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What Do Tuesday's Election Results Mean For 2012?

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On Tuesday, voters in Ohio rejected a Republican-backed law to curb union rights, and in Mississippi voters rejected a constitutional amendment defining life as beginning at fertilization.

What do those results and others from yesterday's voting across the country mean for the 2012 presidential election?

Amy Walter of ABC News explained the meaning she's taking from Tuesday's results:

First, that voters don’t seem particularly interested in ideological battles that have little impact on their core concerns about fixing the economy and creating jobs. Democrats will also argue that talk of anemic support from their base, especially in the key battleground state of Ohio, has been overstated.

Second, the narrowness of the state Senate victories in Virginia portend equally narrow margins in the highly competitive presidential and U.S. Senate contests in this state next fall. The partisan waves that washed over Virginia in 2008 and 2010 seem to be receding.

Guests:

  • Joe Frolik chief editorial writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Ohio
  • Alex Altman is a Washington correspondent for Time magazine

This segment aired on November 9, 2011.

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