Transcripts For ALJAZAM Inside Story 20131107

To the governors mansion, and in new jersey, republican governor Chris Christie raised his National Profile with a landslide victory. Did he surprisingly well with women, independents, moderates and minority voters. And in colorado voters rejected a major tax increase for schools but voted for a tax to regulate its new marijuana market. Tonight on inside story were going to search the results for clues to where the country is headed politically. First this background. In virginia it was a photo finish in the race for governor. Businessman and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry Mcauliffe eked out a victory against attorney general Ken Cuccinelli winning by a mere two and a half percentage points. The federal shut down may have had an impact. After the 16day stretch polls showed cuccinelli along with Tea Party Support across the country. In his victory speech mcauliffe pointed to washington as a dysfunctional government poster child that virginia should avoid. The truth is this election was never a choice between democrats and republicans. It was a choice about whether virginia would continue the mainstream bipartisan tradition that has served us so well over the last decade, and a time when washington was often broken just think about what virginia has been able to accomplish when we work together. But virginia is polarized, too, and cuccinellis concession speech was not much of a concession and it said that Tea Party Politics was alive and well. We said this race was a referendum on obamacare and although i lost tonight you sent a message to the president of the United States that you believe that virginia understands that obamacare is a failure, and that you want to be in charge of your healthcare and not the government. At last count i was aware of despite being outspend by an unprecedented 15 million this race came down to the wire because of obamacare. Reporter in near high profile governors race new jerseys Chris Christie cruised to a huge reelection victory. The popular governor took a very different approach from cuccinelli marketing himself as bipartisan and maybe as a guy who has higher aspirations. Now listen, i know if we can do in this trenton, new jersey, maybe the folks in washington, d. C. Should tune in their t. V. s right now to see how its done. Reporter christie won by a lopsided 60 3 margin in a traditionally democratic state. Breathtaking dimensions of christies win. 57 women. 51 hispanic, 21 africanamericans. Christie put together an impressive politico application, 66 independents, 31 liberals, and 61 of those who identified themselves as moderate. On the other side of the country colorado hosted a different kind of election, ballot referendum losing by a huge margin was amendment 66 a proposed tax increase of close to 1 billion to change school funding. After the amendments rejection, governor john higgin looper released a statement expressing disappoint. Al jazeera has more from denver the democratic governor of colorado spent a lot of personal capital on this and it was resoundingly defeated, and raises questions about his reelection effort next year. Reporter but the other tax question, proposition aa, a 25 tax on Recreational Marijuana won by a huge margin, 6535 . The taxes are expected to bring in 70 million a year. Although the dust has barely settled these results will be scrutinized for trends, personalities and for politics to watch. The question now how will they change politics in the near term and the 2014 Congressional Elections already taking place. Joining us to discuss the Election Results in virginia, new jersey, colorado, and beyond in las vegas, laid moore, senior analysts and professor of Political Science at the university of nevada las vegas, and mark fisher with me in studio, Senior Editor of the Washington Post. I want to start here with the Washington Post and in studio because virginia is across the river. Thats where well start the conversation. Virginia as bell weather, what do you see what happened there and what Terry Mcauliffe accomplished. As bell weather for how virginia is going, and is there a lesson there for 2016 and the United States at largehmmmaybe. This shows that democrats can win in the offyear election when there are fewer people. I want to spend just a minute on virginia and mcauliffe. Lets talk about policy for just a second. Many saw him as a carpet bagger. He has never helds office before. Hes a creature of Northern Virginia and he hasnt done anything, say the critics. He is in a very polarized state himself. Its going to be a tough road for him because he still goes up against the republican dominated legislature. He won by presenting himself as the bipartisan moderate guy which is not really what he is. No one in the history of Terry Mcauliffe has ever accused him of bipartisanship. What are the issues he wants to attack . He wants to find money to expand education, and take care some of the major traffic issues in the Washington Area and roads, and he wants to do something about job creation. But hes up against that. The take away from this is that the Democratic Party can put up, maybe not almost anybody but certainly somebody like Terry Mcauliffe who even to a lot of democrats is anodous guy, comes out of the Money Politics of washington that they can win with candidates like that and republicans put up extreme Tea Party People who are unelectable even in Southern States like virginia. I mean, thats the most amazing thing to me. Even in virginia, which is still kind of a republicanleaning state, Terry Mcauliffe who is not really even from virginia can win because of the republicans couldnt help themselves but put up through that primary process such an extreme candidate. David, i have to jump in here for a second because Ken Cuccinelli, a very conservative republican, did very well. This was not a break out for Terry Mcauliffe by any means. I do not deny that he came close, but what im Say Something this, this should have been a fairly straightforward easy victory for the Republican Party, and arguebly for Republican Party from five, six, seven years ago. The message out of this is the republicans in an election that really leans