Election Results: Snow and Thomas Win in Albemarle County

News and thoughts from yesterday's elections:

1. In Albemarle County, Duane Snow and Rodney Thomas both won. Their dual victories portend a significant shift in County policy, particularly as regards planning and growth issues. Together with Ken Boyd they will provide a solid Republican bloc, and then to the extent that Lindsay Dorrier joins them on certain votes (certainly not unprecedented), they could roll-back some of the policies that have been implemented during the past decade. I think Slutzky's ruminations on radically changing land use tax rules -- particularly coming as they did so close to the election -- may have done him in, even among non-rural Rio voters.
   


2. In Charlottesville, Dave Norris and Kristin Szakos won. My surprise here was that Bob Fenwick was not as close as I'd expected; I've just reviewed the precinct totals and other than the Walker District, Szakos beat Fenwick fairly handily. Now comes the hard part for the new Council, in particular Szakos: deciding whether to join with Norris and Holly Edwards to change course on the Meadowcreek Parkway.
   


3. Bob McDonnell thumped Creigh Deeds in the governor's race, and running mates Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli rode his coattails to victories as well. Last night on the radio Ed Schultz said that he views McDonnell as a rising national Republican star.
   
   
4. In New Jersey, Chris Christie beat Jon Corzine 49%-44%, despite Corzine having spent three times as much money ($23 million!!) during the campaign. In the Post and Times this morning, this is the race that's being portrayed as the real blow to the Administration, since New Jersey had not elected a statewide Republican for a decade. Did bad karma -- generated by Corzine having raised questions about Christie's weight -- come back to bite Corzine?
   
   
5. In the biggest surprise of the night (Christie's victory would be a close second, I guess), Democrat Bill Owens defeated Doug Hoffman in New York's 23rd Congressional district. This is the result that will have Chris Matthews and Olbermann talking for days, since it can be read as a repudiation of far-right conservatism. The Obama Administration has got to be very happy about Owens's victory, as it supports a more complex interpretation of yesterday's results.