We Lost two Races in which we Ran Awful Candidates

[MadBadger]

We really didnt have a choice with Corzine being the incumbent, but he was extremely unpopular and was lucky he didnt lose by double digits(Still early of course). And Deeds Campaign was just very poorly won.

Give me an election where the Dems can put up an attractive candidate and I bet you things would be different.

[polichick]

1. Not just attractive - PROGRESSIVE! nt

[Jennicut]

2. Should Paterson think about not running? He is another loser waiting to happen in 2010.

[MadBadger]

4. I hope he looks at the polls and does the right thing.

[Sebass1271]

7. his ego is bigger than manhattan, he likes power, so he will

stay and lose in a landslide. He doen't think about party "brotherhood".. he only cares about himself.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. I really want to hear more about that from NY DUers.

I don't know much about NY. In 2010 we in IL have our own problems filling Obama's seat. I still suspect Burris really wants it.

[harkadog]

12. Doesn't matter if Burris wants it

Yesterday (Monday) was the last day to file petitions for the primary. He didn't file. He can't run.

[Yavin4]

16. NY DUer Here

NY is the home of spoiler politicians. NY pols live to spoil elections. There's no party loyalty, esp. among Dems in this state. Bloomberg won as mayor in 2001 because Sharpton spoiled the election for Mark Green who won a tough primary against Freddy Ferrer. Patterson is cut from the same cloth.

This is why people should not fall in love with politicians because in the end, they're only in it for themselves.

[girl_interrupted]

27. NY Duer here too & I'm worried tonite

I'm very relieved we won NY23. I hope Palin takes a hint and goes away. If only. But it's a different story out on Long Island. Tom Suozzi is in the battle of his political life for county executive of Long Island. Tom was elected in 2000 and was the 1st Democratic to win that position in 30 years. He's currently serving his 2nd term and his bid for reelection is not going well tonight. He has a very slight lead...approx 300 votes and this is going to be a real nail bitter. The Democrats lost control of the legislature tonight too. I'm very unhappy about this.

The reason I am worried, is NY like NJ, is horribly overtaxed. And the economy being what it is, people can take so much.

I agree with you about NYC, there is no loyalty among Democrats. Patterson is toast. That he doesn't have the integrity to step aside, shows you what an ego trip his is on. Sharpton gets on my last nerve too, he ruined it for Mark Green, and he is now trying to say its because Patterson is black, people won't vote for him because they are bigoted. Sharpton is another one, I wish would go away. I'm hoping there will be a primary and Andrew Cuomo will be the Democratic nominee. Polls are showing Cuomo approx 60 points ahead of Patterson, you would think that would be enough for him to take a hint, but no. Rudy Giuliani is showing interest in running for governor, and he would win, if Patterson is the nominee, by a landslide. This I donot want to see happen.George Pataki is also looking at a possible Senate run against Kirsten Gillibrand. The last thing I want to see is Rudy & Pataki back in control in NY.

But we have problems here very similiar to New Jersey. Economy isn't the greatest, unemployment is up, taxes are too high and people are hurting. It's very expensive to live here. I wish there was someway the burden could be taken off the donor states, like NY, NJ and California. Until something like this happens, It's going to be anyones guess what's going to happen next election.

[HamdenRice]

29. What utter nonsense. I don't even know where to begin. nt

[Yavin4]

34. What Do You Mean Nonsense?

Happens all of the time in NY. See Cuomo/Carl McCall/Pataki.

Why do you think that Obama is trying to nudge Patterson out of the race? The Democratic party in NY is all pure egos.

[Raine1967]

24. he should not run at all.

even if he does --he will lose in a primary. Andrew Cuomo is his opponent and very well liked.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

25. I'm not only worried about NY. I'm worried about IL. n/t

[ProSense]

3. Corzine was not awful. People are stupid.

They allowed a Rove tool to win an election because Corzine had to deal with budget realities. People earning over $75,000 a year were upset they didn't get a property tax rebate this year.

Ugh.

[Kdillard]

6. Exactly.

[MadBadger]

8. As a Candidate, Corzine never understood how poorly people looked at his negatitivy in campaigning

[Sebass1271]

10. that's bull, ppl always complain about not liking negative

Campaigning, but in fact is, negative campaigning always works.. let's just face it, Dems were not motivated or the party didn't have a strong GOTV effort.

[MadBadger]

11. There is negative, and then there's calling Chris Christie fat

[JI7]

22. you think Corzine lost the fat vote ?

[Mike Daniels]

35. It didn't work in Virginia

There's no denying that Deed's campaign was based almost exclusively on negative ads revolving around a 20 year thesis.

Deeds lost Northern Virginia by a landslide which had been trending Democratic, he lost independents and according to one poll that came out a little before the election he lost the women vote as well.

All of those groups were the target audience that Deeds was aiming for in attacking McDonnell on a thesis dealing with social issues and it backfired completely.

Poll after poll had Deeds perceived as being too negative in his campaign and ultimately it didn't do him one iota of good.

