Blow to Obama as Republicans score big in off-year elections
Posted: 04 November 2009 1052 hrs

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NEW YORK: Republicans won two governors' seats Tuesday in off-year elections that dealt a stinging blow to President Barack Obama and his Democrats exactly 12 months after they swept into power.

In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie pulled off an upset to defeat Jon Corzine, the incumbent governor in the heavily Democratic state, by a margin of 55-44, according to preliminary results.

And in the first Republican victory of the night in Virginia, Bob McDonnell took back the governor's mansion from the Democrats by defeating Creigh Deeds 63-37 per cent, preliminary results showed.

The results were setbacks for Obama, who had campaigned in both states on behalf of his party's candidates, and will help buoy Republicans left reeling by the scale of his historic White House victory on November 4, 2008.

Virginia is an important pivotal state and a year ago helped propel Obama into office as the nation's first African-American president, the first time it had backed a Democratic presidential contender in more than four decades.

The loss in New Jersey was likely to hurt Obama even more since he campaigned heavily there on behalf of Corzine, including at a rally with 11,000 people over the weekend. The state has long been dominated by the Democratic Party.

Another race under close scrutiny was for a vacant congressional seat in upstate New York, where the right of the Republican Party backed a member of the tiny Conservative Party, rather than the official Republican candidate.

With mid-term nationwide elections to Congress due next year and Obama bogged down in confrontations over the economy, health care reform, and the Afghanistan war, the results of Tuesday's three off-year races were under close scrutiny.

"Obama needs at least one of the three wide-publicised elections to maintain momentum. He'll be hard-pressed to get one," Rutgers University political analyst Ross Baker wrote on the Politico website.

The Republican Governors Association quickly congratulated McDonnell in Virginia, saying his victory gave the party "tremendous momentum heading into 2010."

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs earlier played down the wider significance of the three races, saying: "I don't think the president is looking at these and believes that they say anything about our future legislative efforts or our future political efforts."

But if the races showed that Obama's Democratic machine is not invincible, they also laid bare rifts in the Republican Party over how to rebuild after last year's drubbing in presidential and congressional elections.

In the New York special congressional race, the official, moderate Republican candidate withdrew in the face of the insurgent Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.

Although he was not running on the Republican ticket, Hoffman had the backing of senior Republican conservatives, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

His surging run made him a standard bearer for the wing of the Republican Party organising nationwide "tea party" protests against Obama.

However, other Republicans are arguing for a more centrist stand aimed at attracting independent voters. The official Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, endorsed her Democratic opponent Bill Owens, rather than Hoffman, when she withdrew from the race.

Voters also chose mayors in major cities including New York City, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, as well as deciding referendums in Maine and Washington state on same-sex marriage.

New York's mayor, the media tycoon Michael Bloomberg, won a surprisingly tight contest for reelection against his Democratic challenger Bill Thompson.

Bloomberg, an independent who ran on the Republican ballot, spent a record amount of his own money during the campaign.

He had been forecast to win by double digits, but squeaked through with 50 per cent against 46 per cent for Thompson, early results estimated.

- AFP/yb