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Top Three Takeaways – November 3rd, 2021
- Message received. Let’s rewind to what I mentioned in yesterday’s Top 3 Takeaways. The two numbers I’m watching are 19% in New Jersey and 23% in Virginia. It’s the difference between what Barrack Obama won those states with in 2008 and what Republicans won those races with in 2009. Two blue states which experienced huge twenty-point swings from one year to the next in what were the first clear signs that the Tea Party movement was a political force to be reckoned with and the precursor to the record setting gains in the 2010 midterms in which Republicans gained a total of 69 Congressional seats reclaiming control of both bodies of Congress. Will history repeat itself? How does the current movement to reclaim control of our classrooms by concerned parents measure up against the Tea Party movement at this stage in the cycle? Education is the top issue in Virginia in particular. If the current movement closely resembles the strength of what we saw twelve years ago... Youngkin will win Virginia and Ciattarelli has a chance to win New Jersey. In every meaningful political movement, there are elections won which take most people by surprise. By now Youngkin is leading in the polls in Virginia and even the betting odds are in his favor. It won’t come as a great surprise should Republicans flip Virginia tonight. Instead, it would be the realization that this movement is real and is bigger than what’s seen at school board meetings alone. As for surprises... In 2009, the race that was the shot heard around the political world which came as one of the biggest political surprises on record, was Scott Brown’s win in the Special Election to replace the late Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts. This year the New Jersey governor's race would have that effect. As of this morning, indeed Glenn Youngkin has won Virginia and the race is too close to call in New Jersey with Jack Ciattarelli holding a slight lead. Indeed, a message has been received. And as for those two numbers I was watching... The shift from Democrats to Republicans was about 16% in New Jersey and 12% in Virginia. Its clear people want...
- Checks and balances. Virginia, a state that hadn’t voted for a Republican statewide in 12 years, appears poised to have Republicans sweeping the three statewide races. Minneapolis, the city where the defund police movement started, voted to put an end to it by retaining their police department. A pendulum swing away from the radical left is underway. The message across the country yesterday was one of parental rights over what’s happening in the classroom, law and order and personal choice as opposed to government mandates. And closer to home... Nomari. Thank you District 20 for dispatching the worst local politician who hasn’t been incarcerated that I’ve ever covered - Omari Hardy. I’m not going to waste any more time on the loser because he’s not worth it. Just like the fish wrapper that endorsed the anti-sematic, no show for votes, self-promoter – the Sun Sentinel. Those two deserve each other. It says something about the relevance of the Sun-Sentinel's endorsements, when their endorsed candidate pulls less than 6% of the vote. More importantly, congratulations Dale Holness who holds a remarkably narrow nine vote lead in the Democratic primary and Jason Mariner won the Republican primary in District 20. Ditto Mayors Suarez & Gelber as Miami and Miami Beach reelected their mayors also goodbye to booze on South Beach after 2am. The combination of reelecting Gelber and the vote in favor of the curfew on the non-binding resolution is a clear indication that changes are coming to the entertainment district.
- Apropos. Indeed, poetic justice in Major League Baseball has been realized. It would have been fun to see woke MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred presenting the World Series trophy to the Atlanta Braves in the stadium he stole the All-Star game from after the passage of Georgia’s election integrity law. Perhaps it was apropos though, that it happened on Election Day instead. A day in which even blue states rejected woke social justice politics and fake woke social justice warriors like Manfred. Chop on and let’s go Brandon & Manfred.