[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English, this is In the News.
[00:11.78]Two American states elected governors this week, while several big cities chose mayors.
[00:19.94]The elections were the first since the troubled launch of the new federal health-care website and the 16-day partial shutdown of the government.
[00:31.44]Conservative Republicans in Congress, including Tea Party members,
[00:36.19]supported the shutdown as part of their opposition to the program known as Obamacare.
[00:43.35]Political experts looked at the governors' races for clues to how Americans may vote in congressional elections next year.
[00:54.01]Voters will choose all 435 members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the 100 senators.
[01:04.23]Observers think the government shutdown helped Democrat Terry McAuliffe win the governor's race in Virginia.
[01:12.60]Many federal workers live there and federal spending is important to the state economy.
[01:19.49]Mr. McAuliffe defeated Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican with strong Tea Party ties.
[01:26.01]Mr. Cuccinelli stayed close in the race by attacking President Barack Obama and the health care law.
[01:34.11]"Virginia understands that Obamacare is a failure and that you want to be in charge of your health care, and not the government."
[01:43.00]But voters chose Mr. McAuliffe in his second try for public office.
[01:49.00]"Just think about what Virginia has been able to accomplish when we work together."
[01:55.35]The newly elected governor has close ties to former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
[02:03.68]In the other governor's race, voters in New Jersey re-elected Republican Chris Christie.
[02:10.59]He won 60 percent of the vote with the support of many Democrats.
[02:16.72]"Leadership is much less about talking than it is about listening.
[02:19.99]About bringing people around the table, listening to each other, showing them respect."
[02:25.22]Mr. Christie received much praise for his leadership after Superstorm Sandy hit the state a year ago.
[02:33.02]Many people see him as a possible 2016 candidate for president.
[02:38.97]Tad Devine, an adviser to Democrats, says Governor Christie's re-election offers an important lesson.
[02:47.79]"He has been able to take a very Democratic state – Obama won New Jersey by 17 points in the last two elections –
[02:55.07]and become a governor who could not only win a close election as he did the first time,
[02:59.44]but win a landslide election."
[03:01.71]Ford O'Connell is a Republican strategist.
[03:04.53]He says Tea Party Republicans need to learn from the winning candidates.
[03:10.53]"Well, it leaves the Tea Party really in an echo chamber, just talking to the base.
[03:15.97]The real problem for the Tea Party is how do they expand their appeal beyond the Republican base."
[03:21.59]Some people predict a battle for the heart and soul of the party.
[03:26.37]Will the Republicans move toward the conservatism of the Tea Party movement or away from it? Ford O'Connell is not sure.
[03:37.02]"Depending on how this battle turns out, it could lead to more dysfunction and government shutdowns.
[03:42.58]And that's something that people all over the world have an eye on because America is still the most robust economy in the world."
[03:49.11]In New York City, voters on Tuesday elected Bill de Blasio as mayor.
[03:55.41]His election put the city under Democratic Party control for the first time in 20 years.
[04:02.35]He replaces Michael Bloomberg.
[04:04.83]Voters in other cities, including Atlanta, Boston and Miami, also elected mayors.
[04:12.07]And that's In the News, from VOA Learning English. I'm Christopher Cruise.