Virginia and New Jersey Governor Races

I wanted to comment earlier on the deluge of negative ads put out by Virginia gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Kilgore. But I wanted to wait. I want to see if being so amazingly negative would work. I am happy to say that apparently it doesn't. Tim Kaine will be Virginia's next Governor.

Now to be honest, I only the cursory points of Tim Kaine's and Jerry Kilgore's political beliefs but I am glad that Jerry Kilgore lost. I thought Kilgore's ads were horrendous. In one ad Kilgore stated (not just suggested) that Kaine would not apply Virginia's death penalty on Adolf Hitler. (Side note: strangely there was someone jumping on a trampoline while these malicious "facts" where displayed about Kaine) Do I even need to explain how crude and misleading that is? Sheesh, Kilgore almost had me believing that Willie Horton himself would be my next door neighbor if Kaine were elected... and I live in DC!

I, also, was very dissapointed in what I heard of Kilgore's concession speech. I like hearing concession speeches, because the losing politician tended to seem humble and uses the platform to encourage passion in working for the city/state/country and to encourage unity. But Kilgore seemed defiant after congratulating Kaine. He spoke of losing the battle, but not losing the war. To me, calling the larger scene a war, seems not only tactless, but stubborn and improvident. If he was speaking of not losing the war of "Republican values," did he not know that the same voters who said no to him said yes to Republican Bill Bolling as Lt. Governor? Unless Kaine and Bolling HATE each other, I see no reason for a "war." In fact, I see more of a reason to encourage Democrats and Republicans to work together. I know it sounds naive, but starting a new government by calling it a war just seems wrong.

Anyways, I hope Tim Kaine's victory means two things: First and foremost, that Virginia voters thought Kaine was the better candidate and secondly that Virginia voters were saying attack ads are NOT the way to win. (Please take not of that second point, fella who was interviewed at Kilgore headquarters saying that you don't understand politics if you don't understand the negative ads. Sir, I would say that you are the one who doesn't understand that most voters don't appreciate it when practically ALL your tv and radio ads are negative.)

Finally, I know nothing about the New Jersey race... so I only can say this: I hope New Jersey voters didn't vote Democratic because of dissatisfaction with President Bush and the corruption in the Republican Party. Virginia voters, on the other hand, were practically invited to show such dissastisfaction, because of Bush's campaign appearance for Kilgore. (BTW, am I the only one who thought that move was pretty daft? Really all Bush would do is lose you those votes who are among the 60%+ that think Bush is doing a bad job.) I just hope New Jersey voters didn't forsake a candidate simply because of his or her political affiliation.