that's it for us. tonight is nuclear energy good for the planet? robert kennedy jr., the man who made pandora's promise. ac 360 later starts now. good evening, everyone. election night 2013. the picture tells a story. just moments ago jubilation began breaking out at the headquarters for terry mcauliffe. the race was too close to call until now we can now call it. let's go straight to wolfe blitzer. wolf? >> mcauliffe has been elected the next governor. he has been collected. ken cuccinelli will lose. right now terry mcauliffe. is the winner. the next governor of virginia. in new jersey the republican chris christie. we projected awhile ago. he will be re-elected to a

second term. very, very easily. then in new york, bill de blasio. next mayor of new york. first time a democratic mayor in two decades. that was the closest of these three major contests tonight on election night here in the united states. but terry mccauliffe, he did it. but in the end he wins. >> he eked it out. this will be so close because virginia has become such an important state in our national politics. how did it get so close? because of obama care. no question. the president's health care plan and the problems with the rollout of the health care plan were an issue late in the campaign. more than half of virginia voters oppose obama care and they broke overwhelmingly for the republican candidate ken cuccinelli. this is why this one got so close at the end. cuccinelli capitalizing on it. how did terry mcauliffe win

despite that? more than four in ten voters oppose the tea party movement. you can see the blue. they broke heavily for terry mcauliffe. also a lot of the advertising in the end targeting women voters in the northern virginia suburbs, that's what made the difference. northern virginia suburbs, 60% of virginia voters. say abortion should be legal. there's a lot of advertising, direct mail, radio spent on this. 67% of those breaking for terry mcauliffe. the republicans will say the health care issue worked. democrats will say they managed to push ken cuccinelli out of the mainstream. want to take a quick look at new jersey before we move on. chris christie will say i'm the new republican national model. why? no gender gap. he won among women and men. he improved his standing even though he lost african-americans he split the latino vote. look at that. chris christie's going to make the point. look what happened to john mccain. look what happened to mitt romney. i can be competitive in the

swing states where latino voters matter. quick footnote. would he make a good president? people of new jersey think yes. anderson, as we quick guard into chris christie, the voters were asked who would you pick between hillary clinton and chris christie. by a narrow margin they said we'd take hillary clinton. >> we'll wait to hear from chris christie. christie headquarters in asbury park you're looking there. the governor expected at the microphone any minute now. we'll bring you his comments. first let's check in with dana bash and hillary clinton call live headquarters in virginia. a lot of excitement there. >> that is an understate. people here really thought they were going to be feeling and seeing and they were going to be able to bask in a couple hours ago. it was closer than even

mcauliffe's closest supporters and campaign workers thought it will be. but a victory is a victory. and the reality of this race is that people here in virginia didn't love either of the candidates. i mean, if you look at sort of the general anecdotes from all the reporting that went on here, it's not like a new jersey where there was -- it was and is a big political figure. this was a situation where people here seemed to be decided between two people they didn't absolutely love. but at the end of the day, terry mcauliffe's word about the tea partier being too extreme and particularly in the last month or so with the government shutdown, that really seemed to click here in virginia for obvious reasons. because where we are right now, northern virginia has so many government workers who were directly personally affected by

that. that's why democrats are certainly hoping this is going to translate nationally. will be part of the wave that they can take on and the message they could take on for the next election in 2014. but unclear how much it is going to translate when it comes to the broader message. >> all right. appreciate that. here with the founder of the dish and chief international correspondent and political commentator. chief political analyst and chief political correspondent. what do you make of the results in virginia? how significant? >> well, how significant -- ask me that in eleven months. i think you can overinterpret what happened. but this is clearly not some huge rejection of the tea party. cuccinelli did a lot better. he was out-gunned in the last few days, last couple of weeks in advertising.

think jimmy carter is presidential. i think that's a hard poll for local folks. they can't quite imagine the majesty of the white house with their particular guy. >> and there's chris christie obviously and his family. very happy acknowledging the crowd. as soon as he begins to talk, we'll cut. >> it's not that he would be president. but he'd be a good one. that was the question. would he be a good president or not. for 46% of your own state to say i don't think he'd be a good president although i take overwe

people have said come on board. what people have told me over the last four years is more than anything else they want the truth. they want the truth. you know, we don't always agree with each other, new jersey. some folks don't agree with some of the things i do and certainly they don't agree with some of the things i say sometimes. but they know, they know they never have to wonder. they never have to wonder. when they walked into the voting booth today, they didn't say, hey, i wonder who this guy is. and what he stands for.

