The Republicans are having a moment. And that’s despite the fracas over Monday’s presidential debate – when the would be candidates seemed intent on ripping shreds out of front runner Rick Perry.
Today the GOP must surely be popping open the champagne, after trouncing Democrats in not one, but two special elections for the US House of Representatives.
The Republicans had expected a win in the largely rural district in Nevada — but not the size of the win, which was a landslide. And it’s a state that’s seen as key to Barack Obama’s re-election hopes. And the Democrats suffered a rare defeat in one of their heartlands, New York — as retired television executive Bob Turner triumphed in the seat formerly held by Anthony Weiner, forced out over a Twitter sex scandal.
Before the vote, House Speaker John Boehner had declared “This is not a district that Republicans have any right to believe that we can win” – in fact, it’s the first Democratic loss in Queens or Brooklyn in a generation. Their 70 year-old candidate, whose career highlight was creating the Jerry Springer show, ran for the same seat two years ago, in his first electoral foray, and came a distant second to Weiner. This time, though, it was different: a triumphant Turner telling supporters “We’re ready to say, Mr President, we are on the wrong track”.
Although the more measured commentators are cautioning against a rush to judgement, these twin defeats are inevitably being interpreted as a backlash against President Obama, among voters fearful about the state of the economy, and sceptical about his leadership.
In New York, the figures could hardly be starker: the President’s approval rating was a meagre 30 per cent — and although the Democrats began with a financial advantage, pro-Republican groups poured cash and energy into their campaign, focusing on the decision to legalise gay marriage, a policy deeply unpopular with the seat’s large population of Orthodox Jews.
But is it really possible to use special election results as a prediction of what might happen to Democrats across the country next year? Possibly not. Essentially they’re snapshots of the popular mood, rather than reliable indications of a trend, and as Nate Silver, from the five-thirty-eight blog, warns — “special elections are always difficult – they are low turnout, high intensity races.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Steve Israel was keen to play down the New York result, insisting they were “not reflective of what will happen in November 2012 when Democratic challengers run against Republican incumbents who voted to end Medicare and cut Social Security while protecting tax loopholes for big corporations and the ultra wealthy.”
But according to Politico, the mood in a conference call among top campaign aides last night, was ‘awful’, quoting a source who said that “people feel betrayed, disappointed, furious, disgusted, hopeless”. No punches pulled there, then.
On the record, House democratic whip Steny Hoyer was slightly more measured: “Do I think it’s an overall statement on the president alone? No. Do I think it will be interpreted as being a statement on Obama? That’s probably correct.” And in more bad news for the party – labour unions were pretty much disengaged from the race, even in this heavily blue-collar district. Mirror that on a national scale, and the party really would be in trouble.
There’s a glimpse of blue sky though, for worried Democrats: Obama’s new jobs act – and the prospect of a reinvigorated President with a coherent message to sell. New York Rep Eliot Engel welcomed the reappearance of “the feisty Barack Obama, the one that we knew and loved and voted for in 2008”.
The party will be hoping voters will start thinking likewise, and that the snapshot revealed in last night’s special elections can be eclipsed by the political campaign ahead.
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