The past week in electoral politics saw gains for both parties: Chris Christie sailed to an easy victory in New Jersey and establisment-backed GOP candidate Bradley Byrne picked up a congressional seat in Alabama’s runoff election. Democrat Terry McAuliffe capitalized on the impact of the government shutdown and won out over his Tea Party-backed challenger Ken Cuccinelli.
But does the GOP see Chris Christie at the center of its future?
“I don’t know if they do or not,” Joe Scarborough told Meet the Press moderator Sunday as part of a panel discussion with Mark Halperin, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Maryland’s Rep. Donna Edwards.
The one thing Scarborough did know is that the party needed to get back to rebuilding the Republican “Big Tent” if it wanted to win future elections.
“People have been saying ‘Are we Chris Christie Republicans or are we Ken Cuccinelli Republicans?,” Scarborough continued.
“We have to have both sides together. It’s not an either or… We have to have the Ted Cruz wing of the party and the Colin Powell wing of the party back if we want to win elections like Ike, Nixon and Reagan… We’ve had this ideological witch hunt for the past three or four years where you’re either insufficiently conservative or else you’re a member of the Tea Party… this is not kumbaya talk; this is about winning elections like Nick Saban wins football games.”
Drew Katchen