WASHINGTON -- Democrats on Capitol Hill began a nervous debate yesterday about the course President Barack Obama has set for their party, with some questioning whether they should emphasize job creation over some of the more ambitious items on the president's agenda.

The conversations came as White House officials insisted that the Democratic Party's gubernatorial defeats in Virginia and New Jersey had few implications for Mr. Obama's standing or for Democratic prospects in the 2010 midterm elections.

But moderate and conservative Democrats took a clear signal from Tuesday's voting, warning that the results prove that independent voters are wary of Mr. Obama's far-reaching proposals and mounting spending, as well as the growing federal debt. Liberal lawmakers, meanwhile, said the party's shortcoming came in moving too slowly on health care reform and other items that would satisfy a base becoming disenchanted with the failure to deliver rapid change in government.

Voters in both states cited the economy as by far their top concern, and many lawmakers said the outcomes were a blunt wake-up call to put the issue front and center.

"The question is, do people think we're tending to the things they care about?" said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. as he left a meeting of Senate leaders. He said there was palpable concern among his colleagues yesterday that the main agenda items Democrats are pursuing -- health care and climate change -- resonate very little with voters focused on finding or keeping jobs.

"Don't think people in my state are going to stand up and start cheering about Copenhagen," Mr. Rockefeller said, referring to the European city that will host a summit on global warming next month. Critics of the climate-change legislation before Congress say it would be a job-killer in states dependent on manufacturing and natural resources.

Mr. Obama all but ignored the election results, calling to congratulate the winners and traveling to Wisconsin for an education speech. But his top aides worked furiously to rebut the idea that Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia require a reassessment of the president's priorities.

"People went to the polls and voted on local issues, not to either register support for or opposition to the president," press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters hours after the balloting.

But there were clear signs that the landscape has changed for Democrats in the past year. Independents, who were crucial to Mr. Obama's election, swung dramatically to Republicans in both Virginia and New Jersey. If that pattern holds a year from now, Democratic lawmakers in swing districts could find themselves losing re-election battles.

The results left lawmakers less sanguine than the president's ever-confident advisers. Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., said the results in his state and elsewhere have "somewhat of a chilling effect, potentially, on the agenda."

"I concluded from last night, we've got to pass health care," Mr. Connolly said.

Steve Elmendorf, a veteran Democratic strategist who was a top congressional aide when Democrats were chased from control of the House in a 1994 GOP landslide, said yesterday that lawmakers are far less complacent today than they were 15 years ago.

"They need to pay attention to it," Mr. Elmendorf said. "Voters spoke, and I think the message they sent was they care about the economy and they care about jobs. I don't think there's any reason to panic here. We have to get health care done, and then we have to turn our attention to the economy and jobs."

Others sought to take a pragmatic view of Tuesday's voting. Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, elected in the Democratic takeover of 2006 and a leader of the conservative wing of the caucus, dismissed the idea that the elections would have an impact on his vote on health care legislation. That bill could reach the House floor as early as Saturday.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.