Virginia, Alabama Voter Choices Show Tea Party Declining

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-06/virginia-alabama-voter-choices-show-tea-party-declining.html

In the closing days of his losing campaign for Virginia’s governorship, Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli called the contest a referendum on Obamacare. Virginia voter Lee Killen saw it instead as a referendum on the Tea Party -- and he voted no.

Killen, a Republican-turned-independent from Fairfax, cast his ballot for Terry McAuliffe less to endorse the Democrat than to lodge a protest against the small-government movement he said has hijacked his former party.

“I don’t particularly like McAuliffe, but I went with him basically because I disagree with the Tea Party approach to life -- no compromise, no middle ground,” Killen, 70, a retired software engineer, said in an interview just after casting his vote yesterday. “Cuccinelli has been a Tea Party leader from the very beginning, and those values are not my values.”

It’s that dynamic as much as any other that tipped the balance in Virginia against Republicans, carrying McAuliffe, 56, the former national party chairman and fundraiser, to victory. He had 48 percent of the vote to Cuccinelli’s 46 percent, with 99 percent of the precincts reporting in the Associated Press tally.

[Katashi_itto]

1. We can only hope this is a real trend.

[djean111]

2. This sort of thing is why it is wrong (IMO) to be complacent that the Tea Party will sink Christie.

The Tea Party may not be as powerful a couple of years from now. Big mistake, again IMO, to discount Christie.
He would be a powerful opponent for Hillary.

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3. +1