I think it’s a pretty clear indictment of our two-party system when it gives you a choice between a crazed wingnut and a corrupt stuffed shirt.
I’d call it an indictment of *Virginia *that those two are their best and brightest.
Stupid women, always henpecking the men who’ve spent all day crafting laws for them.
Now, see, the rational response to seeing that you have a shrinking base is to try to expand the base.
That word “rational” is the problem.
From the state that produced Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, yet . . .
I’m sure there’s some of that, but there were also 14 races decided by <10%. The GOP won 12 of those. So the Dems could have done 5 seats better by simply splitting the close races.
That doesn’t really address why Republicans did so well at that level, though. The Republicans basically kept the same lead in the House of Delegates that they already had, which makes me think they held onto districts they would have been expected to keep.
Richmond and Hampton Roads area are pretty blue too. But yes, the rest of the state is darn conservative.
That is possible evidence of gerrymandering. The best gerrymandering tactic is to split the state in a lot of districts that your party wins by small amounts, while putting your opponent into fewer districts that he wins by big margins.
Of course, as has recently been pointed out several times in this forum, that strategy can backfire when – as now – the GOP party-brand is so damaged as to alienate swing voters and thereby put even the gerrymandered districts in play.
I wish I were as sanguine as you. I think between losing Virginia to an awful candidate, Christie dominating in New Jersey (the numbers I heard last night had him winning among both women and Latinos), and the polling data around the shutdown that we may see a resurgence of the Republican Sanity Caucus in time for the 2016 elections.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Christie is a moderate Republican in a blue state and he has the extra benefit of his response to Sandy. More conservative Republicans and Republicans in more conservative states absolutely don’t think they need to move to the center.
Virginia is also an odd case because the Democrats are mostly concentrated in the heavily populated Northern counties. The rural areas are Republican. So there is a majority of Democrats in the Commonwealth, but it’s easy for Republicans to take the House as they control so much more of the land mass.
I think it’s potentially win-win for the Democrats… if it’s Cruz/Paul, easy win for the Dems, and if it’s Christie, potentially rage-induced third-party candidate from the Tea Party. They really don’t like Christie, and his nomination might (cross your fingers!) be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I generally don’t like the concept of term limits and the Virginia Governorship is an example of why, while we’ve had some good governors in recent years I feel in part the reason we were dealing with a crazy GOP candidate and a Democrat who most likely is a corrupt inept political hack is that because the Virginia Governor is term limited to one term it doesn’t attract the same quality of candidate that the office does in other States.
In many States the Governor’s mansion is either the capstone of a long career in State government or the springboard for a Senatorial type, but in Virginia it seems more like a place the political dregs occupy.
Terry McAuliffe was clearly inspired to re-enter politics by my cheerleading in this thread (no need to thank me)
Well said. I voted for Sarvis because the polls were calling it as an easy win for McAuliffe. If it had been close I would have held my nose and voted for McAuliffe as the least distasteful of the front runners.
Of course, with your current governor you’d probably soon be dealing with an indicted governor. I agree, though, that the VA Gov is a good counterpoint when the discussion turns to term limits.
I think it was just an off year, and Cuccinelli’s shifting the Republicans away from a primary to a convention allowed someone who was a bit more extreme to take the Republican nomination. I think that the Democrats didn’t really have anyone willing to run because they didn’t think they had a shot.
Quite a few Virginia governors have gone on to the Senate. We had Chuck Robb, Mark Warner, George Allen, and Tim Kaine.