Democrats Triumph

It's an off-off-year election, so there's not been that much to pay attention to, but of the two governorships up for grabs, Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats took them both. Senator John Corzine won the New Jersey governor's race by almost 10 percentage points, defeating Doug Forrester in what devolved into a very nasty, personal contest. He'll name his own replacement to the Senate. Perhaps more interesting, though, was Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine's victory in Virginia over Republican Jerry Kilgore. Kilgore had distanced himself from the Prez through most of the campaign and even went so far as to pass up an opportunity to appear with Bush a week-and-a-half ago. Somehow (and I would've loved to be in the room to find out exactly how this was decided), it was agreed that Bush would fly in on his way back from the PR bonanza of his Latin American summit for a "Victory Rally" (from the White House transcript: "Thanks for the kind introduction, 'Governor'"--whoops) last night. Did Bush's stunt hurt Kilgore? It certainly didn't help. By putting his prestige on the line for a losing candidate, Bush may have ended up wounding himself, too.

Although I had no rooting interest in the race beyond curiosity, it was nice to see how the St. Paul mayoral race worked out. Last year, Democratic Mayor Randy Kelly supported the reelection of the President over John Kerry, and this year he paid the price. Chris Coleman, another Democrat, unseated Kelly by a vote of more than two to one. Pre-election polling indicated that this was going to be a single-issue race and voters would make their decision in reaction to Kelly's endorsement last year. In what is more blatantly a referendum on the Prez than either of those governors' races, the people of St. Paul have spoken.