[ProSense]

13. That had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The state was a mess when Corzine took over. He made the decision to look like he was serious about fixing the economic problem and declared from the moment he took office that he had to slash budgets across the board. The property tax issue was a huge one. From the time he announced it, the reaction was so overwhelmingly against it that he spent a good chunk of time trying to find a way around it. He finally announced that the solution, which was to lower the income cap and the amount of the rebate. A lot of people who had gotten it in the past were left out and were livid. Property taxes are also still very high.

[Sebass1271]

14. Why are property taxes so high in NJ and NY? and what

about CA? how can working middle class americans afford such taxes? how do you support a family with these kind of taxes? I know we have to have taxes if we want a progressive society and a healthy one, but geeeezzz. it has really gotten out of hand and ppl feel squeeze!!

[girl_interrupted]

23. They are so high because all 3 are "Donor" states

They pay the most in Federal taxes & get back the least. Take NJ, they get back 68 cents for every dollar they pay to the Fed, versus Texas which gets back 96 cents for every dollar they pay. It's horribly unfair, so I agree with you 100%.

I think this is why a toad like Christie got elected tonight. NJ is one of the highest taxed states in the country. Their unemployment rate is in double digits. People there are burnt out. Corzine is a good guy caught in a terrible position. NJ has major problems. With the ecomony being what it is, resident are in desperate need of relief. And they took their frustration out on Corzine.

What's so ironic to me, is that states that aren't "donors" are the ones that complain the most about taxes. That was until tonite. Something has to be done to elevate the pressure on donor states too.

You hear a lot from the "teabaggers" about wanting to be "independent", wanting the government off their backs. I'd love to grant them their wish, it's high time for the ones crying the most about taxes, while paying the least, to start paying their fair share of taxes or do without, and give states like NY, NJ and CA a break.

[Raine1967]

26. +1 !!!!

[Hutzpa]

21. That means

Corzine is to blame for being ignorant on peoples feelings.

Thats the problem, these states property taxes are IMO responsible
for most home owners loosing their houses, if he could not convince
people that he will put a freeze on property taxes, then he has lost
the battle especially considering how the economy is having an effect
on people.

[karynnj]

17. I agree - Corzine was very unpopular

But, he did an incredible job on the budget. NJ was hit extremely hard by the economy. As the stock market fell apart, the many NJ residents in that industry did not get the huge bonuses that they had in prior years. This and the fact that the normally huge amount of capital gains disappeared as well. This caused a huge decrease in revenues. On the other side of the ledger, the costs of things like unemployment insurance went up.

Corzine cut something like 5 billion dollars from the budget - but kept every school districts getting at least what they did the year before. I was at a Democratic event that Corzine was at early this year where I sat with some school board officials from my town because they were friends of the friend my husband and I were with. They were stunned as they had already anticipated a cut and had done the difficult work determining the teachers they would cut - and were relieved they didn't have to. He also extended NJ's SCHIP program further than any other state - requiring Menendez and Lautenberg to get the limits increased in the federal budget.

In Friday's NYT, Christie told their board that he will have to raise some taxes and other things absolutely contradicting his ads heard every day . In addition, his ads completely mischaracterized the third party candidate.

[wisteria]

20. Typical Republican lying to get elected. I doubt he will last more than 1 term. n/t

[Cha]

18. No argument there..too many people are

sadly stupid.

[Sebass1271]

5. It is not about attrative, cuz obviously christie is not, it is

a dem that is real progressive, not a fake like the one in VA. Aside from the fact that ppl were not motivitated to go out and vote, only tea baggers were because they wanted this to reflect on P. Obama.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

15. Sadly we have to shift some of that blame to Tim Kaine. The fact that the Dems supported

a very weak candidate in Deeds is simply inexcusable. They threw Dean under the bus for Kaine? No more money from me until the DNC gets its shit together and stop running lousy candidates. From here on out, my money goes directly to the individual candidate, not the DNC until they recruit better candidates. Period.

[Jennicut]

19. The voters chose Deeds in the primary. Are they to blame too?

Moran was the one I wanted but none of the 3 were very good.

[falcon97]

28. Was Corzine a bad candidate?

I realize NJ is going through tough times right now (who isn't?) but was Corzine the reason? Granted, he made his fortune on Wall Street. But would voters hold that against him now, after electing him 4 years ago? I'm just asking because I've heard this a lot and am trying to find out what his flaws were. He always seemed ok when I saw him on the teevee machine.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

31. Corzine has been a problem from the get-go

He's spent well over $100 million of his own money seeking political office. He's had some ethics problems (refusal to release his tax returns) and his popularity has been in the toilet for several years. It's really no wonder that he didn't win this election.

[tabbycat31]

32. he was much better as a senator than governor

he made some tough choices, but he really tried to clean up New Jersey's mess (mostly started by the last Christie in office)

I don't think that Christie will serve out his term. I have a feeling that his corruption will show early on.

[ClarkUSA]

30. Yup. It's also an historic trend that the losing party in the GE wins the NJ/VA governorships.

[bigwillq]

33. Yup

This is, by no means, a barometer of 2010 or 2012. I think the hype is silly. Candidates lose. It won't be the last time. Elections always have swings of gains and losses. No biggie.

[uponit7771]

36. Deeds said he's opt-out of puboption, I thought he was throwing the race then