http://www.dailykos.com/

http://www.cnn.com/

Dems win governorships, CNN projects

The results of a series of local votes across the country today will be analyzed nationally for signs of the public mood ahead of the 2006 midterm elections. Governors are being picked in Virginia and New Jersey -- with CNN projecting wins for Democrats Tim Kaine and John Corzine -- while major cities including New York and Boston are choosing mayors. In California, four ballot measures have become a political test for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.


:clap: :clap: :clap:

*Kool Aid Man*Oh yeah!*/Kool Aid Man* :clap:

Nice to see repug ass kicked. Especially Virginia, a supposed repug stronghold. It's for ripe picking by Gore in 08. :good:

I'm just hoping we do this good in midterms next year. Think dems can retake the House and Senate?

Corzine wins in NJ...thankfully he had the money to spend on ads to offset the ads by his opponent.

Looking good for 2006

The NJ governor's race was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. It was an embarrassment. I don't know if Corzine would've been better off remaining above the fray or if it was better for him to attack Forrester the way Forrester was attacking him. The attack ads on both sides were despicable.

And I wonder what's going to happen now to Corzine's Senate seat? We can't afford to lose any Dems. in the Senate.

Corzine will pick his heir. :D

As for nasty ads... Republicans are nasty people; the truth hurts and needs to be exposed. As much as it'd be nice for campaigns to be friendly, I wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep airing a commercial calling a republican opponent a tool for big corporations.

He will pick the new senator. He would do well to pick The acting Gov. Codey to fill the spot, and hold off the all too eager otehr ones...although Tom Kean Jr.(son of the ex-gov) is planning a run for one of the seats

Yes, some good news, anytime we can get rid of some republicans, although I don't get the ads out here for east coast elections, just alittle news and the results which I got last night on CNN.

But I also heard N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg won a second term. :bad:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051109/ap_on_...DMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

Democrats Win Elections in N.J. and Va.
By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer
Wed Nov 9,12:07 PM ET

Democrats cleaned up big in off-year elections from New Jersey to California, sinking the candidate who embraced President Bush in the final days of the Virginia governor's campaign. They also turned back all four of GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to reshape state government.

Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record) easily won the New Jersey governor's seat after an expensive, mudslinging campaign, trouncing Republican Doug Forrester by 10 percentage points. Polls in the last week had forecast a much closer race.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine won a solid victory in GOP-leaning Virginia, beating Republican Jerry Kilgore by more than 5 percentage points. Democrats crowed that Bush's election-eve rally for the former state attorney general only spurred more Kaine supporters to the polls.

In California, Schwarzenegger failed in his push to rein in the Democrat-controlled Assembly. All four of his ballot measures flopped: Capping spending, removing legislators' redistricting powers, making teachers work five years instead of two to pass probation, and restricting political spending by public employee unions.

Elsewhere, Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage, Maine voted to preserve the state's new gay-rights law, and GOP Mayor Michael Bloomberg easily clinched a second term in heavily Democratic New York.

Democrats said the results were the first steps toward bigger victories next year — when control of Congress and 36 governors seats are at stake — and for the 2008 presidential race.

"I believe national Republican politics ... really had an effect in Virginia and California," said Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean. Voters "don't like the abuse of power, they don't like the culture of corruption. They want the nation to go in a different way."

Republicans warned against reading too much into two governorships that started the day in Democratic hands and ended that way. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner was barred by law from seeking a second term, and New Jersey acting Gov. Richard J. Codey opted not to run.

"It's not some type of trend," said GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, noting that both seats were won by Democrats in 2001 when Bush's popularity was high. Still, he acknowledged the defeats — and said they could help rally the GOP base next year. "I don't think anybody will be complacent now."

Both governors' races were marked by record-breaking spending and vicious personal attacks.

In Virginia, Kilgore's campaign ran an ad claiming Kaine, a death penalty opponent, would have refused to execute Adolf Hitler, while Forrester quoted Corzine's ex-wife as saying he had let down his family and he would let down New Jersey.

In his concession speech, Forrester urged Corzine to bring the state together. Corzine acknowledged that the campaign had been painful.

"Sometimes, innocent bystanders are hurt in politics. ... Some seen, some unseen. And I hope we can push beyond this," he said, appearing with his three grown children.

Warner — who had campaigned hard for Kaine — declared: "Tonight, Virginians from one end of our commonwealth to the other said no to negative campaigning." Kaine's victory was likely to boost Warner's profile as a possible 2008 presidential candidate.

Corzine and Forrester, both multimillionaires, spent upward of $70 million to succeed Codey, who assumed the office last year when Democratic incumbent Jim McGreevey resigned over a homosexual affair.

A voter survey in New Jersey found women favored Corzine by more than 20 points while men narrowly preferred Forrester. Two-thirds of Hispanics and nearly all blacks favored the U.S. senator, while whites and wealthier people split their votes between the candidates. Self-described independents favored Corzine narrowly over Forrester.

Most voters said President Bush was not a factor in their choices Tuesday, according to the survey conducted Tuesday by the AP and its polling partner, Ipsos. The survey was based on interviews with 1,280 adults throughout New Jersey who said they voted in the governor's election.

Survey results were weighted to age, race, sex, education, region and 2004 vote. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Corzine, as governor, will have the power to choose a successor to fill his unexpired Senate term. The seat will be up for election in a year, but whoever Corzine appoints will likely have a big advantage in that election.

In California, where Schwarzenegger faces re-election next year, the special election was seen as a referendum on his leadership. His prospects for a second term darkened as all four of his ballot measures failed.

In other races:

_Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick overcame a scandal-plagued first term to fend off a challenge from Freman Hendrix, a deputy mayor under Kilpatrick's predecessor.

_San Diego surf-shop owner Donna Frye, a maverick Democratic councilwoman who nearly won the mayor's race in a write-in bid last year, lost to Republican Jerry Sanders, a former police chief backed by the city's business establishment.

Rush was complaining on the radio today saying that Bloomberg was more liberal that Ferrer (sp) so it isn't a big win for Republicans.

Only the begining.

Bloomberg is okay. He's been good for the city. Even if he is a Republican. But wasn't he a Democrat before he was a Republican?

He was a lifelong Democrat I believe until he decided to run for mayor to succeed Rudy Giuliani and ran as a republican.

Ohio's election reform proposition failed though. That stinks, but I also remember hearing about people having trouble at the ballot boxes again.

Dems had a pretty good night everywhere winning offices in Arizona,Iowa,NC,LI everywhere amazing. Who says the dems can't win everything. :D

Hopefully this will be the beginning trend of the democrat party rising up and the republican party sliding downward.