...Owens gained 49 percent of the vote (click title to entry - thank you), versus 46 percent for Hoffman, and six percent for Dede Scozzafava, who's name was still on the ballot, even though she dropped out of the race....
The seat was filled by a Democrat after 16 years of Republican representation. He will be in Washington, DC soon enough to bring change to the issues of immigration policy. Nice.
The two Governor seats, in New Jersey and Virginia, aren't really upsets. The Virginia race was won by Mr. McDonnell some time ago. In a poll by Pollster.com (click here) there is a graph of the popularity of McDonnell. It really is no surprise he maintained a lead to victory and is really no reflection of the feelings about Democrats as voters facing a midterm election next year.
The New Jersey race was a sincere attempt by the current incumbant, John Corzine, to turn his loss to a win. The Governor-elect Mr. Christie was popular for the reason he promised to cut taxes. New Jersey is in a job slow down no different from the rest of the nation, but, the current Governor suffered some sincere doubts about his ability to lead when one of his administration was found to be engaged in unethical and possibly illegal activity within the government. According to Pollster the race would be decided by a narrow margin but also reveals a wide margin that John Corzine was able to close in the last three months of the campaign.
The strange aspect to this is that Chrisie is believed to be personally involved in corruption. This is the statement by the Honorable John Conyers, Jr. (click here).
"...One such example of the potential for politicization has arisen in the agreement between Zimmer Holdings and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, in which U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie chose his former supervisor, namely former Attorney General John Ashcroft, as the corporate monitor. Pursuant to this agreement, Zimmer Holdings has agreed to pay Mr. Ashcroft’s firm anywhere from $28 to $52 million. Prior to Mr. Ashcroft’s appointment, however, there was neither public notice of the monitor position nor any public bidding for the assignment...."
It may be that the people of New Jersey might have their taxes cut, but, that will also mean a cut in services to them and quite possibly a strain on an already strained economy. They may also have inherited the worry that Christie may attempt to continue to exploit his new win for personal gain at any cost. Christie did not win by as wide a margin as expected, only 6 percent rather double digits, which raises doubts to his ability to stave off his soured reputation even in future elections.
