WASHINGTON (AP) — An ebullient Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele asserted Wednesday that GOP victories in governors' races in New Jersey and Virginia demonstrate "a transcendent party" on the move again. The White House said the elections were not a repudiation of President Barack Obama.
"We're not crowing, we're just smiling," Steele said in a nationally broadcast interview. "I think it's a bellwether for the party ... You look at where we were nine months ago."
Steele said he believes Chris Christie's victory in New Jersey and Robert McDonnell's win in Virginia show that the GOP has "really found its voice again" after sustaining damaging losses last year.
For its part, the White House said the elections were about local races, local issues and local candidates — not about Obama.
Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters voters went to the polls in Virginia and New Jersey to work through "very local issues that didn't involve the president." The presidential spokesman said voters were concerned about the economy.
"I don't think the president needed an election or an exit poll to come to that conclusion," Gibbs said.
By contrast, Gibbs acknowledged that the 2010 midterm congressional elections will be more about the Obama agenda.
Democratic Party Chairman Tim Kaine said he thought voter anxiety about jobs and the economy played heavily in the balloting and said the defeat of incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey and candidate Creigh Deeds in Virginia shouldn't be seen as a referendum on Obama. He said Obama "really retains a strong popularity among the voters."
Exit polls showed many independents who voted for Obama in 2008 voted for Republicans this time around, and Kaine did say in a CNN interview, "We're going to have to scratch our heads a little bit on that one." He said Obama continues to enjoy even stronger support among independent voters than he has in the past.
Gibbs said the White House sees no need to recalibrate its legislative agenda or message based on the results of the governors' races or the swing of independents in this election toward the GOP. And he expressed no concern that the election results will make conservative Democrats on Capitol Hill more skittish toward backing the president's agenda as they head toward their own re-election bids in 2010.
Steele and Plouffe appeared on CBS's "The Early Show" and Kaine was interviewed on NBC's "Today" show.
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