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Arlington Democrats dramatically split their votes in the County Board race Tuesday, demonstrating their typically strong support to top-of-the-ticket races for U.S. Senate and Congress, but turning away from their partys nominee for the most contested local office.

The countys voters, well known for their strong backing of Democrats, supported Sen. Mark Warner (D) with 71 percent of the 65,764 ballots cast, and congressman-elect Don Beyer (D) with 66 percent of the 63,147 ballots cast in that race.

Arlingtonians didnt then abandon the ballot 62,386 voted in the contest between Alan Howze (D) and John Vihstadt, a Republican running as an independent. But in that race, Howze took only 44 percent to Vihstadts 56 percent.

Howze won only 13 of the countys 53 precincts, mostly around Columbia Pike and the Metro corridors. He had lost a special election to Vihstadt in April when only 22,000 voters turned out, and Democrats hoped that he would surf to victory on the strength of the bigger electorate Tuesday, when a four-year term was at stake. Despite the 48 percent turnout, that did not happen.

Vihstadt, who based much of his campaign on opposition to the Columbia Pike streetcar which Howze supported, said his three-part message worked.

Arlington voters, Vihstadt said late Tuesday night, were yearning for a fresh perspective on a County Board many felt was an echo chamber and were concerned about spending priorities on a streetcar at a time when schools are overcrowded. He also credited the Washington Post endorsement which he said got the attention of a number of voters.

Jay Fisette (D), chairman of the Arlington County Board, said Wednesday that he and other board members have to take stock of what happened.

The voters sent a message, mostly about the Arlington-Fairfax streetcar, he said. I commit to fully digesting everything that happened yesterday and crafting a response.

Local Democratic chairman Kip Malinosky said Wednesday that some voters may have thought that Vihstadt was a Democrat, because his literature prominently featured endorsements from some Democrats, and he presented himself as a fusion candidate. Voters also expressed a desire for balance on a County Board that for 15 years (until the April election) was entirely made up of Democrats, Malinosky noted.

But Vihstadt, Malinosky said, ran a strong campaign and weve got a lot, a lot of work to do before the next county election a year from now.

Originally posted here:
Arlington Democrats split votes to keep Vihstadt in office

As they awoke Wednesday, Democrats found many ways to soften the sting of the shellacking they took Tuesday night. The Senate map was bad. The party in the White House always suffers in midterm elections. Demography is still on their side in presidential elections.

However true, those efforts to find silver linings after a storm of repudiation ignore larger questions for the party: As they look toward 2016, just who are the Democrats and what do they stand for? Are they a party that narrowcasts messages to select constituencies think war on women and speaks largely in the language of fear? Or are they a party whose leaders can articulate a big, fresh and positive message?

Much has been made about the absence of a Republican governing agenda in this years campaigns. Democrats combing through results from Tuesday and from exit poll crosstabs can point to the fact that on some issues, the public clearly does favor them. But the small-bore issues on which Democrats tried to wage the campaign proved insufficient to the task of winning.

Raising the minimum wage is an example. The idea is hugely popular, but it did nothing to save Democratic candidates in what were supposedly contested races. Voters in Arkansas approved an increase in the minimum wage and at the same time tossed out Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor by a margin of 17 points.

Democrats will write off the Pryor loss as another example of the Republicans tightening their grip on the South voters in Arkansas also traded a retiring Democratic governor for a new Republican governor but no Democrat would have told you two days ago that Pryor would lose by the margin he did. Backing the minimum wage didnt help elsewhere, either.

The GOP gained control of the Senate Tuesday night, taking hold of the legislative agenda in that chamber. Here are three of the policies Republicans are likely to tackle as they take the reins in January 2015. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post)

If Democrats had a bigger, more appealing economic message, it was as hidden this fall as the GOPs governing agenda. The party is split between its centrist-business wing the wing long dominated by the Clintons and its populist wing, now symbolized by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).

One part of the party wants to attack Wall Street and tax the rich; the other is wary of that approach but nervous enough about the political impact of wage stagnation and income inequality and the restlessness on the left not to have formulated a clear alternative, if it truly believes there is one.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, already the presumed Democratic presidential nominee without having declared her candidacy, got so bollixed up over this that she misfired at a campaign stop in the closing days by declaring that businesses do not create jobs. She later blamed her mistake on trying to shorthand her message.

Democrats looking toward 2016 have reasons to think optimistically. They are more in tune with the rising electorate young people, minorities, unmarried women than Republicans. On social issues such as same-sex marriage or legalization of marijuana, their coalition already or soon will represent the majority position in the country. They are on the side of public opinion on climate change and immigration reform.

Read more from the original source:
Hard questions for Democrats as they look to 2016

The governing bodies in two Gloucester County towns that only recently came under Republican control will revert to Democratic majorities as a result of this year's general election, according to results posted Tuesday night.

Voters in West Deptford and Washington Township narrowly swung Democratic, just a few years after residents in both municipalities handed control to the GOP.

