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Obama’s popularity put to test in off-year elections

* Latest polls show Democrats, Republicans in statistical dead heat

NEW YORK: The Republican opposition hoped to draw blood on Tuesday as voters went to the polls in off-year contests seen as testing US President Barack Obama’s popularity 12 months after his party swept to power.

Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia and an intriguing battle for a New York congressional seat will not change the power balance in Washington, where the Democrats have a hefty majority. But with midterm elections across the country next year, the three contests were being scrutinised for signs of Obama’s resilience in the face of bruising debates on the economy, health care reform, and Afghanistan.

The hottest race was in New Jersey, with Democrat Jon Corzine – the incumbent governor in a heavily Democratic state – fighting desperately to avoid defeat by former Republican prosecutor Chris Christie. Latest polls showed them in a statistical dead heat, after Christie lost an earlier lead. The performance of an independent third candidate could decide the race. Obama campaigned heavily for Corzine, culminating with a rally on behalf of the flagging candidate on Sunday.

Republicans, who last won New Jersey’s governorship in 1997, are gunning for an upset. “A victory for Republicans in deep blue New Jersey would send shock waves through the country that would be felt right up to the doors of the White House,” Republican blog redstate.com said. Virginia’s gubernatorial race appeared poised to go to the Republican candidate, Bob McDonnell, despite Obama’s campaigning on behalf of Democrat Creigh Deeds. The state was captured by Obama in his election last year, the first time a Democratic presidential contender had managed to do so since 1964.

Possibly the most telling contest was in New York state’s 23rd congressional district, where a candidate backed by senior conservative Republicans forced the withdrawal of the official, moderate Republican. The outside candidate, Doug Hoffman, ran with the tiny Conservative Party, but has become a standard bearer for the same wing of the Republican Party organizing nationwide “tea party” protests against Obama. Hoffman surged in the polls over the weekend, taking a lead over the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens. His surprise success exposed a strategic divide in the Republican Party, where some favour concentrating on the rightwing base and others a centrist position that might attract independent voters. afp

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