A few days before Tuesday's election, I wrote about the fact that who wins and who loses is not that important.  As I said then, "The truth is that this is election will have little effect in reality but is important for the direction that it takes each party and the lessons each side learns today"    Now that the election has come and gone, we can take the time to look at the winners and why they won as well as looking at the losers and deciphering why they lost.

Republicans won in both New Jersey and Virginia.  Both of these Republican victories were not surprising.    Polls showed McDonnell (R) was leading by a considerable margin in Virginia for weeks.    The race in New Jersey fielded a very unpopular incumbent governor leading a state during a major recession.  Not exactly the best of situations to win in.    But he also had strong support from the Obama administration with both the President and Joe Biden campaigning for him which didn't seem to help much.

Perhaps the biggest surprise came from NY-23 where Independent Hoffman garnered huge support from Sarah Palin and other prominent far Right extremists.   He managed to force the official Republican candidate to withdraw just days before the election but still managed to lose a seat that has been held by Republicans for well over 100 year.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg was re-elected to a third term after out-spending his relatively unknown Democratic opponet by a huge margin.   He won by only 50,000 votes.   Probably not the voter mandate he was hoping for.

And finally in Maine, Proposition 1 passed by a very narrow margin thus reversing the law passed by the state legislature legalizing gay marriage.   Though a ballot initiative in Washington legalizing "domestic partnership" passed by a narrow margin.

Here are some things though to consider about these races:

·     Voter turnout was extremely low for both states.

·     Independents seem to go overwhelmingly to the Republicans.

·     Competency has become more important than party affiliation.   A seated Democratic Governor like Corzine who's viewed as incompetent can be beat in a predominantly Democratic state.   A ultra-conservative candidate like Hoffman who can't answer questions involving local issues can be beat in a district that has voted Republican since the Civil War.

·     Negative campaigning wasn't very helpful.

·     Money doesn't buy you love....though it does help.    Corzine and Bloomberg both spent huge amounts of their personal fortunes on their respective races.   Hoffman received over 90% of his funds from sources outside his district.   Only Bloomberg won....and at an incredible cost/voter ratio!

·     Extremists don't help you win!    Hoffman's loss in such a predominantly Republican district showed how much damage the fighting between moderate Republicans and the Far Right can do to Republican chances of winning.  The high intensity last minute campaigning by Tea Baggers at polling sites (police had to be called to two of them) probably did a lot to turn off the 1 in 5 undecided voters who showed up.    This is also proved by the win of Virginia's McDonnell who was endorsed by Democrats and ran a very center of the road campaign on issues.   He avoided negative attacks, instead focusing on what he could do for his state and who he was as a person.    He also cut a deal with his only potential primary opponet to avoid having to fight a primary battle.   It is questionable if he would have been able to keep those endorsements or his center-right stance on issues if he had to participate in a hard fought primary against Tea Party activists.

·     And finally, the Gay & Lesbian Community needs to take a hard look at how past elections have gone for them.    When you lose over 30 ballot issues advocating for gay marriage, you need to reconsider whether the name "marriage" is more important than the rights associated with a traditional marriage.  I find it significant that Washington State passed a "domestic partnership" act which will legally equalize gay couples with married couples.  It's not perfect....but it seems to be an achievable goal, unlike marriage.   You should also take these votes into consideration when you demand an end to Don't Ask/Don't Tell and DOMA.    Both WILL go away.   But give it time.  Attitudes are changing significantly, for instance, the highest number of votes of any candidate for Mayor in Houston, Texas were won by an openly gay woman!  But that doesn't mean that everyone is comfortable with those changes.

These are a few random thoughts that help to explain what happened.   The question is will both parties learn from this election day?  As I said a few days ago, "What will be important is how each side interprets the results and then acts on those interpretations in preparation for 2010."    So have we learned anything?