Republicans rolled to victory in Virginia and New Jersey governor's races last night in a sharp blow to Democrats that showed the limits of President Barack Obama's political clout.
Democrats salvaged a victory over a conservative candidate in a congressional district in upstate New York in a race that exposed a split in the Republican Party.
Republican Bob McDonnell scored an easy victory over Democrat Creigh Deeds in Virginia. In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie had a tougher time with incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine but prevailed.
The victories buoyed Republican hopes that they had emerged from the political wilderness after losing control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008.
And it raised questions for Democrats as they try to protect strong majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate in 2010, amid concerns about the weak economy and their inability so far to reduce the country's unemployment rate, now at 9.8 per cent.
"Losing Virginia in a landslide, his key swing state victory in 2008, plus the loss of New Jersey means a bad night for Obama," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. "Presidents have to take their lumps and Obama has just
taken a big one."
The Virginia and New Jersey losses suggested Democrats have a challenge in trying to attract voters to the polls without Mr Obama's name on the ticket. Democratic turnout suffered particularly in Virginia.
Some analysts wondered aloud whether some moderate Democratic members of Congress might look at the results and question whether expensive programs such as a broad overhaul of the US healthcare system are politically palatable.
"It could have an effect that people in Congress say 'you know I'm not going to go along with some of Obama's stuff, I'm really scared, we've gotta be careful, we're going into 2010,'" said Democratic consultant James Carville on CNN.
A year ago, Mr Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win Virginia since 1964. He campaigned twice for Mr Deeds but Democrats were unable to muster a large turnout the way they did a year ago despite holding the state for the last eight years.
Republicans had not won a statewide race in New Jersey since 1997. Mr Obama won the state by 16 percentage points and traveled there to campaign three times for Mr Corzine, a former Wall Street executive who pumped $23 million of his own money into the campaign.
The president was described by the White House as not having watched the election returns, and spokesman Robert Gibbs earlier dismissed the potential impact of the governors' races on Democrats and the 2010 elections.