One of the themes after the 2006 and 2008 election cycles was
that Republicans had become a purely regional party that could
not win in the northeast. Chris Christie's victory in the heavily
Democratic New Jersey proves that this is not the case. Christie
won not because he was such a stellar candidate, but because the
Democratic Governor, Jon Corzine, was absolutely incompetent at
his job. When you eliminate all the purely partisan voters on
each side, the non-ideological voters left over who swing
elections vote on the basis of competence. Republicans lost in
2006 and 2008 not because the country had moved so far to the
left ideologically, but because they didn't govern the country
well. So the major lesson to take from last night as it relates
to 2010 and beyond is that everything will ultimately hinge on
what kind of job Democrats do running the country. The results so
far do not bode well for them.
