Afterthoughts on the New Jersey/ Virginia elections

Republicans mull 'what ifs' in Cuccinelli race 
"Ken Cuccinelli's suprisingly close race for Virginia governor has Tea Party Republicans steaming about a lack of support from the national party. Few Republicans in Washington gave Cuccinelli a chance in the race and most big money men kept their checkbooks closed."

 

Michael Barone; Some reflections on the Virginia and New Jersey elections
Excerpts of the full article included with each point.
1. The Obamacare rollout fiasco and Obama's lies hurt Democrats

Did Obamacare hurt? Well, the exit poll showed Virginia voters opposed rather than favored it by a 53 percent to 45 percent margin.

 2. The government shutdown didn’t much hurt Republicans.

Considering that individuals almost always poll better than groups of people—particularly Republicans (or, for that matter, Democrats) in Congress, this is a devastating result for Obama.

 3. Millennials are souring on Democrats. 

But it also suggests that McAuliffe's last-minute campaigners Hillary Clinton (born 1947), Bill Clinton (born 1946) and (the not very technologically savvy) Obama (born 1961) don't necessarily strike a resonant chord with the younger segment of Millennials (born between 1984 and 1995).

 4. Hispanics and Asians didn't rush out for Democrats. 

The New Jersey exit poll showed Christie carrying Hispanics 51 percent to 45 percent and losing heavily Hispanic (and historically hugely Democratic) Hudson County by only 55 percent to 44 percent. This is a great achievement that national Republicans need to study.

 5. Private-sector unions.

Democrat and union operatives helped Christie "rein in the outsized benefits and privileges of greedy and self-righteous public-sector unions in the state on the sensible theory that their hard-pressed members were paying for benefits far more lavish than they were getting themselves."

Ken Cuccinelli’s near miss sparks recriminations   "After Cuccinelli’s closer-than-expected loss, the defiant candidate and his supporters said the election results were only a blip on the radar of the larger conservative struggle as they blamed the defeat on Obamacare and a deluge of Democratic attack ads. Some Cuccinelli backers privately steamed that the national party did not do more to shore up Cuccinelli against Democrat Terry McAuliffe and his enormous war chest."  Jonah Goldberg agrees

The Betrayal of Ken Cuccinelli   "They said he was “unelectable.” The RNC put only $3 million into this race."

Can Christie make it on the national level?  "For all his notoriety and political acumen, neither his political nor his policy victories are directly translatable to the national stage."