UNDATED, Nov 6: Moderate Republican Chris Christie easily won re-election as New Jersey governor, while a conservative Republican popular with the Tea Party movement narrowly lost his bid for the Virginia governorship, in two races closely watched for their potential impact on future races for Congress and the White House.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe was elected governor of Virginia, largely with the support of the heavily populated Washington suburbs that were hard hit by last month’s partial shutdown of the federal government.
McAuliffe’s campaign had held up rival Ken Cuccinelli, the state’s attorney general, as a symbol of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, seen by many voters as responsible for the shutdown, which economists said took a 24 billion dollars bite out of the US economy.
Christie, whose broad, cross-party appeal makes him a top contender if he decides to run for the White House in 2016, addressed Americans’ frustration with partisan stalemate in his victory speech.
“A dispirited America, angry with their dysfunctional government in Washington, looks to New Jersey to say, ‘Is what I think is happening really happening? Are people really coming together?'” Christie told supporters. “Let me give the answer to everyone who is watching tonight. Under this government, our first job is to get the job done and as long as I’m governor, that job will always, always be finished.”
In liberal New York City, Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, crushed Republican Joseph Lhota, running on a platform to bring the “two New Yorks” of rich and poor closer together.
The results came less than three weeks after the 16-day partial government shutdown, a maneuver pushed by conservative Republicans seeking to delay or defund Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform law, known as Obamacare.
Cuccinelli’s loss was a setback for the Tea Party movement, which swept a wave of right-wing lawmakers into Congress in 2010 and has been seeking to extend its legislative influence in next year’s congressional elections.
The close race reflected the political split in Virginia, which Obama won in both his presidential races, but that elected a Republican governor four years ago.
Cuccinelli, a social conservative, carried the state’s more rural southern and western districts.
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