yesthattom | How Dems can win other states? Look to New Jersey

As recently as 1994, New Jersey was a pro-Republican state. A popular GOPer named Christine Whitman held the statehouse, and she worked to cut taxes in perhaps the most heavily taxed state in the nation. Bush had almost won New Jersey in 1992, losing the sate by only two points despite losing nationally by 6. Many talked about Whitman as a possible Presidential candidate in 2000. Ten years later, the situation in New Jersey has changed drastically. In 2000, Al Gore won the state by 16 points during an election decided by less than one point. Had it not been for the Philadelphia media market, the Bush campaign would not have run a single ad in the state. After Bush became President, Whitman was quickly spirited out of the statehouse for the EPA in order to avoid a humiliating general election defeat in 2001 (in 1997, she survived by only a few hundred votes, and no one ever talked about the Presidency again). In 2002, an incumbent Democratic Senator resigned under a cloud of corruption, but Democrats still held the seat by double-digits in what was otherwise a landslide year for Republicans. In 2003, Democrats took control of both houses in the state legislature. All during this time, taxes have remained sky high. Why has the conservative message become so utterly ineffective in what had been very recently a lean-GOP state? What happened, and is that representative of trends in other parts of the country?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2004/7/18/151959/333