Republicans, Democrats reflect on November's successes and failures

Leaders of the state’s Republicans and Democrats sounded off during a forum Tuesday on what went right and what failed for their respective parties in November’s elections.

“You had eight years of a presidential administration people weren’t happy with,” Jeff Frederick, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, said during a Virginia Politics 2008 forum at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, held as part of AP Day at the Capitol.

Frederick, a delegate representing Virginia’s 52nd District, said congressional Republicans failed to differentiate themselves from their Democratic counterparts by spending more taxpayer money. However, the election of Barack Obama to the presidency and Democratic gains in Congress does not indicate a defeat of conservative principles, he added.

“This isn’t a failure of conservative values, but failure of the Republican Party to move them forward,” Frederick said, pointing to lower taxes, limited government and strong national defense as core conservative principles.

He said Obama ran on a platform of cutting taxes and noted that the anti-gay marriage referendum in California, Proposition 8, passed on Election Day, which represents that Americans still support conservative values.

Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Richard Cranwell said the Democrats’ had a successful year because of strong organization and strong candidates, not because of conservative values.

“We had better candidates,” Cranwell said. “If you have good players, you do better.”

He also said people want pragmatic solutions to their problems and Democrats deliver them.

Cranwell called Democratic wins a “victory for the middle,” adding that more people who identified themselves as political moderates backed Obama than Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

“I don’t believe the Democrats won because they were acting like Republicans,” he said.

Robert Holsworth, political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, noted the victory could probably be attributed to just the opposite of what Frederick suggests.

Bush’s approval rating fell to 23 percent at one point and 75 percent of the public said the country was going in the wrong direction, he said.

Holsworth also said the election jettisoned many stereotypical notions of Republicans and Democrats.

A long-held assumption that rich people and suburbanites always vote Republican no longer applies, he said, adding Obama received 52 percent of votes from families making more than $200,000 per year.

In addition, 94 percent of African-Americans voted for Obama, Holsworth said.

An impression that Republicans bash minorities has hurt the party, he said, just as perceived religion bashing by Democrats damaged them in past elections.

Frederick agreed that the Republican Party needs to be more inclusive and said there are minorities who are pro-life, support family values and are for lower taxes.

“We can’t continue to be an old, white-guy party,” Frederick said.