Republicans score big in US polls

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg celebrates on stage after a narrow win over Democratic challenger William Thompson on Tuesday in New York City. Photo: AFP

Republicans won two governors' seats Tuesday in off-year elections that dealt a stinging blow to President Barack Obama and his Democrats exactly 12 months after they swept into power.
But Democrats did eke out a single win in a race for a vacant congressional seat in a strongly Republican district of upstate New York.
In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie pulled off an upset to defeat Jon Corzine, the incumbent governor in the heavily Democratic state, by a margin of 55-44, according to preliminary results.
Republican Bob McDonnell also took back the Virginia governor's mansion from the Democrats by defeating Creigh Deeds by 59-41 percent, preliminary results showed.
The results were setbacks for Obama, who had campaigned in both states on behalf of his party's candidates, and will help buoy Republicans left reeling by the scale of his historic White House victory on November 4, 2008.
Virginia is a pivotal state and a year ago helped propel Obama into office as the nation's first black president, the first time it had backed a Democratic presidential contender in more than four decades.
The loss in New Jersey was likely more devastating for Obama, who had some political skin at stake as he campaigned heavily there on behalf of Corzine, including at a rally with 11,000 people over the weekend. The state has long been dominated by the Democratic Party.
Preliminary results gave Democrat Bill Owens 49 percent to 46 percent for his main challenger Doug Hoffman, who ran on the tiny Conservative Party ballot, but was backed by senior figures from the right of the Republican Party.
With mid-term nationwide elections to Congress due next year and Obama bogged down in confrontations over the economy, health care reform and the Afghanistan war, many saw Tuesday's off-year races taking on outsize importance.
The Republican Governors Association quickly congratulated McDonnell in Virginia, saying his victory gave the party "tremendous momentum heading into 2010."
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs earlier played down the wider significance of the three races.
"I don't think the president is looking at these and believes that they say anything about our future legislative efforts or our future political efforts," he said.
But if the races showed that Obama's Democratic machine is not invincible, they also bared rifts in the Republican Party over how to rebuild after last year's drubbing in presidential and congressional elections.
In the New York special congressional race, the official, moderate Republican candidate withdrew in the face of the insurgent Conservative candidate.
Hoffman's storming run made him a standard bearer for the wing of the Republican Party organising nationwide "tea party" protests against Obama. Among his high-profile, out-of-state backers was Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate.