Let’s fight back: GOP activists want more ballot harvesting after Election Day dud
The results of Thursday night’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey are no surprise. Voters chose Democrat majorities on the state houses and governor’s mansion for the first time in 25 years. The Republican Party lost its majority on the U.S. House in a decade for the first time since the Civil War.
So what? Elections always have a way of bringing out the good and the bad in politics. I have been calling the news lately “a referendum on democracy,” citing the results in Virginia and New Jersey as a proof point. The two states have been going in the right direction, but not in the way we had hoped.
And, as Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli said: “You can’t fight the tide with a paddle. It’s not going to change.”
The Democrats made a push for so-called supermajorities in New Jersey and Virginia, where they need 67 percent and 66 percent of the vote respectively to win, but they failed to make it. And the voters in the two states went to the polls for the first time in a generation.
The only saving grace in the states is that they are in the “red” states, which are considered less swing states. This is a much bigger story than what the Democratic Party or Republicans achieved. It will be telling when the election returns are in for two more of the 18 states – North Dakota and South Dakota – that have so far tipped to the red.
And, while we’re on the subject, the Republicans didn’t achieve their full victory, either in Virginia – where the Democrats won 59 percent of the vote – or New Jersey – where the Democratic vote was down by a couple of percentage points compared to 2008. But the GOP did win 10 of 12 states where Obama won over 50 percent in 2008, even though the Democratic vote was down.
