The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia has published a report looking at where the only two gubernatorial races in the nation stand as May dawns and the summer campaign season is on the horizon. The report comes to a surprising determination, given recent history.
Virginia and New Jersey hold their state elections the year after the U.S. presidency is contested, and with only two big races in the entire nation at that time and both seen as barometers for public opinion on how the president is doing, media attention is often substantial.
In many cases, these “off-year” elections have seen the party that lost the presidency put extra effort into “sending a message” to the public at large that the presidential victory is not some mandate for his party’s agenda over theirs and to their voter base that the party has not been dispatched into…
