Whatever happened to going down with your head held high?
After thanking supporters, several defeated candidates seemed to blame everyone but themselves after Tuesday’s elections. Some turned on their own party. Some blamed political big wigs. Others simply insisted they were still in the right and their fight was just beginning.
Here are the highlights:
Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia
After narrowly losing to Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race, Republican Ken Cuccinelli lamented he was “outspent by an unprecedented $15 million.” He insisted, however, that the race “came down to the wire because of Obamacare. That message will go out across America tonight.”
During Cuccinelli’s final push on the campaign trail, Cuccinelli cast the Virginia election as a referendum on the president’s health care law, which obviously didn’t turn out that way. Exit polls showed Virginia voters were split on the reform.
Chris La Civita, a campaign strategist for Cuccinelli griped, to The Washington Post that the GOP had abandoned the campaign in its final days and stopped giving money as of Oct. 1. “We were on our own,” he said.
Dean Young in Alabama
Republican Bradley Byrne beat out Tea Party activist Dean Young by four points in a special election primary for a House seat in Alabama on Tuesday. Because the district of Mobile, Ala. is solidly red, the primary effectively decides the general election.
The race came to symbolize the civil war raging between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party crusaders.
Young, who has said he believes Obama was born in Kenya and has called gay marriage a “corruption which seeks to destroy the concept of the family,” said during his concession speech that the Tea Party would continue to fight.
“The established Republicans did everything they could, they poured their money into it and they barely, barely beat you guys,” said Young. “This is the first warning shot that goes out across the nation that people in the United States are tired of where our government is going.”
Barbara Buono in New Jersey
After losing big to Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the Democratic candidate ripped members of her own party. She argued during a concession speech in Trenton that Democratic big wigs helped propel Christie into a second term. “The Democratic political bosses — some elected, some not — made a deal with this governor despite him representing almost everything they’re against,” said Buono, a state senator. “They didn’t do it for the state. They did it to help themselves politically and financially.
With about 90% of the vote in, Christie accrued about 60% of the vote compared to 38% for Buono. During the campaign, several Dems in New Jersey decided to support Christie’s re-election. That includes state Sen. Brian Stack, Spring Lake Mayor Jennifer Naughton, Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long and more.
