three quite different elect rates, but their fates say a lot about the political moment. in virginia, the attorney general, ken cuccinelli, the pro transvaginal ultrasound tea party candidate, is limping his way towards an embarrassing defeat in a state that is reliably republican at the state house level, where the current governor, bob mcdonnell, won handily three years ago. in new york city, which hasn t elected a democrat in 20 years, republican candidate jim loada is about to get trounced most likely with loyalists referring to 1950 charges of communism against bill de blasio. and in new jersey, governor chris christie is a study in contrast, particularly compared to ken cuccinelli. christie appears to be waltzing into an easy re-election, having successfully mastered the atmospherics, if not the substance, of going after the tea party strain of his own party. here s christie s sermon to his own faithful yesterday. folks don t care if you agree with them on everything, because
base, and gosh, i know them well, nobody in the republican base is going to say, you know, that cuccinelli lost because of our principles. they don t say that. they don t learn that lesson. that is so true. you re already seeing and he is, he s been massively outspent by terry mcauliffe. every conservative writer i read is saying that s what s going it happen. and they won t say it s because of the platform, they re going to say it was cuccinelli. they ll blame the campaign, blame the slickster that is terry mcauliffe. they re not going to blame republican principles or their stance on abortion or their harsh things about women s reproductive rights. they re not going to blame their plank about smaller government. they re not going to blame shutting down the government. they re going to blame cuccinelli. cuccinelli has managed to turn abortion, access to birth control and reproductive choice and women s health services into a wedge issue favoring democrats in the state of virgi
it s like through the culture war looking glass. but so much of this is tone. cuccinelli is actually not that much more conservative than bob mcdonnell who solidly won four years ago, but mcdonnell comes off as a business conservative suburban guy, where ken cuccinelli feels like the bible like a culture warrior. and pro-life. he has a tone problem, too, though. i don t think he does. he can be conciliatory, but also jabs his finger in people s faces and calls them names. people like that people in new jersey like that. new jersey s a state that spends more than $19,000 per pupil on education, 70% more than the national average, so teachers union is popular but also does quite well. the thing that was missing today, he wanted to cut a lot more from that budget and a judge stopped him because he found it a violation of the civil rights of poor kids in new jersey. so, he says you re getting as much money as you want. the only reason that woman is getting that
let me tell you, if you re looking for the candidate you agree with 100% of the time, then i want you to do something for me tonight, go home and look in the mirror. you re the only person you agree with 100% of the time. but sometimes we make political candidates feel like that s what you want, like you want us to agree with you 100% of the time or you won t vote for us. that s why we have the political system we have in washington now, because we have people who have become convinced that they have to be 100 percenters. joining me now, msnbc contributor goldie taylor, josh barrel, politics editor at business insider and richard kim, executive editor at thenation.com. josh, you wrote about that speech and i thought it was a fascinating study in contrast. david wilde did a great piece about the last days of the ken cuccinelli campaign and a little color in his report was that the person before cuccinelli updated the crowd on the latest benghazi stuff, and that s like the perfect diff
he ll do it. that will allow him in the primaries not to pander as much because people at least have an intuitive idea to trust him. i think on the optics he s tried to do this moderate and reach across both sides of the aisle. i think when it comes down to the issues, there will be problems he ll face from his base and from moderates. his base will look at his abortion and gun control record, they re going to look at, you know. and then from the moderates, those things are also going to present problems. the other thing i think you re right about the dynamic. the cuccinelli, what looks like s going to happen with cuccinelli tomorrow really helps him because it s a lesson, how to lose an election. it s not important for chris christie. the people christie has his eyes on are rand paul and ted cruz. those are the people he has to contrast winners but rand paul is coming through rand paul and marco rubio are coming through virginia and he will be able to yoke the rest of th