by Mike Mulvihill
Photo: voxefx
I have lived in several places throughout the east and Midwest, but I spent my formative years (8 to 18) in the garden spot of the Garden State and I have now lived in Richmond, Va., for the past 19 years (my longest stint so far in one city/location). So I have a special interest in the odd fact that New Jersey and Virginia have the only two gubernatorial races in the country this year.
And they are pretty telling races. Historically Democratic “blue” New Jersey has incumbent Jon Corzine running neck-to-neck with Republican Chris Christie, a former U.S. Attorney (who apparently has little respect for copyright law). The polling difference between the two candidates falls within the statistical margin of error making it’s anyone’s race.
In Virginia, which as a one-term limit state never has an incumbent candidate for governor, Attorney General Bob McDonnell has a commanding double digit lead in the polls over Democrat Creigh Deeds, a long time state politician. A Republican win would end two back-to-back Democratic administrations in a traditionally Republican state.
What national implications should we read into these two races? Has Obama lost sway and, in turn, Democratic candidates? Well, according to the SmartPolitics blog, there’s a far less knee jerk story to all this. To quote the blog “A Smart Politics analysis of historical election returns in the Garden and Old Dominion States finds that the two states have voted in tandem during the last five gubernatorial elections dating back to 1989 - and always electing the party which is not in control of the White House. (If it’s not too late, find a bookie and put all your money on Christie in Jersey!)
From a social media standpoint it is interesting that in Virginia McDonnell has outspent the Democrat Deeds 5-to-1 in social media (a number which far exceeds the Republican spending advantage in traditional media.) As blog site bluevirginia reports, ”That’s inexcusable…that the McDonnell campaign has blown Creigh’s campaign away in new media.”
But perhaps the most telling statement here is the naïve assumption that social media is the domain of the Democrats. The success of the Obama campaign taught both parties a lesson. If the Democrats want to learn something valuable this November for the 2010 midterm national elections (especially for U.S. House seats), it’s that social media, like liberty, is accessible to all.
Republicans learned their social media lessons very well. Their well-coordinated national focus is becoming impenetrable. I’ve written two articles on the topic recently as well. Here’s one: http://techspokes.com/republicans-twitter-and-their-new-media-caucus/
Aloha, Jeff Tucker
Wow – didn’t know the Republican had outspend the Democrat on social media in VA. Makes me think Deeds was spending all of his money on a get out the vote program in the old-fashioned way. All I hope tonight is that he makes it respectable. There is a mood in the Commonwealth…