The winds are poised to shift next week in a few major elections.  While it is an unusual thing, watching for election results on an odd year, these certainly are unusual times.  Two of these races are for the gubernatorial positions of Virginia and New Jersey.  A Republican victory in either state could start the swinging of a pendulum.    Today Virginia is one of the most ‘purple’ states in the union.  Neither red nor blue, it is a true swing state.  This is also a race with no incumbent.  The GOP has put up state Attorney General Bob McDonnell, who as of this week is running with 55% support according to a Washington Post poll.  On the Democrat side of the isle we have state senator Creigh Deeds, who is running with 44% support. 

            If this were New York or Texas, this would not be such a fun race to watch.  We typically know who is going to win if the state is solidly Democrat or Republican.  But this is Virginia, a state with an outgoing Liberal Democrat Governor, and a republican majority in the 100-seat Virginia House of Delegates.  (The Republicans currently hold 53 of those hundred seats.)  This race could go either way, but the fact that McDonnell is 11 points ahead in a state that went for Barack Obama in last year’s election.

            Last year when Barack Obama won with 365 electoral votes to John McCains 173, the media and the entire Democrat party wrote off conservatives and Republicans as a dead breed.  It was the first time a Democratic presidential candidate had won with more than 50% of the vote since Jimmy Carter. (With that landslide 50.1%)

            Just nine months into his presidency we are witnessing the results.  Massive spending increases.  I never thought anyone could outspent President Bush, but Obama proved me wrong in a matter of weeks.  He has continued to push a massive health care bill that the public does not want in any poll.  He has delayed sending troops to Afghanistan, however he has mulled sending them to Fox News.  The Tea Party movement is the beginning of what could be a huge backlash towards the arrogant presumption that the Whitehouse and entire democrat party have exuded since November of last year.

            In New Jersey you have a different entity altogether.  This is one of the most liberal, one of the most ‘blue’ states in the union.  Liberal Democrat incumbent governor Jim Corzine is in a race too close to call in any poll taken.  GOP challenger Chris Christie has been outspent 24 million to 9 million.  The fact that he is a stones throw away from winning this race with that kind of money being thrown to derail him is amazing.  Some would say a miracle, but then Richard Dawkins would have to step in and write a book about it.

            It would be an upset and a gift to the state of New Jersey if Christie pulled out the win here.  It would be a bigger message to Democrats in conservative states or districts if either of these two GOP challengers won.  It would signal that President Obama’s policies are not the current trend they were broadly proclaimed to be.  Politicians are scared of never getting re-elected, and they have a gift for seeing which way the wind is blowing, and switching sides.  Worrying about re-election would make some of them in conservative areas less likely to want to help Nancy Pelosi push her socialist agenda further.  It would be a potential gift for those of us who oppose that monstrosity of a health care bill she put forth Thursday, all 1,990 pages of it!

            Finally, there is a race in my home state of New York in the 23^rd congressional district.  Here we have a very conservative district in New York (One of the two some would say) where you have a three-way race.   Republican John M. McHugh was tapped to be Secretary of the Army on September 21^st, so Governor Paterson of New York called a special election.  Under New York law, there are no primaries for special elections.  If there had been, Doug Hoffman would have probably cleaned the clock of Deirdre Scozzafava.  She is a liberal Republican member of the NY state assembly, but secured the party’s nomination.  On the democrat side, attorney Bill Owens was nominated.  Doug Hoffman was nominated on behalf of the conservative party, who felt that Scozzafava was far too liberal to represent them in their district. 

            This race truly caught fire when Sarah Palin threw her support behind Doug Hoffman.  She still carries a lot of clout with conservatives in this country, and now Doug Hoffman is showing in the polls enough to possibly pull off an upset.  Palin has said she does not support a third-party movement in this country, but rather wants to show the Republican Party that they could pick better candidates.

            I wish Hoffman, Christie and McDonnell luck.  Any of these three winning would be a blessing, and it would be nice for a change to see the looks on the Democrats faces when they realize that their policy’s are truly not a well-received as they believe.  They still all need our support though, so keep it up!!