Is Bush a drag on local GOP?
By TERRY COWGILL
June, 07, 2007
Is an unpopular GOP president proving to be a hindrance on state and local Republicans in their efforts to field candidates for offices and maintain healthy political committees? As is often the case in such matters, it depends on whom you ask.
One thing is certain — the number of registered Republicans has declined statewide about 2.4 percent since 2003, the first year of the war in Iraq. But the decline in the number of Republicans has been particularly steep in the six towns of the Northwest Corner, where GOP enrollment has dropped from 3,024 to 2,795, or a decrease of almost 8.2 percent.
At a sparsely attended meeting last month of the Salisbury Republican Town Committee, a few members wondered aloud why there were several open seats and few candidates had stepped forward to run for municipal office in the November elections.
“Much of it is on the national level,” said committee member Frank Verano. “I have friends who say they will not vote Republican again because of George Bush.” Or, Verano quickly added, at least until Bush is gone in January 2009.
The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week shows President Bush’s approval rating at 35 percent, unchanged from April. And 73 percent of Americans said the country is “pretty seriously on the wrong track,” the poll said.
“There are a lot of factors,” Doug Richardson, chairman of the Salisbury Republicans, said of the sagging fortunes of his committee. “But Frank is right. There is a huge disenchantment nationally.”
But, Richardson added, “the main problem is Bush. He has alienated a lot of people in his own party.” Richardson said in addition to the war, “textbook Republican tenets have been compromised” through the loss of personal rights and freedoms associated with the Patriot Act. Moreover, Richardson pointed out that Bush and the Republican congressional majority he enjoyed for the first six years of his presidency abandoned the concepts of fiscal restraint and small government.
“People always ask me why I’m still a Republican,” Richardson said. “I tell them that defining the Republican Party by George W. Bush is a mistake. The neocon philosophy is not really Republican.”
Richardson pointed to Verano’s wife, Dorothy, a reputable Republican and former school teacher who was defeated in her run for re-election to the Salisbury Central School Board of Education in 2005.
Richardson downplayed the extent to which a schism in his committee that year may have caused some Republicans to jump ship. A noisy rift between conservatives and moderates — mostly over national issues — culminated in a divisive nominating caucus, resulting in the resignation from the committee of almost all the conservatives.
From 2003 to 2006, Republican enrollment has shrunk in Salisbury from 752 to 702, or more than 7 percent. Sixteen of 23 seats on the committee remain unfilled.
Salisbury resident and local radio host Marshall Miles is one of those voters who left the Republican ranks. He became a Democrat in 2004 rather than an independent so that he could continue to vote in primaries.
“It’s despicable what’s happened,” said Miles. “At least with Nixon you had the separation of powers. Under Bush, the Justice Department became the White House West.”
One of the most popular elected officials in town is Roger Rawlings, chairman of the Board of Education. He considered running for selectman in 2005 but opted out before the caucus and running for re-election to the school board. He became an independent earlier this year.
“The partisan bickering among my own party holds no appeal for me,” Rawlings said before the caucus. “The us-versus-us tenor of the campaign is not healthy for this party, this town or me. I will not participate in it.”
But in an interview this week, Rawlings said his decision to leave the Republican Party a few months ago was based on his desire not to be associated with Bush and because he is more comfortable as a nonpartisan in his run for re-election the school board this year.
“I’m not a real big fan of the current administration,” Rawlings explained. “It’s not only the war, but I don’t like the way they do business. Our reputation in the world has deteriorated.”
In Sharon, Republican Town Committee Chairperson Cindy Rubicam reports the Bush administration will not be much of a factor in local races this year, in which “the majority of our candidates are incumbents.”
“I would say we’re healthy. We happen to have more people in office,” Rubicam said. “We have a good slate.” Still, the Sharon Republican Party lost almost 17 percent of its voters from 2003 to 2006, while the Democrats picked up 100 more and independents increased their ranks slightly. Rubicam, who has lived in Sharon for 18 years and has been party chair for 10, confirmed that new voters in Sharon are more likely to register as unaffiliated than with a party.
K.C. Baird, the Republican Town Committee chairman in Cornwall, said his “committee is pretty much non-existent.” He files quarterly reports to the state, as he is required to do, and the committee will hold a nominating caucus next month.
“It’s almost like pulling teeth to get people to run,” said Baird, who is also the lone Republican on the Board of Selectmen. “I’ve heard a lot of people say they are unhappy with Bush.”
As for the losses of Republicans and the increase in Democratic voters in Cornwall in the last four years, Baird theorized that some Republicans may have switched parties in 2005 in order to vote in the caucus for Democrat Becky Hurlburt, who was running for first selectman against incumbent Gordon Ridgway. She was unsuccessful and later ran and lost as an independent in the general election.
Chris Healy, who chairs the Republican State Central Committee, said in an interview from the state Capitol Monday that while the president’s poll numbers are low and his party lost seats in the General Assembly last year, “the governor is a Republican and we are driving the budget debate that’s going on even as we speak. In terms of the mechanics, it’s going well ... I am encouraged.”
Healy speculated that some of his party’s enrollment losses statewide could be attributed to Republicans switching parties in order to vote last year in the Democratic primary for Sen. Joseph Lieberman against challenger Ned Lamont.
“I don’t buy the notion that because the president is unpopular that local enrollments are affected,” Healy said. “Look, things ebb and flow. Between now and November is a lifetime.”
Other Republicans in the area concede that Bush is hurting the party locally but think it should be irrelevant to fielding candidates and running for office.
“I think [Bush] is a big drag on the GOP and they’re running away from him,” said incoming Salisbury Republican Town Committee member Michael Flint. “But we need to forget about him and strengthen ourselves locally.”
© Copyright 2007 by TCExtra.com
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