what he's willing to fight for, what he's willing to do when the chips are down. you can agree with me or you can disagree with me, but i will never stop leading the state i love. people across the country have asked me how it is we've been able to do what we've achieved. and i'm reminded of a story that pastor joe carter of the new hope baptist church told just one week ago today on the one-year anniversary of hurricane sandy. he called what had happened in new jersey the last year the spirit of sandy. he spoke about people coming together. he said when the lights went out, no one carried what color

your skin was. he said when you

married to me where someone was from. whether they voted for me or not. what the color of their skin was or their political party. for me being governor is always about getting the job done first. and that doesn't mean that we don't have principles. we have many of them. and we have stood and fought every day to cut taxes, to reduce the size of government spending, to reform pensions and benefits, to reform a broken education system, and to make sure we create opportunity again for new jerseyans. and for the next four years, for the next four years we will fight to make those changes permanent. and we will fight to make them bigger. i did not seek a second term to

do small things. i sought a second term to finish the job. now watch me do it. i want to thank a few people in addition to my family before we go tonight. i want to tell you that i over the last year have had the greatest campaign team any governor could ever ask for. they ran a flawless campaign and i thank them for it. and i want to thank my cabinet and my senior staff who especially over the last year have worked tirelessly with me

to help bring back -- bring back the great state of new jersey from the second worst natural disaster to ever hit this country.

welcome to new jersey. people is ask me for hugs to comfort them. people ask me for hugs to make sure i wouldn't forget them. people ask me for hugs just to know that the leader of this

state cared about them. and people came up to me all the time in the aftermath and said to me, governor, where did you get the energy? where did you get the energy day after day after day to do that? and i told them you don't understand do you?

i think tonight most particularly and i know my dad and my brother and my sister who are here tonight with me share this same view. i think tonight most particularly about my mother. all of you who have heard me over the last four years know that she of

control, when government's out of control, you want somebody there. he didn't use a lot of fancy words. he's real people talk, real people stories. there was a lot of political bull in there. but good political bull. >> policy specific that he'd done. i was waiting for him to tell me what he'd done. >> he didn't do the list speech. >> you saw it in the polls for weeks before now. is that people do want to see politicians, "a," doing stuff and getting stuff done.

and "b," working together to do that. and i think that is one of the reasons people like him so much. >> to say i'm a leader and if you look at obama, no drama obama. this is all drama, all the time, you know. i'm going to lead you on a mission on a battlefield. it's a reaction to obama. >> every presidential candidate is in some way is a response to the previous president. what people will be looking for after obama is someone not aloof, not professorial, someone with that pugnacious personality. someone who seems completely comfortable in his own skin. i think he's a terrific candidate. i really do. i just think that ego of his needs a little reining in. >> speaker gingrich, i want to bring you in. you've obviously done a lot of these kinds of speeches, heard a lot. what do you make from chris christie? >> i thought it was a very

effective speech. he was letting us into his town or his state of new jersey. he was sharing with us how he feels. this is a guy who believes that character is far more important than policy. and that people ultimately invest their trust in a leader, not in a program. and he was saying to folks around the country, look. i like to get together with folks. i like to have things done jointly. i don't want to just be involved in partisan politics. and together we can make a big difference. i suspect it was a relatively effective speech. i'm not sure i agree with alex that it was an announcement speech. i think it's an introductory speech. this is a look many americans will take at him. and i suspect they found it to be an interesting person. not closing the sale. >> you've been in south carolina. you've been in iowa. you know those states. you know how tough it is. do you see chris christie doing

well in any of those states? >> i think it depends on how he campaigns and what he does. this is a guy who first of all -- nobody ever wants to look at this option. you put together a new jersey, pennsylvania, new york, new england, california and you are a long way towards the nomination without having to do any of the traditional things. >> skip the primary? >> you don't skip them, but i'm just saying you can build a very big system that is very much -- you go to a place like iowa. remember the current governor of iowa is a moderate conservative, not a hard liner. and he is the most elected figure in iowa history, i think. at least at the governor level. so i think that these states are complicated. what the country wants is real change. 80% of the country dislikes washington. i think we will nominate a governor in all probability.

