Election Day: The mostly good news and the bad

 Unfortunately this past Tuesday Anna Little lost her bid to unseat 11 term incumbent Frank Pallone.   In this post I intend to highlight the mostly good news and the bad news of this Tuesday's past election.

Bad news:

• Anna Little lost the election:  despite a very spirited and inspiring campaign Little fell short and lost to incumbent Frank Pallone by 11 points.
  
  

  Republican Congressional candidate Anna Little admits defeat

• Pallone is a radical liberal who supports massive government spending,  tax payer funded abortions, raising taxes especially for small businesses, Obama care, etc.
• The media will spin this loss as an indictment against the Tea Party, labeling the Tea Partiers as extreme and out of touch with the values of NJ's 6th Congressional district. 

Good News:

• Despite the discouraging loss Anna Little was able to challenge Frank Pallone more than any other candidate in his 22 year tenure
• The Tea Party movement has come to New Jersey, and is here to stay.  (Watch this awesome video of Ronald Reagan when he lost to Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential primary.) 

•  The Tea Party is a legit grassroots movement which has the potential to influence the conservative, political landscape of New Jersey  
• This is only the beginning, in just one short year the Tea Party has been able to breathe new life into the Republican party in a state that overwhelmingly supported the Democrats and President Obama in 08'
• The Tea Party inspired me and others to volunteer for Anna Little.  I volunteered most of my Tuesday to making over 300 phone calls.   
• The Tea Party is attracting an increasingly younger demographic .  While Renee and I were at the Shore Casino with the Anna Little campaign this Tuesday we met Freddy who was a 24 year old architect and a passionate believer of conservatism.  Freddy was not the only one there were literally dozens of other, young and equally passionate voters,
•  In two years Pallone will be once again up for reelection.  If this conservative trend continues and Anna Little runs again, I believe that she has a legitimate chance to win.
• In another house race in NJ's 3rd Congressional District Jon Runyan was able to defeat incumbent John Adler.  This victory means that the Republicans on Tuesday had a net gain of 1 seat in the congress.
• Nationally the trend was overwhelmingly Republican.  The Republicans dominated the house and gubernatorial elections.  The Republicans were also able to pick up some valuable seats in the senate making it nearly impossible for Democrats to pass their legislature in the next two years. 
• The election was a clear repudiation of the radical agenda of President Obama. In particular the gubernatorial victories are very important since most of these victories came from battle ground states.  This alone will make it very difficult for Democrats to carry these states in the 2012 presidential campaign.