What Happens When Pigs Fly.....
well, maybe it isn't exactly pigs flying, but last week's election in NJ had some interesting results. Morris County, one of the nation's real bedrock republican strongholds barely turned a margin for the republican gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno. There were democrats on almost every local ballot and many won or came close. Something almost unimaginable in towns where the republican primary was the only real contested race. Here's a story about 4 very republican towns where things are definitely changing. Perhaps the worm has turned....
For 36 years, they were loyal to the Republican Party, always falling in line to back its candidates for governor no matter the odds. They went for Tom Kean, Jim Courter, Christie Todd Whitman, Bret Schundler, Doug Forrester and Chris Christie.
Then, in 2017, something seismic happened. For the first time since at least 1981, they turned blue.
An NJ Advance Media analysis of election data from the Rutgers NJ Databook and the state Division of Elections found four towns -- Summit, Chatham Borough, Morris Plains and Morris Township -- that bucked their GOP roots and opted for Democrat Phil Murphy.
Except for in Morris Plains, the race against Republican Kim Guadagno wasn't even all that close. Murphy won by 13 points in Summit, seven points in Morris Township and six points in Chatham Borough, according to unofficial tallies. He won by 0.8 points in Morris Township.
There were signs a year ago that these four towns might be changing their allegiances. The number of voters registered as Democrats spiked across the board, and all four of them voted for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump, who went on to win the election.
Read the rest here-its interesting and encouraging:http://www.nj.com/data/2017/11/these_four_towns_went_blue_after_36_years_of_votin.html#incart_river_home
...and these folks are looking to flip a congressional district that, more or less in its present form, has been held by the republicans for my entire life (which is longer than I care to share), probably going back to the civil war. http://www.nj11thforchange.org/ I actually think they're going to do it.
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In my district, a guy who never ran for office before unseated a three term incumbent Republican state senator. I live in Republican Land in Monmouth County. Almost to the point where I don't want to vote. I felt like it really counted this time.
Can't win if you don't even run.