and you have to say that chris christie is on the short list of people. he's not the front runner because nobody is, but he is in the front ranks. >> but newt, do you think those images of him arm in arm with president obama, that stigmatized him so deeply with the base, will resonate? surely they'll be used in primaries against him. >> all you have to do -- turned to me and said if you love the jersey shore, then you wanted to see the governor thank the man who was bringing them resources. because they were hit really hard. i was just in new jersey last night talking to people who are still hit really hard. >> of course. but the base didn't like it at the time at all. >> christie's got to look at folks and say i'm going to do what i can for the people i serve. i was serving as governor. when i'm president, i'm going to do what i can for you. he's going to lose part of the base, but i think he could actually build a good successful campaign. think of him as the scott walker

of the east. these guys are very similar in the reforms they've been able to implement. >> this is the republican party that nominated mitt romney. these things don't have to be unanimous. >> they'll say never again though. >> i just saw a couple of months ago chris christie on a stage with three other republican governors. two of them who are talked about running for president. even when the crowd of republicans disagreed with christie, they loved him because of his strength. because of his passion. because of his leadership. i think the speaker is right in that sense. it would be a very different campaign. also this is going to be a very long campaign in the sense that -- >> it's already beginning. >> it's already beginning. >> i do want to bring in jake tapper on the scene. you spent the day with the governor. what'd you hear tonight? >> well, i agree that this was an introductory speech. but i also agree with alex that

there's no hiding the fact that governor christie is very seriously entertaining running for president 2016. in addition to the remarks you heard tonight in which he talked about people coming together in the state, we can teach people in washington, d.c. where there is dysfunction a thing or two. there's another introduction, another way he can greet the republicans who are looking for a leader for 2016. and that is with these remarkable exit polls where you see governor christie who ran against a democratic woman and yet he won the women's vote here in new jersey. he tied with the democrat with hispanic voters. he won 20% of african-americans. he won all income groups. he won voters over the age of 30. he won 31% of democrats. that is a far more effective to the elites and to the activists out there who want to win the

white house back, that's more important than the speech he gave which was i thought an effective speech. perhaps a little much for some, but ultimately talking about who he is at his core instead of laying out an agenda for the second term. >> jake, after spending the day with him, when you take the train in to trenton there's a slogan on the bridge that says trenton makes the world takes. if he's been made in trenton or remade trenton, can the rest of the country -- i mean, does what plays in trenton play in the rest of the country? >> that's a good question. it's hard to argue that trenton or new jersey at large is any more -- any less of a harborer of the country than massachusetts where mitt romney

was governor. the point is resonant it's not a republican state. he doesn't have to worry about the same type of conservative base issues he'd find in a republican primary. but that's not his pitch. his pitch is do you want to win the white house or not? and the truth of the matter is his argument, i think, is there is an opening in the republican party for that. there are a lot of conservatives who are going to line up and compete for conservative votes. whether it's ted cruz or rand paul. but i do think that there will be a slot for a chris christie type. he did talk about that this -- in our interview today he said i think there are some republicans that are more interested in winning the argument than they are in winning an election, anderson. >> i think one of the things also about chris christie looking ahead to the base is, it wasn't just mitt romney. it was also bob dole at the end

of his second term. it was also george w. bush that the tea party said, these guys, we've tried too many times. but in the end it's about getting your guy in the white house. and if he can sell electability and those numbers for him are great, the demographics are great. that always trumps. it really does. >> electability is important for republicans, but chris christie has another argument that is not just process and electability. what do people hate right now? what have we seen? washington. everybody's tired of it. if there's one thing democrats and republicans agree on, the things in washington has to change. who is anti-politics, who is the antithesis of all the mess in washington? it could be this guy. >> and the antithesis we were talking about before of president obama. this is a politician who is not as cerebral as president obama but speaks from the gut, the heart. i'm a man of action.

my question is how does that wear with the voters? >> do i -- am i reading this right? did anybody pick up mr. conservative newt gingrich suggesting that actually one could sort of afford to maybe ignore some of the so-called base in an effort to get to washington. >> that wasn't his strategy. >> but he said that. he did say that. i'm asking whether that's real. >> newt is still here. is that what you said? is that what you meant? >> what i said was there are two different challenges for christie. one is you can go into a state like iowa where the governor has very large majority of support. you can go into south carolina where nikki haley is a reformer. you have reform-oriented governors and can get a respectable vote. you do well enough that you're surviving to go onto other places.

he has a huge opportunity in new hampshire where i think he fits pretty well. and he's not where romney was at this stage of romney's campaign. christie in many ways is a genuine reform conservative. and i think that he's got people who are going to be willing to go out and talk about why he's solid. i do think what he's got to think about is if he wins the nomination, he has to make sure and we just saw this happen to some extent in virginia. he has to make sure there's not a third party. he doesn't have to win over everybody on the hard right. but he has to make sure they aren't so diseffected that they decide to take a walk. >> i think that's part of the message tonight. cuccinelli did better than most people expected. i think the tea party is still alive and well at the base. and i think christie's idea of political combat is really rough. i can see a primary process in which he goes up against ted cruz and it is not pretty and he

