Here:
Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, won the race for governor [of Virginia] on Tuesday night, scoring a major political victory for his mentor, Gov. Mark Warner, and sending a powerful message that President Bush's political standing has fallen in this reliably Republican state.
One should have no illusions, to be sure, about the moral fortitude of these Democrats, but most of them are to be preferred to the craven villains and rapacious beasts now running the Republican party. That a Democrat scores such a victory in a generally Republican state (that voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004) is a hopeful sign that the mushy middle of the population that actually decides elections may have had enough. (Of course, since they are mushy and are of such peculiar cognitive and emotional constitution that they are actually capable of finding merits in voting for Republicans some days, Democrats others, one can not be entirely confident whether this effect will last.)#
More commentary on the results from The New York Times:
After months of sagging poll ratings, scandal and general political unrest, the Republicans badly needed some good news in Tuesday's elections for governor. What they got instead was a clear-cut loss in a red state, and an expected but still painful defeat in a blue one.
The Republican loss in Virginia, which President Bush carried with 54 percent just a year ago, came after an 11th-hour campaign stop by Mr. Bush and the kind of all-out Republican effort to mobilize the vote that reaped rich rewards last year.
Republicans argued on Tuesday that Virginia was a local election driven by local events, with little long-term national significance. But the loss clearly stung, as did the double-digit defeat in New Jersey, a blue state that had seemed within reach for the Republicans.
Whatever their significance as predictors, the elections come at a sensitive time for both parties, as they scramble to raise money, recruit strong candidates for next year's Congressional elections and, equally important, minimize the number of retirements. Candidates and incumbents are often swayed by their sense of the national mood and the political landscape.
Democrats, already emboldened, hailed the results as the first shots in the battle of the 2006 midterm elections, when control of the House and Senate will be at stake.
"Our voters, going into the midterm elections, are mobilized and energized; theirs are despondent," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Reflecting Democratic euphoria over what was perceived as a shifting electoral tide, Mr. Emanuel added, "Virginia is a bright, bright red state - shining red."
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