The Underground (In Syndication): New Republican Governors

Democrats suffered two surprising defeats in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races yesterday.

In spite of much campaigning by President Obama himself, New Jersey’s incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine was still defeated by the GOP candidate, Chris Christie. New Jersey is considered a blue state so this was a big upset.

Cristie, a former attorney general with a reputation for busting corruption, is the first Republican in twelve years to win a state office in New Jersey. Corzine, a one-term governor, ceded the election when Cristie was winning 49 to 45 percent.

In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell defeated Democrat Creigh Deeds by a 20 point lead. President Obama had also campaigned for Deeds. (Side note: this makes President Obama 0 for 3 in his ability to influence vote outcomes recently, if we include his heavy campaigning for the Olympics to be held in Chicago which was also defeated.)

Although one would hope that Christian Americans were waking up to trusting their faith rather than their economy, these two Democratic defeats were probably more a sign of citizens’ dissatisfaction with failing economy and the threat of more taxes.

In New York, Democrat Bill Owens defeated the Conservative Party’s hope, Doug Hoffman by just three percent; this could be because the people who have “always voted Republican” went with the party’s decision to support Democrat Owens when the very liberal Republican Scozzafava dropped out.

It is a mystery why the Republican Party threw their support behind Owens. The option to support the Conservative Party’s Hoffman was a lost golden opportunity. Democrats would never throw their weight behind a conservative. Republicans lose ground every time they make this type of compromise.

According to UPI, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele didn’t see this as a prediction of 2010 Congressional upsets yet; saying the party has a lot of work to do.

In Maine, the gay marriage amendment did not pass – not by the voters, that is. According to what has happened in other states, gay marriage advocates will probably take this to the Maine Supreme Court and try to get the vote overturned as a violation of the Constitution.

After all this analysis, did the voters really decide who won? It isn’t Democrats and Republicans that matter—there are Christians in both camps. What matters is whom God feels are the appropriate officers for the appropriate times, according to what He sees his people indulging themselves in.

“For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” Romans 13:1 NASB