2007: A Republican Year

I agree. Local gains speak volumes over millions dumped in narrow victories.

Democrats wasted millions on this campaign, and don't really have anything to show for it.

That's pretty similiar to the way they govern too.

With the 1st and 2nd District Senate seats going Democratic. He's gonna have a tough race next year.

Statewide, it was a moderate victory for Republicans. In key districts like 12, Republicans proved they can win even when outspent 10:1. Likewise, the results in 39 prove it takes more than dump trucks full of money to oust Republicans in safe districts, even if 39 is gradually becoming more moderate.

However, the biggest winner of the night for a major player (discounting Jenn Beck, Baroni, and all the other actual candidates) was undoubtedly Norcross. Although the Dems secured two key victories in the south, it doesn't represent a major power shift to the Dems in Trenton. Rather, the wins will spur an INTERNAL power shift, within the Democratic party and leadership, to the increasingly powerful and relevant Norcross. His voice is going to carry a lot more weight in Trenton from here on out.

...the Republicans got back into the game. Keeps everyone on their toes, and provides for stronger checks and balances and better government.

Speaking of which, I hope the Senate Dems give some serious thought to kicking Codey's ass to the curb. Once and for all.

I know this will be the sticking point o' the day, but the reality is that Norcross succeeds because he helps provide superior candidates and well-managed county government. There is a very real opportunity for all of that enormous potential to be brought to bear on the state's fiscal house via the Senate.

Hear the voters-- Codey's leadership and lack of fiscal discipline has been rejected vis-a-vis the stem cell debacle. Let the fall guy be the fall guy.

If you can do this for the state, the local Republican gains will amount to little. If you do not, they will signify the beginning of a reverse of the long slide from power that the Republicans suffered over the past decade.

The 19th hole?

OK, so the fact that the Republicans actually lost a seat in the Senate in a year with that many indictments and federal investigations is a win??? Yea, the Dems lost Karcher, but lets be serious. The 12th is a Republican district, and Gannett won that election for Karcher four years ago. Or rather, lost it for Bennett. She never had a realistic chance of holding onto that seat. So way to go Republicans! You only lost one seat in a year that the Dems were practically handing you campaign fodder on corruption and scandal!

Do you think that the political geniuses that Corzine has surrounded himself with understand that the 2 ballot questions that failed are a sign that voters are fed up with the BS gimmicks or do you think that they are now sitting in a room plotting out how they ram asset monetization through in the lame duck?

if I ever saw one.

1. Karcher self-destructed with her inability to anticipate that her own property taxes would be an issue, and Panter, who otherwise would have survived, got dragged down in her implosion.
2. Gilmore got complacent and took his position for granted, making a horrible move with that budget crap.
3. Bodine's seat was never the Democrats' to lose.
4. DeAngelo gets in despite the anti-Gilmore turnout in Hamilton, and shows Baroni to have no coattails.
5. Democrats shored up their hold on SJ
6. Stem-cell was never properly sold to the people, and fell victim to the overall frustration (rightfully so) with the State's fiscal situation.

New Jersey is, and will continue to be, a Democratic state.

Despite what some have opined above, the most important aspect of this election cycle was the defeat of TWO referenda. In our state's illustrious history, NJ voters had only deep-sixed ONE such ballot initiative. By voting down TWO such initiatives in one fell swoop, the good people of the Garden State have sent a message that they are tired of paying the freight for the whims of the left and expect leaner, more efficent government going forward.

Because these defeated initiatives were the pet boondoggles of Corzine (so much for monetization), Codey (so much for that 60% approval rating and endless littany of commercials), Norcross (too bad they won't be building a "research faclity" in Camden to spread around the greenbacks) and company, it was both a direct repudiation of Democrat policy and, more importantly, a rallying point for Republicans to retake the mantle of fiscal conservatism and frugality.

Then again, the Tom Wilson's of the world seem to feed at the trough of government largesse almost as much as their rivals. Regardless of the propensities and predelictions of the elitist element at the NJGOP helm, there is a resounding and palpable grass roots rebellion into which all GOP candidates should tap going forward

Wilson deserves NO credit for this. It was all good candidacies. He didn't really play in 12, much less 18, 19, 36 and 38.

However, I think this was a good Republican and conservative year since Blue Dog Wayne DeAngelo beat leftist Republicans Tom Goodwin and Adam Bushman for the seat in the 14th.

Are you disappointed the Francis Bodine reform team didnt get in>?

Who else would put his comments interms of "the argument that we are having" in attempting to define discussion on a board such as this one, frequented by people with varying views on multifaceted issues. Maybe YOU are having that discussion because it deflects yesterday's unsettling events for your party.

 As you have often pointed out, the GOP has a tremendous amount of baggage hindering it from regaining any semblance of electoral momentum, from W's serial policy blunders to the war in Iraq to inept leadership at the state level. Yet, despite these factors which you have incessantly cited in predicting the dissolution of the GOP as a viable political party in NJ, Republican candidates most crucially retook political geography that had traditionally been their's. Regaining one's strongholds after an insurgent takeover is the first step to moving forward. This is hardly the people's tsunami you have been predicting for months on end.  If you can't knock out your rival when he's at his weakest, you have pause to worry.   

As far as symbolic victories go, you are completely out to lunch on the nature and power of ballot initiatives. They tend to not only measure the temperature of the political climate, but operate to galvanize like-minded people to the extent they realize they are not helpless to chart their own destiny. The real issue going foreward is whether the NJGOP can tap into this popular sentiment against gratuitous spending in an era of fiscal insolvency. While I have my doubts, at least there is a window of opportunity.

Yeah, varying between the right and the far right. Martin's correct. Republicans won back seats yesterday in the Legislature they should not have lost and were forced to defend seats that they used to hold comfortably. I think each party has a ceiling of what they can reasonably win and the Dems are probably close to it. We saw the Reps hit their ceiling in 1991 and go downwards after that. Also, it's a long way from winning local races to winning statewide. New Jersey remains a moderate to liberal state. W/O a single unifying battle cry (like repealing Florio's tax increase), the Reps won't win the statehouse for a while.

You have to be kidding me with that statement............. 

The pigs are running wild in south jersey and the Northern PIGS remain - Both Republican and Democrooks alike. 

So how are the Republicans or New Jersey any better off after this Tuesdays election? 

What a joke and the press tries to sell the story that  2 of 4 questions voted down as a DUMB statement from the voters that they want spending to stop.

Hell, they even screw it up and elected Republicans in Lawnside, Camden County a true Democrook minority community.

I agree with Nick - money is the problem.  Until we stop the political machines from corrupting the system, we will continue to have the same problems.

 "I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress."

Frederick Douglass