Virginia vote should worry Wisconsin GOP

It wasn't just New Jersey's governor's race that offered some insights about what might happen in Wisconsin in 2006.

Virginia, which has been pretty reliably Republican in recent years, elected a Democrat despite President Bush's efforts on behalf of the loser.

But it wasn't just that the state went Democratic. There are signs that the "Gods, guns and gays" platform that right wing Republicans are relying on in Wisconsin is losing its appeal even in safe Republican bastions.

Columnist Marc Fisher writes in the Washington Post:

Voters to GOP: Virginia's Not Just For Rednecks

Northern Virginians on Tuesday rejected the Republican view of Virginia politics as a simple matter of guns, God and gays.

Loudoun and Prince William voters shocked the state's political establishment by joining with a bracing majority in Fairfax and the reliably liberal residents of Arlington and Alexandria to elect Tim Kaine governor. Their vote was a demand that politicians focus on education, growth and development -- and, to a lesser degree, transportation -- rather than easy, emotional issues Republicans have recently relied on: the death penalty, abortion and gay rights.

This was neither an endorsement of Democratic policies nor a statement of affection for Kaine. Rather, it was a warning to Republicans that lawmakers in Richmond may no longer thumb their noses at the region that is Virginia's economic engine. Tuesday's vote tells Republican legislators it's not okay to rake in tax receipts from the Washington suburbs while gleefully sticking it to Northern Virginia with yahoo measures favoring unlimited growth, unrestricted gun rights and wide-open alcoholic beverage containers in cars.

Four Republican state House candidates who thought it would be clever and popular to insinuate that their opponents were gay or gay-friendly paid a price...

Loudoun is hardly becoming liberal, but voters there easily approved $200 million worth of school and public safety building projects... Loudoun even went for Leslie Byrne, the liberal who lost the lieutenant governor race. Voters at the red-hot core of hypergrowth said they are tired of being played for fools with easy, emotional appeals on the death penalty, illegal immigration and taxes. They want politicians to address the hard questions posed by growth: schools, housing, congestion.

In the state's urban and suburban population centers, Jerry Kilgore's seamy TV spots seeking to paint Kaine as a spineless wuss on the death penalty backfired. With no clear positive message from the GOP candidate for governor, voters saw through the technical beauty of those ads to the root cynicism at their foundation. Yes, negative ads work, but they're less effective where lots of highly educated voters live.

Earlier: Lessons for Wisconsin in NJ governor's race