'Too Early to Tell' Whether Democrats Should Be Concerned About 2010?

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," November 3, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: We asked the White House to send us someone to tell you what they think about tonight's election results. The White House took a pass but did offer the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. And we are delighted to have her join us.

Welcome Congresswoman, and is there any silver lining on this for the Democrats tonight? You lost in Virginia and New Jersey and we still don't know what happens in upstate New York. But a grim night for you tonight?

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, D- FLA.: Well, I think the jury is still out on how grim it is, particularly because in New York 23 the Democratic candidate Bill Owens is up by four points with more than 60 percent of the vote reporting. So we're feeling pretty excited about the potential outcome of that race.

And if you look at New Jersey and Virginia, in New Jersey it's been since 1989 that the majority party has won that race, so we're looking at a pretty historical trend here. And Virginia as well, you have to go all the way back to 1977 to see where the majority party won in Virginia. So both those states have followed the historical trend of the majority party losing the governor's mansion in Virginia and New Jersey. New York 23, though, where the Republican party clearly repudiated their own candidate in favor of the extreme right wing candidate, that is showing up in, so far, although we're certainly not done for the evening, the Democratic candidate appearing to the beneficiary of that.

VAN SUSTEREN: It must be a disappointment though, congresswoman, in the state of Virginia where the president won so handsomely in 2008 and now it turns around and basically -- maybe you don't think it sends a message to the White House, but it has gone back to a Republican governor.

And in New Jersey where the president made three trips to tell the incumbent Democratic governor we don't want you -- aren't those signals that make you a little bit uneasy tonight?

SCHULTZ: Well, any time you lose obviously it's disappointing. I certainly would have preferred, we all would have preferred as Democrats for us to have won both those races.

But given the historical pattern, the outcome is not surprising. If you looked at the exit polls, the vast majority of voters both in New Jersey and Virginia coming out of the exit polls have said that their vote really was based on what was going on in those states. They weren't voting either for or against President Obama and the administration's agenda.

So if you look at what's going on in Virginia and New Jersey right now, there is some frustration. And we're a year out from the midterm elections next year, and we've got a vast amount of candidates that are going to be battle-tested and ready.

And we expect the economy to continue to turn around as a result of the President Obama's policies and the Democratic majorities in Congress and that our candidates and incumbents will do well.

VAN SUSTEREN: I only have 30 seconds left. Do you think health care passing will help your party or does it put you a little on edge?

SCHULTZ: No, I think health care passing will be a tremendous boost to our party. Closing the Medicare Part d donut hole will be a tremendous benefit to seniors, covering 46 million Americans, providing secretary and stability to those that have insurance and bringing costs down, those are going to be a big benefit to our ticket next year.

VAN SUSTEREN: Congresswoman, thank you very much.

SCHULTZ: Thanks, Greta.

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