towards them or used to lean towards them. They cant even beat a candidate as potentially weak as Terry Mcauliffe. Let me pull you in here. If we want to dive into why Ken Cuccinelli lost we have to look at your results in your polling. The latino vote we know 6629 toe mcauliffe. The asian vote went to mcauliffe. Absolutely. What we found, particularly for the latino voters, the immigration issue was the deciding issue for them and you have two candidates with very different opinions on immigration. You have the republican candidate along the antiimmigrant wing of the party using hostile rhetoric that turned off the latino voters. Thats becoming a litmus test for candidate. If they cannot get past the immigration issue they cant get past the issues that might resonate with latino voters. Asian voters are being turned off by this as well and there is other data, collegeeducated whites are turn odd by this. This may be winning issues in the state of virginia six or seven cycles ago, but many peel theyre there to solve problems. Obamacare, Ken Cuccinelli pounded away at this thing, has to be Something Real sobering. He seemed to get traction. This is not a popular piece of legislation. Not clear. The polling shows that people are split, and many who cant stomach him voted in support of obamacare. Obamacare is a wash in virginia, and republicans would love it if the message we just heard was true, that the tea party was damaged by this, not what happened. Well talk about the tea leaves for the tea party right after this break. Al Jazeera America is a straightforward news channel. Its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. We believe in digging deep. Its unbiased, factbased, indepth journalism. You give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. Im on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. In new orleans. Seattle bureau. Washington. Detroit. Chicago. Nashville. Los angeles. San francisco. Al Jazeera America, take a new look at news. Welcome book inside story. Our 2013 Election Results and what it means for the road ahead. We want to return to new jersey and governor Chris Christie huge victory. With us david, and david, and mark with us in studio from the Washington Post. Before we go to new jersey, the tea party, tea leaves for the tea party coming out of virginia, start with that. Well, the mainstream business oriented republicans would love for the narrative was that the tea party was damaged. They didnt get their man in , and without support, Ken Cuccinelli received nothing. He was cut off a month ago, and still he came extremely close to winning this with support from tea party activists, christian conservatives, thats the coalition that the mainstream republicans who want to go back to the old days will have to fight against. David sirota. I think thats right. The Republican Party is facing a real electability problem. To win a republican primary, you have to make peace with the tea party. And to make peace with the tea party you have to take positions that will make it harder for you to be elected. Thats not a problem for gerrymandered districts for people running in the United States congress. But that is a problem in states like virginia where there is a very competitive election. Let lets go from the squeaker in virginia to new jersey where there was a landslide. There was a statement, break that out for us and what you think that means for Chris Christie and the election in general. The first you didnt have a real quality democratic candidate in there. Christie didnt get necessarily a free ride. You dont see this as an overwhelming endorsement for Chris Christie . Hmm, he brought together a nice coalition but his message was very different from some of the other republicans there. Hes focused on governing. Hes invested in education. We saw late in the campaign he switched his campaign on instate tuition for answer authorized immigrants and he did quite well among latino voters there. He is a governor who basically based his reputation on i want to governor. I dont want to be an ideologue. This is a good mention in the state , and it gives him an opportunity to get beyond the polarization and claim action for governoring. David sirota, how does a guy like Chris Christie, with the acceptance speech, we get things done. They should be watching this in washington. How does that play in denver . How does this play across the country . Chris christie figured out what Ronald Reagan figured out. Hes making sure hes positioning himself for president. The way he has done that is by instate stressing the parts of his record that he finds Common Ground with democrats on so he can deal with the legislature and democratic voters. But he has quietly, he hasnt stressed them but he has quietly checked the box on those litmus test issues for a republican primary. The public image of Chris Christie is someone who has brought together a different kind of coalition, a broader coalition than a typical republican, but he has very, very politically in a wise sense, he has checked those boxes to make sure that hes also saying to republican primary voters nationally, hey, im with you on these issues. Im just not at home stressing them. I want to ask you this question. What we see with the christie victory is tremendously successful traction among latinos. David, you can jump in in this in a minute. Im interested in your thoughts. Meanwhile there, is an immigration debate bill waiting to happen. Do you think that this result can affect policy at the National Level as politicians across the spectrum are reading into the results and maybe into their own future. You can see the reaction from this election to last years. Theyre saying repeatedly we need to be more inclusive as a party. We need to be reaching outthey say that all the time. Here they have a candidate in Chris Christie who does that. Does it affect the business of immigration debate here in washington. I think it does. You saw just this week in the nondiscrimination act on sexual orientation. The movement by some republicans who a year or two ago would not have been there. Theyre reacting to Election Results. Can i jump in and make a very quick point. Look, the immigration issue, you have