In his first test as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, Gov. Peter Shumlin walked away from Tuesday’s elections with a win and a loss.
But the win, in Virginia’s hotly contested gubernatorial race, was more significant for the DGA than the loss in New Jersey’s decidedly less competitive gubernatorial match.
The DGA poured $6.5 million into the Old Dominion to support former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe’s fight against Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, while it largely sat out New Jersey state Sen. Barbara Buono’s uphill battle against Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
(Pictured from L to R at the Farmhouse Tap & Grill last November: DGA senior advisor Bill Lofy, Shumlin, DGA executive director Colm O’Comartun and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley)
“I am really excited we’re going to have a job-creating governor in Virginia who does not embrace the radical policies of the Tea Party,” Shumlin said Wednesday after a press conference in Burlington. “It’s a great victory and a great victory for all of us.”
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“For reasons passing understanding, the RGA decided against the logical approach”
This Kanner guy isn’t too bright.
Um, it’s not that hard to understand really… the RGA isn’t supporting the Tea Party any more. In Vermont do you see the DGA paying for Progressives? Nope. The RGA is not going to support fringe party politics anymore. I know this is not what Kanner wants to accept because it kind of takes away from the DGA and McAulliffe, but McAuliffe basically beat out a candidate that garnered no support from his “party.” The guy almost one and not even his own party wanted him elected… doesn’t say much about the McAullife and the DGA when they narrowly squeeked out the win, but c’est la vie.
“the voters of NJ looked more at his personality than his failed economic policies.”
So Shummy is calling the voters of NJ dumb and taking a not so subtle swipe at Christie? You want to know why Christie is so popular/unpopular…he is perhaps the best bet for Republicans to win the White House… no one likes him on either side. Democrats don’t like him because he’s a republican that can take the WH from them. The Republicans don’t like him because he’s too moderate and would rather focus on fiscal issues then fight social wars that have been over for decades.
Hmmm someone who has shown he can work with both sides of the aisle… yeah, that would be a terrible quality for a President to have. Lets instead continue to focus on social divides that have been settled for decades. Like picking candidates who oppose abortion and who oppose gay marriage… you know because maybe it would convince SCOTUS to change their minds if a candidate who opposed these things ran and lost to Billary.
Christie opposes abortion and gay marriage (he vetoed a marriage equality bill passed by the NJ legislature…)
His social conservatism has been contained by the political realities of NJ – dealing with a Democratic legislature and a socially progressive electorate. But if he were to become President, he would happily sign every anti-choice and anti-gay legislation that a Republican Congress could manage to send to him.
Folks are going to start seeing that Christie is no “moderate” – now that he no longer has to run for re-election in NJ, he’ll be trotting around Iowa and South Carolina assuring the teavangelical Republican primary electorate that he’s the real conservative candidate they’re dreaming of.
It’s game on all right. He’s going to go all Ned Flanders on us.