divides the party and allows a tea party alternative to emerge. that's the danger. he's probably smart enough to avoid that. i think in the south, too, what gets him over the bump, over been a new jersey northeastern guy is his pugnacity. he has a sense to him. he's he's a constructed neo-conservative. he will take us back to bush and cheney in foreign policy. and that, you know, we're talking about personality. but at some point policy does matter as well. >> you know, where i come from across the atlantic, people just dismiss the fact that the republicans can win. everybody is talking about hillary clinton. so my question is does this change that dynamic? is christie a real challenge to a hillary clinton? >> well, in his own state she was beating him as the polls showed. >> but you think he would beat here? >> i think it would be a

walkover. >> he could. he really could. >> certainly an interesting matchup, you know, i guess she would be accused of being washington insider. he the outsider. among many other things. >> that's right. one other thing i want to point out which we haven't talked about when it comes to a candidate's strengths or weaknesses, you can't see them from where i'm standing, but there is a balcony here in the asbury park convention hall. and up there, that's where the elite reception was for some of governor christie's more well-healed friends. and we all remember during the presidential race and some of this is laid more bare in the book by mark halperin and john heilemann about this group of very, very wealthy men called -- they call themselves i think the billionaires club, looking for somebody on a white horse because they were worried about mitt romney and the rest of the

republican field, no offense speaker gingrich. and they went out and tried their best to convince governor christie to run. he has some very, very rich friends, governor christie. some people who have wanted him to run in 2012 and who want him now even more to run in 2016. you cannot discount how important that is when and if he actual launches his presidential race. >> after the government shutdown where republican businessmen got very nervous and very upset, now they're getting involved in primary races because they're picking the more establishment, more conservative less tea party republicans. they're going to be more generous, involved in this republican primary, i think. we saw a lot last time with superpacs. but i think they're going to pick somebody early and they're going to figure what they need to do. and they're going to try and do

it because they want to win. but they're not behind a ted cruz. they'd be much more likely to be behind a chris christie as jake points out. >> by the way, let's not give hillary clinton the mantel of the democratic party just yet. >> everybody thinks that they're projecting that. >> but this democratic party has moved left of bill clinton. that was the end of -- well, i'll tell you. the error of big government is back. this is left of clinton. i think this belongs to elizabeth warren, de blasio of new york. animated by social activism on the internet. once america goes forward a generation in politics, it hardly ever goes back. that happened to hillary clinton last time. so i think you can see a ground swell on the left for someone

other than hillary clinton. i think you could easily see an elizabeth warren. one thing hillary clinton has connecting her to the future is we've never had a female president. >> it's a pretty powerful thing. >> but elizabeth warren could say the same thing. >> but she doesn't have hillary clinton's resume. let's face it. i mean, look. i don't know who would beat who. i agree with you. we all thought she was going to win last time. i don't know how it's possible somebody could beat her in the primary. but i also think that would be one whale of a fight. >> christie's a great campaigner. he's a great natural retail politician. for all of her virtues, that is not a strength for hillary rodham clinton. and she's never really fought a really tough race in awhile. she had an easy race and lost. and people want to campaigner as

well as a potential president. >> there's terry mcauliffe in virginia. as soon as he starts to speak, we'll listen in a little bit as well. actually, let's just listen in now. looks like he's starting. >> thank you! thank you. thank you. what a great night, everybody. huh? you know, over the past few months, i've started speeches thanksing a lot of political figures. but i'm so glad that tonight that the person introducing me is my best friend and my wife dorothy.

and i want you to know just a few weeks ago we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. when we decided to do this campaign, we decided together because we understood that it was a journey that we were all going to have to take together. and dorothy, i could not be happier than to have you standing at my side tonight. thank you, doll. and to our five children who have been involved in this campaign from day one, i want to thank dori, jack, mary, sally, and peter for all the work they have done. all seven of us are so

incredibly grateful to the most amazing volunteers and team leaders ever assembled in the history of a governors campaign. just as i walked up here, they gave me the final numbers. since january you have knocked on 2.5 million doors in the commonwealth of virginia. i mean, you have to pause for a second to comprehend such a large number. the truth is that i got a lot of my energy from seeing you all working so hard. when i came to a campus kickoff or a phone bank, i saw so many of you i want to tell you it fired me up. it kept me going 100% during those 16-hour days. so thank you. we love you. and you are spectacular.

