Christina Bellantoni | November 4, 2009, 6:18PM

Democratic candidates for governor in 2010 need to avoided being baited by Republicans on national issues such as health care or climate change, Democratic officials said today in the wake of two big losses in New Jersey and Virginia.

Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, told reporters the 37 races they have on the map next year will be tough. He advised that candidates talk about jobs, the party's ability to govern and local issues.

"Republicans are going to try to use federal issues to box in Democrats and we can't fall for that," he said. "We need to demonstrate our capacity to govern and our capacity to get results."

Daschle said candidates "cannot fall for the trap" of federal issues, saying that if GOP rivals are pushing on health care or climate change they probably don't know about state issues.

TPMDC asked Daschle about candidates getting pushed on health care, especially whether they would "opt-out" of the public option in its current form. It's an issue that hurt Creigh Deeds (D) in Virginia as liberals felt like he was moving too far to the right by saying he would likely opt-out.

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Topics: 2010 elections, DGA, NJ-GOV, NY-23, VA-GOV

VA-GOV

DGA To Deeds: You Can't Beat Fate

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 3, 2009, 9:19PM

VA-Gov. candidate Creigh Deeds (D)

The Democratic Governors Association just offered its condolences to Creigh Deeds, who just went down in a landslide to Republican Bob McDonnell in Virgina. The DGA suggested that Deeds' defeat wasn't a failure for Democrats, but was instead the GOP just doing "what every opposition party has done for the past 36 years" -- win VA-Gov.

From DGA executive director Nathan Daschle's statement tonight:

"With the worst recession since the Great Depression and history favoring the other side, we knew this race would be difficult. Sen. Deeds ran a strong campaign, despite all the headwinds he faced. Sen. Deeds is a bipartisan leader whose work has helped countless Virginians get a better education and created economic opportunity in every corner of the state. Unfortunately, he couldn't overcome the major obstacles to victory."