[fblike]
Last Tuesday, voters in Virginia and New Jersey participated in off-year gubernatorial elections and voters in New York City elected a new mayor. All three campaigns were watched closely by the national media to provide information on 2016 presidential aspirations, the fallout over Obamacare’s technical glitches and broken promises, and to gauge the enthusiasm of voters for conservatism or liberal ideas. Off-year elections are typically under covered by the media, but this year was different because of Virginia’s emergence as a swing state in the last two presidential elections, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie positioning himself for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepping down after three terms. Due to this importance, extempers can expect to see some questions about these races in the coming weeks.
Although there were other notable votes last Tuesday, like Colorado voters rejecting a tax increase for more education funding and supporting a twenty-five percent tax on the sale of marijuana, this topic brief will focus on each of these three races, with a section devoted to each. Each section will summarize the major issues in each race, analyze the outcome, and discuss the significance of each race and the challenges that the winner will face moving forward.
Readers are also encouraged to use the links below and in the related R&D to bolster their files about this topic.
On October 1st, the federal government launched healthcare.gov, which allowed for Americans in 36 states to find healthcare policies that were congruent with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. By March 31st, all Americans are required to purchase health insurance or pay a fine. Although conservatives challenged this individual mandate in court shortly after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in March 2010, the Supreme Court found it constitutional last summer as a tax. President Obama hoped that the national exchange would lead to millions of Americans signing up for health insurance and that it would generate good press for his landmark achievement. However, the website has been riddled with problems, ranging from individuals being unable to create accounts to access the exchange to time outs to slow browsing speed. States that are running their own exchanges, like Washington, Kentucky, and California have also experienced some technical difficulties. Conservative critics have seized on the problems of healthcare.gov to bolster their political fortunes after the government shutdown and if these problems are not fixed it could imperil the Affordable Care Act.