How Should We Interpret The Governor Races In NJ and Virginia?

The center right Republican governor of NJ was re-elected by a wide margin in a largely Democratic state.  A Democrat won the election for governor in Virginia over a Tea Party backed candidate.  This article makes an effort at explaining the results.  It was clearly not a good result for Tea Party supporters but its hard to extract a simple explanation for these results.  What worked for the GOP in NJ may not work in other states but the GOP needs something more than opposition to Obamacare as an election strategy.