THE MORALE of the Republican Party has been boosted by victories in two key gubernatorial elections, while US president Barack Obama’s entourage tries to minimise the impact of the setback on his administration.
In Virginia, Republican Robert McDonnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds by 59 to 41 per cent. In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie won with 49 per cent, to 44 per cent for incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine.
“People went to the polls and voted on local issues, not to either register support for or opposition to the president,” said Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s spokesman.
Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said the victories gave the Republicans “tremendous momentum heading into 2010”.
Republican national chairman Michael Steele said he hoped Tuesday’s elections marked the beginning of a comeback for his bedraggled party. “We’re not crowing; we’re just smiling,” Mr Steele said.
“I think it’s a bellwether for the party. You look at where we were nine months ago.”
Exit polls showed the economy, not Mr Obama, was the voters’ main concern. “There is anxiety out there about the economy and that played a factor in a lot of these races,” Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine told NBC. Mr Kaine had to step down as Virginia’s governor because of term limits.
Analysts speculated that the mass desertion of independent voters to the Republican side would make it more difficult for Mr Obama to push through legislation on healthcare reform and climate change.
“Watching their party haemorrhage independent voters should send shivers down the spines of Democrat strategists as they look ahead to Senate elections next year,” Republican senator John Cornyn said.
In further bad news for the president, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said a much delayed healthcare Bill might not be ready until next year. The closer the US moves towards mid-term congressional elections in November 2010, the more difficult it will become to pass controversial legislation.
Mr Obama’s aides portrayed the New Jersey and Virginia defeats as “local”, but said a Democratic victory in a congressional byelection in upstate New York carried national significance.
“We won a congressional seat that’s been in Republican hands since Ulysses S Grant was president, in part because of the disunity in the Republican party,” David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s senior adviser, told the Washington Post.
“That was the only truly national contest on the ballot.”
In upstate New York, right-wing Republicans replaced the moderate Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava with the more conservative Doug Hoffman. Mr Axelrod said the rift between moderate and conservative Republicans would be the legacy of Tuesday’s elections.
In a posting on her Facebook page, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who supported Mr Hoffman, confirmed that the conservatives’ battle was merely “postponed” until next year.
“To the tireless grassroots patriots who worked so hard in that race and to future citizen-candidates like Doug, please remember Reagan’s words of encouragement after his defeat in 1976,” Ms Palin wrote. “The cause goes on.”