[ti:US Election Results May Help Predict Future Voting] [ar:Christopher Cruise] [al:In the News] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com [00:06.77]From VOA Learning English, [00:09.71]this is In the News. [00:12.10]Two American states elected governors this week, [00:16.48]while several big cities chose mayors. [00:19.91]The elections were the first [00:22.51]since the troubled launch of [00:24.55]the new federal health-care website [00:27.19]and the 16-day partial shutdown of the government. [00:31.22]Conservative Republicans in Congress, [00:34.11]including Tea Party members, [00:36.35]supported the shutdown as part of their opposition [00:40.09]to the program known as Obamacare. [00:43.72]Political experts looked at the governors' races [00:46.92]for clues to how Americans may vote [00:50.55]in congressional elections next year. [00:53.73]Voters will choose [00:55.63]all 435 members of the House of Representatives [01:00.25]and one-third of the 100 senators. [01:04.00]Observers think the government shutdown [01:06.88]helped Democrat Terry McAuliffe [01:09.62]win the governor's race in Virginia. [01:12.31]Many federal workers live there [01:14.75]and federal spending is important to the state economy. [01:19.09]Mr. McAuliffe defeated Ken Cuccinelli, [01:21.98]a Republican with strong Tea Party ties. [01:25.81]Mr. Cuccinelli stayed close in the race [01:28.82]by attacking President Barack Obama and the health care law. [01:33.54]"Virginia understands that Obamacare is a failure [01:37.25]and that you want to be in charge of your health care, [01:41.08]and not the government." [01:42.33]But voters chose Mr. McAuliffe [01:44.77]in his second try for public office. [01:47.87]"Just think about what Virginia [01:50.16]has been able to accomplish when we work together." [01:53.59]The newly elected governor has close ties [01:57.42]to former president Bill Clinton [01:59.92]and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. [02:02.96]In the other governor's race, [02:04.70]voters in New Jersey re-elected Republican Chris Christie. [02:09.49]He won 60 percent of the vote with the support of many Democrats. [02:15.11]"Leadership is much less about talking than it is about listening. [02:19.04]About bringing people around the table, [02:21.38]listening to each other, showing them respect." [02:24.28]Mr. Christie received much praise for his leadership [02:27.91]after Superstorm Sandy hit the state a year ago. [02:32.50]Many people see him as a possible 2016 candidate for president. [02:38.27]Tad Devine, an adviser to Democrats, [02:41.52]says Governor Christie's re-election offers an important lesson. [02:46.55]"He has been able to take a very Democratic state [02:50.25]¨C Obama won New Jersey by 17 points in the last two elections [02:53.78]¨C and become a governor who could not only win a close election [02:57.33]as he did the first time, but win a landslide election." [02:59.93]Ford O'Connell is a Republican strategist. [03:03.36]He says Tea Party Republicans need to learn from the winning candidates. [03:09.35]"Well, it leaves the Tea Party really in an echo chamber, [03:13.33]just talking to the base. [03:14.47]The real problem for the Tea Party is [03:16.12]how do they expand their appeal beyond the Republican base." [03:20.01]Some people predict a battle for the heart and soul of the party. [03:25.41]Will the Republicans move toward [03:28.05]the conservatism of the Tea Party movement or away from it? [03:32.58]Ford O'Connell is not sure. [03:35.61]"Depending on how this battle turns out, [03:38.20]it could lead to more dysfunction and government shutdowns. [03:41.19]And that's something that people all over the world have an eye on [03:44.72]because America is still the most robust economy in the world." [03:47.77]In New York City, voters on Tuesday elected Bill de Blasio as mayor. [03:54.18]His election put the city under Democratic Party control [03:58.03]for the first time in 20 years. [04:01.21]He replaces Michael Bloomberg. [04:03.55]Voters in other cities, [04:05.45]including Atlanta, Boston and Miami, also elected mayors. [04:10.74]And that's In the News, from VOA Learning English. [04:19.36]I'm Christopher Cruise.