Last night, I reported live from the Richmond Victory Party for Bearing Drift. However, I wanted to provide a glimpse into my thoughts on the Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey.

The victories of both Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie have definitely been a blow to President Obama, and even more so, it served as a referendum to the way Democrats have been handling the economic issues. When I worked at my polling location in the Centreville precinct in Western Fairfax, some of the voters I spoke with mentioned their disdain with the President’s handling of the economy and the current rise of unemployment numbers. One voter even mentioned that he never understood where Creigh Deeds or the rest of the Democratic ticket stood on the issues, and for the first time, this man was voting Republican for all of the statewide offices. Similar responses have been heard by many poll workers here in Virginia, as well as in New Jersey.

These victories are sweet, but we need to keep the momentum going. Both McDonnell and Christie will have to stick to their campaign promises and work to getting their proposals through. At times, this will be difficult, but it is not impossible, if they work across the aisle to implement common sense, limited government approaches. Another thing is that we should not be overly comfortable with being the dominant party, and I believe this point was best stated by Brian Kirwin’s post at Bearing Drift, when he said,

“Which brings me to what I’ve told most people for the past month: I think 2009 was 1993, and I’ve been saying so all year. That means we Republicans are ripe to have a 1994.

That ain’t good.

1994 for the rest of the nation was a great year. 1994 in Virginia and Hampton Roads wasn’t exactly stellar. The supremely vulnerable Sen. Chuck Robb won. Congressional Democrats across Hampton Roads won easily. Tom Davis defeated Leslie Byrne in the 11th, our sole pickup in the Gingrich Revolution, and a seat we no longer hold.

My memories of 1994 are full of a crowd of Republican candidates all anxiously and viciously destroying each other to win a nomination, and once it was won, the wounds didn’t heal at all (Ask any Democrat if they’ve seen how much fun that is lately.)

So, if we Republicans treat McDonnell’s victory like Allen’s victory, and go into 2010 like we went into 1994, we’ll be stuck with Nye and Perriello and Connelly while the rest of the nation has winning Republican campaigns.

Let’s think this time around. Now that we’ve beaten Democrats, let’s not make the mistakes they made in 2009 or the ones we made in 1994.”

I am overjoyed by the Republican tidal wave victory here in Virginia. Congratulations to Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli on their victories. Also, a special congratulations goes out to newly elected Delegates, Barbara Comstock, Rich Anderson, Tag Greason, and Jim LeMunyon, as well as those who were re-elected. Now, let’s get to work and follow through with the promises made during the campaign to move Virginia forward.