Biggest losers:
1. President Barack Obama
Spinmeisters at the White House are desperately trying to blame the landslide loss of Creigh Deeds on the candidate’s poor campaign. They have a point. Deeds’ ran one of the nastiest, dirtiest, and mean-spirited campaigns in recent memory, spurred on by the Washington Post’s frenzied attempts to paint Bob McDonnell as some sort of theocratic freakshow.
But the president unwisely put his own political capital on the line when he campaigned for Deeds in the same state he won last year, with a candidate who said of his preferred health care reform: “I don’t think the public option is necessary in any plan and I think Virginia–certainly, I would certainly consider, opting out if that were available to Virginia.”
Whether the White House admits it or not, when Obama’s own party’s candidates start peddling away from his top legislative priority as fast as they can, he’s in deep political trouble.
2. Governor Tim Kaine
The part-time governor, full-time head of the Democratic National Committee just got his clock cleaned by the Republican sweep. Not only did Jody Wagner, Kaine’s former finance secretary, lose her bid for lieutenant governor, Republicans managed to pick off Democrats Paul Nichols, Chuck Caputo, David Poisson and probably Margi Vanderhye in Northern Virginia and increase their majority in the House of Delegates.
Looks like Kaine’s most lasting legacies will be closing Virginia rest stops and leaving a resurgent GOP in control of redistricting following the 2010 Census.
3. The Washington Post
Party activists cited the Post’s endorsement of the little-known Deeds over Del. Brian Moran and former Hillary Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe as the main reason Deeds won the Democratic primary. But the paper didn’t stop there. The Post’s front-page coverage of McDonnell’s 20-year old graduate school thesis was so over the top, it prompted Examiner columnist Michael Barone to call it what it was: a transparent attempt “to macaca Bob McDonnell.”
A more recent Post editorial accused Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli of “bigotry” for his traditional Catholic views on homosexuality. The Post’s analysis was again rejected by Virginia voters who, during the 2006 Republican bloodbath, rejected same-sex marriage by amending their state Constitution.
Biggest winners
1. Tea Party activists
The mainstream media has either ignored, mocked or downplayed this grassroots movement, but it has become a political force to be reckoned with. The big question about Tea Partiers who stormed town hall meetings and Capitol Hill this summer was whether they could translate their anger into constructive political action. The stinging rebuke Democrats felt at the polls on Tuesday in Virginia and New Jersey is the answer.
2. Ken Cuccinelli
This unapologetic conservative has had a target on his back ever since he had the nerve to win a seat in the House of Delegates in Fairfax County. But Democratic strategists have consistently underestimated Cuccinelli’s keen legal intelligence, unstinting allegiance to first principles, and ability to connect with voters. Cuccinelli has already promised to protect Virginians against unconstitutional power grabs by the federal government and he’ won’t be alone. Other states, terrified of unfunded mandates from Washington, have begun to reassert their sovereignty.
3.Pro-lifers
All three of the top statewide winners in Virginia are pro-life Republicans who did not try to hide their consistent opposition to abortion. Their wide margins in Tuesday’s election should put the final kibosh on the idea that pro-lifers cannot win. According to recent polls, they are in the majority in America, not part of an extreme radical fringe as the pro-abortion lobby unsuccessfully tried to portray them.
Olivia Ganz, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, told The Examiner that pro-lifers picked up three seats in the House of Delegates- Rich Anderson in Woodbridge, Tag Greason in Fairfax, and James LeMunyon in Sterling, with a possibility of four more that are still being counted, including Barbara Comstock in McLean. “Nothing like some great coattails,” Ganz said.
