once they started counting the votes from Northern Va is when McAuliffe pulled ahead.

 

That isn't always the case, but money certainly gives a candidate a massive advantage.

 

Glad to see that Bill de Blasio won in NYC. I think he can do some real good, getting rid of stop and frisk and etc.

 

If Chris Christie runs for President, I don't want to hear a word about America's obesity problem. You're exhibit A. Go get em Hillary

 

Christie has actually lost weight and probably will continue to do so after having surgery.

Besides, Chris Christie's weight won't exactly be near the top of the list of the electorate's concerns. It'll be a non-factor, and rightfully so.

 

Gastric Bypass and Lipo is cheating.

 

It's amazing how northern VA swings elections, due to the population density there. Viewed from DC, across the Potomac, it's like a super-sized version of DC. And growing, and diverse. I think Virginia will become reliably blue as this area expands; the unpopulated rural areas will be unable to compete in statewide elections.

 

That may happen in the future, but I don't think any time soon.


I am by no means a Cuccinelli supporter, but he was outspent by a huge margin and still came within just a couple points of winning. If a more "establishment" Republican who spent more money than Cuccinelli ran against McAuliffe, Republicans probably would have won Virginia.

It's still a real toss-up state, and will probably stay that way through 2016.

 

I really can't believe Cuccinelli any votes at all. Honestly he supported and pushed for a law that made oral sex illegal...for gay and straight people.
Really...did he not realize how many heterosexual men he would piss off with that law? Making blow jobs illegal?
Hmm I believe straight people engage in sodomy just as much as us gays and lesbians

 

It'll happen soon enough, though. The area has shown explosive growth. DC has height limitations, such that buildings can't be taller than the Washington monument...Virginia doesn't, and it really shows, looking across the Potomac to the glittering skyscrapers. Makes an odd contrast.

The density and area of suburban DC will keep expanding, like the blob, and gobble up Republicans like a horror movie!

Also, the Democratic candidate was similarly weak; had they a stronger candidate, I think they could have won by an even bigger margin.


Well, now I feel like I can go there again, as a tourist. Many people, myself included, have refused to spend any money in the state, so as to not give a dime to their government's tax-coffers, and the evil Cucinelli & Co. His brand of far right politics made the state seem backwards and unappealing to many people in this region, what with his vaginal probes and wanting to ban oral sex, anal sex, and other silly thing. My God, did he really think he could win an election with such zany positions? Even in Virginia with Obama's popularity below 40%, he still lost.

 

Um, Cuccinelli should have been cruising toward an easy victory. It's been an established norm for over 30 years that Virginia elects governors that are opposite to the president's party. Terry McAuliffe was an incredibly weak, flawed candidate, with a sleazy corrupt reputation.

Sure, a well-funded moderate Republican could have beaten McAuliffe.

But "establishment" Republican? Cuccinelli and his Tea Party far-right brand of extremism ARE the establishment of today's Republican Party. They control who the party nominates to run in general elections. And the national GOP brand is now set in stone at this point- far-right extremism on economic and especially social issues- and that stone will hang around the neck and weigh down any politician affiliated with the Republican brand, even if they are personally more moderate themselves.

Virginia is already blue state at this point, and is only getting bluer and bluer by the day. The DC burbs/NoVA are exploding in population and pushing further and further to the left as the Republican Party digs its heals in deeper and deeper with the anti-government, religious fundamentalist bullshit. Obama carried the state comfortably twice. In 2012, Virginia was more Democratic than the national average for the first time since 1948.

Ultimately the same forces that broke Virginia away from the super-Democratic Solid South and made it a Republican state in the 1952-2004 period, are what are now returning the state to its Democratic roots. Those moderate Northern Virginia suburbanites who don't identify all too strongly with Dixie culture and Dixie conservatism. Fairfax County, Loudon County, Prince William County.



Look at the election results from the 1976 election between Jimmah Carter, a true Southunah, a peanut farmer from rural Georgia and devout Evangelical Christian, versus Gerald Ford, a moderate Northern Republican from Michigan. Carter was clearly the more Southern, and arguably even the more conservative candidate in the race, at least in terms of religious conservatism. Carter swept the South, carrying every single Confederate state- except one: Virginia.



While Carter won most of the rural counties in Virginia, Ford narrowly carried Virginia overall. How? His narrow statewide margin of victory was provided by his victories in NoVA. Fairfax County, Loudon County, and Prince William County all voted for Gerald Ford. The same three NoVA counties you can see going blue for Barack Obama on the 2008 map below delivering him his victory there, even as McCain won much of the rest of the state:

1976 presidential election county map:


2008 presidential election county map:

 

Not really.

McAuliffe was definitely a shitty candidate, but Cuccinelli was so extreme that he was an even more shitty candidate. In addition, Cuccinelli was just hammered with television ads and had very little money. So, to say Cuccinelli should have "cruised" to a win is a major stretch, even with Virginia's past of electing governors that are the opposite party of the president. As I said, Virginia may begin to start turning blue, but they aren't a "blue" state now. A candidate like Chris Christie would do well in Virginia.

As for the Republican establishment, it's still a majority of traditional conservatives and neoconservatives, though the Tea Party has still done a lot of damage to the party.

 

It'll turn blue. I'm goin' down there and see it does! Then, onto North Carolina, which has become really an ugly place, politically, and has gone downhill fast, in terms of social ills.

But there's really no stopping Virginia from changing, unless the Republicans give up their tacit racism, fear of 'foreigners', gays and any number of other ugly undercurrents running though it. They're pretty much the party of old, Christian, straight white men.