By Matt Rooney
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There have been two U.S. House “wave” elections since the 1940s in which the GOP gained seats, Save Jerseyans: the 1994 and 2010 miderterms. Republicans picked up 54 seats in 1994 during Bill Clinton’s first midterm known as the “Republican Revolution.” They netted 63 seats 16 years later riding the Tea Party backlash against President Obama’s health care law.
It’s important to remember that both Republican national triumphs were preceded by major victories in New Jersey and Virginia. I’d argue those early state wins were essential to the national wins that followed.
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In case you can’t remember that far back… down in the Old Dominion in 1993, George Allen scored a massive 58.3% to 40.9% win and flipped control of the Virginia Executive mansion. Here in the great Garden State, Christine Todd Whitman (back before she was completely useless) scored a narrow 1-point, 26,093 vote victory over incumbent Democrat Governor Jim “Toilet Paper Tax” Florio.
2009 played out similarly. Bob McDonnell romped in VA by better than 17-points and, back home, Chris Christie defeated Jon Corzine by 3.6-points.
1993 and 1994 were a collective correction against decades of ever-expanding government bloat and general excess. Chastened by the results, President Clinton – ever the ideological chameleon – would go as far as to declare that “the era of big government is over” in his 1996 State of the Union address.
2009 and 2010 were a correction against the Democrat Party’s increasingly socialist, culturally far-Left orientation embodied by Obamacare. The plain-talking Chris Christie was, for a time, the ultimate counter-point to the country’s recently-elected smooth talking socialist lite who appeared to be in over his head and going a little too fast for most voters’ comfort.
Republicans mounted clear, aggressive, unapologetic campaigns that didn’t just seek contrast but to establish a decision point for voters: ‘Door A? You, your family and America have a future. Door B? Last one out please turn off the lights.’
To win in 2021, Republicans in New Jersey and elsewhere better take a page from history and convert to their campaigns to a higher plain. The same old Republican “better manager,” “we’ll lower your taxes eventually and spend your money a little less stupidly than the other side” messaging won’t cut the mustard.
Three words, folks: end the lockdown. That’s it. That’s the message of correction so many are waiting to hear articulated. There’s a growing sense out there that these lockdown measures have gone too far, and even some indies and Dems who personally loathed Donald Trump and “bitterly cling” (h/t Barack Obama) to their masks while driving alone are starting to itch. I personally know a few!
Too many have died in nursing homes and too many Murphy directives make ZERO scientific/economic sense to all but the most stubborn Karens when, of course, these voters are actually presented with the facts.
Screw the polls; they continue to miss the mark. Internalize two figures: 74% and 31%. That first percentage represents the number of residents who aren’t cooperating with contact tracers. The second is the percentage of New Jersey small businesses which, according to a Harvard data project, had already failed in 2020 as of mid-November.
So is the next great political correction nigh?
Maybe, and it might start right here. Hhistory could repeat itself. But history usually needs a little help; specifically, the 2021 correction requires the right conduit. Choose wisely, NJGOP primary participants. The fate of more than New Jersey may very well rest on your shoulders.
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Save Jersey’s Founder and Blogger-in-Chief, MATT ROONEY is a nationally-noted and respected New Jersey political commentator. When he’s not on-line, radio or television advocating for conservative reform and challenging N.J. power-brokers, Matt is a practicing attorney at the law firm of DeMichele & DeMichele in Haddon Heights (Camden County).
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