VA and NJ governors give national GOP a boost but also face questions from conservatives

Republicans in Congress may not be offering much in the way of alternatives to Democratic policies, preferring to play it safe politically and avoid giving the party in power targets to shoot at.

But national Republicans say the success of recently elected Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia offer real evidence that the GOP is a party whose core principles can address the modern crisis of government debt and deficits.

“Voters who wonder if Republicans will be serious about reining in spending can look at New Jersey and Virginia for assurances,” said Ed Gillespie, a senior Republican party strategist, who was chairman of the Virginia GOP before running the White House communications shop for former President George W. Bush in 2007 and 2008.

It was surprising enough when Republicans Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell swept to victory last fall in New Jersey and Virginia’s gubernatorial elections. But what may be even more shocking now is how quickly both governors have chalked up huge victories during their first six months in office.

Christie has rolled over significant opposition from organized labor in the state to force state employees to begin contributing to their pension funds, pass a budget with huge spending cuts to close an $11 billion deficit, and forge a compromise with Democrats to cap property tax increases at two percent a year.

McDonnell has turned a projected $1.8 billion deficit for the fiscal year that closed at the end of June into a $220 million surplus.

“Governors Christie and McDonnell are governing as they campaigned, addressing the government union legacy costs and high taxes that put New Jersey in a downward spiral and eliminating the largest deficit in Virginia history without raising taxes,” Gillespie told The Daily Caller.

Christie is now working for the rest of the summer with the Democratic-controlled legislature on passing a “tool kit” of reforms to give local governments, school districts and universities more ability to keep their own costs down.

Surprisingly, the property tax proposal and “tool kit” have been endorsed and supported by Newark Mayor Corey Booker, a rising Democratic party star who defied unions and the Democratic state Senate president to do so, but questioned by the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

Nonetheless, the accomplishments of both Republicans point to a climate in which cost-cutting and other unpleasant steps to reduce deficits are more politically feasible than any time in recent memory.

McDonnell and other Republicans are trying to leverage that message on the national stage as well, casting the GOP as the party that can reform the federal government.

“What’s happened at the federal level – more debt, more taxes, more regulation, undermining right to work laws – that’s not the formula and what we Republican governors are trying to do around the country … is just promote free enterprise,” McDonnell said in an interview with Fox News Friday.

Mike Schrimpf, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association, said via e-mail: “They are setting examples Democrats in Washington would be wise to heed.”

The momentum may translate into congressional races in Virginia this fall, where viable Republican candidates are seeking to defeat Democrats in at least four key districts.