At last, something for the Democrats to cheer about

摘要

If you walked into a hunting-goods shop in Virginia on election day and saw a rifle lying unattended on the counter, next to an ad for "Black Bear Taxidermy" services, you'd guess there were Republicans nearby. Sure enough, the manager, Rich Lunoe, said he planned to vote for Jerry Kilgore, the gop candidate for governor of Virginia, on November 8th. But he didn't sound terribly excited about it. "It's hard to believe any of [the candidates]," he said. "They all say what they think people want to hear." Mr Lunoe tried to read the papers to find out what policies were on offer, but ended up going fishing instead. And he found the campaign's tone off-putting. "All it is is a bunch of mud-slinging," he decided. Mr Kilgore was duly thrashed-46% to 52%-by a bland Democrat named Tim Kaine. On the same day in New Jersey, another Democrat, Jon Corzine, won the governorship by an even wider margin. California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, though not up for election himself, received a raspberry from voters, who rejected all his ballot propositions (see next story). Michael Bloomberg's re-election as mayor of New York was the only bright spot for Republicans in what was otherwise a miserable day.