In West Deptford, the three-year Republican domination was halted as Mayor Ray Chintall and Committeeman John Keuler Jr. lost to Democratic challengers Adam Reid and James Mehaffey.

Reid and Mehaffey will join Committeewoman Denice Dicarlo, currently the sole Democrat on the governing body, and two Republicans.

Among the key points of contention between the parties is the town's finances, including a municipal debt of nearly $150 million.

At the polls Tuesday, some voters made note of the high debt burden.

"It's huge," said Kurt Deuter, 51, a registered Republican who voted for another term for Chintall and Keuler.

Michelle Love, 36 and a registered Democrat, said she and her husband had recently bought a house in town and were concerned about taxes. Love said she believed Reid and Mehaffey would work to lower the burden.

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Democrats regain power in two Glouco towns

Democrats on Wednesday morning began sorting through the wreckage of disastrous midterm elections in which losses eclipsed even their worst fears.

The scale of the defeats, taken together, was breathtaking: a Senate majority lost, more than a dozen House seats swept away, and Democrats ousted from governors mansions across the country.

The drubbing is sure to spark a round of soul-searching, as Democrats ponder whether President Obama is to blame or whether something deeper has gone wrong in the party that could threaten its chances of retaining the White House in 2016.

Finger-pointing had begun between Senate Democrats and the White House even before every race has been decided. The blame game is sure to get worse in the coming days.

The presidents approval rating is barely 40 percent, David Krone, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told Washington Post reporters. What else more is there to say? ...He wasnt going to play well in North Carolina or Iowa or New Hampshire. Im sorry. It doesnt mean that the message was bad, but sometimes the messenger isnt good.

Democratic losses were staggering in the Senate. The hopes of party strategists that ominous final polls might have been overstating the Republican advantage proved hollow.

If anything, the reverse proved true: In Iowa, Republican Joni Ernst defeated Rep. Bruce Braley (D) by almost 9 percentage points; in Colorado, incumbent Sen. Mark Udall (D) went down to Rep. Cory Gardner (R) by about 5 percentage points. Even North Carolina, the battleground state about which Democratic strategists were most confident, fell: Sen. Kay Hagan (D) lost out to the GOPs Thom Tillis there by about 50,000 votes.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheens (D) achievement in holding off former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R) in New Hampshire was the only significant bright spot for the party. In the House, longtime incumbents, such as Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) were swept away by the GOP wave.

Losses in governors races which the White House had touted last week as a better barometer of a successful evening were even more shocking. Republicans prevailed in states that are normally considered solid blue, including Maryland, Massachusetts and Illinois.

According to national exit poll data, most voters said they were frustrated with Washington gridlock and with the performance of both parties, but President Obamas approval ratings were particularly dismal.

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Democrats sift through the debris

Why did so many Democrats lose on Tuesday? Here's the simplest answer: President Obama was a political dead weight for his party.

No Democratic Senate candidate performed more than nine percentage points better than Obamas approval rating in their states exit poll. This outlier over-performance was barely good enough for Sens. Mark Warner to pull off reelection in Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire. (No one thought Warner was in any danger in Virginia. No one.) Notably, both of these candidates are personally popular and serve in states that are evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. They also each spent time as governor before being elected to the Senate.

Outperforming Obama by eightpoints was not nearly enough for Mark Pryor in Arkansas, who earned just 39 percent support. Democratic candidates in Iowa and Kentucky outperformed Obamas approval rating by five and sixpoints, only to win 44 and 41 percent support in their respective elections. In Colorado and Georgia, support for Democrats Mark Udall and Michelle Nunn only exceeded Obamas approval rating by twopoints,leaving them at 45 percent.

In the four stateswhere Obama held at least 47 percentapproval Maine, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota Democrats won three of four Senate races. In Maine, popular Republican incumbentSusan Collins won easily in a race Democrats were less focused on.

The anchor of a presidents approval rating is far from new presidential job approval has played a big part in predictive models for midterm elections. Indeed, Real Clear Politics analyst Sean Trende performed this very analysis on 2010 and 2012 Senate contests in January. He wrote:

In the 31 competitive Senate races held in 2010 and 2012, the Democratic candidate has run within five points of the presidents job approval in 23 of them (75 percent). Additionally, no Democratic candidate in a competitive race has run more than 10 points ahead of the presidents job approval (or behind it).

Its possible Obama himself is not the anchor, but his approval is more of an indicator of a states basic partisan instincts. But years of midterm election losses have shown that the president's party, and his popularity, are deeply important indicators of chances in midterm elections. This year, the weight of Obamas standing proved too much for many Democrats.

Republicans won big on Tuesday night as much as by who actually voted as who didn't. Here are the takeaways from the exit poll data. (Pamela Kirkland/The Washington Post)

Scott Clement is a survey research analyst for The Washington Post. Scott specializes in public opinion about politics, election campaigns and public policy.

See the article here:
The Fix: Exit Polls: Democrats could not escape Obamas unpopularity