From Rasmussen:
The race in New York’s 23rd Congressional District highlights the concerns many Republican voters have about their party leaders.
At a time when 73% of Republicans believe their party’s representatives in Congress have lost touch with the GOP base, 11 county leaders in upstate New York picked a nominee for Congress who supported the Democratic president’s stimulus package, his health care reform plan and “card check” legislation designed to make union organizing easier. All three items are overwhelmingly opposed by Republican voters – and even by Republicans in Congress.
The decision by county GOP leaders to nominate such a candidate seemed almost designed to provoke the party’s core voters, and it did.
A Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, entered the fray and picked up endorsements from many leading national Republicans. Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, urged voters to stick with the party’s official nominee. He said a decision by local party leaders was good enough for him, but most Republican voters don’t have such confidence in the party leadership.
This past weekend, the official Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race in the face of falling poll numbers and lackluster fund-raising. Then she endorsed the Democrat.
As a result, the New York 23rd Congressional District race will end up being between a Conservative Party candidate and a Democrat. In many ways, that pairing reflects the reality of national match-ups more than the typical partisan competition. There are more conservatives than Democrats in America, and there are more Democrats than Republicans.
One reason for this is that while Republican voters overwhelmingly consider themselves conservative, only 56% of conservative voters consider themselves to be Republicans. In other words, nearly half of all conservatives nationwide reject the Republican Party label.
Let me repeat that: nearly half of all conservatives nationwide reject the Republican Party label.
Which includes me.
Republican, GOP, Democrat, stimulus package, health care reform, Conservative, Doug Hoffman, Newt Gingrich, Dede Scozzafava
