Regional elections serve as early referendum on Obama

By Chris Cermak Nov 2, 2009, 4:04 GMT

Culpeper, Virginia - Dickie Tate, a 61-year-old retired postmaster, had never before donated money to a political campaign.

This time, one year after Barack Obama's unlikely election as the country's first African-American president, was different. Tate reached into his pockets and donated to Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia.

A native of Culpeper, Virginia, Tate hopes that a victory for McDonnell on Tuesday will carry a message some 100 kilometres north to the politicians in Washington.

'I'm very upset with the way things are going up there,' said Tate, who was among a few hundred people attending an election rally of McDonnell's in Culpeper on Friday. 'They've just been spending too much money. People are just fed up with it.'

One year after Obama was elected on a wave of euphoria and hopes for change after eight years of George W Bush, it is Republicans who are slowly back on the ascendency. The party is primarily tapping into anger over what some voters perceive as reckless spending practices by Democrats to revive the economy.

Republicans are hoping to capitalize on Tuesday, when Virginia and New Jersey hold state elections that have garnered huge national attention. It is being billed as the first referendum on the Obama administration.

The races have attracted some major political star power: Obama has campaigned in both states, as has former president Bill Clinton. The Republicans' 2008 presidential candidate John McCain and other hopefuls like Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee have also returned to the campaign trail.

Virginia, where a majority voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in four decades when they chose Obama last year, is now back in play. Opinion polls give McDonnell a lead of more than 10 percentage points on his Democratic Party opponent, Creigh Deeds.

In New Jersey, usually a reliably left-leaning state, the race is neck-and-neck between Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine and his Republican challenger Chris Christie. An independent candidate, Chris Daggett, is also tapping into voter disaffection and could garner as much as 15 per cent of the vote.

Democrats are hoping to maintain the momentum of last year's election, but they have struggled to harness the excitement that was generated by Obama's candidacy. Republicans see a turning point, and a chance to send Obama and his fellow Democrats a signal that their policies of the past year are not supported by all voters.

'The wider message is that government doesn't know best,' Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the German Press Agency dpa.

'We're seeing global governments move away from more socialist- leaning policies. It's a lesson that this administration had better start learning,' Steele said.

Much of the debate surrounds the still-struggling economy: Massive public spending efforts by Obama's administration have pushed the US budget deficit to a record 1.4 trillion dollars - about 10 per cent of economic output - in the 2009 fiscal year.

The stimulus measures have likely helped end the country's worst recession in seven decades: Government figures Thursday showed the economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in a year. Republicans, however, point to still-rising jobless numbers as a sign that the stimulus has failed.

Supporters on both sides are also hoping to make a statement on far-reaching reforms of health care, environmental policy and financial regulation that are making their way through Congress.

Yet Republicans are also divided over the future direction of the party. A congressional race in upstate New York - one of the few other elections happening Tuesday - showed what can happen when the conservative vote is split.

Some prominent conservative politicians had bolted from the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, a moderate with left-leaning views on social issues, prompting her to quit the race on Saturday. She threw her support behind the Democratic nominee over a third- party social conservative candidate.

Political pundits will be looking at Tuesday's races for clues to next November's mid-term elections, when the entire House of Representatives and one third of the Senate is up for grabs.

Mary Tholand, a 62-year-old housewife attending the McDonnell rally, said: 'For an off-year election, the enthusiasm is very high.'