i know all of you gave up time from your family because you believe this election was so important. and thank you so much and i want all of you who worked so hard since this campaign began to give yourself an enormous round of applause. and i want to thank -- and i don't have words to really express, but i want to thank my extraordinary campaign staff. particularly the field team for what they did to break records all over virginia. give yourselves in the campaign a great round of applause. let me say this. i also want to thank the absolutely historic number of republicans who crossed party lines to support me. you were powerful messengers for

our mainstream campaign. thank you. most importantly, i want to thank the voters of virginia who went out and voted for us today. from lee county to virginia beach to winchester, thank you for what you did to help us get elected the governor of the commonwealth of virginia. look, i know this has been a hard-fought race. part of that as you know is the nature of politics. part of it was that the attorney general and i had some very big differences on some very important issues. and let me say this. i think every single person in virginia is glad that the tv ads are now over.

and i know that passions are high, and i think it's important to recognize that while the attorney general and i had a lot of differences, he is a principled man who has sacrificed an enormous amount of time away from his family. i thank ken cuccinelli for his service and dedication to the commonwealth of virginia. virginia and america have seen contentious races before. and every time we end up coming together to pursue the common good. one particularly famous virginian confronted a very bitterly divided electorate after the presidential election in 1800. but instead of relishing his victory or governing only for

his supporters, thomas jefferson devoted much of his first inaugural address to bridging partisan divides. he said, quote, but every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. we have called by different names brethren of the same principle. 213 years later, the truth is that our differences of opinion are still often not a difference of principle or goal. over the next four years most democrats and republicans in virginia want to make virginia a model for pragmatic leadership that is friendly to job creation. a model for strong schools that prepare our students for the jobs of tomorrow.

a model for welcoming the best and brightest scientists and innovators no matter your race, gender, religion, or whom you love. and a model for an efficient transportation system that reduces gridlock for our families and business. but all this is only possible if virginia is also the model for bipartisan cooperation. and that's a view that i share with the next lieutenant governor of the commonwealth of virginia ralph northam. there are a lot of proud democrats here. aren't we proud tonight, folks?

and i'm also particularly proud to welcome all the republicans who are here tonight. give them a great round of applause. the truth is that this election was never a choice between democrats and republicans. it was a choice about whether virginia would continue the mainstream bipartisan tradition that has served us so well over the last decade. and a time when washington was often broken, just think about what virginia has been able to accomplish when we work together. under governor mark warner, we preserved our aaa bond rating and he made the single largest investment in k-12 education in virginia history. under governor tim cain -- >> there's terry mcauliffe who

won a closer race than a lot of people anticipated against cuccinelli. let's check in with john king at the magic wall in d.c. looking at the numbers. >> you heard at the end terry mcauliffe talking about the gove governors. terry mcauliffe saying he did what they did to win by turning the d.c. suburbs, that is enough for the margin of victory. despite look at this, most of the state red for the republican ken cuccinelli. much more of a population up here especially key voting blocks. the virginia suburbs close to d.c. making all the difference tonight for mcauliffe. now let's look at the exit polls. the reason this got so close at the end, ken cuccinelli overperforming the late polls is because 53% of the electorate opposes obama care. the rollout of obama care, a big factor at the end.

cuccinelli closing in because he won more than eight in ten of the opponents of obama care. that helped his close, but not close enough. you heard terry mcauliffe saying virginians wanted a mainstream governor. he convinced virginians more than four in ten opposed the tea party. said ken cuccinelli was a tea party governor and he would take a tea party agenda. he also appealed to women. a lot of the ads from democratic leading groups to abortion rights and birth control. the gender gap, a huge factor in terry mcauliffe winning a narrow victory. again, if he won by just a bit, this would be why in the very end. we lost that here. let me bring it back here. he convinced the people of virginia in the end. all right, that one's not going to work at the moment. that he convinced a good majority of them that ken cuccinelli's thoughts are too conservative for the state.

and he won those voters overwhelmingly. >> john king, appreciate it. thanks very much. alex, as we wrap up the coverage, what do we take away from christie tonight? >> i think when you look at who's going to be left standing here, serious candidates, people you could actually see sitting in that oval office in the big chair, the republican field narrows. you know, you can see that rand paul has a constituency. you can see that a ted cruz now has a constituency. you can now see that there's, i think, a constituency for someone like chris christie running for president. >> what about mcauliffe? >> right on his heels. right on his heels. no, it's a good thing in politics that candidates run against each other. or else sometimes no one would win. >> we got to wrap up our panel. that does it for this edition. thanks for watching our live election coverage continues next with jake tapper.

then a live late edition of crossfire. just moments ago for his victory speech and closed out by evoking the memory of someone very close to his heart. >> tonight i know that my mom is looking down on new jersey and saying to me -- i can feel it -- she's saying to me, "chris, the job's not done yet. get back to work and finish the job for the people of new jersey." that's exactly what i'll do. i love you, new jersey. thank you very much.