GOP Governor Christie and Democrat Governor Elect McAuliffe Deliver Blow to Right Wing Tea Party

"...the (election) night's big winner, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and the night's big loser, Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli..."
Pundits are calling Governor Christie's gubernatorial win in "blue state" New Jersey a victory for control of the Republican Party.  In fact, the decisive Christie victory is a rebuke of right wing extremism as well as an endorsement for his brilliant response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. Even 32 percent of New Jersey's Democratic voters supported Christie's re-election.

After the election victory hoopla settles down, I suspect a realistic analysis will show how Christie's landslide was a firm rebuke of right wing extremism. In fact, Governor Christie wisely opted not to campaign with Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Cuccinelli, thereby pushing back on right wing pressure to back an extremist candidate.

Americans must dunk the extremist right wing Tea-Party!

Likewise, while Republican Ken Cuccinelli came close to upsetting Terry McAulliffe in Virginia's gubernatorial election, the Tea-Party was unable to garner enough support to defeat the Democratic candidate, McAuliffe. I suspect Cuccinelli didn't appeal to women voters for several reasons, led by his snake-oil association with a dubious political gifting scandal implicating the current GOP Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife. 

Of course, Cuccinelli supporters are claiming the close margin of defeat (45 percent for Cuccinelli at 48 percent for McAuliffe) was due to the public's disapproval for the health care reform known as Obamacare. It's difficult to believe the Virginia voters would choose their new governor based upon one issue alone, especially when it's a federal health care law. Undoubtedly, the Tea-Party is obsessed with the Obamacare law and would rather blame something outside of their own right wing extremism for their candidate's defeat. In fact, McAuliffe's election victory is a "W" for Democrats and another Tea-Party dunking.

Less reported is the result of the Alabama run off election to fill an open Republican Congressional seat. In this election, the Tea-Party was dunked by establishment Republicans. Bradley Burns defeated Tea-Party supported Dean Young. The runoff was the first of what is likely to be many battles to come over the direction of the GOP, and it proved, to the relief of many in the Republican leadership, that a strong showing by the establishment can win tough races. But it also underscored just how difficult and costly such victories may be going forward. “If you’re in the minority, as we (Republicans) are in Washington, you’ve got to be unified or you can accomplish nothing,” Mr. Byrne said in a brief interview after his victory speech. Yet, in an ominous sign of the entrenched right wing position, the defeated Young said he would not vote for Byrne in the general election.  It's a sign of how difficult GOP unity may be, when Mr. Young, a conservative businessman who unsuccessfully ran for this same seat last year, said again at his election night gathering that he would not vote for Mr. Byrne in the general election, and would not even call him to concede defeat.

Completely under reported was the New York Mayoral win by Democratic Bill DiBlasio. He'll be the first Democrat in two decades to serve as the mayor of New York City, defeating Republican Joe Lhota, a longtime adviser to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for the job.  Having seen DiBlasio's interview on Up Late with Alec Baldwin, I'm pleased to see such a liberal candidate win so decisively. I suspect Mr. Baldwin's "Up Late" show won't be branded as "boring" (as in the Los Angeles Times) when he opened his programing with such a harbinger of change in New York City politics.  

In all the above races, the Tea-Party was dunked and, in the New York City race, the liberals made a return to mainstream politics.  

Therefore, the outcomes of Tuesday's election results analyze as a resounding defeat for extremism and the potential resurrection of liberalism.