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Democrats may have a reason to pause
Losses in governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey may alter votes on health care and climate change.
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WASHINGTON - Already-skittish Democrats in Congress got fresh reasons to worry about their votes on economic and health care legislation from the election results in Virginia and New Jersey.
Democrats from the left, right and center saw a warning in Tuesday's results, which saw independents -- who had backed Democrats in the 2006 congressional elections and President Obama last year -- switch their votes to help elect Republican governors in both states.
Democrats from swing states feel new pressure not to be perceived as too liberal. That may impede Democratic leaders' efforts to pass a sweeping health care overhaul, especially one that includes a government-run insurance plan, or climate change legislation.
"The House leadership needs to pay attention to what happened in Virginia," said Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., one of 52 conservative Democrats, or Blue Dogs, in the House of Representatives.
Last year, swing voters helped Democrats to their biggest congressional majorities since the mid-1990s. Once Tuesday's two House winners are sworn in, Democrats will have 258 House members and control 60 of the 100 Senate seats. Next year, all 435 House seats will be contested, as well as 36 Senate seats, 18 now held by each party.
Tuesday's elections "will probably cause pause for some people," said Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, a Blue Dog.
Some moderate Democratic senators voiced similar thoughts, saying that the public's perception is often that Washington is too unresponsive to voters and too eager to increase the size and cost of government.
"The American people get it. They know we're on an unsustainable fiscal course," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Many of these concerns are hardly new to conservative and moderate Democrats; Tuesday's election results simply underscored their importance as they weigh their votes on pending bills.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said, "I've always had pause" about health care overhauls and ramped-up government spending.
Like most centrists, he represents an area where hard-to-predict independents often determine an election's outcome.
In some of those states, Obama hasn't been overwhelmingly popular. He won 41 percent of the Nebraska vote last year, and got 44 percent in North Dakota.
His Virginia victory was the first by a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, aided by 49 percent backing from independents. Tuesday, though, Republican Bob McDonnell won the gubernatorial race by taking two-thirds of those voters, who made up about 30 percent of the electorate, according to exit polls.
In New Jersey, Obama won 51 percent of the independents last year. Tuesday, Gov.-elect Chris Christie, a Republican, took 60 percent of them.
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