NYT coverage of Virginia Democrats losing the race for governor. Then and now.

[hay rick]

Heather Cox Richardson quotes Eric Boehlert today:

The Virginia governor’s race almost always goes against whichever party is in the White House; indeed, journalist Eric Boehlert, who studies the press, noted that this pattern is so well established that in 2009, during President Barack Obama’s first term in office, when Democrats lost the races for governor of New Jersey and Virginia, the New York Times published only a single piece of analysis, saying “the defeats may or may not spell trouble for Democrats.” Boehlert noted that the New York Times has already posted at least 9 articles about Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe’s loss last night in Virginia.

The gray lady seems content to operate within the confines of a larger media narrative.

Link to entire article: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-3-2021

[FBaggins]

1. Not sure that's true... but let's pretend that it is.

The next November - we lost 63 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate.

Maybe it would have helped if the gray lady sounded more of an alarm?

If we lose 30 and 4 next November... would you cheer that we outperformed?


On edit - The NYTimes headline included "Governor's Races Seen as Jolts for Obama" and included "dealing President Obama a setback and building momentum for a Republican comeback attempt in next year’s midterm Congressional elections"

[hay rick]

3. One article vs. 9 and counting. nt

[FBaggins]

6. One post without dealing with legitimate objection

Counting?

Again- if it’s true, the mistake was in 2009, not the current coverage.

[hay rick]

9. We are so much wiser now. nt

[Phoenix61]

4. Rachel had a segment on this.

It’s been true since Reagan was in office. Every president since then has lost both NJ and VA governors seat.

[FBaggins]

5. Same problem

It’s also very common for that to lead to big swings in the midterm elections.

“This happens frequently “ doesn’t mean that it isn’t significant.

[PortTack]

8. I don't think the VA give race a yr b4 the midterms are actually tied to one another

Granted, the party in power usually loses the house or sees significant losses in their majority.

The Dems performed much better than in ‘09, and McAuliffe lost by less than 5k. So there’s certainly no “mandate” for the gqp, especially considering we held the NJ gov by a sizable margin.

If there’s any hand writing on the wall about the midterms, it’s all the gerrymandering that’s going on. Unless the voting rights act passes and addresses gerrymandering, we will more than likely not hold the house. The gqp isn’t going to have a big win thou, they made most of the gains they will have in the ‘20 election. They simply have no place to go.

[Hoyt]

2. McAuliff was pretty much considered a shoo-in, even when alarms started going off a few weeks ago.

[FBaggins]

7. They both were

There was only one pollster showing that the state was even theoretically in play.