For lifelong Republican Joe Errigo, deciding to cross party lines and support a liberal Democrat for New York governor wasn't nearly as difficult as one might expect.
Republican candidate Carl Paladino -- backed by the conservative Tea Party movement -- raised such political hackles he spawned a "Republicans for Cuomo" movement supporting Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
Similar groups can be found in heated races elsewhere nationwide, often those featuring Tea Party-endorsed candidates, attacked by Democrats and some moderate Republicans as extreme.
"When I saw his website, I said nobody could be that dumb," said Errigo, an upstate New York Assemblyman, of Paladino, a Buffalo developer and political newcomer.
"He has alienated every group that I could think of," said Errigo. "He should write a book on how to lose an election."
In Delaware, where Christine O'Donnell has Tea Party support, Republicans backing Democrat Chris Coons include a former state judge and former U.S. Congressman. A "Republicans for Coons" Facebook site reads: "Because we just can't support Christine O'Donnell."
In Arizona, "Republicans for Giffords" are backing Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords over conservative Iraq War veteran Jesse Kelly.
In Nevada, incumbent Democrat Sen. Harry Reid, who faces Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle, counts among his Republican supporters an array of influential gaming and casino executives.
"Mainstream Republicans are refusing to support the latest crop of insurgent candidates in the Republican Party because of their extremist beliefs," said Deirdre Murphy, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington.
Not everyone on the red side wants two years of gridlock, chaos, and nothing getting done in Washington. There's a big difference between 1994 and 2010: in 1994, voters liked Republicans. In 2010, they still hate the GOP and they hate them more than they hate the Dems, and as bad as the Dem approval ratings are in Congress, the Republicans in Congress have been consistently polling worse all year.
It's starting to pull a lot of Republican voters around. There are Republicans in some races who will hold their nose and vote for the Donk just to keep the nutbars out.
And at this point, the Dems need all the help they can get.
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5 comments:
As a native Kentuckian who lived for a number of years in the North, let me assure you that "republican" northerners are far more liberal than "democratic" southerners.
Of course they are going to reject a crazy like Paladino and embrace Cuomo, who is depressingly conservative compared to a real liberal like his father.
Find me a southern republican who plans to vote for a Democratic candidate - then I'll believe the Tea Party is chasing repugs into the arms of the dems.
Because if that were true, Charlie Melancon would be crushing Diaper David Vitter instead of losing by 20.
Yeah I know. It's a slender reed to build a bridge upon.
It's something, however. I'm not going to write millions of Americans off.
Absolutely. I'm hanging my hopes on my belief that Americans simply aren't that stupid. But I'm counting on Democratic voters turning out.
Keep telling yourself that when the GOP takes 80 House seats and pulls of taking the Senate too.
I'm sure it will help with the pain of knowing that you and your kind will be in the political wilderness for the rest of your lifetimes.
what's pathetic is that it's just a contest with you assholes. there's no real ideology beyond "i hate those liberals and want to see them lose!" you guys didn't get upset during the bush administration no matter what those cretins did.
as for your threat of dems being cast into the wilderness, don't kid yourself. things'll keep going more or less the way they've been going for the last 30 or so years: the 2 major parties will take turns governing while america continues morphing into something between a 1st and 3rd world country.
PS: you're an idiot too.
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