Reclaim Conservatism

Looking at the results from yesterday’s elections I see different meaning in the different races we all were following. It’s almost as if people are individuals with differing outlooks and ideas of what is important. (Yes, that was sarcasm)

In New York City — Mayor Bloomberg won by a much narrower margin than the money he spent seemed to indicate. I think in part this is a mixed message of people in favor of the job he is doing, but somewhat turned off by the way he fought for the right to win another term.

In Virginia — The McDonnell win in Virginia, after nearly a decade of Democratic control, is partially a repudiation of Obama policies and direction. Although most of the electorate said that Obama wasn’t a direct consideration in their vote, the economy and jobs did play a large role and that is a reflection on the year old administration.

In New Jersey — This was probably the biggest upset of the night. While the trends ahead of the election were in Christie’s favor, few people expected the margin that came in. While this race, again, wasn’t all about Obama, the flip side of that coin is that the significant support the President gave Corzine didn’t move the voters. That sends a message for 2010. Economy and property taxes were the main issues. Now it’s up to Christie to lead on those things. If there’s not real movement in these areas I fear for my birth state.

In New York 23 — This race received a tremendous amount of national coverage, probably out of proportion to it’s national impact. There were so many things going on in this race, especially in the last few weeks, that we may never know all the factors that entered in to this decision. I doubt is we will ever see another race where the republican candidate is arguably to the left of the democrat, and where a conservative third party candidate garners overwhelming national attention and support in a moderate republican district. Did conservatives have too much riding on this outcome? I don’t think we know, at least not yet.

Those are my first thoughts. Leave yours in the comments.