AUSTIN, Texas — Republican governors wrapped up a two-day pep rally Thursday with an expression of confidence that the political winds have begun to shift in their direction, thanks to what they called a backlash among many voters against the policies of the Obama administration.
President Barack Obama may be personally well-liked, the Republican Governors Association heard in its private and public sessions, but concern over several of his policies — large amounts of new federal spending, his health care and climate-change initiatives — has created an atmosphere that GOP leaders say could lead to significant gains in next year’s midterm elections.
What buoyed their spirits was the addition of two incoming governors to their ranks: Robert McDonnell of Virginia and Chris Christie of New Jersey, both elected this month. Other governors hailed those victories as the beginning of a turnaround for a party that suffered drubbings in 2006 and 2008.
“Next year’s going to be a good year for Republican governors . . . and I think next year’s going to be a good year for Republicans in the Congress,” Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the RGA chairman, said Thursday.
Barbour compared conditions now to those in the 1994 election cycle, when Republicans began their comeback with victories in New Jersey and Virginia in 1993 and then took control of the House and Senate the following year.
“I was chair of the party 16 years ago when we were last similarly situated,” he said. “This feels better this early than it did then.”
Republicans acknowledge that events could change the political landscape between now and next November. They also say they must offer more to voters than simply opposition to the president’s program. But strategists said this is the first time in years they have heard something other than gloomy forecasts at gatherings such as this.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty credited the Obama administration with providing Republicans with an opening, claiming the president and Democrats in Congress misinterpreted the result of the 2008 election as a mandate.