to remember the politics of the immigration issue is that business is not opposed to Immigration Reform. Business, which is a huge part of republican coalition, actually wants an Immigration Reform bill. Chris christie kills two birds with one stone. He can be decent on immigration and raise money for his gubernatorial and president ial race. I think the politics will change on immigration not because of an election in new jersey but because the Business Community is having success with candidates in christie backing them as they take a more moderate position. Hes absolutely correct on this. What we found is among asian and latino voters, a lot of them have a history of voting republican. Its the immigration issue that turns them off. As you saw in new jersey and virginia, two different takes on immigration issue, and christie did well with the latino voters. Ken cuccinelli does not. Christie wins. Ken cuccinelli does not. What you find in the opinion polling, is that the consensus emerging around the senate plan here. Its going to be very difficult for the republicans to come up with something short of that and try to claim victory. Were going to come off the east coast and go out to colorado next after this short break. While you were asleep, news was happening. Here are the stories were following. Find out what happened and what to expect. International outrage. A day of political posturing. Every morning from 5 to 9am al Jazeera America brings you more us and global news than any other American News channel. Tell us exactly what is behind this story. From more sources around the world. The situation has intensified here at the border. Start every morning, every day, 5am to 9 eastern with al Jazeera America. Audiences are intelligent welcome back to inside story. Were going to turn now to colorado where the taxes are on the table, and thats about where they stayed. Still us with in Las Vegas David de moore of latino decisions. And david sirota and mark from the Washington Post here in studio. Youre following this closely. Big referendum issue to help fund and redefine the way Public Education is funded. It did not succeed. A, were you surprised, and b, what were the the implications . I was not surprised. This was a ballot measure that had a lot of outside money coming in from a very antipublic school foundation, the walton family, michael bloomberg, antiunion, against the teachers union. It pore ported to raise revenue but a lot of that money would be earmarked to go into privately administered charter schools. There were sixes about what the ballot measure was, and it didnt succeed. At the same time before we say that colorado was tax adverse there was a tax increase on the ballot to raise taxes on newly legalized marijuana. Some might say to fund school grow a massive field of weeds and tax it more. What does this mean for education in colorado . Folks who want to better Fund Education and services, need to do more. Returning tax rates back to the clinton era tax rates performed better than this ballot measure which went down in defeat. People are suspicious of schemes taking money out of traditional schools and put them in private schools and charter schools. People who want to Fund Education better figure that out really quick. This is a debate that goes on in every state of the union. What do you take out of this . I think that explanation is a little overly complex. Its are the quite simple. Just as americans love to criticize their politicians in washington for wanting to cut taxes and spend more well, thats what americans want. They want those education services. They want all those things that tax dollars will pay for, but they dont want to pay for it. The tax on marijuana is popular because its someone else who is paying for it. But when it comes out of their own pocket to pay for better schools theyre much mor more reluctant to do it. Its two faced where they want the services but they dont want it pay for it. Does it make it less likely youll move to colorado. With when you look at at las vegas, there was a school bond that was floated that failed, and on the 2014 ballot well have a statewide initiative to tax businesses for education here. It will be another test case of some of those dynamics in nevada. Lets move from mars and look down at planet earth and look at these elections from a distance. When you look at all of these things, including bill de blasio, a blazing liberal who wins new york, and the first white mayor who wins in detroit. What are the National Lessons that you take away as we experienced over the last several hours. There are a couple of lessons. First, youre starting to see the demographic trends that people like myself have been looking at a couple of election cycles beginning to kick in. It gives you a good sign that the demographics are really taking hold here. And of course the second lesson here is that you know, these are isolated events here. So its hard to project here. But what you see are the candidates make the claim that them interested in governing, and that resonated with voters. David sirota . Thats exactly right. I think that voters are voting for the old harding the administration, what they call a return to normalcy. Ken cuccinelli, go back to that, the word sodomy was in the debate. The word transvaginal ultrasound was in the political debate. People were saying, look, i dont want somebody like that who has to deal with that or who is dealing with those kinds of things in office. I just want people who can get stuff done. Mark fisher . Personality Still Matters in a big way. Chris christie wins regardless of party and ide ideology. Ken cuccinelli and Terry Mcauliffe with problems with their personalities. And there is anger out there, people are frustrated, and demographics this is a changing country. Some states that were talking about are changing dramatically, and republicans have not kept up on that. Raising the curtain on what is going to be an amazing return to business, and thats it for today, you can keep up the debate by logging on to our facebook page. Thanks for watching. Take care, good night. Rhoda. We welcome to al Jazeera America, im del walters. 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