In an appearance on MSNBC earlier today, Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod called the NY-23 special election — in which a Democrat beat a Conservative Party candidate after the moderate Republican nominee dropped out and supported the Democrat in the wake of prominent Republicans defecting to the Conservative — “a great referendum on national issues.” Axelrod also downplayed the importance of big GOP wins in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections yesterday.Axelrod first emphasized the importance of the Democrats’ win in the NY-23 race. Whereas the New Jersey race was “a referendum on the incumbent” largely “based on local issues,” NY-23 was the only race “where national issues were really at play.”
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=135448