Paul Elgood is a Lib Dem councillor in Brighton & Hove, but has been out in Boston, in the USA, watching closely observing the mid-term elections. Here’s his early morning dispatch…

Four years ago, Boston politics looked very different. Teddy Kennedy had just won what was to be his last campaign, Congressman Barney Frank romped re-election to make it 26 years in Congress, and new Governor Deval Patrick, backed by a then little-known Senator called Barack Obama won the State House, following on from Republican Mitt Romney.

Obama’s historic election followed just two years later, but so too did the death of Kennedy, leaving the door open to Republican Scott Brown to take his seat in the Senate in January. The tide had turned with a resurgent Republican party.

On Tuesday, Deval Patrick faced a tricky re-election bid. Barney Frank’s previously ultra-safe seat looked vulnerable. By the middle of polling day they looked under pressure, although by evening more relaxed.

So Deval’s re-election eight per cent lead on Tuesday night might have seemed harder a few weeks back. Barney Frank also had to see off a stiff Republican challenge which labelled him as doing little on the recession.

The Democrat’s election night party at Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel came alive as the state bucked the Republican surge seen in other part’s of the country.

National projections at the time of writing look for the House to fall to the Republicans. But the Senate looks to be retained in the hands of the Democrats.

What are the lessons in all this? Obama needs to do what he does best — connect, or rather re-connect, with the electorate. A poll at the weekend said that even nearly half of Democrats think he should be challenged for the Presidential nomination in two years. In the meantime his agenda looks stalled. He will now reach out across the floor to moderate Republicans.

What of the issues? It simply goes back to the economy and jobs. Healthcare wasn’t a huge issue in Boston, but perhaps it wouldn’t be here.

Another lesson is not to under estimate Sarah Palin – she’s on a mission. The Tea Party has momentum, but we have to hope that they will over-reach, as seen before with right-wing populists in the 1990s.

What can UK politics learn from all this?

I am not a subscriber to the view that electoral lessons from the US can be applied here. But there is one for Coalition Ministers — that is simply how quickly time goes by. Before we know it, the Lib Dems will be fighting a difficult general election: time will go fast. The Coalition needs to be delivering, especially on the economy, otherwise the 2015 general election is going to be as tricky for the Liberal Democrats in the UK as it has been for the Democrats in the US tonight.