White House says Obama not a factor in NJ, Va. races

Republican gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey were about local issues and not President Obama's policies, according to a White House spokesman

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that Democrats Gov. Jon Corzine (N.J.) and Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds lost to Republicans because "people went to the polls and voted on local issues, not to either register support for or opposition to the president.”

“I think the data from the gubernatorial races demonstrates that voters went to the polls in those two contests to talk about and work though very local issues that didn’t involve the president," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said that races that the night's two congressional races in New York and California, which Democrats won, did have a national flavor.

Republicans pounced on victories in Virginia and New Jersey as evidence that voters are rejecting Obama's economic policies.

Gibbs acknowledged that voters are concerned about the economy, but he said the president did not need "an election or an exit poll to come to that conclusion."

"If the president had been asked by an exit poller yesterday 'are you concerned about the economy,' he would have answered yes," Gibbs said.

Obama got updates on the election results Tuesday night from White House aides, but he did not watch the returns, according to Gibbs. Obama called Corzine and Deeds, but he did not call Republican winners Chris Christie (N.J.) or Bob McDonnell (Va.).

In the New York race, conservatives pushed moderate Republican Dede Scofazza out of the race just days before Election Day, and the White House spokesman did not miss an opportunity to point out the outcome of this intramural Republican battle.

"We watched a party pick a candidate and then purge that candidate," Gibbs said.

New York's 23rd district Congressional seat was vacated by former Rep. John McHugh (R) after the representative accepted Obama's offer to become Secretary of the Army. Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman with 49 percent of the vote to Hoffman's 45 percent.

Hoffman's showing, a result of the Tea Party anger on display throughout the summer, "proves that anger can get you 45 percent of the vote," Gibbs said.